West Midlands Vegan Festival 2011

As a vegetarian/vegan, I think it's really important to regularly meet up with like-minded people and remind yourself that you're not alone.  Being a vegan can be somewhat isolating at times; many people view it as an extreme (and incomprehensible!) stance, whilst some see it as a position to ridicule.  There's always a sense of relief, as I've discussed in previous posts, when you go to a veggie restaurant and are surrounded by people that care about animal rights issues/environmentalism as much as you do.

So, with all this in mind, this year I thought I'd cut my Saturday lie in short and visit the West Midlands Vegan Festival.  It was great - you couldn't move for vegans!  (How often do you find yourself in that situation?!)

There were tonnes of food stalls, companies selling vegan products (I tried Kara milk for the first time, and I'm now definitely going to try to switch to this from soya), and lots of animal rights groups/animal sanctuaries providing information on the causes they were representing.


Change Kitchen

 

Forget-Me-Not Animal Rescue get extra points for effort!



Such yummy sweets!! Look them up (link below), they're great.



Goody Good Stuff - anything endorsed by a koala is fine by me.



I also got chatting to a woman who ran a sanctuary for rescued farm animals (author of ...And a Calf Called Reg), and she really emphasised the individuality of the animals she cared for.  Hearing her talk about the animals she'd saved (most notably the story of a mother cow and her calf, who were inseparable because the mother had had all her previous calves taken away from her after only a few days), really confirmed in my mind that I want to do something similar one day.  Though when I told Wenda this, she said to me:  'Make sure you live your life first, because it'll never be the same once you've committed to something like this!'  I found her story and her passion really inspiring (and I also appreciated her advice!).

Another thing the festival encouraged me to think about was the approach that we take as vegans when communicating our values to others.  There was a noticable difference between the majority of stalls, which were cheery and positive, and then those few which had 'meat is murder' t-shirts and bracelets and were offering leaflets with horribly graphic images on them.  I must admit, I found the latter stalls really off-putting, and I didn't stop to look at them.  I just don't think that that kind of aggressive approach does the cause any good, and in fact I wonder how much damage it does to the reputation of veganism - that 'angry vegan' sterotype came from somewhere, afterall.  If people think that becoming a vegan means wearing pictures of mutilated animals on their tshirts and passing out leaflets littered with aggressive slogans, then I can fully understand why more people aren't warming to the idea!

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for bringing the truth to light.  It's so incredibly important that people understand the extent of suffering and brutality in the animal industry, and that they don't close their eyes and ears to the pain they are inflicting by monetarily supporting factory farming.  Nothing is more annoying than someone refusing to hear what you have to say because 'it's too upsetting', ending the conversation with you and then making a trip to Tesco (boooooo!! You know how much I hate Tesco...) to buy burgers for that night's dinner.  As I discuss at length in my post 'The Urgency of Unity', the solution to this problem is so simple: Vote with the pound.

So, I totally sympathise with the frustration that most vegans feel.  Animal suffering is happening on such a huge scale that drastic and aggressive action seems the most obvious route to take.  However, it's in human nature to be drawn to positive imagery and ideas rather than negative ones, and thus it's common sense that charities bear this in mind when communicating their ideas.  Stories of what switching to a vegan lifestyle can achieve, images of happy rescued animals in sanctuaries, the availability of exciting food and fashionable clothes and cosmetics are all much more likely to draw people towards considering veganism as a compassionate, attractive, and practical way of life than bombarding them with upsetting images.  Most charity websites have now changed their approach.  The majority of the images used on the WaterAid website, for example, are positive ones that show the changes the charity has made to the lives of those it has reached.  That's something people want to be associated with and support.  When people are repulsed or upset by images, the natural reaction is to avoid everything to do with that image.  When people experience negative emotions when confronted by graphic images, they associate the distributer of that image with the same feeling.

But still, I know that those upsetting images do have their place and that they need to be seen.  But in what forum?  I guess it's all about having a sensitive and nuanced approached.  It's an incredibly complex topic, but one that I've been thinking more and more about lately.  I feel like veganism desperately needs an image makeover to make it more user friendly!  Ideas/thoughts on a postcard/in a comment, please, my lovely veggie readers.

Peace and love to you all.
xxxx

The Gentle Gourmet B&B, Paris

Gentle? Good. Gourmet? Great. Paris? Brilliant!

Eating a vegan diet abroad is always a tricky one, especially when your foreign language skills are limited to frantic hand gestures and the ingredients lists on food packets look like blocks of mathematical code.  I know, I know, I really should learn some French considering France is only a two hour train journey away from me...I have no excuse.  (Other than that I'm learning Italian.  Well, not really, but I'm thinking about it.)

But if you fancy splashing out on a stay in Paris and making life a little bit easier for your lovely vegan self, I can highly recommend the Gentle Gourmet B&B.  The breakfasts are simply amazing (chocolate pancakes, fresh fruit, waffles and syrup - they'll pretty much fulfill any request!) and the family that run the B&B are absolutely wonderful and very helpful for finding some veggie havens in the city.

It's a bit misleading calling it a B&B, as it's actually a set of apartments (you have to walk across the courtyard to get to your breakfast, so no drinking coffee in your jammies!).  But this gives you the freedom to come and go as you please, which is exactly the ticket when you're wandering along the Champs-Elysees until 2am singing Joni Mitchell!  'I was a free man in Paris...'

Also, just to add the cute factor, they have a vegetarian rescue dog that loves attention....

Voici le chien noir mignon!

J'adore Paris.  Unfortunately, I can't make it back to Paris for the Paris Vegan Festival next week - are any blog readers going?  I'd love to hear from you!

Peace and love.

We've 'bean' there! Veggie restaurant hunting in beautiful Cornwall

Apologies to you all for the massive lack of posts over the summer months. I have absolutely no excuse for this, and can only hope that a few of you are still following the blog and will be interested in the news I bring: It’s about yummy things!

My husband and I went to St. Ives in Cornwall recently, and happened upon (oh alright, we found it using Google*) a lovely little veggie restaurant that was a real treat to visit: The Bean Inn. It looked a bit weird and not very restaurant-y from the outside (I am convinced this is a trademark of vegetarian restaurants! Having the courage to walk through the door is almost like an initiation), but inside it was absolutely lovely: Fairy lights, cosy tables, candles, and above all, superb service. And did I mention the chocolate mudpie?! (I am still in disbelief that this dessert is vegan...)

Because the food was so yummy we decided to buy the recipe book, which turned out to also be a lovely account of how the restaurant came to be. You can buy the book from their website, as well as finding out general info about the restaurant itself:

http://www.thebeaninn.co.uk/

Perhaps it’s just me, but discoveries like these make my holiday; I already have so many special memories of veggie restaurants I’ve visited with my husband. When we’re away, finding the local vegetarian restaurant becomes almost like a pilgrimage!

I hope that one day veggie restaurants will be the norm, and compassionate cooking will be what society demands. Until then, I’ll enjoy supporting those people who share my belief that the way we eat should be reflective of our values.

I’d like to open a vegan restaurant myself one day; that’s the dream!

Stay vegan and green and chocolate mudpie-ed out.

Autumnal love to you all.
xxxx

* Using veggie restaurant search engine Veggie Heaven.

Vegan Goodies

As I communicated in my last post, I feel that adopting a vegan lifestyle is an essential part of being good stewards of creation, and also a way in which we can learn to be more compassionate, peaceful, and loving. Veganism is a journey of discovery in a spiritual sense, but also in a practical one. I want to talk now about the treats that make that journey easier! Many people think that being vegan entails eating like a rabbit, giving up pretty shoes, and generally looking like a complete hippy, but this really isn’t the case (incidentally, I wish I could pull off the hippy look...).

Since last year I’ve made lots of little discoveries that have made it easier for me to be a vegan in a non-vegan world, and I thought it’d be fun to share them with you. So, here’s my top 10 list for those vegans (and vegans in the making!) who are in need of a little indulgence...

10. Organic Fairtrade Coffee. There’s nothing quite like a hot sugary cup of coffee whilst watching something suitably trashy on telly, and when it’s organic and fairtrade, you can’t really go wrong.

9. Urban Decay Make-up. Okay, so Urban Decay is not a vegan company, but they are vegan friendly, and in my eyes that’s pretty good going for a swanky high-street brand. They list online which of their products is suitable vegans, and none of their products are tested on animals. They also sell the softest synthetic make-up brushes, and were the only ones I could find on the high-street that weren’t made of animal hair. Not bad! And just look at how pretty this sustainable eye shadow box is. Glittery joy.

8. A Cold Bottle of Becks. I’m a girl that likes her beer, which can be a bit of pain when you become a vegan because so many beers (and wines) use animal products in their refining processes. But Becks, according to vegan forums online, is suitable for vegans, and you can be pretty sure they’ll have it at every bar you go to. If I’m feeling indulgent, I’ll drink one whilst in a nice hot bubble bath. It’s hard work being a vegan, you know! ;)

7. Vanilla Swedish Glace Ice-Cream. This stuff is amazing, but especially the vanilla flavour, which is really creamy and doesn’t have that soya aftertaste that so many dairy free ice-creams have. When I was first served this at a veggie restaurant, I made them double-check that it was vegan because I was so convinced it couldn’t be dairy free. It is. Enjoy. (Possibly with some hot vegan apple pie. See earlier post for recipe!)

6. Bourgeois Boheme. The shoes on this website are gorgeous, and so are the other bits and bobs there. Their tagline is ‘Fashion with Compassion,’ and they say: ‘We believe that one should not trade ethics for fashion, nor sacrifice style for conscience.' I could write them a love letter. In fact I will, after this blog entry. They also code their products with ethical labels (Vegan, Happy-Workers, Fairtrade materials, Organic, Hemp, Eco-friendly) so you know exactly what you’re buying. This shop is just a complete treat, and the service is fantastic. Happy surfing...

5. Veggie Restaurants. Oh the bliss of having practically a whole menu to choose from (not to mention the lift you get from seeing how many other people care).

4. Pimms. Summer is on its way, and I’m getting my Pimms and lemonade ready for sitting in the garden at Pimms o’ Clock. (Don’t forget the mint, orange, cucumber and strawberry! Otherwise it just doesn’t count.)

3. Being a kid and making Chocolate Cornflake Cakes. Melt some organic fairtrade dark chocolate in a bowl (check it's vegan, most are). Mix in some organic cornflakes. Put into mini cake cases and then into the fridge. Organic vegan fairtrade joy! (And yes, licking the bowl in these circumstances is definitely the ethical thing to do...we vegans are very against waste. Especially chocolate waste.)

2. So Organic. This online organic superstore is an excellent resource for those switching over to vegan products, because you can get everything you need from shampoo to blusher. The service I have received from them has always been incredibly fast and professional, so I’d happily recommend them.

1. The Fabulous Fudge Factory. This dairy free fudge is INCREDIBLE. So incredible, in fact, that it gets the number one spot in my vegan goodies list. It won Gold at the Great Taste Awards, which are apparently regarded as the ‘industry Oscars’. The makers of this fudge say: ‘We love a challenge, so when we decided to produce a dairy free fudge for Lactose intolerant people, Vegans and Vegetarians, that tastes as good as it gets, we thought how difficult could that be? Well it was – Difficult! It’s easy if you want that soya aftertaste but to make a dairy free fudge that tastes like the good old fashion sort is really challenging. Some 6 months later and many, many discarded recipes, we finally achieved what we think is irresistible.’

Indeed they did (and I know my fudge). We salute you, fabulous fudge factory!

Peace, love and chocolate cornflake cakes

xx