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: paulinelloyd1@btinternet.com or fill in the form provided.
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Recipe of the MonthField Bean Minted Hotpot
Source: The Vegan Diet by David Scott & Claire Golding (Rider, 1985).
Ingredients
Method
Serves 4
Field beans are very nutritious and grow well in the UK. They should be planted in November (see last issue). Dried beans should be soaked overnight and are best cooked in a pressure cooker, if you have one, as they can take quite a long time to cook. Field beans can also be eaten fresh. Remove the beans from their pods and cook them in a pan of boiling water until tender.
Spring
Product Review This dairy-free alternative to cheese is made from soya protein and contains only non-hydrogenated fats. In addition, it is cholesterol and lactose free and does not contain any animal products or genetically modified ingredients. I tested it out in sandwiches, grated it and used it as a pizza topping and also melted slices of it on toast. It could also be used to make a cheese sauce. Mature Cheddar Style Cheezly is very tasty, melts fairly well and could be used in most recipes as a replacement for dairy cheese. Look out for this product in your local health food store.
Redwood have recently brought out three new products: Feta, Nacho and a grated version of the Cheddar-Style Cheezly. The Feta is stored in jars of oil and tastes quite pleasant, but the texture reminded me more of meat than of cheese. The Nacho looks like Red Leicester cheese and also makes a good cheese substitute, although I found it rather too salty. Redwood also sell a range of meat substitutes which are ideal for sandwich fillings. For more information or samples of their products, please contact Redwood on 01536 400557 or email: info@redwoodfoods.co.uk. You can also obtain more information about their products by visiting their website.
Vanilla & Macadamia Nourishing Cream
This is a rich moisturising cream, especially suitable for dry and mature skin and for use at night. It contains macadamia nut oil and is gorgeously scented with vanilla and believe me the smell is quite addictive! It leaves the skin feeling very soft and smooth to touch. Available by mail order from Animal Aid, a 50 g pot costs just £3.40 plus postage, which is £1.50 if your order is under £5.00. To obtain a catalogue or to order this product phone: 01732 364546, or alternatively write to Animal Aid at : The Old Chapel, Bradford Street, Tonbridge, Kent, TN9 1AW. It is also possible to order online from the Animal Aid website.
What's
Happening in the Veganic Garden This Spring?March April
Well it should be getting warmer now! So make further sowings of broad beans, peas and spinach.
March is also the best time to plant out onion sets. Space the bulbs about 13 cm apart and
firm the soil around each bulb, so that it is half covered. You will need to keep a watchful
eye on the newly planted bulbs for a while, just in case they are pulled out by birds, or disturbed by
the wind. Firmly replant any bulbs that do come out. It should also be possible to make
outdoor sowings of parsnips, carrots, Brussels sprouts, turnips and lettuces this month.
And it's also a good idea to sow leeks in March as they need a long growing season. Leek seeds can
either be sown in a pot of compost and kept in a cold frame or on a window sill indoors,
or alternatively they can simply be sown straight into shallow drills outside.
In April continue to make regular sowings of parsnips, lettuces,
carrots, peas, broad beans, spinach and radishes. Plant out chitted, second early
potatoes, covering the potato shoots with polythene or a fleece when night frosts
are forecast. By the middle to the end of the month it may be warm enough to make
sowings of beetroot too, but as the young seedlings can be susceptible to frosts
I usually wait until May before sowing this vegetable. (Incidentally, it's usually possible to sow
beetroot quite thickly as the failure rate is often high.) Try sowing some land
cress (American cress) which is a
very useful, easily-grown salad green and plant out home-grown Brussels sprout plants,
if these are now large enough to go outside. Indoors: make sowings of kale and
sprouting broccoli. Tomatoes should be sown indoors (or in a greenhouse), either in late
March or in early April.
May
Around the middle of May make sowings of frost-susceptible vegetables such as runner beans, French beans, beetroot and
sweetcorn. Continue to make successional sowings of lettuce, radish, Swiss chard, perpetual spinach and turnips. May is also
a good time to sow marrows, 'ridge cucumbers' and courgettes. But don't forget that these plants require a rich soil, so add
plenty of compost and of course they also need plenty of water and sun! Kale, winter cabbage and winter cauliflowers can
be sown in a seed bed in May and it's not too late to sow more sprouting broccoli. Plant any remaining seed potatoes
before the middle of May, if you want to get a good yield and you should also plant out any remaining Brussels sprout plants.
This year, I am going to try to grow some licorice for a treat (seeds are available from Suffolk Herbs). Licorice seeds can be
sown in boxes or pots between mid-May and July and are then planted out into their final position between September and
October.
Crop Review 2001 On the whole quite a successful year cropwise. I had a wonderful crop of purple sprouting broccoli earlier in the year and crops of peas, French and broad beans and leeks also did well, as did the cucumbers, spring greens, beetroot, lettuce, celery and spinach. However, the earlier part of the summer was very dry here, in Essex and as a consequence my onion crop really suffered, the onions making very little growth at all. I also lost my tomato crop again. It seemed to be doing very well, then in August the tomatoes started to go brown and the leaves shrivelled up and within days the whole lot had to be ripped out due to wilt.
Slugs have caused little damage in my veganic garden this year, but cabbage white caterpillars have run riot on occasions, reducing some of my brassicas to mere stalks! My pots of old English lavender have certainly proved to be very attractive to the adult cabbage white butterflies, but unfortunately do not seem to have stopped them from laying eggs all over my sprouts, cabbages, broccoli and kale! However, I am pleased to report that these plants recovered well over the winter and are now supplying me with plenty of spring greens.
Organisation
Review The Shellfish Network - Shellfish Need Your Help!
Shellfish
may be killed in a number of horrible ways. They can be boiled
alive, or cut up, or have their flesh scraped out whilst still
alive. Crabs and lobsters, especially, have complex nervous
systems and research suggests that they feel pain and distress,
for example when dropped into boiling water. Distress can also
occur when animals are trapped, transported and stored. For
example if traps are lost on the seabed or are washed up on
inaccessible beaches, then any animals trapped inside can die an
agonisingly slow death. In addition, live crabs and lobsters are
often transported in densely packed containers and are stored in
tanks with their claws tied.
The Shellfish Network exists to bring this often overlooked cruelty to your attention in order to make positive changes to the lives of shellfish everywhere. If you would like more information and/or to make a donation, then please contact the Shellfish Network at the following address: Shellfish Network, Springside, Forest road, East Horsley, Surrey, KT24 5AZ. Cheques should be made payable to 'Shellfish Network'.
Other
Interesting WebsitesAn excellent site and a particularly good starting point for obtaining information for the new or intending vegan. Lots of useful information sheets available!
Sells over 300 animal and cruelty-free products. Veganstore offers a range of groceries including mock meats, engevita yeast flakes and powdered soy milk. But you can also order items of clothing, household products, footwear and vitamins all at the same time. Goods can be ordered either online or by phone.
I have already reviewed this site in an earlier issue, but as it's been updated recently it's well worth another visit. Why not pop along and find out how to grow your own cucumbers?! Best viewed with Flash 5.
This site has a fair amount to interest vegans. I especially liked the gardening section which includes information on composting and raised beds. There's also an interesting article on 'Vegan Calcium Needs' and plenty of tasty recipes too.
Offers many simple vegan recipes, interesting vegan links, a chance to submit your own recipes and to order vegan cookery books online.
Spring Book Review
Wild Flower Gardening by John Chambers (WI Books Ltd, 1989)
More and more
people are becoming interested in wild flower gardening. And with
so many species of wild flowers under threat and disappearing
from the countryside at an alarming rate, there could be no
better time to start introducing some wild flowers into your
garden than now! Wild flowers can make very attractive garden
plants and will often draw wildlife such as butterflies, bees and
birds into your garden far more efficiently than the more modern
brightly coloured F1 hybrids.
Wild flowering Gardening is the ideal book to get you started in this area, providing useful information on the 100 most suitable wildflowers to grow in your garden. You will find many old favourites listed, including violets, cowslips, primroses, foxgloves and oxeye daisies, as well as some more unusual plants that you probably hadn't even thought of growing before! Plenty of tips for cultivation are included and advice is given on what to plant in different types of habitat such as in sunny and shady borders, or in a wetland area or flowery meadow. There's also a chapter on how wild flowers can be used - for flower arranging, pressing, for fragrance, or for medicinal purposes - and a whole chapter on using wild flowers to attract wildlife into your garden. Addresses of organisations supplying wildflower seeds and plants are given at the back of the book and there are various other useful lists such as a listing of outstanding butterfly nectar plants. This book is available by mail order from the John Chambers' catalogue for £5.95, including postage. (Ref. number: 21505.) To order a copy write to: John Chambers, 15 Westleigh Road, Barton Seagrave, Kettering, Northants NN15 5AJ or phone: 01933 652562. Highly recommended.
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Copyright © Pauline Lloyd 2002