As of next year, 2022, Ivy Cottage will be changing the food it offers. Whilst all the meals will still be delicious and homemade, they will be vegetarian and plant based only.
This change has been a long time coming, I have spent most of my life since the age of 16 either vegetarian or vegan, a fairly militant vegan at times; as a student I even came to Rum on a field trip with university and argued with the local stalkers about why they shouldn't be culling deer.
But life moved on and I ended up living here with two children and after several years started to eat venison a bit. It seemed an ethical choice if I was going to eat any meat, I should know where it has come from and that's pretty much where I have stood since then; we have been fortunate to be able to source free range and organic meat and fish relatively easily.
Since the beginning of lockdown though, with two of my daughters at home, one vegetarian and one vegan, I just stopped eating whatever occasional venison I had eaten and reverted to a vegetarian, mostly dairy free diet. Like a lot of people throughout lockdown, I questioned what I did for a living and thought about what I actually wanted to do, and cooking meat was not one of those things. Doing things more in line with what makes my soul smile is what I sought... which means more gardening and growing more produce; providing a more laid back, mindful holiday experience for another; exploring my creativity spending more time as a textile artist and improving my gorgeous little craft shop; starting mindful craft (crochet) holiday experiences too. We even considered getting alpacas !! (not out of the question yet either)
The net result for Ivy Cottage is that I have honoured the guesthouse bookings postponed from lockdown and from next season we will serving delicious, tasty, fabulous food but all vegetarian and plant based. Do not be disappointed, I'm told I am a good cook!