THE VEGAN NEWS THE VEGAN NEWS
The 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 MonthSource: CalciYum by David and Rachelle Bronfman. (Bromedia, 1998.)
Note: This is a very nice way of serving calcium-rich beans and greens together. I serve it hot on toast, but it can also be served cold.
Readers' Contributions By Gina Shaw BA (Hons) Health and Nuffition Consultant & Health Eduwtor
You may have heard about people eating raw food and drinking juices to detoxify themselves, but you may not know the ins and outs of why. The truth is, cooked food is considered as poison to the human body. In fact, every time we eat cooked food our white blood cells multiply to get rid of the invader! This process of white blood cell multiplication is known as digestive leucocytosis. Our bodies are not designed to eat cooked food and it has to be eliminated as quickly as possible, or else stored in adipose tissue. Human beings are frugivores and can only live healthfully on a diet primarily consisting of raw fruit, nuts and seeds and green leafy vegetables. Raw plant material is the only thing our bodies recognise as food and eating this way is the only way to achieve maximum vitality and optimum health. For many years we have been told that we must have lots of protein in our diet, or lots of calcium. And we are told, meat and animal products are our way of providing this. Actually, meat and animal products are the hardest things for the human body to digest and result in poor health, directly or indirectly. This is not only because they are cooked, but also because the human body is not designed physiologically to consume flesh foods or flesh products.This means that the consumption of this type of food results in an inevitable putrefaction and the resultant poisonous by-products play havoc with our health. All cooked foods are classed as alien to us and the only way the human body can take in nutrients is when the food we eat is whole, raw and plant. This means that anything other than that is thought of as poison and the body tries to expel it or store it away to prevent it from causing harm. A diet consisting of mainly or solely rawfood gives us ALL THE NUTRIENTS WE NEED and is all the body requires for its vital functioning. Don't be fooled by the myths! On switching to a raw food and juices diet many people have allowed their bodies to heal from life-threatening diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, etc. and have turned around the ageing process. If you would like more information about regaining your health through healthful living, please contact me, at: True Health, 8 Marston Road, Clayhall, Ilford, Essex . IG5 OLZ or telephone 0181-550 0374 (9-11.30am).
November
Product Review 
Whole Earth Organic Baked Beans
I usually make up my own baked beans as this avoids creating lots of cans to go in the dust bin. However, I tested this brand of ready-made, canned baked beans out when I was on holiday this year. They're rather nice, with a rich and juicy tomato sauce. Approved by The Soil Association, they're made from entirely organic ingredients and are lightly sweetened with apple juice and flavoured with organic sea salt and ocean kelp. And of course they don't contain any genetically modified ingredients either! Look out for Whole Earth Organic Baked Beans in your health shop or supermarket. Expect to pay from £0.64 to £0.94 for a 420g can.
Swedish Farmers Organic
Barley Flakes
These organic barley flakes are produced using traditional milling methods by Helsinki Mills in Finland. They also meet the organic standards set by The Soil Association and are suitable for vegans, containing only wholegrain organic barley flakes. Each packet contains 15 servings. I used my packet of Organic Barley Flakes to make some cinnamon porridge, but these flakes can also be used as a crunchy topping on soya yogurt, vegan ice cream or on other desserts. Look out for this product in your health food shop, or write to: Nordic Farmers Ltd, 168 Lavender Hill, Battersea, London, SW11 5TF to find your nearest supplier. I paid £1.25 for a 500g packet in my local Traders Fair World Shop.
Christmas Gifts for the Millennium!If you can't face the hassle of visiting crowded shops this Christmas, then why not do your Christmas shopping by mail order instead? Here are a few ideas!
Did you know that Animal Aid is now offering organic, animal-free champagne? Ideal for celebrating the New Millennium! Prices range from £182.00 for 12 bottles of champagne, down to £82.95 for a mixed case of 10 bottles of wine, plus two bottles of champagne. You can also purchase your Christmas cards at the same time. Visit the Animal Aid website for more information.
The Dr Hadwen Trust is offering a somewhat cheaper, animal-free Christmas pudding this year. Only £3.39 for a 375g pudding which can either be cooked conventionally or in a microwave. Plenty of Christmas cards available here too. Or why not buy a pot of Norfolk Lavender's Fragrant Gardener Intensive Hand and Nail Cream? Ideal for the veganic gardener in your life: good for non-gardeners too. Price £6.45 for a 250ml pot. (Ring: 01462 436819 to place your order or to obtain a catalogue.)
This year Hillside Animal Sanctuary is offering a Millennium Calendar with 12 sanctuary scenes for £1.95, (special Buy: 6 calendars for £9.95) as well as Christmas wrapping paper, Christmas cards, or a year 2000 pocket diary for only £2.95. Their 'Mr Snow' Tea towel would also make a nice Xmas gift (£4.50). If you would like a copy of their catalogue, then e-mail hillside@mailgate.ftech.net or telephone 01603 891227.
The Natural Collection is also offering a selection of Christmas cards, wrapping paper, vegan Christmas puddings and a vegan, sugar-free celebration fruit cake in their new catalogue. Oh and if you are looking for something different to slip into his Christmas stocking this year, how about a packet of 12 casein-free vegan condoms for £4.95? Have a safe and energetic Christmas!
New merchandise from The Vegan Society this Christmas, includes fruit-flavoured, animal-free condoms in chocolate, banana and strawberry! (£1.75 for a pack of 3.) And a snug, warm turquoise, polar fleece in medium or XL for £49.99. Visit The Vegan Society website for address details.
And finally on page 59 in the new, Year 2,000 Organic Gardening Catalogue you will find a selection of wooden animal boxes - a great present for anyone who is interested in attracting wildlife into their garden. Choose from a bat box (£9.95), hedgehog box (£34.95), frog Box (£9.95) and there's even a squirrel feeder for £9.95 and a butterfly pagoda with feeding dishes for £5.95. (Tel: 01932 253666 for a catalogue.)
You will find more Christmas gift ideas and information on vegan Christmas puddings/cakes in last December's Vegan News. Or you could dare to be different this year and skip the fattening and sugary Christmas fare altogether. Why not order a large box of organic fruit and/or vegetables instead? Organics Direct will deliver straight to your door.
Merry Christmas!
What's
Happening in the Veganic Garden This Month?The year started well with an excellent crop of curly kale, providing much-needed greens for picking throughout the winter months. In fact the kale cropped so well this year that I ended up having to freeze the surplus - I just couldn't eat it all fast enough! (See this month's kale recipe if you are wondering what to do with yours!) As regards other winter greens - unfortunately the winter cabbages didn't do quite so well this year and nearly all of them were eaten up by slugs. In March I made a sowing of the dwarf broad bean 'The Sutton'. The yield was good, although perhaps not as high as in previous years. And the blackfly, for some unknown reason, failed to attack this year, so no spraying with washing up liquid was necessary.
Both my pea crops did well. The early crop of 'Feltham First' planted in mid-February was ready by mid-June and a later crop of the variety 'Little Marvel', sown in mid-May, was ready for picking by the end of July. Very little damage by pea moth caterpillars this year. Lettuces - well, no shortage of those either. This year I tried out a new variety called 'Cocarde', an oak leaf variety which despite being munched at by armies of slugs and regularly plucked by me, thrived and a small patch provided me with all the lettuce I needed for many months. I would thoroughly recommend this variety for summer use as it's extremely vigorous and slow to bolt. It also has the advantage that leaves can be picked off when you need them, leaving the rest of the plant to continue growing. This variety is particularly good if you live alone and want a continuous supply of fresh salad leaves.
This year, for the first time, I also tried out the second early organic potato called 'Kestrel' (obtainable from The Organic Gardening Catalogue for £6.60). It gave a good yield and was not attacked by slugs, despite there being plenty of slugs around. When cooked it retains a nice firm texture and it stores well too. For some reason mine didn't flower, but I think perhaps that it's not meant too, it didn't seem to affect the crop anyway.
I had a nice crop of 'Turbo' onions this year. And I'm still eating my way through them all at the time of writing. I can just about get into my shed again now if I fight my way through the garlic and the last remaining bunches of onions!
The rhubarb (variety 'Victoria') which I planted last year, cropped very well in it's second year. This variety is rather sour in taste, but it is lovely when made into ginger and rhubarb jam, using apple juice instead of sugar. E-mail me if you would like the recipe.
After experiencing disease problems with my tomatoes last year, I decided to rest my tomato patch this summer and experiment with growing beans for drying instead. I planted half a bed of 'Coquette' - a white haricot type of bean. The yield was not awfully high (about 1lb of dried beans from a 3' square area) and it's probably necessary to plant several packets of seeds in order to make growing this bean for drying worthwhile. I was more impressed with the 'Barlotta Lingua di Fuoco' bean which I grew up my garden fence. The pods really are a very attractive red colour and the yield from this variety is somewhat better than 'Coquette's'. Like Coquette, it's a dual purpose bean and the beans can either be dried or eaten as young pods in a similar way to runner beans. The 'Annabel' French beans also did well. This variety is well worth growing because organic French beans can be quite expensive to buy in the shops. Mine were ready for eating in July from a May sowing.
The beetroot crop was also good this year, probably because of all the rain we had in August and September! The last remaining beetroots will be harvested at the end of this month and any small ones pickled in vinegar for winter use.
The Brussels sprouts are thriving! I planted extra plants to allow for slug damage. And they have all done well, suffering very little damage at all! I think I may end up with a bumper crop, but if I can't manage to eat them all myself, then someone has offered to buy some of them off me. The sprouting broccoli is enormous! It's still growing too and it looks like there will be a good crop next April. The leeks are nearly ready for picking and so far, touch wood, this years winter cabbages seem to be doing OK too.
Jerusalem artichokes, Brussels sprouts, winter cabbage, parsnips, swedes, chicory, leeks, celery, kale, spinach, cauliflowers and endive.
Your QueriesVictoria Thomas is a GCSE student who is doing a project on vegan ready-made foods. If any UK readers can help her by completing a short questionnaire, then she would love to hear from them. Please e-mail her at: Vickit22@hotmail.com if you can help.
Do you know where I can buy American cup measures? I am a new vegan and so many of the recipes I read call for cups, or more trickily still, quarter cups? Preferably mail order, as I live in a totally uncosmopolitan area.
Sent in by: Cathy Jupp, Bognor Regis, West Sussex.
Editor's Reply:
Cup measures can be difficult to find and I don't know of anyone who sells them by mail order. Recently I have seen sets of four stainless steel cups of varying sizes in both Sainsbury and Tesco supermarkets for £3.49 and I also saw some in Woolworths a while ago. Otherwise try looking for them in cookware shops e.g. in Boots. Failing that, I successfully used a small (200ml capacity) kitchen cup as a measure for many years.
SlugsThis year I've been invaded by very large slugs. And when I say large, I mean slugs that can easily measure a good 6-7 inches in length when they are fully stretched out. And boy do they eat: they don't just nibble they completely devastate! Usually I am rather free and easy about slugs. I simply plant a few more plants than I need and let the slugs have their share too. But after watching whole lettuces almost completely disappear overnight this year, I decided that drastic action needed to be taken.
Over the summer I've tried various methods of slug control. But these Superslugs seem pretty resistant to all the methods I've tried so far. First of all I used grapefruit shells, but that certainly didn't stop them. Then I tried using 'Growing Success' which incidentally isn't organic, but presents minimal risk to wildlife and pets. However, it acts in a similar way to salt and dissolves the slug and I didn't like the way the slugs contracted and writhed about, so I decided not to get any more. I was still over run with slugs in any case. Then I decided to really splash out and ordered some of the biological pest control Nemaslug from the Organic Gardening Catalogue for £12.95. Duly it arrived. And I mixed my packet of microscopic nematodes with water from my water butt, donned my wellies and caused a bit of a stir in the neighbourhood by thoroughly watering the whole garden in the rain! But all to no avail. The slugs have prospered and multiplied with abandon all summer. And I even caught two of them at it, on my lawn in broad daylight!
So what is left to try? Well there are other methods of controlling slugs available - see the Organic Gardening Catalogue to find out more. But I've spent all the money I intend to on slugs this year. So, now I just go out and roam around the garden when it's raining, gathering them all up into jam jars. When I first started doing this I was often seen taking my jam jars of slugs for walks with the intention of releasing them in far off wild places. However, I now have so many of them in my garden that I have to confess I sometimes just drown them. And usually not in beer either! My garden is full of frogs and I have at least one regular hedgehog visitor, but despite help from these creatures and despite me removing what feels like hundreds of slugs, they are showing no sign of any decline in numbers. Yet oddly enough, despite their presence, I still seem to be doing remarkedly well with my vegetables! Have any of you spotted any of them in your garden this year?
Other
Interesting Vegan WebsitesAn excellent site and a particularly good starting point for obtaining information for the new or intending vegan. You can now visit their online shop or become a member.
Well worth a visit. Click on the button and somewhere in the world a hungry person gets a meal to eat at no cost to you! The food is paid for by corporate sponsors, but only one click per day is allowed.
This site provides useful information on many kinds of soy food including: soy flour, soybeans, soymilk, tofu, miso and tempeh. You can read about the health benefits of soy here too.
Eco-Organics distributes organic fruit and vegetables and organic cotton and hemp products throughout North America.
This site sells many organically grown natural foods including: dried fruit, nuts, nut butters, rice, flour, pasta, tea, coffee and seeds for sprouting. Also has information on sprouting and sprouting equipment.
No peeking men, this one's for ladies only! Here you can find out more about the Keeper Menstrual Cup, an environmentally-friendly form of sanitary protection which is suitable for vegans. Spare your cash and spare the earth! (I've been quite impressed with mine so far.)
Vegetarianism by Bodhipaksa
(Windhorse Publications, 1999)
This highly readable little book on vegetarianism is the first in a series of books covering various aspects of living a Buddhist life. In the first chapter of the book, the author, a Buddhist, vegetarian and a qualified vet, takes us on a guided tour of a modern farm and reveals just how unpleasant life can be for many of today's farm animals. Next in 'Why are We So Beastly to Animals?' he looks at the way our relationship with animals has been shaped by Western, Christian views and then goes on to examine the contrasting Buddhist view of animals and the Buddhist ethics of non-harm, interconnectedness and metta.
Chapter 4 will be of particular interest to many vegetarians as it covers the main benefits of vegetarianism and looks at how we can all change the world for the better by adopting a vegetarian diet. And 'Did the Buddha Eat Meat?' is also a very interesting chapter which does a good job of explaining the inconsistencies in the Buddhist scriptures on this matter.
In the Introduction Bodhipaksa describes himself as a 'vegetarian'. However, later in the book he puts forward such a good case for veganism (leaving no doubt in the reader's mind that vegetarianism is but one step along the road) that I strongly suspect that he is really a vegan too.
Available from Windhorse Publications for £4.99.
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Copyright © Pauline Lloyd 1999
November
Book Review