We have written about plastic free toilet roll before and after disappointingly short supermarket trials of paper wrapped toilet roll Aldi and Cushelle have stopped supplies. We then found a reasonable value for money replacement in the Nicky brand ordered on line. In our drive to be plastic free in as cost neutral a way… Read More New product trial glue and plastic free toilet paper.

With snow still causing problems getting around I focussed on baking today. stonebaked wholemeal Focaccia and a loaf were the order of the day.

Not really… We just left it to prove a bit too long, and the slices wont fit the toaster. While your here why not have a look at some of our other blog posts and pages?

With less travel for work farm shop Saturday is becoming a thing in our household. We got a good haul today…. Thanks to Pruttons’s and Suffolk Farmhouse Cheese. We would rather put our money into local businesses than supermarkets. #shoplocal

Its the weekend! Its not frosty here and its not raining! So tattie cake and fried egg for breakfast. Make some bread dough (double batch after the families bread eating shenanigans last week) Took a morning walk while the bread completed its first rise… Prove it cook it then out to our butchers followed by… Read More Its a farm shopping and breadmaking kind of day…

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!

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

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