Have Gone Vegan

the best jam I've ever tasted

the best jam I've ever tasted,
originally uploaded by Tulip Girl.

I think I'm going to have to learn how to make my own jam. I've never liked the store-bought stuff because it's just too sweet for me, but my neighbour's homemade plum, apple and pear gem was lovely. And according to him not hard to make!

a progress report of sorts

So I guess I've been vegan now for almost eight months and am happy to report that it's still going well. Once in a while someone will ask how my vegan "diet" is coming along and of course it isn't a diet as such (if it were only a diet then I imagine most vegans would have broken it by now), but a commitment and a philosophy. Some might even call it a lifestyle.  I think of it more as a personal contract or pledge that you undertake in an effort to do what you can to reduce animal suffering, and in that sense it's a powerful form of activism because I can't think of too many other causes whereby one person can have an immediate impact simply by taking themselves off the meat-eating market. And by refusing to partake in practices that are taken for granted by most, you also have the chance to make other people think about what they eat and why.

My own process of becoming vegan was both gradual and immediate. Gradual in the sense that I had already cut out most dairy products over the years (way too much mucus and congestion!), rarely ate red meat, and didn't like most of the fish options available. The switch was immediate though when I learned what factory farming actually was (the reality of it is hidden for good reason), and what animals went through for the sake of human consumption (whether in terms of food, testing, research, so-called entertainment, or any other forms), and I pretty much stopped animal consumption from one day to the next. And for me a big part of veganism is consciousness; being fully aware of what you eat, and how whatever it is that you're eating actually arrived on your plate. In a sense I think it's like the drunk driving campaigns that urge you to drink responsibly, but in this case it would be being knowledgeable about the processes involved whenever humans eat other animals and how the dairy and meat industries have drastically changed over the years.

I suppose my main hope for the future is that veganism will become as mainstream as environmentalism (I really do believe that will happen one day!), and that being animal-friendly will be seen in the same vein as being eco-friendly as the two are fundamentally linked. In large part I'm vegan because I think it's better for ALL involved: humans, other animals, AND the environment.

Hmmm, now that I've written this it reads more like a mini-treatise than a progress report, but oh well! :)

celery~navy bean~potato soup

celery, navy bean & potato soup,
originally uploaded by Tulip Girl.

This soup, even though thrown together from leftovers, was surprisingly delicious. But that's what I love about making your own soup from scratch -- it turns out differently every time! And the pot it was made in was found in one of my favourite thrift stores.

carrot and squash pie

carrot and squash pie,
originally uploaded by Tulip Girl.

Okay, I had promised in my very first post that I would be reporting failures as well as successes. Now this dish was by no means a complete failure (and actually didn't taste that bad), but I would definitely change a couple of things the next time around. Click on photo to see what I mean.

banana bread

vegan banana bread,
originally uploaded by Tulip Girl.

High time that I posted a few more food pics! Click on the Flickr photo for description. Oh, and I've decided to upload smaller pictures from now on as the bigger ones may take too much time to load for some computers, and you can see the bigger-sized version when you click anyway. Not sure if I can change older posts though.

still speaking of words

I read a fascinating article the other day in which author David Nibert articulates what I was trying to say about language in a much clearer way, and explains how even the term non-human animal is still distancing and divisive in that it accepts humans as the norm (I guess we really are the centre of our own universe!) while placing animals in the realm of other. And of course the norm is usually more valued. I also like his phrasing "humans and other animals" which is both accurate but less cumbersome, and one I'll try to adopt for myself.