THE
VEGAN NEWS
THE
VEGAN NEWS
OCTOBER
1998
In This Month's Issue:
- Recipes
- Vegan Product Review
- Your Comments!
- In The Veganic Garden
- Vegan Websites
- Book Review
- The Wildlife Database
Recipe of The Month
Chickpea and Apricot Pilaff
- 6 oz (175 g) easy cook, American, long grain & wild rice
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 5-6 baby onions, cut in half (or one medium onion, peeled and cut into wedges)
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped finely
- 1 medium carrot, peeled and diced
- 1 medium potato, peeled and diced
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 3/4 pint (475 ml) boiling water
- 8 oz (225 g) of cooked chickpeas, or a 15 oz can
- 3 oz (80g) apricots (unsulphured if possible) chopped into small pieces
- 2 tbsp chopped parsley (optional)
Method
Recipe Serves 2-3
- Fry the onion, garlic, carrot and potato in the oil until lightly browned. About 5-10 minutes.
- Add the rice, cinnamon and cumin and stir fry for 1 minute.
- Pour in the boiling water. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer, covered for 15 minutes.
- Add the chickpeas, parsley and apricots to the pan and cook for a further 10-15 minutes or until the rice is soft and the chickpeas are well heated. Stir frequently to prevent sticking.
Note: This dish is nice served with a tomato salad and has always been my son's favourite dinner.
I think that I obtained this recipe from a woman's magazine, but I have been cooking this dish for so long that I can't remember exactly where it came from originally!
(Three hemp oil products were reviewed here. However, these listings have now been removed as these products are no longer available. Information updated in March 2009)
Your Comments!
This is an excellent site! In searching the web for vegan information I find that there is a lot in Britain. I grew up on a farm in the USA and now wish people could change their minds and see a betterment in world view. Thank you for this site and the encouragement it brings to a small faction here in the US.
What's Happening in the Veganic Garden This Month?
1998 Crop Review
I hope that you have all had a successful gardening year. Despite a rather cool summer, down here in the south of England, I still managed to obtain a fairly good supply of fresh fruit and vegetables from my small garden plot which now consists of seven raised beds.Crops which did particularly well this year included the lettuces which seemed to like the very wet spell early in the summer, the beetroot which obviously prefers cooler, damper conditions (I often wondered why beetroots grow so much bigger in Scotland!) and my second year strawberries which fruited well throughout the whole summer and were still fruiting in early September until it turned rather cold. When very ripe this variety of strawberry (Temptation F1) tastes lovely and it's well worth the effort of growing your own plants, if you have the time, as it's far cheaper than purchasing ready-grown plants. One packet of seeds (£2.63 from the Organic Gardening Catalogue - still available in the 2009 catalogue) provided me with about 40 plants.
Other crops which did well this year included the broad beans which flourished despite being attacked by black fly and a rust mould and I was able to freeze extra beans which lasted for most of the summer. And I also had a very good crop of land cress. This easy-to-grow crop adds a nice peppery zing to salads. I tested out the watercress which grew quite well in a bucket of moist soil, but unfortunately it was rapidly devoured by caterpillars. I will retest it again next year with the rest of the packet of seeds, but if I have a similar problem then I will grow only landcress in future as it doesn't require as much water. This year I also tried to grow some potatoes for the first time and was quite pleased with the results. The potatoes suffered a small amount of slug damage, but tasted lovely and next year I intend to grow a bigger crop as potatoes do not seem to require a lot of attention and are easily grown.
Crops which were not so successful this year included my early peas which were rapidly eaten down to ground level by slugs and snails, although they made a miraculous recovery when their nibbled stems were covered with plastic bottles and finally gave a reasonable crop. A second sowing of later peas, however, was more successful and produced a good crop. My entire crop of runner beans was also gobbled up by hungry slugs and snails, this summer, although I did manage to grow a small tub of beans which provided me with a crop of very late beans, in September. My onions, for some reason, did not grow very large this year, but fortunately I had planted extra onion sets and so ended up with quite a large crop altogether. Incidentally, small onions are very good pickled or are ideal for use in this month's recipe - so don't throw them away!
The tomatoes were a complete disaster and I think the cold, damp conditions in June had a lot to do with their failure to thrive. The plants grew very rapidly when planted outside and quickly became large, sturdy and healthy plants, but in early August their leaves suddenly started to shrivel up, the stems and tomatoes went brown and within days the crop was completely devasted and as I usually get an excellent crop of tomatoes this was quite a blow after all my hard work. (I think that the problem was probably caused by some form of wilt or rot.) The peppers also suffered in the cool conditions this summer and are running considerably late, only starting to fruit in early September. Fortunately some of them are in containers and can be brought indoors when it gets too frosty for them to be outside.
And finally, as I write this, the kale is looking good, but then who knows - it only takes one very hungry caterpillar or one giant slug!
October Gardening Jobs
Plant out spring cabbages (e.g. Offenham) and winter lettuces (e.g. Winter Density, Imperial Winter) this month. Tidy up your raised beds as soon as crops have finished: do not leave piles of garden debris lying around as this will attract pests. Spare compost can be placed on the surface of your raised beds and if you have a good supply of autumn leaves then consider turning them into leafmould. Lift root crops such as beetroot and twist off the leaves. Beetroot can be stored in layers in boxes of dry soil, perhaps in a garden shed or alternatively small beetroots can be cooked and pickled for winter use. Tidy up runner beans as soon as they have finished cropping and don't forget to save some seeds for next year. And, if you need more information on how to make new raised beds or need to know about other jobs which can be done in the veganic garden in October, then visit The October 1997 Issue.
Seed Sowing
A bit late in the year to be sowing most types of seeds, but Field Beans (Vicia faba) can be sown to produce a nitrogen-rich green manure crop. Field beans are winter hardy and can be sown from September-November. Seeds can be obtained from the Organic Gardening Catalogue.
Crops to Harvest This Month
Sweetcorn, globe artichokes, beetroot, cabbage, possibly runner beans.
The Vegan Society
Other Interesting Vegan Websites
An excellent site and a particularly good starting point for obtaining information for the new or intending vegan. You can now visit their online Shop.International Vegetarian Union
A nice collection of vegetarian pages which are available in about 20 different languages. This site has interesting articles and an excellent collection of multilingual, vegan recipes collected from all over the world.Manna Vegetarian Restaurant
More than a commercial restaurant site, this site has an interesting set of links and the 'resource' page has links to an expanding collection of articles.The Village Bakery
A restaurant/bakeshop (in Melmerby, Cumbria) which offers an on-line mail order service. All of their organic products are suitable for vegetarians and many are also vegan, sometimes being made with fairly traded ingredients. So, if you are wondering where you can buy vegan mincepies or an xmas pudding, then try visiting this site.BumbleBar
BumbleBar is a wholesome, organic, vegan, energy bar, made from peanuts, flax and sesame seeds and sweetened with brown rice syrup and cane juice. Find out more about it here! (USA)
October Book ReviewBetter Than Peanut Butter & Jelly by Wendy Muldawer & Marty Mattare. (McBooks Press.) $14.95.
Containing over 150 nutritious, sugar-free and low-fat recipes, this kid-tested vegetarian cookbook offers a good selection of quickly-cooked meals and is ideal for the busy vegetarian parent. I would say that about two-thirds of the recipes are vegan and as all the recipes are clearly coded at the top of each page, it's very easy to pick out the vegan-friendly recipes. This cookbook is full of wonderful ideas for healthy vegetarian breakfasts, soups, salads, main meals, packed lunches, snacks, desserts and children's party food and I'm sure that as well as being popular with vegan kids many of these recipes will also appeal to adult taste buds, too. A few of the recipes perhaps use rather too many cans for my liking, however, home-cooked beans (or fresh tomatoes) could easily be substituted in many of the recipes, if you're trying to reduce the amount of waste which ends up in your dustbin. (New, revised edition is available from McBooks Press for $16.95. Information updated in March 2009)
The Vegan Travel Guide (The Vegan Society)This handy, pocket-sized book contains up-to-the minute information on vegan-friendly accommodation, pubs, winebars, restaurants, tea rooms and takeaways in the UK and Southern Ireland. Ideal for vegans, vegetarians or anybody who is dairy intolerant, places are listed alphabetically by county and the clear coding system makes it easy to identify, for example, which establishments cater well for children or provide easy access for the disabled. The final chapter deals with special interest holidays and covers all sorts of holidays - from retreats if you simply want to unwind, to more adventurous activity holidays involving climbing or cycling. At the back of the book you will also find some useful contact addresses and info on vegan events and vegan tour operators. Pack a copy of this book useful little book in your suitcase whenever you travel about.
(Sorry, this book is no longer available - Information updated in March 2009.)
October Product Review