THE VEGAN NEWS
THE VEGAN NEWS
AUTUMN
2002
- Recipes
- Vegan Product Review
- Don't Miss! This Month's Article - Gardening for Wildlife (Butterflies)
- In the Veganic Garden
- Garden Pond Update
- Readers' Contributions
- Websites
- Book Review(s)
- The Wildlife Database
Autumn Recipes
Ingredients
- 1 mango, peeled and diced
- 1 apple, quartered, cored and diced
- 1 orange, peeled and segmented
- 1 banana, peeled and sliced
- About 80 g sultanas
- 3 tbsp desiccated coconut
- A sprinkling of sunflower seeds
Method
- Chop the orange segments into bite-sized pieces and remove any pips, then mix all of the prepared fruit together in a large bowl.
- Add the desiccated coconut, sultanas and sunflower seeds just before serving. Mix well.
Variation: Instead of the mango use other seasonal fruits such as peaches, grapes, strawberries or grapefruit pieces.
Serves 1 for a main meal.
- 1/4 small, red cabbage, shredded or finely chopped
- 1 medium carrot, grated
- 25 g walnuts, chopped
- 1 apple, quartered, cored and diced
- 1 orange, peeled and segmented
- Sultanas (to taste)
For the dressing:
- 1 heaped tbsp of tahini
- 3 tbsp of water
Method
- Chop the orange segments into bite-sized pieces, removing any pips, then place them in a bowl with the rest of the prepared salad ingredients.
- Mix the tahini and water together in a small cup until a smooth dressing is formed. Pour the dressing over the salad. Mix in well.
Serves 1-2
Variation: Instead of the tahini dressing use 1-2 tbsp of a ready-made vegan mayonnaise (e.g. Plamil).
Ingredients
- 2 cups of grated carrots (about 2 medium carrots)
- 1 red apple, quartered, cored and grated
- 1/2 cup (75 g) of sultanas
- 15-25 g of chopped walnuts
Method
- Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl. Enjoy!
Serves 1
Autumn Product Review
Troody Skrumptious Vegan Chocolates
Fruit and Nut Clusters
Covered with smooth dark chocolate, fruit and nut clusters have a superb, rich, mellow and creamy filling. Containing whole, organic hazelnuts and the occasional organic raisin, I thought the crunchy nuts provided an interesting contrast in texture to the smooth filling and that these chocolates really are, as their label suggests, truly scrumptious! Fruit and Nut Clusters come nicely wrapped in 100 g see-through packages, tied up with a brightly coloured ribbon and in my opinion would make the perfect small gift, Christmas stocking filler, or they could even be used as 'goody bags' for grown-ups to take home after their parties! (Updated in March 2009: This product is no longer available.)
Coconut Bombs
Also covered with an outer layer of smooth, dark chocolate, coconut bombs have a desiccated coconut filling and resemble Bounty bars in taste. However, these dome-shaped, monster-sized chocolates can be quite difficult to get your teeth into, if eaten straight from the fridge. So try to leave them to warm up for a while at room temperature - that is of course, if you can restrain yourself from eating them for that long! (Updated in March 2009: This product is no longer available.)March 2009 Update: Troody Scrumptious no longer sells the above bags of chocolates. She now produces chocolate boxes instead, containing chocolates available in the following flavours: Plain, Orange, Lemon, Smooth Almond, Smooth Hazelnut, Mint, Turkish Delight, Fruit and Nut, Coconut Ice, Chewy Peanut, Fudge, Strawberry, Cointreau, Jack Daniels, Kahlua and Tia Maria. You select your own favourite flavours to fill your box. Chocolate boxes range in size from 300g up to 750g in weight, costing from £11.25 to £26.00 depending on the box size. All box prices include postage and a gift card. If you would like to pay by cheque, then please make cheque payable to T. Middleton and send to: 3 Kelvin Place, Palmersville, Newcastle upon Tyne NE12 9TB. Payment can also be made by Internet transfer. Please contact T Middleton (E mail: middleton509@btinternet.com) for more information, if you wish to pay in this way. You can find out more about Troody Skrumptious products online.
What's Happening in the Veganic Garden this Autumn?Autumn Sowings:
Consider planting some onion sets this autumn. Radar is a good quality onion, suitable for autumn planting and can be obtained from the Organic Gardening Catalogue (Updated February 2009 - This product is no longer available - try Senshyu Yellow (ONSY) or Keepwell (ONKW). A September planting should provide you with a good crop of onions by early July of the following year. When placing your onion order, also consider ordering some beans for autumn planting. Broad beans can be sown in late October/November. Suitable varieties for an autumn sowing include Aquadulce Claudia,Super Aquadulce, Futura RZ, Masterpiece and Supersimonia. And I would also recommend sowing some field beans, as these usually overwinter well in the UK. If you have the space, then sow the whole packet! Field beans are an excellent green manure crop. Cut down the beans and dig them in before flowering, or alternatively try adding them to your compost heap, if you prefer to avoid digging. Do leave some to grow on if you can. Field beans make excellent human fodder and are much underrated as a source of human food. If you allow them to flower, then by June you should be able to pick some pods of fresh beans. Remove the beans from their pods and either boil, or preferably steam them, until tender. Leave some beans to dry on the plant, if you can. These can either be used for next year's seed, or if you have a pressure cooker, they can be cooked and used in winter stews. You will find a field bean recipe in the Spring 2002 issue.
It is not too late in the year to be thinking about winter/early spring salads either. Grumolo Verde is a type of chicory that is suitable for sowing until the end of October and corn salad can be sown outside in September to give a winter harvest. Rocket is another useful winter salad vegetable. Sow it outside until the end of September, or grow some in a cold greenhouse or even in a pot on your window sill. Mizuna can be sown under cover in September and throughout the winter and also does well in a pot on a window sill. Use it in stir fry, or to add a slight mustard flavour to your salads. Sprouts are another good source of winter salad material. Buy a sprouter and try sprouting green lentils, mustard, alfalfa, red clover and broccoli seeds on your window sill. Or grow buckwheat or sunflowers in trays of compost indoors for a good supply of salad greens. These are really cheap to produce and much more nutritious than shop-bought lettuce!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 visit their web site.
Crops Available this Autumn:
- September: Tomatoes, sweetcorn, onions, potatoes, marrows, carrots, spinach, runner beans, celery, beetroot, hazelnuts, blackberries, apples, pears, damsons and plums.
- October: Leeks, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, cauliflowers, celery, parsnips, turnips, sweetcorn, globe artichokes and apples, pears and plums.
- November: Jerusalem artichokes, Brussels sprouts, winter cabbage, parsnips, swedes, chicory, leeks, celery, kale, spinach, cauliflowers and endive.
Garden Pond Update
Well it is now about 18 months since I first created my small garden pond. You can read about how I made it from an old baby bath and how it was gradually colonised by various freshwater creatures in the Autumn 2001 issue. This report is mainly to update you on the progress that has been made in the last year. In May, I was tidying up the undergrowth near the pond, when a large frog suddenly leapt out at me. I gave a rather loud shriek of surprise and the frog (which I think got an even bigger surprise than I did!) landed in the pond, where it remained lurking under a large stone for quite some time, too frightened to attempt to get out again. I am very pleased that the frogs have found their pond at last, but unfortunately they decided not to spawn in it this spring. Perhaps it is simply too small for breeding purposes, at about 2 ft by 2 ft. But who knows, I may be luckier next year! I have seen frogs by the pond on several occasions this summer, so they are certainly making good use of it. Some are quite small, so I think they must be breeding nearby.
Meet Fred - one of my frogs!
The lady's smock (cuckooflower) has done well in the marshy area beside the pond, where it flowered in April and I am hoping that it will seed itself and spread. But as nature can be unreliable, I have taken the precaution of saving some of the seed in order to grow some new plants myself. The pond is also surrounded by meadow buttercup, which seems to do well in the damp conditions here. And I have definitely got water fleas living in the pond. Thousands of them - all swimming around like mad! They are in fact very difficult to catch, but I managed to scoop some out in a jam jar and inspect them in a good light. Water fleas (Daphnia sp.) are incredibly small, varying between 0.5 mm and 6 mm in size and so I was not able to identify them without a microscope. They swim using a pair of long antennae and most feed on planktonic algae. I have also seen quite a lot of mayfly larvae crawling around in the pond. Mayfly nymphs are fairly easy to recogise with their three tail filaments. The nymphs feed on detritus and algae; the adults do not feed at all, living only for a short time (just a few hours in some cases and maybe a few weeks in others).
Water Flea
I am keeping a close look out for damsel fly larvae, after spotting an adult damsel fly near the pond in June. Of course it may have just been looking for some mayflies or mosquitoes to eat, rather than thinking of breeding there! Water beetles continue to thrive in the pond and there are usually plenty of adult beetles dashing madly around. Sometimes I spot the occasional beetle larva as well. Water beetles are quite mobile creatures and often colonise new ponds fairly quickly. To aid the pond in its development, last year I added a bottle of water, obtained from the lake in my local park. I think this must have contained some algal spores because I now have two species of water weed, providing plant cover over about a quarter of the pond and helping to oxygenate the water. I haven't spotted any water snails, flatworms or leeches yet. It is much harder for flightless creatures like these to become established in new ponds, although they can sometimes be introduced accidentally if you add water weed to your pond. Incidentally, a good way of increasing your pond's diversity is to deliberately add a sample of mud or leaf litter, obtained from a well established pond, lake or canal. Invertebrate larvae, such as diving beetle or damsel fly larvae, can often be introduced in this way.
Readers' Contributions
The following short article has been reprinted with permission from the Spring, 2002 issue of EcoForest, a newsletter produced by The Ecoforest Garden Trust.
Why are the effects of our lifestyles on the environment so important ...? Because like the effects of what we eat, in time the effects show up directly, in the world around us. And we have to face and suffer the environmental and physical sickness and diseases we have created in ourselves, and in the world - the environment, society and the global economy.
THE IMPACTS OF YOUR LIFE Changing our diet and lifestyle is the only way to create positive health in our body, mind and spirit. Changing our lifestyles, how we live and what we do, where we direct our energy and money, is the only way to change the world, and create a more positively healthy and sustainable world. So do it!
Also, in the same way that you feel so much more healthy and alive eating in a more natural health-creating way, you also feel so much better living in a more natural, environmentally-positive way.
One of the greatest environmental impacts of your lifestyle is the food you eat - particularly where it comes from originally (where it is grown), and who you buy it from. Sorry, but organic fruit from the other side of the planet is not at all eco-friendly. Also buying organic foods and tropical fruit from supermarkets is a 'no-no' - because it supports the agro-chemical, centralised, highly processed 'food' industry. Supermarkets may have what you like in them, but they mainly sell what you wouldn't even consider food - so if you buy from them you are supporting the profits of disease and sickness.
The positive response is ideally to grow some of your own foods and/or buy from local suppliers (i.e. from organic farm shops, local organic box schemes, community supported agriculture, wholesalers and markets, etc.). Buy as little as possible from supermarkets.
Reduce your use of electrical appliances - do you really need to use a fridge or freezer?
Travel: a) how much you travel and b) your mode of transport.
Your home: make your home more efficient with good draught proofing and extra insulation; use efficient appliances for heating. Electricity (unless its from renewable resources) is the least energy efficient, because power stations are very inefficient in changing fuels to energy, and transporting electricity through the grid is also very inefficient.
Your work: think about the work you do - the travel effects, the pollution effects and energy use, and so on. Is the work you do helping to support the dominant unsustainable, environmentally damaging ways of living and working? Can you change your work so that it helps support new, environmentally positive or health-creating, wise ways of working?
You as a consumer: the addiction to buying consumer products (clothes, consumer gadgets, CDs, and so on) is ultimately as damaging to ourselves as an addiction to a food or drug. The 'buy and throw away' society is like a form of consumer bulimia - we consume, consume, consume and then throw those things up and out into the dustbin, the local charity shop or the car boot.
So most important is to stop buying things that you don't really need. Buy only things that give you good soul nutrition - things that last, that are simple and buy second hand clothes and goods. Buy things that are made of organic and natural materials, such as wood, hemp and clay. As much as you can, stop buying plastics.
Break free of the consumer lifestyle, and the lifestyle where you are trapped by where you live and what you do. Most jobs and mortgages provide us with security and shelter, yet at the same time they usually make us slaves to the system, feeling chained to our jobs and mortgages ... with little creativity, real pleasure or fulfilment in return. Gradually our lives are dripping away before our eyes, as we keep doing it for 'just another year' in the hope that somehow next year we'll feel a little more secure than the last.
But it's like your health - unless you act now, and make real changes, you are only ever adding to and building up the problems to face later in life. It's so much better to be adding to the creation of a much more healthy and fulfilling life for yourself, from this day forward and for the rest of your life.
Allow yourself to be Free To Be Human - a great book by David Edwards (Green Books), by the way. Understand that you are at the centre of an interconnected web of effects. That, quite simply, is what your life is - it is a continuous pulsing of effects that constantly build, shape and change both your inner biological, mental and spiritual world, and the outer world of the environment, the society and the economy that you are part of.
Like your heart beat pumps blood, and oxygen and/or toxins in your blood around your body to every organ and extremity, so your every thought and action pumps its effects out through the veins, organs and extremities of the global-to-local environment and economy that we are a part of.
Other Interesting Websites
The Vegan Society (UK)
An excellent site and a particularly good source of information for the those who are new to veganism, or anyone who is thinking of going vegan. You can now also shop online.
Economadic Living
Dip into the EvoluLog and read the reports on the joys of economadic living. Visit the Library of Awareness, where you will find many interesting articles on topics such as raw food, gardening and natural farming, community living and veganism and animal rights. An interesting site that is well worth checking out.
The Edible Wild Kitchen
A mine of information for anyone who is interested in edible wild plants. There are identification keys and book reviews, as well as plenty of information on topics such as cooking weeds, edible wild flowers, saving seeds and harvesting and using herbs. Plus many excellent articles on wild plants. This site would be especially useful for anyone living in the USA.
Bowbridge Publishing
A vegan publishing company. Please visit this site to obtain up-to-date information on the books currently being offered.
Food for Free by Richard Mabey (Collins, 2001).
Food for Free is a practical guide to well over a hundred plants that can be gathered in the wild and used as a source of food. Nowadays, because many of us buy our food neatly packaged in a supermarket, we are no longer able to find and confidently identify edible wild plants. However, this new revised edition of Food for Free is fully illustrated with coloured photographs to aid identification and is divided into four parts, making it easier to discover what is likely to be in season.
Many wild plants are considered to be great delicacies. So why not revive your hunter-gather instincts and go out and see what you can find? Some wild delicacies to look out for include rock samphire, sea kale, dulse, chanterelles, field mushrooms, ceps, hazelnuts and sweet chestnuts. And of course many of the wild plants mentioned in this book will grow just as well and often even more vigorously in your garden, so you could simply sow some seeds purchased from a wildflower seed merchant, such as John Chambers, for even easier gathering! ISBN 0-00-220159-3.
The Vegan Organic Grower's Guide to Beetles by Pauline Lloyd (Vegan Organic Trust, 2002).
Newly published, this eight-page information booklet describes the main types of beetles that you are likely to come across in your garden and on your allotment and lists some simple things that you can do to encourage more beneficial beetles to live on your land. Also included is information on how to construct a beetle bank.
Copies of The Vegan Organic Grower's Guide to Beetles can be obtained from the Vegan Organic Trust. Alternatively, this booklet can be purchased as part of a set of seven information sheets. Details of the other information sheets available in the series are given at the end of this month's article on Butterfly Gardening.
(Updated version now available for download as a PDF at VON's web site - February 2009)
The Ecoforest Vision by Steve Charter (2001).The Ecoforest Garden Trust aims to create a network of ecological forest gardening communities throughout the world. This 43-page information booklet provides background reading on the first ecoforest community, which was set up in southern Spain in 2000 and aims to stimulate discussion on the subject of sustainable eco-villages. This booklet would be of particular interest to anyone who is thinking of setting up a similar sort of community.
Issues covered include: land ownership, the forest garden system, raising money to buy land and to fund projects, selecting a suitable site and meeting human needs sustainably. It also looks at the more spiritual and creative aspects of living in such a community and has a useful appendix which lists some of the eco-communities already in existence.