Vegtastic!

There’s this idea that only ladies:

a) are vegan

b) blog about food.

Au contraire, mon cherie.

There are tons of manly dudes who follow a plant-based lifestyle and record the contents of their stomach (or brains) online, though not enough that I don’t get excited when I find an awesome new blog and it turns out the author has a Y chromosome.

It’s kinda like being the one guy in that cross-referencd Women’s Studies/ English class in college: you get some extra attention from your peers.

Someone in the Vida Vegan Con Facebook group commented before the event on the dearth of male attendees, so I’m clearly not the only one who’s noticed.

I don’t intend for this post to start any gender wars or be construed as sexist, but I do want all of the men out there who think they can’t be vegan (or blog about it) because of the unfortunate real men eat meat stereotype to think again. It’s the “Women in tech” of vegan food.

So, I made a list, posted in the order that Word sorted their URLs:

• Bryant’s Blog
• The Crabby Vegan
• Fat Gay Vegan
• Further Dispatches
• Herbivoracious (updated: *lacto-ovo*, but does have many good vegan recipes)
• Eating with the academic & the dilettante
• Nutrition Facts
• Play with my Food
• Suicide Food
• The Laughing Vegan
• The Nail That Sticks Up
• The Socially-Awkward Vegan
• The Vegan Zombie
• True Love Health
• Grant Butler (okay, not really a blog, but…)
• Until We Eat Again
• Vegan Black Metal Chef (vlogging counts, right?)
• Vegan Dad
• Ramblings of a Vegan Man
• Vegan Valor
• Disease Proof
• Ari Solomon
• The Laziest Vegans in the World
• No Meat Athlete
• Dr. Barnard’s Blog
• Ryan Patey (who puts out T.O.F.U.!)
• The Sexy Vegan (yeah, vlogging counts.)
• Ready for Plan B
• The Discerning Brute
• Vegan Vagrant

The vegan blogosphere may seem like it’s one big estrogen zone, but these plant-loving gentlemen prove that it’s anything other than, uhh, whatever is the opposite of a sausage fest. (A donut fest? A bagel fest? A salad fest? I mean, if stock photography proves anything, it’s that women love salad.)

I’m probably missing someone, someone really important, so let me know if there’s some vegan guy that you read that I don’t.

image by John C Abell via Creative Commons

One of the greatest aspects of Northern California life is the variety of fruit that grows locally.

Eating a RawDaddy cone at the Palo Alto farmers market is also pretty neat.

As is House Kombucha — tarter than the typical kombucha variety. I’ll admit that I bought it at Country Sun mainly for the bottle.

Soup and salad at Fresh Choice. Best salad bar experience in ages — this may merit a whole post at a later date. TBD.

Trail mix bar at the Los Altos Whole Foods: so fun. so unnecessary.

It was great to (help) make my parents and brother a vegan* dinner: lentil shepherd’s pie, apple-roasted brussel sprouts, and tossed salad with homemade vinaigrette.

*Not pictured: chicken noodle soup. I had no hand in that.

Roasting pumpkin seeds: ur doin it wrong.

Guess who’s getting a gift certificate to Penzey’s for Christmas? My parents! Anyone have spices older than 18 years in their pantry?

Back to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.

Are blood and guts and gore required to grow happy little plants? Is that tomato not actually vegan?

An article from Food Renegade argues that animal byproducts are integral to healthy soil — I dislike the defensive, patronizing tone the author takes in this article, but, hey, she’s entitled to her opinion.

She writes:

Many turn to veganism in an attempt to “do no harm.” A lovely, poetic, beautiful idea.  Those who embrace it through veganism want their life to be from that which is freely given; they don’t want to know, deep down, that their own place in this world came at the cost of another sacred life.

Yet it does. All life does. Let’s begin by looking at the root of all life — the soil.

Then the author goes on to say that soil is alive.

Indeed, one tablespoon of soil contains millions of tiny organisms hailing from thousands of different species of animal. And that living soil feeds on death.

And what is this “death”? The author quotes from Lierre Keith’s “compassionate and poignant” book, The Vegetarian Myth:

Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium — NPK — is the Triple Goddess of gardeners, the Troika of elements that rule plant growth. What did soil and plants eat and where would I get those substances? I hadn’t learned the phrase “closed-loop system,” but that was what I was after. Nitrogen was the big one. There are plants that fix nitrogen. Wasn’t that enough for my garden? Couldn’t it be? I begged. But I was begging a million living creatures who had organized themselves into mutual dependence millions of years ago. They had no use for my ethical anguish. No nitrogen-fixing plant could make up for all the nutrients I was taking out. The soil wanted manure. Worse, it wanted the inconceivable: blood and bones.

I experienced a fit of cognitive dissonance upon reading. Does my lifestyle lead to barren land? Is there really no way to grow healthy crops without bone meal or artificial fertilizers?

Not so — plants can be enough for a garden.

Julia at Snarky Vegan recently started a Facebook page called Vegan Tomato, a resource for veganic (vegan + organic) gardening: gardening without the use of animal or chemical substances or pesticides. She coindidentally tweeted a link to the page the morning after my reading the article, the rusty gears in my head still working it out.

I asked her on Twitter what she thought of the article. She essentially summed it up as: “just another way for some omnivore to validate her life.”

Julia also said, “[the author] could have benefited from at least some Master Gardener training before she tackled the nutrient angle.”

Master Gardener? Googled!

Washington State University offers a Master Gardening program, and lead me to more information.

According to one site,

The simplest way to distinguish between compost and fertilizer is to remember this: Compost feeds the soil and fertilizer feeds the plants.

Isn’t feeding the soil the argument in the article? Oh, I do believe it is.

WSU’s Stewardship Gardening site says of compost,

When plants (and the animals that eat them) die, they become raw materials for the composting or decay process. Microorganisms, fungi, insects, worms, mites, and other creatures convert the carbon from dead plants into energy for their own growth, releasing carbon dioxide into the air. Similarly, they recycle the nutrients from the decaying plants into their own bodies and eventually back into the soil. Other plants and microorganisms use the carbon and nutrients released by the composting process, and the cycle begins again.

Note that plants (both on their own and via animals) are the source of nutrients. WSU continues (emphasis mine),

Compost additives such as blood meal and bone meal are simply organic fertilizers; they do not contribute anything magic to the compost pile.

Take a look at WSU’s Compost Raw Materials Table:

Energy materials provide nitrogen and high-energy carbon required for microbes to grow quickly, bulking agents help aerate the compost, and balanced raw materials help compost piles achieved the desired hot temperature for optimal composting. Though animal products are on the list, there are also viable plant sources.

Therefore, blood and guts are not integral to growing vegetables. We vegans can continue to pursue our “”lovely, poetic, beautiful idea,” which I do agree is lovely and beautiful.

Unfortunately, however, there are no veganic farms in Washington State, but hopefully that will change soon.

image by mr.beutel via Creative Commons.

Or just poorly targeted advertising?

Having just pounded half a jar of garlic-stuffed olives (so addicting… vampires beware), I noticed that they contained lactic acid.

Now, ‘lactic’ sounds awfully similar to ‘lactose,’ which is ‘a disaccharide sugar that is found most notably in milk’ (thanks, Wikipedia!). Plus, isn’t lactic acid build-up the explanation behind sore muscles– e.g., sore flesh? Is it possible that my beloved olives are not vegan?

I Googled it.

The Vegetarian Resource Group has an excellent list of frequently-asked questions about food ingredients, which confirmed that foods made with lactic acid are indeed vegan:

If it’s lactate or lactic acid, it’s not from dairy (exception – sterol lactate due to the stearic acid). “Lac” ingredients are usually produced by a fermentation process using cornstarch or beet sugar. Lactose is always from dairy.

So, you can eat lactic acid guilt free. Unless it comes from someone’s muscles. Which is gross on so many levels.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I placed the small, wrinkled, orange pepper on the scale at the farmer’s market. The vendor’s eyes widened.

“You know what that is, right?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said, “it’s hot.”

“It’s not just hot– it’s the hottest pepper in the world.”

The ghost chile– Bhut jolokia.

“I know,” I replied with confidence.

I don’t know about you, but when I see exotic vegetables, I need to try them. And I needed to try this.

Impressed with my bravado/stupidity, the man threw it in for free, and insisted that I report back to him the following week.

Back in my kitchen, I chopped it finely, being careful not to let any of the flesh touch my skin. I’ve been burned by lesser peppers, and took no chances.

The single chile provided a substantial– yet tolerable– heat to a large pot of vegetable and bean stew.

Seriously: it was a massive stew– a whole cauliflower, an onion 5 Japanese eggplant, 3 cups of zucchini, 2 ears of corn, and a bunch of beans. And one pepper was all it took to turn the whole thing caliente.

So, if you want to add tons of spice with minimal chopping effort and pretend to be super bad ass by adding it to a large portion of food, or actually be badass and add it to a small portion of food, I highly recommend the ghost chile.

Take vegan cooking to the next level– just don’t eat it whole.

Image by xaimex

David and I adopted our little guy (the one on the left) from Purrfect Pals in June. We’re now on their mailing list, which for once I don’t mind, as it’s an organization I fully support: a no-kill animal shelter that puts the cats’ needs first.

I was pleased to note that Purrfect Pals is offering only vegetarian or vegan meal options at this weekend’s Black Cat Ball. It’s refreshing to see an organization that supports cats supporting all animals as well (e.g. not hosting a BBQ to raise money).

We can’t attend, but if you’re going, have fun!