Place the sweet corn kernels, tomato, pak choi and onion in a serving bowl.
Mix together the lemon juice, tamari, garlic, mixed herbs and Engevita to form a dressing.
Pour the dressing over the vegetables and leave to marinate in the fridge for about an hour.
Add the parsley and cubes of avocado, just before serving. Mix in well.

Serves 1

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Organic MotherHemp Bar With Apple & Cranberry

New from MotherHemp, this dairy free, organic fruit and cereal snack bar is low in saturated fat and free from artificial additives, colourings and flavourings. It's made from flaked oats, shelled hemp seed, puffed rice, dried cranberries, dried apple pieces, apple juice, vegetable oil and various sweeteners and is a good source of omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids (EFAs). I liked its chewy, crispy, rice-like texture and found its mild flavour pleasant enough, although rather bland. Produced in the UK to Soil Association Standards, this apple and cranberry bar is completely free from GM materials. Look out for it in your local health shop. It's also available in Sainsbury's for £0.59.
pasta

Organic MotherHemp Spelt & Hemp Tagliatelli

This high fibre pasta is both wheat and dairy free and like the hemp bar reviewed above is a good source of essential fatty acids. Made from spelt and hemp flour with just a little added salt, it cooks quickly in just 3-4 minutes, making a speedy and nutritious meal. Containing no artificial flavours or colours, this grey-brown coloured pasta holds its texture well when cooked and I also found it very easy to eat because it is broken up into fairly short lengths. It tastes wonderful when served with a few tablespoons of MotherHemp Red Pesto sauce. Look out for this product (and also for the MotherHemp Hemp & Spelt Fusilli) in Sainsbury's and in your local health food store. Approved by the Vegan Society and bearing the Soil Association logo, a 250g packet costs about £2.79.

redpesto

Organic MotherHemp Red Pesto

This vegan pesto sauce is made from sundried tomatoes, sunflower oil, shelled hemp seed, cashews and cider vinegar and is flavoured with garlic, basil, salt and black pepper. Try stirring some into hot pasta, or use it as a spread, salad dressing or dip. Completely free from hydrogenated fats and high in essential fatty acids, this red hemp pesto adds a nice, slightly acidic tang to hot pasta. It's not too greasy either and has a nice texture, which I would describe as just very slightly crunchy. Incidentally, I discovered that it makes a rather nice salad dressing for a cold potato salad. Available from Sainsbury's, a 160g jar costs £3.49.

MotherHemp Hempseed Oil

Bearing the Vegan Society symbol, this MotherHemp oil is cold-pressed below 45 degrees C and is then nitrogen flushed to reduce the onset of oxidation. Containing some omega-9 fatty acid, hempseed oil provides the perfect balance of omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids and also contains significant amounts of gamma-linolenic acid, which is also found in Evening Primrose oil and may be useful for treating PMT and eczema.

Hempseed oil is best consumed unheated and is ideal for use in salad dressings. It can also be used on hot pasta, on cooked or raw vegetables, or added to soups, fruit juice or smoothies for extra nutrition. I tested out a bottle of MotherHemp natural hempseed oil, which is sold in a 250ml dark, glass bottle that is packaged inside an eye-catching, green carton. Although this product is not marketed as an organic oil, all Motherhemp seed is grown without the use of pesticides and herbicides and is not genetically modified. Green in colour, I thought it had a pleasant nutty flavour. MotherHemp's Organic Hempseed Oil costs £7.49 for a 250ml bottle. Whereas a 250ml bottle of the natural hemp oil is available in Sainsbury's for just £4.99.

MotherHemp Hemp Ices

Finally, I would just like to mention that MotherHemp also produce a range of vegan, organic Hemp Ices. Look out for these tasty treats in your local health food store and if they don't stock them, then ask them why not! These dairy-free ices are made from crushed, shelled hemp seeds and do not contain any hydrogenated fat. Available in four delicious flavours: Vanilla Thriller, Scrummy Strawberry, mmmMint Choc Chip and NEW Double Dare Choc Chunk, these hemp ices are low in saturated fat and are lactose and cholesterol free. A 500ml pot costs around £3.98. Vegan Society approved, this product was voted to be the Best New Organic Product in the Natural Products Industry Awards in 2002.

For more information on MotherHemp products visit the MotherHemp web site.

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What's Happening in the Veganic Garden this Autumn?

Autumn Sowing and Planting Schedule:

September: Some types of onion sets (e.g. Radar) can be planted out in September to give an early crop the following June. Sowings of winter salad vegetables can also be made this month. Try sowing some grumolo verde (a type of chicory), corn salad, rocket, or a winter lettuce such as Rouge d'Hiver or Winter Density. Sowings of Mizuna or Mibuna can be made under cover.
October: Some kinds of peas are winter hardy, producing an early crop in June from an autumn sowing. Suitable varieties for sowing in October and November would include Feltham First, Pilot and Meteor. However, when I have planted peas in the autumn in the south of England I have not had that much success. Autumn sown peas seem to be more at risk from slug damage and good results will probably only be achieved in a mild winter unless you can provide some protection.
November: A sowing of broad beans can be made this month. Again, good results will probably only be achieved in mild winters in the south of England, so unless you are able to protect the beans in some way it may be better to delay sowing your beans until spring, if you live farther north. Suitable varieties for sowing at this time of year include: Aquadulce Claudia, Futura RZ, Masterpiece and Supersimonia. Field beans are another kind of bean that can be sown in November. Field beans are usually grown as a green manure crop, but if allowed to flower and seed they will produce a worthwhile bean crop for human consumption the following year. Garlic cloves (such as the variety Thermidrome) can also be planted out in November.

All of the above seeds can be ordered from the Organic Gardening Catalogue, Riverdene Business Park, Molesey Road, Hersham, Surrey, KT12 4RG. Tel: 01932 253666 for a catalogue or order online at their web site.

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In the Wildlife Garden

Many of our wildflowers and some garden plants are beneficial to animals and can be used to attract wildlife into the garden. Here, I will cover another two plants that are especially attractive to wildlife. (See earlier issues for details of other suitable plants.)

Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica)

Although stinging nettles are not especially attractive-looking plants, they have great potential when it comes to attracting wildlife into your garden. In my opinion every wildlife garden should have at least one patch of stinging nettles. However, if the very thought of growing nettles in your garden fills you with horror, or if you are worried about what your neighbours might think, consider positioning your nettle patch somewhere where it will not be too obvious - behind a garden shed, or by your composter, perhaps.

Stinging nettles make excellent wildlife plants, providing food for the caterpillars of many butterflies including the red admiral, peacock, comma, painted lady and small tortoiseshell. Do, however, bear in mind when deciding where to site your nettle patch that butterflies will only lay their eggs on nettles that are located in a sunny position. The caterpillars of many moths also feed on stinging nettles and birds including bullfinches, siskins and reed buntings will eat the seeds. Caterpillars that are feeding on the plants also provide food for insectivorous birds like tits. Incidentally, have you ever noticed that nettles are often covered with aphids early in the year? These aphids provide food for ladybirds at a time of year when other food is often scarce. Nettles can thus be used to entice ladybirds into your garden and who knows once they have eaten all of the aphids, they could well decide to stick around and polish off other undesirable garden competitors for you too.

But as well as attracting wildlife, stinging nettles have many other uses. For example, they can be used to make a wonderful liquid feed, which is very cheap to make, rich in nutrients and can be watered on to container plants, hanging baskets, vegetables and other fast- growing crops. In addition, nettle trimmings can be added to your garden composter to activate the heap. When growing nettles for wildlife purposes, the best time to harvest them is in May. Cutting them back at this time will provide lots of new growth and the resulting young shoots are ideal for attracting egg-laying butterflies. (By the way it's a good idea when using nettles to make a liquid feed to allow the nettles to remain on the ground for a day after cutting them down as this will give any caterpillars the chance to escape.)

Believe it or not cooked stinging nettles are not only edible, but are also highly nutritious. Do wear protective gloves when handling nettles and be careful to cook them properly to be sure of removing their sting! Use young, spring nettles to make soup. Alternatively, cook them as a green vegetable. They are also often used to make a pleasant-tasting herbal tea. Nettles are a good source of vitamin C and iron and are ideal for anybody who is suffering from anaemia.

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)

Usually a magnificent yellow in colour, with a brown or purplish centre, sunflowers are exceptionally attractive plants with flowers that will brighten up any garden between August and October. With some varieties reaching over six feet in height, sunflowers could well attract admiring glances and comments from your neighbours, as well as enticing wildlife into your garden.

Their large, dazzling flower heads supply nectar to bees and hoverflies and some kinds are also attractive to butterflies, as well. Do not remove the flower heads once the flowers have faded, for the ripe seeds will draw many types of birds into your garden, especially finches, tits and nuthatches. You may even receive a visit from a grey squirrel too, if you are really lucky! Giant sunflowers are often popular with children too, so why not get them to help with the planting? Dwarf varieties are now available, which are useful for planting in the small garden, or else they could be grown in containers on a patio or balcony. However, if you have a large garden, then do grow the biggest ones you can find!

Incidentally, sunflower seeds make a useful addition to a vegan diet, supplying protein and essential fatty acids. If you don't want to waste time shelling out the seeds, then use the unhulled seeds to produce sunflower greens instead. Alternatively, any spare seed could be dried and stored and fed to the birds on your bird table throughout the winter months. Sunflowers, as their name suggests, really do turn their heads to follow the sun. So why not sow some sunflower seeds in your garden next May and see if you can make a few heads turn!

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Vegan Hedgehog Menu

Every attempt should be made to encourage hedgehogs to come into your garden. These loveable, prickly, harmless creatures consume large quantities of slugs, snails, beetles and caterpillars, making them one of the vegan organic gardener's best friends. They can easily be attracted onto your land by providing them with extra food, especially in the autumn when they need to build up their fat reserves before going into hibernation. Special hedgehog food is readily available by mail order and hedgehogs will also eat tinned dog and cat food. The trouble is that most of the ready prepared food available contains animal products such as chicken, dried meat, poultry fat, insects and honey. Not really the sort of food that vegans want to put out for their hedgehogs is it? So, you may be interested to know that the British Hedgehog Preservation Society offers packets of peanut granules (the germination points of peanuts) that are ideal for hedgehogs to eat. A kilo packet of peanut granules costs £3.20, plus £2.50 postage. Hedgehogs usually love these! Ring the BHPS on 01522 688300 for a copy of their Hogalogue, if you would like to order some. Other foods that hedgehogs enjoy include muesli, chopped up peanuts, raisins and banana. And do remember to leave a saucer of fresh water out for them, too.

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Other Interesting

The Vegan Society (UK)

An excellent site and a particularly good source of information for the those who are new to veganism, or for anyone who is thinking of going vegan. You can now also shop or become a member online.

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM)

PCRM promotes preventive medicine, alternatives to animal research and encourages the use of plant-based diets. (Neal Barnard MD is PCRM's president.) This web site has much to interest vegans, including an informative section on the vegan diet and details of the facts and fallacies connected with animal experimentation. Find out about the clinical research PCRM is carrying out, including their recent research to discover whether the vegan diet can be used to cure diabetes. Their well stocked shop offers various vegan cookbooks, books connected with animal experimentation, vegan sweatshirts, T-shirts and bags. PCRM also produces a quarterly magazine entitled Good Medicine, which is sent out to all members.

Vegan Harlow

A new web site offering information to vegans and vegetarians living in Harlow and the surrounding area (Ware, Epping, Hertford, Bishops Stortford and Sawbridgeworth). This site lists the cafes, and restaurants that offer vegan meal options in the area and also covers shops that stock vegan products. 'A Beginner's Guide to Going Vegan' provides useful information to help you to get started on a vegan diet and there's also a listing of dairy-free food alternatives and plenty of meal ideas, if you are wondering how to cater for a vegan.

Great Vegan Recipes

A web site offering a good selection of articles on the vegan diet, a recipe index and vegan cookbooks for sale.

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Autumn Book Review

Fields of Green CD (Hemp Music Productions, 2003).

Recorded at the Cutting Edge Studios in Australia this CD combines the relaxing tones of the harp, flute and guitar with angelic voices, rainforest sounds and the ancient drone of the didgeridoo. Ideal for use anywhere where a relaxing or healing atmosphere is required, this professionally recorded, hemp based product is truly unique. Each of the musical instruments used to produce the CD has been made from 100% hemp stone - a substance that is harder than stone, yet also completely biodegradable. In addition, the CD tray is made from novel Hemp Plastic with hemp paper inserts that are made by the Living Tree Paper Company. Fields of Green is being released as a limited edition and is expected to sell out fast,so don't delay! Sample the music and order your copy now from Hemp Music Productions - 10% of the profits from the CD will be donated to good causes, with the remainder being used to support the Hemp Plastic Industry. Price: £13.95 (includes p&p).

BookCover

Raw Soups, Salads and Smoothies: Simple Recipes for Everyday Health by FrėdėricPatenaude (Raw Vegan, 2003).

Why not start the day with a smoothie? Whizz up a tasty soup for lunch, or dine in style on an imaginative salad? Not sure how? This newly published, attractively laid out booklet explains all. Containing over 60 simple and quickly-prepared raw, vegan recipes Raw Soups, Salads and Smoothies is essentially a straightforward guide to preparing these three basic kinds of raw meals. But as well as providing lots of tasty recipes and a list of raw food resources, it also looks at the ingredients commonly used in the creating raw meals in some detail and covers the basic principles involved in creating these dishes. So it shouldn't be too long before you are creating your own raw recipes, too. These delicious smoothies, soups and salad dressings are quickly prepared in a blender.

Excellent value, this booklet can be obtained from Raw Vegan, 6595 St-Hubert, CP 59053, Montreal (Quebec), H2S 3P5, Canada. Copies cost $7.95, plus $2 shipping (USA, Canada). Please allow $3 for shipping, if ordering outside North America. More information is available at the Raw Vegan web site.

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