With snow on the ground todays farmshopping expedition is delayed slightly to allow the little living gentlers time to play….. So the bakers will now be shut, oh well breadmaking time! Dough after first rise. In tin to prove Ready to bake Cooked!
Well now here a thing…. We supported Oraganuary last year, and are proud to do so again in 2021. Due to our love of liver, kidney, pate, and haggis we already consume a reasonable amount of organ meat in our diets, but we can always do more. This campaign is designed to encourage people to… Read More Organuary 2021
As the rain clouds cleared letting the blue sky to emerge and the sun shine brighten the day, I started cooking breakfast. We had some left over roast potatoes and cabbage so bubble and squeak was on the agenda. Both had come from Putton potatoes farm shop 5 miles away. The bubble was topped with… Read More A local breakfast!
What went well Breadmaking – We honed our breadmaking skills, and found independent artisan sources of quality flour. Jam making – We raided the hedgerows this year, and successfully made jams from Blackberries, Sloes, and roadside apples. We made Hawthorn syrup, and with donated chilli some chilli sauce! Sustainable shopping – As covid crept among… Read More So how was Living Gentler in 2020?
Sometimes the things right in front of you are the most important thing in the world…. Pan fried British smoked treacle cured bacon from M&M Rutland, with Parlick fell cheese from Revetts the butchers, on malted granary from the cake shop bakery buttered with suffolk farmhouse cheese butter… Local on a plate and tasty to!
Update 16-12-20 So we were looking for a sustainable, cost neutral supply to toilet roll. We ordered some ‘Nicky’ rolls from a wholesaler. The toilet rolls arrived as promised five paper wrapped packs of nine rolls in a cardboard box. They are soft strong and fairly long, and fraganced so no tinned airfreshner needed on… Read More Plastic free loo rolls
Work took me to rural Essex today, following a damp day by the roadside I decided to revisit Colletts Farm shop at Wormingford. Their milk is now available in glass which is a bonus, and their scotch eggs are rather wonderful! Looking foreward to spreading some of their raw milk farmhouse butter on some of… Read More Wet nuts and raw butter, (farm shopping around Essex).
Work has taken me across to Norfolk again, just outside of Diss there is a small brown and white farm shop sign. If you follow those signs there is Place Farm, with its lovely little farm shop! They are on facebook athttps://www.facebook.com/Place-Farm-Eggs-More-100523731637736/ The shop majors on the free range eggs produced on the farm (we… Read More New farm shop!
We like to support local events and think this one is really worthwhile. It takes place at Trinity Park Ipswich in the cow sheds. The organisers have struggled to get the word out about this on social media so please share the details with your friends. More info can be found by clicking the image… Read More Suffolk Farmers Market 17th October 10am – 2pm
Thank you to those that followed yesterdays breadmaking thread on Twitter. Incase anyone missed any steps, the photos are below. The ingredients used were; 3 cups strong white bread flour 2 cups strong wholemeal breadflour 1 cup light rye flour 1/2 cup mixed seeds 1 teaspoon seasalt 2 teaspoons Suffolk honey Approximately 1 1/2 mugs… Read More 321 Bread
I like jam, the little living gentlers like it as well. I also like making jam, not that I am great at it, its either runny or solid. But I enjoy making it. So today was Blackberry jam day! Having promised for a week and with work having to come first, I finally took the… Read More Jam!
There is much said about unnecessary plastic packaging, and indeed here at #livinggentler we are vocal about it ourselves. In particular we have a real issue with the plastic wrap around toilet paper and kitchen towels, its single use, has very limited recycling opportunities and generally just ends up in the waste bin. We already… Read More Paper packaging
So we may have found one of our much sought after products. Long lasting, nice smelling palm free soap that has no plastic wrapping… So we took delivery of soap from the friendly soap company…. More to follow! So we are now coming to the end of our second multipack. We are going to try… Read More Friendly Soap product trial
Making happy memories is really what life should be all about. Today my 89 year old mum saw her first solstice sun rise. What made it special was that she was sharing this with her grand daughters as they saw their first sunrise. With three generations from one family making a special day memorable… Sometimes… Read More Summer Solstice Sunrise
We eat lots of it at #livinggentler Greek set, Greek style, and ordinary yogurt all find a place in our fridge. Its good for you, is a great source of protein, and tastes great either as it is, or mixed with fruit and / or honey. BUT and this is the thing for us….. most… Read More Yogurt!
A quick visit to a new (to us) farm shop… First impressions of Alder Carr Farm are very favourable especially as they have a massive range of flours from local and regional suppliers. Some in small bags some in sacks. The majority of the products are local, thete is a cheese counter and a butchery… Read More More for our directory
With it being pay weekend, and the #livinggentler fridges and cupboards growing empty, we went shopping. We have a brilliant butchers in our village so our expedition started there.. Pork, bbq burgers and sausages… And vitally important from their deli/bakers some bread flour. Many thanks EW Revett and son (www.revett.co.uk). On our route out to… Read More Local shopping
We were told about this one by a local friend of our who delivers to them so we thought we would give them a try. Farm shops come in a variety of shapes and sizes from big commercial undertakings to simple one to one service. The shop at Pruttons Potatoes is of the second kind,… Read More Another day another farm shop…
This blog is written because of the family’s long held belief that we could be doing things much better than we were. We have made changes to our lifestyle but there is still further we can go with this. Its about a philosophy and us doing what we think is right then sharing it with… Read More Living gentler goes global!
I know we bang on about it here at #livinggentler but we feel it is so important to source locally. We managed to source these veg locally without resorting to any of the big four supermarkets, or the discounters. Small independent retails ate the heart of a community whether thats in a village or a… Read More We love local!
Its a lovely sunny day in our corner of Suffolk, the girls are quietly working their way through their homeschool tasks, and there is movement elswhere in the house. The bread from the weekend has almost gone so it is time to get some more on the go. We are trying some Wessex Mill stong… Read More Todays adventure with bread flour!
Now after over a month of lockdown, I realise I have learned some things about myself and where we in the http://www.livinggentler.co.uk family live. I have learned I really enjoy working from home, its challenging sometimes but I can almost do as much as if I were doing paperwork in the office. I like having… Read More What I have learned in lockdown.
We discovered Whitegate farm today, just off the A140 in Suffolk. Had a very friendly chat, bought some lovely milk supplied by their cows, and saw that they sell some wonderful cheeses! We will definately be back soon…. #livinggentler
We are putting together a blog page about what we feel are environmental confidence tricks by some big corporations. We have updated the page around liquid soap packaging, and would welcome comments about plastic micro packaging ready for our next update on https://livinggentler.wordpress.com/a-plastic-confidence-trick/
Well now here a thing…. Due to our love of liver, kidney, and haggis we already consume a reasonable amount of organ meat in our diets, but we can always do more. This campaign is designed to encourage people to consume nutrient dense organ meat, and reduce wastage from the meat industry in the process.… Read More Organuary 2020
Sincere Yuletide greetings to all our family, friends, and readers. So we tried our hardest to be as sustainable as possible and still enjoy a ‘normal’ christmas, as it turned out we had some unexpected fun along the way. Crackers… Usually supplied in a plastic box, filled with plastic ‘novelties’ that don’t even make it… Read More Christmas sustainability!
We like shopping locally, and we love buying local produce unfortunately local producers are largely overlooked by many. So a simple brunch plate such as in the picture…. Whats in it? The bubble and squeak patty is made from carrot, swede and potatoes from a farm in the next village. They have a little stall… Read More Local suppliers… Who are yours?
At the end of September I had a cardiac event. Sitting reading with number two daughter I got a sharp pain which wouldn’t go away… Hours later it was still there so I made the phone call I never wanted to have to make. 90 minutes later having travelled over 50 miles the ambulance arrived… Read More Counting blessings
The @livinggentler family had a lovely day at Tintagel, Our trip including a walk on the beach. With beautiful scenery everywhere, it was a shame the beast of waste plastic reared its head.. Myself and my eldest little environmentalist managed to find five pieces of waste the remains of a cola bottle, a blue milk… Read More Beauty and the beast!
We really are blessed here in Wickham Market, not only do we have an excellent butchery/ Deli/ Wine shop, and a Coop that sells local produce, but we also have a mini market on a Wednesday. So today it was drop the kids to school and a rainy walk into the village for some shopping,… Read More Shopping local
