My favorite cookbook

The Vegan Table by Coleen Patrick-Goudreau has not failed me yet! Every recipe I have tried has been yummy, and it's my go-to book for vegan food to serve to non-vegans. This past week I made the Old Fashioned Lentil Loaf (page 218) and served it to my husband, who had decided years ago that he didn't like lentils and hadn't touched one since. He loved it!

Apple Trees

I bought 2 apple trees on sale at a local nursery last week and planted them in a flower border. I did a little research first and learned that you need a minimum of 2 varieties that flower at the same time, planted within 100 feet of each other, for pollination. I got a Macintosh and a Crispin. I have wanted to try more fruit trees and other perennial food producers, but zone 4 choices are limited. I have raspberries, blueberries, rhubarb, and asparagus. I hope the apple trees survive and don't get eaten by deer.

Grow your own sprouts -- it's easy!

Sprouts got a bad reputation during the recent ecoli outbreak in Europe (see my previous post, "e-coli Outbreak"). It seems that sprouts are a food that can easily be contaminated with ecoli because they have a lot of surface area and are rinsed in water frequently, and that water may have been contaminated by animal waste. So even though the sprouts are innocent, being plants, they can carry ecoli bacteria (which comes from animals) on their surface. It's difficult to wash off ecoli; you only need one microscopic bacteria to survive in order to sicken someone.

Don't give up on these protein-rich, crisp and crunchy vegetables! You can easily grow your own sprouts with just a jar and a packet of seeds. Try it in the winter when nothing else is growing for the ultimate satisfaction, but it will work any time of year.

I use mung bean seeds because I like the big, hearty sprouts they produce. I ordered my sprouting seeds from a catalog -- I just added it on to my garden seed order to avoid paying extra shipping. It was $1.95 for a 4 oz. bag, which will make about 6 - 8 batches of sprouts. I think you'll pay about that much for a single container of sprouts at the supermarket, so your investment will pay off at 6 to 1! It doesn't cost anything to sprout the seeds, you just need any old recycled glass jar.

Day 1: Put 1 or 1.5 tbsp of seeds in the jar and cover with cold water. Soak overnight.


Day 2 - 4: Dump out the soaking water. Twice a day, rinse the sprouts in cold water and dump out the water. The seeds should stay damp and not dry out completely. Some directions say to use a wet paper towel or cheesecloth over the opening of the jar, but I never have.



Each day, more of the green seed coverings come off and get dumped out with the rinse water.


Day 5: Yummy sprouts waiting to adorn your salad! Refrigerate in a bag when they're ready to eat.

A confession

I didn't want to go vegan. There, I confessed. You see, I had been an ovo-lacto vegetarian for 22 years and it was easy. I was comfortable. I was complacent. I had convinced myself that I was doing enough for the animals and I had all the usual justifications (excuses, really) for my actions. Q: What about eggs? A: It doesn't kill the animal. Q: What about leather? A: It's a bi-product of the meat industry and I wouldn't wear fur or anything killed JUST for its skin. These answers sound AWFUL to me now. It's difficult just to write it down!

I like to listen to podcasts while doing routine chores like weeding the garden. Looking on itunes for some new ones to try during the summer of '09, I stumbled across Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's "Vegetarian Food for Thought" podcast. I assumed it would be about vegetarian cooking, so I downloaded a couple of episodes. I quickly realized that although there were some great cooking and baking ideas included, the theme of the podcast is really vegan advocacy. But the episodes were engaging, and I was soon hooked. I downloaded the entire backlog of episodes and started hearing what I didn't want to know. I fought it for a while, but once my eyes were opened I realized that I couldn't go on eating dairy and eggs or wearing leather and live with myself. It took me a little longer to decide on honey, but after reading a book on beekeeping (in favor of it, actually) my eyes were opened and I said goodbye to honey and all my Burt's Bees lip balms as well. Then wool. Then silk. Pearls. The dominoes fell one by one.

When I became a vegetarian in 1988, I did it instantly. I had an epiphany -- that there's no moral difference between a dog or a cat and a cow or a chicken -- and the next moment I was vegetarian. But the vegan switch took longer, I'm sorry to say. I did NOT want to give up cheese, yogurt, and ice cream. I thought that without yogurt I might get yeast infections, and I was worried about calcium. I had to do some nutritional research, and I had to figure out how it would work in my marriage and my house, and my cooking. I had to think about how hard it would be to eat at restaurants, and what adjustments my friends and family would have to make. I needed to find out if I would be able to find decent shoes and belts and I had to figure out what to do with the leather stuff I already had. I took the final steps at the beginning of 2010, so it took about 6 months from the time I had the first idea that I might have to make a change until it was a done deal.

I am happy to say that all my concerns were unfounded. I have plenty of cute vegan shoes and belts and purses. I can eat out, and bake delicious treats, and I no longer crave cheese or yogurt. I figured out that if I take B12 and eat lots of healthful vegetables and a wide variety of leafy greens, whole grains, nuts, and seeds, that I'm covered nutritionally. I have not had a yeast infection, but if it had turned out to be an issue, there are soy yogurts that have active cultures, and there is acidophilus in tablet form. I gave up drinking cola to preserve my bones, and I get my calcium from plants. My family and friends adjusted, and are into the challenge of finding and creating great vegan meals. I'm the go-to girl for advice on a vegan diet at work as well. I was able to easily replace my household cleaning products and personal-care products and cosmetics with vegan products that work as well or better and are easier on the environment. Bonus! The internet is a great resource and made the whole transition easy and fun.

Most importantly, I have the inner peace of knowing that I am walking the walk. I don't have to make excuses or justify myself to myself. There is no cognitive dissonance between what I know to be right and what I am eating or wearing or using. It's a good place to be.

A Good Day for the Garden

I turned off the radio after a time this morning because I couldn't take the constant alarmist heat warnings. "It's HOT, you're all going to DIE!"
Yeah, it's warm today for the Northeast. So what? Take breaks and drink water. Don't be stupid. I hate it just as much when the announcers go crazy because it's going to snow. We live in upstate New York. We know about snow. Calm down.

Whatever you may think of this hot humid weather we're having, it's absolutely fabulous for the vegetable garden. It's early for eggplant and red peppers and large tomatoes, hooray! If all goes well, I'll be able to fill the freezer and eat well all summer.

I planted the pole beans too thickly and it's like a treasure hunt to harvest them! But at least I'll have plenty of beans and the critters didn't win this year. I'm not complaining.

I picked up an intriguing book on water bath canning last week and I'm determined to try at least one recipe at some point this summer. I'm thinking salsa or tomatoes or sauce, since they are high in acid and I'm less likely to mess up. Plus, those things are typically made later in the summer when having large boiling pots of water in the kitchen all morning won't be so silly.

I have the usual glut of summer squash. We grilled some the other night with a garlic marinade. I chopped some up into 1/2" pieces and sauteed it with onion and garlic and salsa and pinto beans and put it into whole wheat wraps another night. Oh, and the ubiquitous zucchini bread, of course.

I love summer!

Two good dining experiences

There are no vegan restaurants close to where I live. I am used to going out to eat with omnis and finding the one thing on the menu that can be "veganized" or asking the chef to prepare something and explaining the rules to the server. Fortunately, I enjoy cooking and we don't eat out that often. When my husband and I eat out, we will frequently visit one of the fine ethnic restaurants nearby so that it's easier for me to choose vegan fare.
Last night, on our way to a jazz concert at Skidmore College, we did just that. We ate at an Indian restaurant in Saratoga Springs called Karavalli. It has a pleasant atmosphere and is conveniently located in the downtown area with parking lots nearby and lots of places in the city within walking distance. There is a section of the menu that is labeled "vegetarian" AND a section labeled "vegan!" We shared a veggie appetizer and then I had excellent chana masala. None of the dessert choices was vegan, but I was full of delicious flavorful food by that time anyway. The bill came to $60 for the two of us, with an appetizer, two entrees (he ordered the priciest one, I think), one dessert, and coffee. We don't drink alcohol, so we stuck to Saratoga sparkling water.

An even cooler dining experience happened last week when my friend and I traveled to Massachusetts to visit the sculpture gardens at the Three Sisters Sanctuary in Goshen, and the bridge of flowers in Shelburne Falls. This was an outing planned purely for pleasure, to celebrate the successful completion of another school year. We had lunch at the Cafe Evolution in Florence, MA, and I can only say that I wish this incredible restaurant was in my town! Completely vegan, Cafe evolution has a casual, coffee-house-like atmosphere with small tables, a counter, and some big comfy chairs and couches. The seating area is fairly large with nice windows and some plants. I have to say that after more than 20 years as a vegetarian, and now a vegan, I was a little overwhelmed by being able to choose ANYTHING from the menu, and it took me a few minutes to decide. I'm used to scanning quickly for the one or two items that might be acceptable, then waiting for the waitress to come so I can ask questions! It was a little disorienting to have so many choices. My friend and I both settled on a special called "Bowl of Beauty" which was a generously sized bowl lined with yummy fresh greens, then tasty brown rice, topped with a medley of roasted veggies, chickpeas and lentils in a thick stew-like sauce. It was very flavorful with a little bit of heat to it -- just right! Although we were both full afterward, we couldn't resist the glass case of delicious-looking baked goods. While I can find things to eat at most omni restaurants, I can almost NEVER eat the desserts. The novelty of this was too much to resist, and I had a decadent chocolate/peanut butter rice crispy bar. My friend has less of a sweet tooth than I do, and she had a muffin and bought some gluten-free cookies to take home to her husband.
If you're in Western Mass, please check out Cafe Evolution. It's too far away for me to patronize often, so I hope it remains successful and I can visit again!

It's working!

The little "cages" I made to keep the critters from chewing on the pole beans worked! Looking forward to having lots of rattlesnake and purple violetto beans to eat and freeze.

Quality time with the Compost Pile

I have been putting kitchen waste into a compost bin for years (no sense in sending vegetable peels to the landfill!), but the bin was in the shade and I never turned the contents or made much of an effort to do anything with it. I used to purchase 3 or more yards of composted cow manure from a local dairy farm, and that's what I would use on the vegetable and flower beds. The farm did a great job of making sure the manure was properly "cooked." There was never any odor, and the vegetable garden thrived on the stuff.

But now I'm vegan and I realize that I can't ethically purchase composted cow manure since my money would be contributing to the farm's ability to continue as a dairy. Dairy cows are repeatedly impregnated, their calves are taken away almost immediately, to the great distress of their mothers, and the boy calves are turned into veal. When the cows are "spent" (ie: they no longer produce enough milk) they are sent to the slaughterhouse.

I needed to either find another source of vegan compost, or figure out how to make my own in a more efficient way. I was wary of other sources even before researching the subject. I checked the bags of compost at the garden center and saw that most are not vegan, containing ingredients such as "turkey meal" (what the heck?) and bat guano. I had read that some communities offered compost made from yard waste, but knowing how much chemical fertilizer and pesticides are commonly used, I really didn't want to take the chance. What's the point of trying to grow my vegetables organically if I'm going to get someone else's recycled pesticides? No thanks. The Mother Jones article I have linked to confirmed my suspicions about municipal composting programs.

As a result, I have been spending some quality time with my compost pile this spring, and so far it is working out pretty well. In the early spring, I borrowed a chipper/shredder and shredded up leaves and stems, adding them to the pile. My kitchen waste still goes in there, with vegetable peels and coffee grounds being the primary ingredients. In addition, I'm raking up the grass clippings (I don't use any chemicals on my lawn, of course) and adding them in. I have two bins side-by-side so that I can mix the pile and layer the things I put in. I have already used some of the compost I made in the spring. Those shredded leaves were great, and I'm planning to borrow the shredder again soon to shred more leaves. I also added some organic alfalfa meal to the pile the last time I turned it. I read that it is supposed to heat up the pile like manure would, and encourage microbes to do their composting thing. I'm looking forward to using my own compost, made for free, with my own sweat equity. Knowing exactly what went in there will give me greater confidence that what I'm eating is good for me!

e-coli Outbreak

The media coverage of the e-coli outbreak in Germany is driving me crazy. I have not read or heard a single story which makes the connection between e-coli and animal/human feces. The simple fact is, that e-coli is an intestinal bacteria and it gets on plants only when they are contaminated with animal waste. A very simple solution to this problem would be to cease animal agriculture.

When the media focuses on finding the "source" of the e-coli epidemic and blames it on salad vegetables, it misses the point completely. Yes, people may have gotten sick from eating vegetables, but those vegetables were contaminated by feces somehow. Eliminate the animal agriculture, and you eliminate the source of the contamination. If the world was vegan, there would be a lot less food-borne illness.

Rodent Problem

I ran into a problem growing pole beans last year. Every time the vines would get a few leaves, some critter would eat them, leaving a bare stalk that would struggle to produce another leaf, which would then be eaten, etc. I suspected chipmunks to be the culprits, as I have rabbit fencing and there were no deer tracks. Voles could have done the damage as well. I never caught the offenders so I can't say exactly who they were!

Thanks to the rodent problem, the season was a bust as far as beans were concerned. I had to pick beans at a friend's house to freeze for the winter -- the paltry harvest I managed was barely enough for a few side dishes.

This year, in an effort to thwart the wily critters, I made cages from hardware cloth that are about 14" deep and 6" in diameter, and buried them about 7" deep in case the varmint is a digger. So far, so good! I'm keeping my fingers crossed, and I'll post an update at harvest time.

Veggies!

Here's what I've got growing in the garden this season:

Tomatoes (sun sugar, brandy boy, amish paste, mortgage lifter)
Eggplant (ichibon, purple rain, lavender touch)
Pepper (carmen, big red)
Chard (bright lights, fordhook giant)
Pole Beans (rattlesnake, purple violetto)
Lettuce
Radish
Beets
Sugar Snap Peas
Blueberries
Raspberries
Garlic (music, phillips, chesnok)
Rhubarb
Asparagus
Basil
Rosemary
Thyme
Cilantro
Chives

The proliferation of the progeny of the prodigious pigweed: A problem.

Years ago, as a novice gardener, I nurtured a "volunteer" that I thought might be a flower. It did so well with my tender loving care, that it took over the bed, actually growing taller than me! Not recognizing it, I eventually became concerned and asked my garden mentor what it could be. She didn't recognize the description, so I brought a piece of it to work to show her. Puzzled, she said that it looked like pigweed, but she had never heard of one so large! Alas, it had gone to seed (millions of seeds, actually) before I could get rid of it. Lo, these many years later, I am still trying to rid the gardens of pigweed, only now I get them when they are very tiny.
My take-home message: Look it up or ask a friend before it's too late! :-)

Stuff in the garden.

A re-purposed chicken feeder becomes a home for heuchera.

The problem with free-range eggs

Many thoughtful people believe that they are doing a better thing by buying eggs labeled "cage free" or "free range." While certain situations may be better than the factory-farm model, it is NOT POSSIBLE to produce eggs on a commercial basis in a cruelty-free way. Here are some of the problems with eggs.

First of all, unless you have met the hens personally, you have no way of knowing what the labels on those egg cartons mean because there is no regulation of the terms "cage free" or "free range." "Cage free" hens probably live their lives in dark, cold,smelly, over-crowded buildings with no access to the outdoors. They have probably been de-beaked (without anesthesia) and are subject to forced moulting (near-starvation to the point that their feathers fall out). After a year, a much shorter period than a hen's natural lifespan, they are "spent" and either sent to slaughter or gassed or otherwise killed.

The label "free-range" can be just as deceptive. It can simply mean that hens raised in the conditions described in the previous paragraph might be given a small door with access to an outdoor enclosure even if they never actually go outdoors.

There are a few people that raise hens for eggs in a family farm setting in which the hens get to nest in a henhouse and go outdoors during the day. They can dust-bathe and socialize and their beaks are left intact. I actually know someone who has hens under just such conditions and they live a pretty nice life while they are with her family. This model is not free of problems for the animals, and I'll get to that shortly, but it also is NOT a commercially viable way to produce eggs. This family gets eggs for the family and sells the extras at their farm stand or gives them away to friends. But they have not even been able to sell them at the local health food store, because they don't produce a consistent number or size and the store wants a guaranteed supply -- they don't want disappointed customers who expect to find a certain "brand" on a regular basis.

The problems with family farm, free-range egg production don't end there. My friend buys her chicks from a commercial hatchery. Hatcheries keep the hens in terrible conditions. Boy chicks are a problem. They are sorted out and thrown away, or suffocated slowly, or thrown into grinders alive, or whatever method of "disposal" is cheapest. The female chicks are sent to farms through the US mail. Yup, you read that correctly. They MAIL live animals in boxes. Do I need to mention how many arrive dead? Baby chicks need warmth and special care. They need their mothers, actually.

The end of life is also terrible. It is not profitable to keep the hens after they stop laying. They are not pets, after all, they are egg-producing machines. So when they are "spent" (no longer laying as many eggs) they are sent to slaughter or killed in some other way.

It is not possible to make money from eggs in a way that is not cruel. The only solution is not to use eggs at all. We should not be using animals for any reason -- not for food, or clothing, or entertainment. There is no commercially viable use of animals that is not inherently wrong. If an animal is used to make money, then money becomes the focus.

Vegan Feast

I made a vegan meal for non-vegan guests yesterday. It went over very well! Here's the menu:

-fresh tossed salad
-penne with a chunky tomato/artichoke/garlic/olive sauce (the recipe is from The Vegan Table by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau and it's called Crowd Pleasing Pasta with Tomatoes and Artichokes)
-french-cut green beans and finely chopped onion sauteed in toasted sesame oil and tamari.
-homemade whole-wheat dinner rolls
-italian herb polenta with a mushroom/red wine gravy
-strawberry rhubarb crumb-topped pie

I love to cook vegan meals for company!

kids need animals

What did I learn from having animal companions as a child?

I learned that animals are individuals with their own personalities, quirks, habits, likes and dislikes. I currently live with two cats. One is independent, inquisitive, smart, and very insistent on having her own way. The other is a big, dumb, lazy, lovable, cuddly guy.

I learned that animals have interests beyond mere food and shelter. Sometimes they desire companionship, freedom, communication, play, intellectual stimulation -- many of the same things humans desire in life.

I learned that wild animals are wild. I kept trying to capture and keep a variety of wild animals when I was a kid. Snakes, turtles, frogs, etc. I would try to re-create their habitat in a homemade fence or pond or terrarium or cardboard box. My Dad would always help them "escape" before I could do any lasting harm to them.

I learned about the evils of pet breeding and pet stores after a disaster with a pet store kitten. It was a hard lesson for my family to learn, but after that we only had rescued animals.

I learned about death and grieving. I learned that you can adopt another animal but they never take the place of the one you lost. I learned to enjoy the good memories and the new personalities simultaneously.

I learned about patience and perseverance in relationship building. My first cat (I was about 9 years old) was skittish and shy. She eventually became friendly with me and only me. It was years before she would accept the companionship of other people. Later, I had an even tougher case when an adult cat was dropped by my first rental house. It took weeks to coax her inside and longer to get her to the vet. For years, no one saw her but me and my husband. She didn't become friendly to anyone else until she got old and deaf and senile. Then her personality completely changed and she started to love people!

I think that kids should have rescued animal companions for all the reasons above and more. I know some kids who were never allowed pets. Some are scared of animals, others indifferent. I know that one of the most common reasons I hear for people to go vegan is that they realized there is no moral difference between a dog or a cat and a cow or pig. How will people ever make that connection if they have never had a relationship with a non-human animal?

Swiss Chard, how I love you

Oh Swiss Chard, how I love you! Your seeds can be planted directly into the garden from the time I can work the soil in the spring, through the hot summer, into the fall. You grow so easily and look so pretty in the garden, and you attract so few pests! Your tiny, tender leaves can be put into salads, and your mature leaves can be cooked just like spinach. But, unlike spinach, you don't bolt at the slightest provocation of a hot day. In fact, I can keep harvesting you all season, enjoying your mild flavor in so many recipes that I never tire of you. Your cooked leaves and stems freeze well and thaw well so I can keep enjoying your vitamin-rich goodness all year long. Ah, Swiss Chard, we shall meet again and again!

More Green, Less Blue

When we bought our place in '96, it came with a large above-ground pool. For several years it got a decent amount of use, but in recent years it seemed like I was maintaining it all summer for a scant few hours of swimming or floating. Unfortunately, the electric pump has to run all the time, and you have to chlorinate and clean constantly whether anyone is using it or not. I also started to resent the time I was spending opening, cleaning, and closing it.
A covered pool in the summertime is an eyesore, and tends to deteriorate quickly. So I got some volunteers to help take it down and stack all the parts, intending to sell the pool and put in a knot garden.
You know about the best laid plans, right? First problem: the bottom of the metal sides and the base were rusted to the point that they were unusable. So the plan to sell the thing and have someone else haul it away faded quickly. Second problem: the area where the pool had been, instead of being a lovely circle of sandy soil ready for planting, quickly turned into a giant swampy shallow pond. Talk about an eyesore! I ended up getting a friend to help me take the pool parts to the dump (which I had to pay for), and I had to buy four truckloads of dirt to fill in the swampy hole in the yard. My husband borrowed a friend's tractor to deal with the truckloads of dirt. Since we were digging up the yard anyway, we re-designed the shape of the new garden and did some other garden/pond work while we had a tractor. I built a big planter off the side of the deck where the access to the pool had been, and we relocated the pool's electrical outlet for future outdoor use. I decided to make the new garden, which is next to the house, into a flower and herb garden, and to move the flowers from a far-away garden which will now be used for garlic, rhubarb, and asparagus.
The whole thing turned into a summer-long project and I didn't get to plant anything until fall. But now that the snow is almost gone, I'm looking forward to seeing what comes up in the new garden, and to fussing with the layout and moving plants around! It's exciting to have a new look to the yard, and I'm very happy that I won't have to spend precious garden time maintaining an electricity-using, chemical-laden swimming pool.
More green, less blue!

Needless suffering

I don't know anyone personally who would say that it's OK to cause needless suffering for their own pleasure. Yet everyone I know is doing it by eating animals and animal products.
If you are eating animals, you are either killing a sentient being or hiring a hit man to do it for you.
If you are using cosmetics that are not cruelty-free, you hired someone to keep a little bunny in a tiny cage and squirt a caustic substance in her eye.
If you ate an egg today, you hired someone at a hatchery to sort out fluffy, one-day-old boy chicks and throw them (alive) into a grinder.
If you drank a glass of milk, you hired someone to take a newborn calf from his distraught mother, tie him up alone in a little space for a couple of weeks, and then send him on a truck to the slaughterhouse.

For what reason? Habit, pleasure, laziness, willful ignorance. If you want to stop participating in a system that causes so much suffering, go vegan. It's easy and delicious, it's better for your body, it's better for the environment, but most importantly, it's better for the animals.

Germination

Isn't it beautiful? These are Carmen peppers, a green-to-red, elongated, thin-walled, sweet Italian pepper that I love to grill or eat raw.

It took some experimentation to refine my seed-starting technique for pepper, eggplant, and tomato seeds, so I will share my secrets for successful germination.

Start with a good sterile commercial seed-starting mix. I pour it into a big bucket and add about a gallon of warm water, mixing it into mud with my hands. To start seeds, I use the little six-packs I saved from purchasing annuals. It's important that the initial container is not too large, because heat is the key thing. The heat mat has to be able to warm up the whole pot, which it will not do if you start out with 4" pots. Yes, you will have to transplant them into 4" pots in a few weeks. It's worth the extra step.
Once you have scooped the mud into the containers, no matter what the seed package says, place the seeds on TOP of the wet mix. They need the light! Then place the six packs directly on the heat mat. Don't put them in another tray, because they won't get warm enough. Yes, it will be messy when you water. Try a plastic drop cloth UNDER the heat mat if you're worried about the mess.
Water twice a day so that the mix never dries out completely. The holes in the six packs will ensure that the seeds aren't sitting in a puddle and won't rot.
Place your light (I just use a 4' fluorescent shop light) as close to the top of the containers as possible. If you have trouble getting the whole thing warm enough, drape a piece of plastic over the light.

Make sure you use good quality surge protectors and don't overload your outlets. Check frequently when you first set everything up to be certain that nothing is getting too hot and causing a fire hazard. With commercial heat mats and fluorescent shop lights, you shouldn't have a problem.

I do my germination in the basement, starting peppers on March 21, and tomatoes and eggplant March 28. When the plants are large enough to put in 4" pots, (mid-April) I move them to a friend's greenhouse until I'm ready to put them into the garden. Here in Upstate NY, I usually don't put out tomatoes, peppers or eggplant until Memorial Day.

So why start seeds when you could buy plants? First, because I want to grow and eat certain varieties that I can't get unless I start them myself. Also, the commercially grown plants at the big-box stores have been causing all sorts of disease problems in recent years. Plus, once you have the heat mats and the lights, it's MUCH cheaper to buy seeds than it is to buy plants. I haven't done the math, but I bet it wouldn't take long to recoup the start-up cost if you have a medium-sized vegetable garden. But the best reason for starting seeds? To have the satisfaction of seeing those gorgeous little babies sprouting up when there's still snow on the ground outside!

Where do you get your protein?

It's the first question I get asked when I say I'm vegan, and the short answer is, "from plants." But that's not what people really want to know, is it? I think they are really asking, "Do you have to eat a lot of weird stuff and slimy tofu?" They are also so conditioned by the advertising media to think that it's difficult to get enough protein that it seems like a big concern. But in reality, too much animal protein is killing Americans and it's easy to get all you need from a plant-based diet. And you don't have to eat anything "weird."

Do you know what protein deficiency looks like? It's called kwashiorkor and you see it in third world countries experiencing famine. Children with stick-like arms and legs and distended bellies suffering from malnutrition have protein deficiency. If you are getting enough calories (and not all from junk food) you are probably getting enough protein. Remember the idea that vegetarians had to combine types of foods to get complete proteins? It's a myth. The ADA busted that myth in 1988, and even the author of Diet for a Small Planet, who came up with the idea in the first place, reversed her position on that long ago. Plants have all the amino acids needed to provide all the protein an active person needs to thrive.

So, where do I get my protein? I get it from vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds, and fruits. I get it from FOOD.

Seeds are sprouting!

Bell pepper seeds have sprouted and tomato seeds are now in six-packs under the lights, on the heat mat! My plan for this summer's vegetable garden includes peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, chard, beans, peas, radish, beets, squash, garlic, rhubarb, asparagus, raspberries, and hopefully blueberries. I planted three dwarf blueberry bushes last summer, and I think one survived. If it did, I'll need to plant more because they need to cross-pollinate in order to produce fruit.
I decided not to use my limited garden space to grow things that are cheap and decent at the supermarket. So no onions this summer, and no carrots.
Meanwhile, I have almost exhausted the store of vegetables I froze last fall. I ate the last of the eggplant and summer squash last week. There is one tub of sauce left, a couple of containers of shredded zucchini (for making quick bread) and some pie apples and rhubarb. Spring can't come soon enough for me!

Inconvenient?

Is it inconvenient to be vegan? I don't find it to be so. I already knew how to cook and enjoyed doing it though. I suppose if you currently subsist on fast food and pre-packaged food-like substances, then you would find my way of eating inconvenient. But if you think cooking healthful meals is inconvenient, you should ask someone with Type II diabetes how convenient it is to poke their finger, check their blood sugar, and give themselves shots of insulin. That's where your convenience food will get you.

It is a myth that you need a lot of weird, hard-to-find ingredients to be vegan. You also don't need to eat "fake" meat unless you want to. There are so many delicious whole foods out there that I could eat something different every day and never feel deprived. My food world has gotten bigger since going vegan, not smaller!

Gone Vegan

After 22 years as an ovo-lacto vegetarian, I became vegan last winter. It's better for me, better for the environment, but more importantly, it's better for the animals!