Gut Feelings / She makes kombucha and he makes mandolins; discover a creative couple following their hearts
Lyttelton couple Sal and Davy Simpson have followed their sense of what feels right to achieve a creatively fulfilling lifestyle for themselves and their family. Sal’s enthusiasm for kombucha led her to found a fermented brew business, while Davy is an arts editor and part-time maker of mandolins.
At the Lyttelton home of Sal and Davy Simpson, a little bubbly something has been poured into a glass for me. The drink is yeasty and fizzy, almost ‘beer-sy’. Beautifully flavoured with lemon and ginger, the taste is really rather lovely. Sal, the creator of Lyttel Ninja Kombucha, stands proudly by as she begins to explain how she makes her kombucha and why it’s so good for your guts.
‘You start with a SCOBY – a Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast,’ she explains. ‘These very clever microbes work together in incredible harmony to create each other’s food and to support each other like a perfect little community.’ To this harmonious culture a brew of sweetened organic black or green tea is added. Sal uses a double fermentation process and adds local seasonal flavours to produce her particular Lyttel Ninja brand.
‘One of the things kombucha does is help unlock nutrients in food and it’s full of enzymes, live bacteria, organic acids and vitamins that are useful in managing stress and building immunity … I think what sets my kombucha apart from others is that second fermentation, along with the infusions I create using local and seasonal ingredients. It’s what makes it taste so good!’
The lemons flavouring my drink came from Takamatua. Peaches from their garden infused an earlier brew. Lime and raspberry is another signature Lyttel Ninja summer infusion.
Introduced to kombucha by a friend three years ago, Sal was hooked on it from her very first sip. At the time she had been looking for ways to improve her nutrition, following an awful experience with a burst appendix not long after the birth of her and Davy’s second child, Archie, now aged four and a half (brother to Abby, seven).
‘I was on intravenous antibiotics that wiped out the gut flora in my system. No one once mentioned how vital it is to replace these good bugs in order for your body and mind to function optimally. I had a hard time recovering from the operation and we ended up going home to Scotland for family support for six months. By the time we came back, I was feeling a lot better and not long after that I discovered kombucha, my first wholefood probiotic.’
She loved the taste and the way it made her feel so energised. Since launching Lyttel Ninja, she has pulled out all the stops to make her fermented brews as good as possible.
‘If you have a passion, you want to make this thing to the absolute best of your ability,’ she says.
It is a sentiment shared by her husband Davy, who spends many hours handcrafting mandolins and other stringed instruments in the basement workshop at their home. He grew up playing guitar and took up mandolin four or five years ago. The first mandolin he bought was ‘absolute rubbish’; it was all the motivation he needed to have a go at making his own.
Davy has a background in painting and fine arts and had also dabbled in making furniture. ‘I was confident that anything I made could scarcely be worse than the one I’d bought!’ Working as Simpson Mandolins, he’s made eight or nine beautifully-crafted instruments to date, each one a real labour of love that tells a unique story.
‘I have three mandolins on the go at the moment. There’s one that I’ve nearly finished for a client in Brisbane and another is a twin of that one, which I’m really excited about. They’re both made with native timbers; I got this incredible flamed red beech from a retired banjo maker in the North Island, who was getting rid of his wood stock. It’s insanely beautiful stuff. I’m making another one from some ancient chocolaty mahogany from my parents’ attic in Scotland.’
Sal and Davy are both originally from Scotland. They met for the first time 12 years ago at a singles night in Edinburgh and quickly clicked to become the night’s sole success story. ‘I only went at the last minute because someone else had dropped out,’ says Sal with a smile, adding that they must be about the last couple to have got together that way before internet dating took over.
A few years later, they were on their way out to New Zealand where Davy had landed an eight-month contract as a publications editor at the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū (which evolved into a job share and ultimately a permanent full-time position). Sal had been working as a lawyer in Scotland but wanted to try a new way of life in New Zealand. ‘I found a job working in a local café and started learning to surf !’
Lyttelton’s visual and performing arts community was instantly appealing to the couple. Davy has recently set up a fortnightly session at a local bar catering to fiddle players and
Working as Simpson Mandolins, Davy’s made eight or nine beautifullycrafted instruments to date, each one a real labour of love that tells a unique story.
traditional Irish folk music. This paved the way to his interest in mandolins. The couple’s friends include builders and arborists, who will drop off old timber – even logs – that Davy puts to use in his workshop.
‘We sometimes come home to tree trunks on the deck!’ laughs Sal.
The whole re-use, recycle ethos is deeply appealing to Davy and, by using local materials, whatever he makes becomes inextricably tied to the local area, its history and its landscape. ‘I don’t tend to work from drawings,’ he says. ‘I like to experiment and I enjoy doing a bit of inlay work. I love the whole process from start to finish – it becomes quite meditative.’
Sal never intended to set up her own business, but her discovery of kombucha changed all that. She is convinced of the benefits of consuming probiotics in wholefood, present not just in kombucha but any fermented food such as sauerkraut or full-fat unsweetened yoghurt. ‘You also need to feed the good bugs in your gut with prebiotics like onion, garlic, leeks, seaweed and green smoothies. As well, I advise “little and often” so for someone not used to fermented food, start with just a sip of kombucha – you don’t need much. I always say listen to your body and learn to trust your gut. That’s how come I’ve ended up with this business. Making kombucha is what makes the most sense to me in my life since having children.’
Part of that ‘making sense’ equation involves extending a helping hand to other mothers and young families in the local community. She enjoys sharing what she has learned about gut health and nutrition with others and if she knows of a
It takes Sal 13 days to make every batch from start to finish and she’s now producing hundreds of 250 ml bottles every week.
mum having a hard time, she’ll often drop off some bottles of kombucha on their doorstep. ‘For me, it’s just about letting them know that someone has thought about them. It’s really hard being a mum. You need a great network of friends to help get you through. A big motivation for me in doing this is that I want to help other people feel a bit better.’
Her making space is a commercial kitchen at a local restaurant, plus she co-shares a basement office. It takes her 13 days to make every batch from start to finish and she’s now producing hundreds of 250 ml bottles every week, with plans to fill litre bottles and do festivals this summer. She’s supplying more than a dozen local outlets. Looking after the environment is important to Sal, who encourages customers to return their bottles so they can be re-used.
‘I’ve never done any marketing and I think this is why I knew I had to keep doing this. From working in the café, I knew so many people and it’s just naturally meant there are these supportive networks already in place for my business to grow organically.’
As we say our farewells, there are Lyttel Ninja bottles on the kitchen bench, kids’ photos and drawings on the living room wall and half-made mandolins in the basement. It feels as though this family has their ‘work-create-live’ balance just about right.