THE VEGAN NEWSTHE VEGAN NEWSThe Vegan News is written and edited by P M Lloyd. Please e-mail your contributions to the editor at: pauline@bury-rd.demon.co.uk or fill in the form provided.
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Recipe of the Month
Ingredients
Method
Hemp Seeds: If you would like to try out the fruit and nut bars in last month's recipe section, but are finding it difficult to find some hemp seeds, then they can be obtained by mail order from 'The Hemp Collective'. Their address is in the mail order section of the 'All About Seeds' article.
Readers' ContributionsI may be a little late with this news, but there's a wonderful American meat substitute called Heartline Meatless Meat. It may prove too realistic for some, but if you like the texture and taste of meat it's excellent! It's produced by Lumen Foods, which produces the 'Whole Earth Catalogue'. I find it hard to believe no UK distributor has picked up on it yet, because it's so superior to the TVP we get over here: you can even eat it "dry", like jerky. I pay a small fortune to have it shipped from the USA and I would love to see Brewhursts or one of the big wholesalers stock it. For those with Internet, you can get more information and order products at: Lumen Foods
June Product ReviewTom's of Maine Natural Toothpaste.
This calcium based toothpaste can remove plaque from the teeth and contains herbal resins which are good for the gums. I tested the spearmint flavour which tastes like spearmint chewing gum and found that it froths up beautifully and it's clean, pleasant and refreshing flavour encourages you to spend a long time brushing your teeth! Containing no artificial ingredients, this toothpaste is flavoured with natural spearmint and peppermint oils and the herbal resins, propolis and myrrh. It's entirely sugar-free, with no artificial sweeteners either and is packed in a recycled cardboard tube. I bought mine in Holland & Barretts for £2.09, but it is also worth looking for this toothpaste in branches of Boots and other health shops. Rather expensive perhaps, as it's imported from the States, but in my opinion it's well worth paying a little bit extra for. Other flavours to look out for include: cinnamint, baking soda with peppermint, fennel and for children there's silly strawberry flavour, too.
Tom's of Maine Natural Deodorant.
I tested the unscented version which contains aloe, lichen and coriander (it does in fact have a slight smell). This deodorant has a gentle formula, is alcohol-free and prevents odour naturally by using lichen instead of artificial bactericides. And it seems to work well too, although of course the summer heat hasn't arrived properly yet and so I've only tested it when out jogging! I tried a push up solid-type of deodorant, but liquid roll-ons are also available. I paid £3.95 in a health shop for mine. You can find out more about Tom's of Maine products on the Internet.
Book InformationAnd if it's too hot to cook this summer, then some of you may like to check out these raw food books which are all available from The Living and Raw Foods Website.
UK vegans can obtain more information about raw food diets from: The London Raw Foods Network, PO Box 1165, London, SW4 6EW. (Tel: 0171 837 0171.) The London Raw Foods Network sells a selection of raw food books - many of which are suitable for vegans - at the Spitalfields organic market, near Liverpool Street station, every Sunday from 9 am to 5pm. Here, you can also try out delicious raw snacks and fruit or vegetable juices!
Susie Miller (Fresh Network Newsletter) also runs a mail order raw food book service. If you would like some more information, then she can be contacted by email at: fresh@eclipse.co.uk And if you would like to order some vegan raw food books from her, then you should visit the Fresh Website where you will find a list of mail order books.
What's Happening in the Veganic
Garden This Month?Basil is a excellent companion plant for tomatoes and it is a good idea to sow a row of this extremely useful herb next to your tomatoes. At the end of May/beginning of June put indoor-raised runner bean plants outside (or sow seeds directly into the soil) and indoor-raised peppers can also be planted outside in a sunny bed in the south of England. However, further north, peppers should be grown on a sunny windowsill or in a green house, instead.
Sow pumpkin seeds early this month for an autumn crop of this highly nutritious vegetable and why not sow some sunflowers, too? Sunflower seed heads make excellent bird food or you can sprout the seeds and eat them yourself. If you have a small garden (or only a patio/balcony) there is now a dwarf variety of sunflower available from the Organic Gardening Catalogue, however, if you have plenty of space, then you will get a better yield of seeds if you use one of the giant sunflower varieties.
In June, make sowings of spring cabbage, carrots and further sowings of lettuce, beetroot and salad onions. Little Marvel peas, sown in June, will give a good crop of peas in the autumn.
If the ground is dry, you will probably also need to do quite a lot of watering this month, particularly when cucumbers, courgettes etc. are starting to swell up.
This Month - Mice!The house mouse (Mus musculus) is widespread throughout the whole of the British Isles and is often found living in gardens as well as in houses. It is generally a brownish-grey in colour and can be up to 95 cm in body length, with a tail of about the same size. House mice nest indoors in buildings (usually under floorboards, in wall cavities, or in roof spaces) and their nests are made of soft materials e.g. paper or cloth. However, this species can also nest outdoors in hedgerow burrows, under stones or in hay stores and the nest is then built out of shredded grass. The house mouse breeds throughout the whole year providing food is abundant and there are usually 5-6 young produced in each litter. And that's an awful lot of mice, annually! House mice will eat most forms of human food and can also do a lot of damage by contaminating food with their urine and droppings. They particularly like eating cereals, but will also eat fruit, insects, cheese, plaster and soap.
You are also likely to see the wood mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) in the veganic garden. The wood mouse is quite a large mouse (up to 110 mm) with big eyes and ears and is usually a yellowish-brown in colour. Like the house mouse, it is widespread throughout the whole of the British Isles and is mainly nocturnal. These mice make their nests out of grass and leaves and live either in underground tunnels, in tree roots, or under logs and stones. There are 4-7 young per litter and breeding again can occur throughout the whole year, if food is plentiful. Wood mice eat nuts - particularly hazels and acorns, fruit, buds and shoots, grass seed, rose hips, grain, berries, seedlings, snails, insects and earthworms.
In the veganic garden, you will sometimes find mice nesting inside your composter (personal experience!). Also be aware that mice are very fond of pea seeds and can do a lot of damage to your pea crop. In April, this year, I came across three dead mice in my garden which had obviously been killed by the neighbourhood cats. If you are having problems with mice in your garden (or in your house!) and would like to control them, without killing them, then you may be interested in the 'Live Catch Mouse Traps' which are available by mail order from the Organic Gardening Catalogue. These mouse traps catch the mice without harming them and enable you to release the mouse somewhere else without touching it. They cost £5.95 for the standard version or £8.85 for a slightly larger version which will catch field mice (voles). I am watching my peas very carefully at the moment and trying to decide whether I need to purchase one myself!
Any Queries?I think that you will find that most universities which offer biological, medical or veterinary courses will do some kind of animal research and that many universities probably still use dead animals as teaching aids on their biological courses. I personally do not know of a list of universities which do not use such experimentation. However, if you don't wish to contact each individual university yourself, then I think that it is possible that BUAV or NAVS may be able to help you further and I would suggest that you contact them at the following addresses:
Vegan Organisation Review
Other Interesting Vegan Websites.
June Book ReviewProsperity kills! Almost 70% of Americans will die from a diet-related illness: heart disease now kills half of all Americans and a further quarter die from cancer. Yet death is not inevitable. In this clearly written book Erik Marcus explains how we can make a real difference to our own health and to the health of the planet, simply by adopting a plant-based, vegan diet.
The first part of the book takes an in depth look at the health advantages of the vegan diet. Marcus shows how by following a plant-based diet we can reduce our chances of dying from heart disease or cancer and explains why it is possible to eat more plant-based food and yet weigh less! You meet heart specialist, Dr. Dean Ornish and can read all about his 'Opening Your Heart Program' - a highly effective treatment against heart disease which relies on making dietary and lifestyle changes, rather than on taking drugs. The book then goes on to take a critical look at milk - the not so perfect food and this section ends with a very interesting chapter on mad cow's disease. Part Two takes an often horrifying look at factory farming and the conditions which have to be endured by many pigs, chickens and calves and then goes on to look at how animals are slaughtered. Finally in 'Beyond The Dinner Table' the book covers issues such as world hunger and cattle ranching and concludes with a personal account of why the author decided to go vegan.
Riveting! A fascinating book, which although published in the USA, contains much that will be of interest to vegans living in other prosperous areas of the world, too. A must for every vegan's bookshelf. And meat eaters, well they need to purchase a copy urgently!
This book can be ordered directly from the McBooks Press website and is now available by mail order from The Vegan Society (UK).
