Zoe Robertson visits Rosewood and Lovaine’s community shelf
Emily Cromarty’s front door is unmistakable – it’s painted in bright orange, pink and yellow, and decorated with flowers and doves. Tucked away on the corner of a quiet street in North Shields, it’s a hint that something magical is happening here.
Emily runs Rosewood and Lovaine, a catering business with community at its heart, from her home. Every time she has excess produce or ingredients left over from an order, she puts them outside on her community shelf. She then pops a notification on social media and waits for people to turn up, which they do in their dozens.
“The community shelf started out as a bit of a side project,” says Emily. “I’ve always hated food waste and one day I just had this idea and popped the shelf out, and it’s been bombarded with so much love.”
As people turn up, Emily wanders out and chats to them about the produce and asks them about their day. Today there’s peanut butter brioche slices, and buns made with matcha and ube (purple yam jam). Her dog, Bowser, snuffles around the garden, intrigued by the visitors. An honesty box for donations has raised money for Friends of Beacon Hill School, and Newcastle Cat & Dog Shelter, where Bowser came from.
Rosewood and Lovaine takes its name from Lovaine Place, the location of Emily’s house, and Rosewood Gardens, where she grew up in Gosforth. Having had a love of baking instilled in her by her granny at a young age, Emily, now 34, is no stranger to the food business and earlier this year she stepped away from the bakery business she co-owned for eight years. In addition to baking wholesale orders for cafés and catering for events, she prepares meal boxes that appeal to people’s nurturing side – from meals for customers who have come out of hospital to nesting boxes for new parents.
As people began to notice the shelf, they started to ask how they could help. When Lovaine Community Garden, just up the street, had an abundance of plums, Emily took them in and made jam. She still laughs about the request she put on social media when she needed jars. “I couldn’t even count the number of jars that were donated, they wouldn’t fit in the cupboards. I’ve used about 40 of them this week making blueberry jam and plum jam.”
The business appears to have captured people’s hearts, and the donations keep coming. “A lady brought me loads of courgettes and I ended up making so much courgette cake for the shelf, and it all went so fast.” This week she’s made apple butter with an abundance of cooking apples from a neighbour’s garden. She’s also started sharing recipes on social media to give people ideas on how to use more unusual things like the apple butter – which can be found on the shelf in jars adorned with colourful hats, each knitted and donated by a customer.
Emily’s favourite part of running the community shelf is meeting people. “I love how it’s brought people together, and seeing people queuing to look at the shelf and chatting to each other is just lovely,” she says before recalling a lady from Howdon who bakes wedding cakes, who came to visit the shelf then created her own. Emily speaks fondly of her North Shields home and wraps up the experience of creating the shelf perfectly – “I’ve never known community like this, there’s nothing like it.”
The Rosewood and Lovaine community shelf and Lovaine Community Garden are located on Lovaine Place, North Shields, NE29 0HD. Follow @rosewoodandlovaine on Instagram for updates
