How Martha Moments Creator Andrew Ritchie Built a Community

An appreciator of making things nice, even a tastemaker in the circles he runs in, Ritchie has values that align quite nicely with everything Martha stands for. That’s likely why his content has built such an expansive community, and certainly why Martha has even welcomed him into her own circle on more than one occasion. Ritchie was invited on Martha’s podcast last year, appeared as a guest on her show in 2010, and has attended numerous events she’s held like the Great American Tag Sale in 2022. We spoke with him via email about all things Martha, including the recipes and tips he turns to time and again.

Andrew Ritchie

Eater: How did Martha Moments get started?

Andrew Ritchie: I kept seeing this beautiful magazine in the checkout line at the grocery store in college. The covers were extraordinary. I’d be awestruck by just how much information there was in one issue and how elegantly it was styled and laid out. When I really delved in, I started to realize how much I was using the teachings I learned, and how they actually were improving my life. The idea of creating my own online presence to celebrate Martha’s talent and influence came from a conversation with John Small, the creator of SaveMartha.com. He started the site back in the early 2000s to raise awareness around Martha’s legal battle and surface some of the shady aspects of the prosecution’s push to have her indicted to the full extent of the law. John followed the case closely, and was even a frequent commentator on CNN at the height of Martha’s legal battle.

Were you involved in SaveMartha.com?

I was! Around that time, Christopher Byron came out with Martha Inc., a nasty misogynistic biography later made into a TV movie starring Cybill Shepherd that painted Martha as a monster. I went through the book chapter by chapter, and wrote a piece in response. I also wrote reviews of outcoming Martha Stewart Living issues with the hope that they would excite readers to keep subscriptions alive, knowing advertisers were pulling out left and right at that time. That was the genesis of the Martha Moments blog: creating a space to highlight the work she has done, and its importance to so many people.

The Martha Moments community seems to be quite broad and include many followers-turned-friends. What’s that response been like?

The online community is abuzz, but there have also been a number of fun in-person connections made too. Whenever I travel to the U.S. from my home in Ottawa, I try to set something up with any Martha Moments friends who may be in the area. But that aside, many members of the community have put together their own meet-ups over the years! I love seeing the photos they post from these gatherings. It always warms my heart to know that something I started has led to so many meaningful friendships and even a marriage! My friends Dennis and Bernie met through Martha Moments several years ago. Now they’re married and renovating a gorgeous church in Wisconsin where they plan to live and host cooking classes and other Martha-esque activities!

While the praise I’ve received from Martha and her team has been wonderful, the most rewarding thing for me has been the connections made across the Martha Moments community with people from all over the world. Martha’s reach is phenomenal, and it’s brought me so much joy to connect with people across the States, England, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, Australia — the list goes on!

What sort of planning goes into the content you publish?

When I first started the blog, I published quite a bit more than I do now. It was just after Martha was released from prison, and I wanted to offer content on Martha’s ventures from a fan’s perspective. There was nothing quite like that out there. At the time, she had two new TV shows, a new magazine launching, and a consistent stream of new partnerships and product lines emerging. There was a lot to keep up with! Now, I don’t plan the content as much as I let the inspiration around seasonality guide what I publish.

You seem to pull just as much from old issues of Martha’s magazine as you do from her TV episodes. How many back issues do you own?

I have 258 issues of various Martha magazines, including the flagship Martha Stewart Living, and all the special issue publications not included in the subscription at the time. I don’t own every issue, but do have all the “important” ones: anniversaries, holidays, and best of the season issues.

Do you have a favorite issue?

The first issue is special. You get to see so much of her nascent vision coming to life. Otherwise, I have several favorite issues and most of them land between September and December. Most serious Martha fans will likely tell you fall/winter issues are always favorites. Maybe it’s the celebratory nature of that time of year, and the warmth and coziness of it all.

My favorite October issue is from 2001. There is a Halloween component, but it’s explored in imaginative ways. Pitcher plants, the carnivorous bog dwellers, add an otherworldly element to tablescapes and terrariums. There’s a section for kids, of course, on how to DIY space costumes using everyday objects — an appropriate homage to Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. In October, indoor entertaining is approaching its holiday fever pitch, so the issue takes us through collections of dinnerware, and shows us restoration efforts that breathe new life into an old platter or pitcher, for example. And to crown the end of harvest season, a rustic picnic is enjoyed on the folded down flat bed of a pick-up truck in northern Maine.

Andrew Ritchie

What about a favorite episode or moment from one of Martha’s TV shows?

One of my favorite clips from a show in the early ’90s was a tour she gave of her home at Turkey Hill where she gave viewers a peek into her so-called “secret office” which turned out to be strewn with papers, file folders, stacks of books, and binders all over the place. She had put a sticky note on the door with a skull and crossbones that read “Do Not Enter… Or Else!”. The tour was so elegant, and every detail of her home so intentionally thought out, but then at the end, she finishes it off with a glimpse into this “fallen room.” The fact that she has that self-awareness, sense of humor, and the confidence to be self-deprecating here and there — it’s just great.

Of course, I’m also partial to the episode of her show when I was a guest! In 2010, she had me on for an episode about bloggers. Later in the show, Martha and I made yarn cards. She was delightful — super patient and appreciative. What a moment that was!

Any recipes or Martha tips you find yourself coming back to time and time again?

I love to bake, so I find myself gravitating most towards those recipes. There’s something so calming about the process, and so rewarding about the accomplishment once it’s all done! Martha’s pound cake is my go-to recipe and one that can be iterated on in endless ways once you have that base recipe down. Her cornmeal muffins, blueberry muffins, and chocolate chip cookies — a recipe she honed with her daughter Alexis — are all in constant rotation. And her one-bowl chocolate cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting is my birthday cake of choice. I’ve never had a fail with her perfect pie crust recipe, a delicious, flaky pâte brisée dough.

Beyond baking, it’s really just the simple things. I had always had an interest in the home growing up, and read a number of design books as a kid. But no one ever really taught me things that I ended up realizing I needed to know once I started living on my own. I had no idea how to iron a shirt properly, or organize a linen closet. Home organization, doing the laundry — these are all things I follow Martha’s tips on.

Andrew Ritchie

She has certainly also been instrumental in shaping my taste and appreciation for creating beauty in the world around me. I’ve been with Anthropologie for over a decade, sitting in numerous creative roles including visual merchandiser. It’s never lost on me how lucky I am to work alongside creative people that love doing the same things I do.

Martha’s ability to stay relevant and abreast of shifting cultural zeitgeists is something very few manage to do with such lasting star power. How do you think Martha keeps herself a part of the conversation?

Martha had long had an image of being pretty aloof, super formal, and somewhat unapproachable because her communication style, even the way she had to act to excel as a businesswoman in the ’90s and early 2000s, some may have perceived as over-serious and exacting. Prison poked a hole in that perfect facade for many people. And while I know she would never advocate prison as a PR boost, I actually think it shifted that larger public perception. She’s let her hair down now. She’s having fun, which proves to all of us that a woman that famous can be classy, elegant, brilliant, and unrelentingly determined, but also funny, with a wry sense of humor that’s not afraid to be self-deprecatingly human.