Hello! For today’s instalment of Vegan Club I’ve teamed up with the lovely Alisha from Alisha Ockenden and we’ve come up with The Veggie Tag. The questions cover a bit of personal backstory and some of the practicalities of a meat-free diet. If you’re a vegan or vegetarian and would like to share your answers than please feel free!
Hello! Today I’m going to talk to you about Vegusto, a company who make meat and dairy free food. I talk about being vegan and my morals and ethics frequently on this blog as it’s such a big part of my life, but I realise I don’t often talk about what that constitutes. So, I’ve decided to start demystifying being vegan!
Woah, boring post title, but bear with me! As you may know, I follow quite a strict local/vegan/gluten-free diet in accordance with my own moral and ethical beliefs which govern every aspect of my life. (I’ve blogged about this before: here). I thought today I would share with you a standard food shop, and talk about a bit about vegan food shopping!
In no way am I intending to convert you all to a vegan lifestyle or preach about myself from the mountaintops; I’m just sharing my food shopping (the closest I’ll get to a “haul” post). It’s a lot longer than my usual posts!
Lactose-free: still often contains milk protein sourced from animals, as does anything containing “whey”.
The Vegan Society: the logo means it has been checked and approved by the Vegan Society.
Is It Vegan? is a game well-known to all vegans and allergy-sufferers. There is a LOT of grey area in many food groups, and a trusty ingredient check is what’s needed 9 times out of 10. I have singled out just a few groups which are often problematic when playing Is It Vegan?
<h5>WHERE TO SHOP:
My parents live by a river and for as long as I can remember “feeding the swans” has been a part of daily life. Swans re-use their nests each year and also teach their cygnets to find food (as opposed to the babies stay in the nest and the parents bring them food) and so generations of swans have learnt that hanging around outside our front door results in food. Over the years canadian geese and egyptian geese (as seen here) have come to join the party. I’m particularly fond of the egyptian geese; they’re more timid than the other birds and have the most beautiful plumage (which I shamelessly tried to copy in my outfit).
Swans have an image of being regal and graceful, but a hungry swan on land is anything but: they waddle clumsily, flapping, hissing and honking noisily and fighting with the local cats, dogs, geese and ducks, invariably winning. Swans are very fierce and ours actually broke a ducks wing once which resulted in an RSPCA call-out. Whilst our swans eat from your hand that’s mostly because they’re so greedy they reach out to snatch food from your hand before you can throw it on the floor. Inevitably you end up with scratches on your fingers from their beaks but I like it; all animals are wild and there’s something inherently unsettling about tame animals who eat politely from human hands. I’m a supporter of animal rights and don’t believe in pets, so I love this kind of close encounter with animals especially when it happens on a daily basis! What wildlife do you have near your house?
*Whenever I refer to “our” swans I am referring to the wild swans who my family regularly feed as their nest is in our garden. In no way do we own the swans and I am against the concept of owning an animal or a pet.
I originally wanted to call this “Denbies through the Seasons” but I’m not entirely sure my real life cynicism, sarcasm and constant irony really come through on this blog and was worried people might think I was being serious. Anyway, these photos are from Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking. I first visited back on one of the first sunny days of the year, and it was lovely to visit again and see the changing colours of the leaves against the perennially golden fields.
If things look a little different, I’m trying out my new camera lens! This lens will take some getting used to as it has an incredibly shallow depth of field which is great for portraits as it focuses on one subject (i.e. notice how blurry and undefined the backgrounds are in the photos of me), but I do like taking shots that show detailed tableaus and this lens is not great for that (i.e. the banana sign is way clearer than the others, where as in previous posts those kind of flat detailed shots are very clear as I’m using my other lens – like this one).
I’m wearing my newish Orla Kiely coat (!!!) which was 65% off in their sample sale and then a further 35% off the marked sample sale price when I got to the till (isn’t that the best feeling ever?) and my new shoes which were £6 from New Look in the sale. One of the many perks of having massive feet is your size is always left over in the sales. I love mustard (both as a colour and a condiment) and have wanted a coat in mustard and gold for such a long time, so it was like a dream present to myself. Does anybody else have dream items in their mind which rarely seem to actually exist?
P.S. I’m going to be shutting down my Raccoon Circus Facebook page soon so please follow me here or here instead and I recently signed up to both LookBook and Pinterest, so you use those sites do let me know! 
Coat – Orla Kiely (sample sale), shoes – New Look (sale), dress – Miss Patina (sale), bag – ModCloth (gift), leggings – Tesco, socks – Monki
Happy World Vegetarian Day! I’ve been requested to post about my eating habits before and today is the perfect opportunity to tell you about my weird diet, which is sort of loca-glegan (locavore, gluten-free, vegan). I want to make the point now that this may seem like a preachy post but presumably you have a passing interest in me to have arrived on the blog.
I’ve cut down this post a LOT as I was originally elaborating on my moral and ethical views and the views I take on animal rights in general. Instead I’ve focused on what I eat, why, and common arguments people present to me. My views apply to more than just food (I apply the same principles below to clothes, books etc) but I’ve tried to focus on the food to keep the post from being 7 pages long!
Firstly to clarify what I do not eat: I do not eat meat, eggs, dairy, soya, gluten, wheat, or some imported goods.*
WHY DO I AVOID THESE ITEMS?
Moral ethics: I personally feel like humans, as the most intelligent species, have a duty to work out a way we can live in this beautiful and fragile ecosystem without destroying, or even disturbing, other species and the environment. The idea that because we are the most intelligent species we are entitled to use other species and the environment for pleasure and entertainment is, to me, like saying the biggest and strongest kid in the class is entitled to beat up all the other kids for pleasure and entertainment. That’s not a view I want to support or a world in which I want to be involved. One recent moral dilemma posed by meat which you may have missed is that scientists are very close to creating genetically modified animals who can’t feel pain. I don’t want to be part of or support an industry where this is a justifiable means to an end.
Environmental impact: Animal products and meat (aka, dead animals) obviously rot and have to be shipped in mad conditions across the world. Weirdly money plays a huge part; for example, in Japan, people are willing to pay more for authentic welsh lamb. All the lamb harvested in Wales has to be flown in huge freezer containers (massive use of energy both keeping the meat fresh and flying the plane, emitting fossil fuels) to Japan, whilst to meet demand in Wales (now free of lamb), cheaper lamb meat from New Zealand is flown in again using huge amounts of energy to keep the meat fresh and fly the plane. Transportation of meat in general is hugely detrimental to the environment as it has to be shipped so quickly (nearly always using fossil fuels) before it rots.
Huge amounts of grain, soy and water resources are given over to feed livestock in the meat, dairy and egg industry not to mention the huge land are used for livestock grazing (over 80% of agricultural land in the US). I think we can agree that’s a huge waste of natural resources.
Eggs/dairy: Just for a moment imagine a female human being kept constantly pregnant, removed from her offspring and force-fed hormones. To me it is gross and unnatural. These creatures end up exhausted, depressed and physically worn out. The quality of the milk is compromised and the animals are usually killed between the ages of 3-5 (in the wild cows have been recorded up to 30 years of age). Male chicks and calfs are killed instantly (usually in front of their mothers) as it’s costly to keep them and they won’t grow up to produce eggs or milk of their own. (Dairy cows are never used for meat or leather meaning that “waste” occurs in all industries). All the above practises occur in both free-range produce and battery-farmed produce. Organic produce is only sometimes free of hormones and the killing of male babies occurs there as well.
Meat: I wouldn’t eat a cat, I wouldn’t eat a swan, I wouldn’t eat a duck, a human, an elephant, a cow, a tiger, a fish. It is madness to me that anyone owning a pet can still eat meat I just can’t differentiate between species like that. Seriously, if you wouldn’t eat a horse how can you justify eating a cow?
World hunger: If we redistributed the resources to humans and also had 80% more space for growing vegetables and crops just imagine how much more food there would be! It is madness. Additionally, nearly half of the grain harvested globally is used to feed livestock (who take up over 40% of land globally). There have been numerous studies showing that a global adoption of veganism would produce a model where world hunger could be completely abolished.
My own allergies: I had a lot of problems with my voice beginning about two years ago and it became apparent that I am slightly allergic to both gluten, wheat and cows milk. I’m also slightly allergic to soya, which is annoying as tofu traditionally forms a large part of a vegan diet. I try not to have tofu more than once a week and never have straight soya chunks or soya milk.
COMMON ARGUMENTS/QUESTIONS:
Don’t humans need protein to live? That’s true, but we do not need animal protein to live. In fact many prominent dieticians and physicians advocate a plant-based diet.
Isn’t it unhealthy? There have been multiple studies into a vegan diet, all of which have concluded that properly planned vegan diets are actually more healthy. In the USA it’s often one of the first things to be prescribed for all kinds of health problems. We live longer, have lower BMIs, higher physical fitness, lower cholesterol, fewer cases of diabetes, heart disease, colon cancer and prostate cancer and lower blood pressure.
Isn’t it expensive? No! Go into any restaurant: I guarantee the veggie option is cheaper than the meat one (your veggie friends will testify to this). Also, with home shopping, removing anything which is from a dead animal and therefore rots mean food keeps a lot longer; vegetables have a longer shelf life than cheese and meat, and ingredients such as rice and lentils last for AGES.
It’s just for teenage girls and ageing hippies. Well I’m essentially both those things, but these people aren’t.
I saw a documentary about meat, yeah it is gross isn’t it. But then I got drunk and wanted a kebab/I went veggie for a bit but I love McDonalds too much! People say this kind of thing to me all the time! I can’t help but get frustrated what do you want me to respond with? “Have more commitment”? I’m not going to be rude!
But how is you, one person, being vegan going to change anything? My Dad is fond of this one. He frequently tells me that me being vegan isn’t going to change the country. True. But you have to be the change you WANT to see. If me being vegan makes just one person think about it and become vegan, that’s double the number there was if I hadn’t done anything.
Isn’t it really hard to cut all that out? It’s not as hard as you might think if you cut things out bit by bit. The first time I attempted being vegan I just chopped out everything I ate and that was really difficult. Cutting out certain food groups bit by bit is easier and finding alternatives you like as you go along is far more manageable. Also, find other veggies or vegans to chat too as they will have encountered it all before. You can e-mail me if you like!
You’re making it hard for anybody to cook for you. Ah, guilt-tripping. I get this ALL THE TIME and I never, ever, ever expect anybody to cook for me or cater to me. If I’m going to a dinner party or a barbecue or anything I will ALWAYS offer to bring my own food. Since my red-meat free childhood (when every birthday party seemed to be a minefield of pepperoni pizza and sausage rolls) I’ve learnt how easy it is to say “It’s ok, I’m not hungry right now thanks” which spares the guilt of the host and doesn’t cause a fuss.
The main problem with living in the UK is that the UK is obsessed with wheat, dairy and meat. Vegans fare better in nearly every other country for example, in Indian cuisine (lots of lentils, chick peas, spinach, potatoes, rice), South-East Asian cuisine (rice, vegetables, wheat noodles – no good for me but vegans are ok, miso, tofu), Arabic cuisine (chickpeas, tahini, aubergines, peanuts, flat breads), Mexican (beans, rice, corn bread, vegetables) etc etc. The UK, Italy and France seem to be the worst places to eat because so much of the speciality involves, cheese, wheat, dairy and meat.
When I first went vegan it required lots of checking of labels as “dried milk whey”, “lactose”, “egg white”, “dairy solids”, “soy solids”, “barley”, “gluten solids”, “wheat flour” etc are all hidden in the most unlikely of foodstuffs. Additionally lots of beer and wine is brewed using isinglass (fish bladder) which apart from being gross is obviously not vegan. I now have a massive list of places I can eat and recipes I can cook particularly based around the cuisines mentioned above. (If you’d be interested in some recipes or a restaurant guide then let me know!)
Being allergic to soya, wheat and gluten doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to follow a vegan diet but it is very hard and whenever I get sick or am travelling and not cooking for myself I tend to fluctuate a bit with soya, wheat and gluten (if I’m not near a performance) or occasionally goats milk as described above. To clarify: vegans don’t eat animal products (meat, dairy, eggs) but are fine with wheat, gluten and soya. I’ve not met anybody following the exact same diet as me, but since following my strange diet plan I’ve found the actress Zooey Deschanel who has the same problem of being vegan and allergic to many food groups.
I hope you found this post interesting and if not, then don’t fear we shall return to sparkly shoes and animal-print dresses in the next post! If you’d like to find out more please feel free to drop me an e-mail, leave a comment or have a click through some of these: A report from The Guardian, The Vegan Society, a guide on going Vegetarian or Vegan from PETA and this interesting documentary on BBC R4 about Rethinking Veganism and you can follow me on twitter/bloglovin/facebook.
*I used to be militant in avoiding anything imported and but it is incredibly hard to sustain when applying this philosophy to every item you encounter, so I now mostly try with food and luxury items (clothes, home decor etc). The technical term for this foodwise is locavore and I would say I mostly adhere to local things wherever I can especially with food, vegetables. I also never knowingly buy new clothing that’s been imported (goodbye, high street) because I don’t want to contribute to the demand for importing clothes, but if it’s in a charity shop for example then I’m not directly contributing to importing those items and I feel ok about that.
Hello! I have just got back from holiday so apologies if you were wondering where regular posts had gone! I tend to blog about things a day or two after they happen; I know some bloggers save photos up for weeks but I find it feels really irrelevant to do so. Something else is bound to happen and I’d rather live in the moment! However, these photos deserved to go up as I keep promising more food posts about my strange diet.
These are actually at Camden “Night Market”: essentially just Camden Market open a bit later on a Thursday, with a slight variation on stalls and a Backyard Cinema residency (including an amazing screening of one of my favourite film, Almost Famous). I don’t follow any listings or event mail outs because in my experience anything advertised or listed as “the place to be” is never the place to be (also who has the time to trawl through all the events in London?!), but presumably Night Market was quite heavily promoted as it was heaving!
So, FOOD. I’m completely obsessed with Chin Chin Labs as you can tell from my hilarious ice-cream face; the staff always have the best recommendations and flavours change every week. I was sampling Walnut Whip ice-cream with peanut brittle in the above photos. Later on we “shared” Dutch Pancakes from this adorable stall I’ve not seen before. Fresh strawberries and warm baked goods is so good! I’ve not had such tiny pancakes before; they were almost like waffles in texture. I also left with a massive bag from Cupcakes and Shhht who make the best crumbly cookies (treat breakfast).
P.S. I’m wearing the mythical cardigan of the sub header and also this new skirt – it doesn’t go but it arrived in the post this morning and I whipped off my other skirt and threw it on. As if I have the time or inclination to change clothes when I’m already wearing them! skirt – Modcloth, gift. Spiked lion cuff – Stella & Dot Limited Edition (similar), gift.
Today I’m going to share Ile Aux Cerfs and Ilot Mangenie, two beautiful islands just off the east coast of Mauritius and about a ten minute boat ride from where we stayed. Mauritius itself is a very small island and these neighbouring islands are about the size of one or two football pitches.We spent the most time on Iles Aux Cerfs as Le Touessrok has a boathouse there offering various activities for free. We tried out kayaks and pedal boats and explored the mangroves, trying to catch a glimpse of the monkeys. We also took a trip by speedboat to visit a waterfall. On the way we passed lots of colourful houses and a tree filled with sleeping Mauritian bats. The bats are endangered and theres been a lot of conservation efforts to increase the population so it was amazing to see them in their natural habitat.
We stopped on Ilot Mangenie for lunch with friends; it was completely idyllic. The dogs were strays who were hoping for scraps of food; you can see James is frowning at one rather persistent canine under the table but all in all they were very well-behaved, sitting patiently next to our table. There are over 400,000 stray dogs and they all look pretty similar as you can tell from the two I photographed. Strange to think they might all be members of the same family. 
James doing his best Hollister model impression.
TAPE PARADE 