Combining her passion for creating unique jewellery and organic meals has been a long held dream for Laura Marsh, from Kelso.
Now she has managed to put both together in her new town centre business in Kelso.
E.A.T (Exquisite Artisan Tempting) in The Square is now home to jeweller Laura, who had a shop at The Hirsel in Coldstream for seven years and trades as Briget of Edinburgh.
The shop combines her one-off jewellery, mini organic deli and small cafe. Everything for the cafe is made fresh, organic, and, wherever possible, is local too.
“I can’t exist without both. If I’m not creating jewellery then I am creating food for people,” Laura said. “It is in my nature to do that nurturing bit for people.
“This is all about love - total and utter pleasure and love for what I do - and is about nurturing people. The jewellery makes them feel beautiful and the food makes them feel comforted, and it’s an honour to supply it.”
The homely feel to the premises is down to Laura too, as she built the counters and tables herself.
Sourcing ingredients for her cafe items and for the deli has been a challenge though.
“It took me six months to source products,” Laura said, adding: “It was a bit of a labour of love trying to find organic salad in winter, but I have found Phantassie in East Lothian, who have their own farm.”
Finding organic coffee to meet her high standards was proving difficult, but then she came across Cafe Femenino.
“It is the only organic coffee that tasted strong enough. It is beautiful, it has a nice rich flavour and supports the female growers in Peru,” Laura said.
The shop is open 11am to 6pm six days a week, which allows Laura time each morning to create her tasty goodies, including soup and homebaking, the latter made with organic eggs from Ednam.
“When people get to taste organic food they say it is really delicious. People taste the flavour and the lightness of it,” Laura said.
Her produce also dispels the myth that it costs a fortune to eat organic and eat well too.