One of the big disadvantages of leaving Bristol is moving away from the amazing artisan Mark’s Bread. One of the things we are looking forward to at The Secret Acre is learning to make bread ourselves.
There’s a very good reason why we won’t eat non-organic white bread from a supermarket. Not just because real bread like Marks tastes amazing, but because two in every three loaves of bread sold in the UK contain pesticide residues. Continue reading
Last November we visited Berlin for Paul’s brother’s 60th celebrations and were surprised to find a fantastic number of vegetarian fine dining restaurants such as Cookies and Cream, The Lucky Leek, Kopps and Bistro Bardot. Eager to try one of these restaurants we travelled a day early so that we could eat at The Lucky Leek and being a popular restaurant we sat outside under blankets eating one of the best vegetarian meals we had ever experienced. Continue reading
A few weeks ago we were delighted to spend the day with our lovely Cornish friends who were en route to holiday in Wales.
A thundery start to the day left us feeling a little sad that we might have to eat our picnic in the wood shed but by the time the lovely Kirk Family arrived the clouds parted and made way for the sun allowing us to merrily eat a hearty spread beneath Cam Peak. Continue reading
I could say it started recently with the dog, but that wouldn’t really be true.
Emma has already written about her motivation for finding our Secret Acre. For me I guess it started watching The Good Life television series at an impressionably young age, which helped foster a lifelong passion for our environment and living a happier, more self-sufficient life. Continue reading
Eating home grown salad, shelling peas on the patio, having my own home grown radish patch and best of all digging for potatoes are memories from our suburban family garden that I will cherish. Sadly from the age of 10 as a family entering the 80’s, the rat race era, my parents decided to cut down the apple and pear trees, fill in the vegetable patch and plant flowerbeds with Sweet Williams, pansies and other colourful, but, inedible plants. Almost overnight our fruit and vegetables started coming from the local supermarket and not our garden. Continue reading
In 2014 we finally took the plunge and decided to put life before work.
The result was to take on a one acre smallholding near Stroud. Both the land and the bricks and mortar are in need of renovation as Estate Agents say!
So, our first tasks in 2015 are an eco-makeover of the house, prepare the veg beds, and repair the greenhouse and orchard for a productive 2016.
The Secret Acre 