I found my true self in this way of life and know I could never go back to blindly consuming animal products

Gem is from the UK. She enjoys sharing her good stuff vegan creations on her IG page, particularly the budget friendly, vegan and delicious kind! Meatless Movement recently had a chance to chat with her. Here’s what she had to say – If you aren’t yet vegan, there is no better time to come to the green side!!

Please tell us more about yourself

I have always loved being with animals and grew up on the fringes of the countryside
Good Stuff Vegan

Hi, I’m Gem, better known as Good_Stuff_Vegan, and I’m a 33 year old vegan living in the UK midlands. I’ve lived in my lovely old house sat on the side of the Trent and Mersey canal for almost 7 years now and I share my home with my Husband, our two dogs and our rescued chickens and ducks. We completely renovated our victorian semi and that has meant that it’s pretty much purpose built for our lifestyle and hobbies – so, big vegetable patch, large outdoor pens for the birds, plant based kitchen and of course my husband’s games room!

I adopted a ‘slow living’ philosophy a short while back, so I work part-time in order to spend more of my life with my animals, growing my own food and travelling where possible. I’m always promoting a kinder way of life and blogging about it on my growing social platforms.

Once the switch got flipped I couldn’t turn it off
Good Stuff Vegan

I guess I did more of a 180 than most when it comes to ‘going vegan’ and that’s because before I stopped eating meat, I was raising animals as food. I’d definitely grown up wanting to be a farmer – I have always loved being with animals and grew up on the fringes of the countryside, so I saw farmers around their livestock every day.

Me at Pigs in the Wood with our adopted pig Mabel

I thought that was how to live a life surrounded by animals – keep them, breed them, make a living off of them. It’s only once I actually started to do that on a very small scale that I could clearly see it was far from the idyllic life I had imagined and rather revolved around the killing of the beautiful, innocent creatures I so yearned to be close to. I talk a lot about it being like a light switch moment – and once the switch got flipped I couldn’t turn it off. I spent some months as a vegetarian, but very quickly went fully vegan off the back of raising some turkeys for Christmas dinner. Needless to say, I did not eat turkey that Christmas and haven’t since!

Somebody get this girl some land so she can have a gazillion rescued animals
Good Stuff Vegan

From there, I plunged straight into vegan life. I volunteered for a rescue centre, rescued any animals I could and I even attended vigils outside of slaughter houses. I’ve since reigned in a lot of the more ‘action based’ veganism as I came to the conclusion there are others out there far better suited to it than me. Instead I began building a more ‘encourage and promote’ style to getting the word of veganism out there. I think there is a very important place for shocking images and emotional campaigns, but I found my activism in the everyday plod of living vegan and showing those around me that small changes is all it takes – I call it my quiet riot.

Meat-free Monday magnifique!! 💚🌱
Good Stuff Vegan

I mainly projected this through instagram and just feeding the people around me. For a long time I ran ‘meat free Monday’s’ at my old place of work where I would bake cakes or make sausage rolls or even curries and soups and let my 40-or-so colleagues help themselves. I let them know it was fully vegan and put up copies of the recipes and it became a really positive way to start everyone’s week!

My instagram page went from being a life blog to more of a food diary and I realised that, though I knew being vegan wasn’t just about the food, it was a great way to get across to people that we don’t just eat lettuce and beans, it’s way easier than you think to opt for a vegan diet and all other parts of the lifestyle are easily adopted from there.

Now I find blogging about what I eat, going to vegan markets and festivals and sharing my pretty average little life seems to be a really effective and non-combative approach to promoting a kinder, more sustainable and all-round ‘good’ way of living.

All vegan and all bloomin’ delicious! 😋 🌱
Good Stuff Vegan

The great thing about being vegan right now is the amount of plant-based food on offer. Over the last 5 years the UK has seen a massive influx of vegan options on supermarket shelves with new products coming out all the time. Veganuary is becoming more and more popular every year and that pushes big companies to jump on the plant based food bandwagon – no complaints from me! Though I don’t live in a big city, I certainly don’t struggle for great vegan food – Pizza delivered to my door, no problem. Cakes sent by post, you got it. Oat milk lattes at just about any cafe I choose, absolutely!

This is me outside Plant in Derby and that breakfast is from there too — breakfast from Plant in Derby

If I had to list a few of my local (ish) favourites I’d have to say:

Plant, which is a lovely little plant based cafe/bar in Derby city centre. They use locally sourced ingredients so their menu changes regularly and it’s always fantastic.
Favourite Thai in Burton upon Trent has a great selection of authentic vegan friendly Thai food and is a fab place for a chilled but classy evening meal out.
Veggie Corner takeaway in Coventry blew my mind the first time I went – all the dirty takeaway classics made vegan. It used to be in a really ‘interesting’ spot on a housing estate too which made it all the more twilight zone-like, but it has since moved.
Green Flamingo is a Staffordshire based market stall-come-online cafe type small business – you can order afternoon tea boxes, cakes and really fancy vegan cheez’s from them.
Further afield though and by far one of my favourite places to find amazing vegan food is Norwich! There you are spoilt for choice – The Tipsy Vegan, Tofurei, Erpingham House to name a few places and that’s before I suggest some of the market vendors…

Anything you can eat, you can eat vegan! No excuses, and definitely no missing out 💚🌱
Good Stuff Vegan

Whatever the weather, gone are the days of salad and chips being the only thing on the pub menu, it’s really just been a fantastic shift in the overall attitude to plant based eating and I think it gives us some hope for a much kinder future.

Now that the food is prepped, the lights are twinkling and I have a glass of something ‘warming’ in hand
Good Stuff Vegan

I have found experimenting with my home cooking a great way to experience eating vegan. I really have a ‘give it a go’ or ‘bung it in’ approach and most of the time I get to enjoy something delicious! People seem to think that vegan food has to be super healthy or organic or made specifically for vegans – but I love putting a vegan twist on an old meat-eaters classic by switching out the meat for a meat alternative, or finding ‘accidentally’ vegan foods in the supermarket.

Just because something isn’t specifically labelled vegan doesn’t mean it isn’t suitable. I have found the best way to help someone who is considering eating less meat or to try and convince a harsh sceptic is to cook one of their favourite foods, but veganise it. We tend to like what we like and it’s the fear of change and missing out that I feel keeps some people from making the leap.

Of course, if they wanted a crash course in vegan junk food there’s now more on offer than ever before – McDonalds, KFC, burger king, dominoes…. The list is endless. Honestly, at this point nobody can use the ‘vegans only eat lentils’ excuse anymore to not give it a go because fast food chains are flying the plant based flag loud and proud.

… and I am a happy little vegan witch 🧙‍♀️🎃🌱.
Good Stuff Vegan

I definitely think there is a misconception surrounding veganism and vegans in general that we are aggressive finger pointers or that we demand perfection. In reality we’re just trying to do our best to cause the least amount of harm. You hear words like ‘extreme’ or ‘militant’ thrown around a lot, but I think, even if someone is being particularly outspoken about their views on animal rights and the vegan movement, it’s passion and concern that’s flowing out of them rather than any kind of hate-fuelled ulterior motive.

At the end of the day we need everyone doing everything they can not a few people doing it perfectly – If we ever hope to achieve a better world for all, the movement has to be as inclusive as possible.

My 'light bulb moment' tattoo celebrating my vegan life — My ‘light bulb moment’ tattoo celebrating my vegan life

I’m really proud of being vegan. I found my true self in this way of life and know I could never go back to blindly consuming animal products. There was definitely a sense of ‘connecting all the dots’ for me when I made the switch and many of my ideals and lifestyle choices fell into place for a real ‘aha!’ moment once I had settled into living vegan. It’s a fantastic community to be a part of and I like to think I’m doing my bit to keep that community growing.

There’s loads of support out there, but I’m going to post my own tips and tricks to help everyone and anyone go vegan and stay vegan
Good Stuff Vegan

Funny thing for me is that, as I said, I’m very proud to be vegan and it’s a huge part of who I am, but I also think it should be our default – it’s literally the least we can do. The least we can do is not harm the other beings we share this planet with, the least we should expect from each other is kindness and empathy, the least we should want for ourselves is health over sickness. There is every reason to live vegan and no reason at all that I can see to not be that doesn’t begin and end with greed and indifference to life. I get it, I get that it’s not how most of us were brought up and that change can be difficult and ridicule is easier to come by than support a lot of the time, but it’s more necessary than I think we know. Just take the first step, make small changes within your diet and go from there.

We are only asking for things you can do, nothing you can’t. It’s that simple (and you can always follow me on instagram for all the support you could ask for 🙂 )