Hastings Vegan Dining Club–Mexican!
The Hastings Vegan Dining Club got together recently for a Mexican-themed evening meal at the home of Pete and Kim. That’s the nice Kim in the group. As opposed to the other one who shall remain nameless.
We started with a chips, salsa, guacamole, green chilli pickle which we’re all home-made! And, as you can see from the above, delishiooiuiisishh. Then, we had a sweet corn chowder with sour cream, guacamole and salsa. The main course consisted of a competition as to who could make the best burrito with refried beans, green chilli, salsa, sour cream and, yes, guacamole. You were told it was a Mexican-themed evening!
The crowning glory to the evening was a FANTASTIC chocolate chilli cake with lime frosting. Within five minutes of it being presented to the already stuffed vegans …. it was gone! And judging by the look on nice Kim’s face, well, she knew it was going to be talked about for years among us in future get togethers.
In fact, we did stroll down memory lane and made a note of all the differently themed meals and dishes we’ve had: Caribbean, English cream tea, 1970s dinner, classic French, chocolate ravioli, picnic, traditional Christmas, Burmese, Thai, Korean, faux Domino pizza, Bombay fast food, Italian, Indian and Halloween Scary!
Who says there ain’t enough food for vegans to eat?
Who asks what do vegans eat?
Come to the Hastings Vegan Dining Club and find out!
Allotment Update
Yikes! The last time the Grumpy Vegan reported on the allotment he shares with one other with was July 2009! How time flies!
Work resumed on the allotment nearly two months ago. Great progress is being made. Even though Gina and Kate, two of our wonderful neighbours, have helped in previous years, they’re commit to toil in the fields is stronger this year. This is probably why we’re doing so well so far into the season!
The allotment is situated toward the end of the valley in which sits Hastings Old Town. It is situated on the side of a hill with great views over the Old Town and toward the sea. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it is exposed to wind which, when it comes off the sea in winter and throughout much of the year, is very cold. This damages the plants. Further, the soil needs to be constantly amended as it is very heavy in clay. Even more moaning to do about how the allotment is situated is that there’s no direct road access. This means that everything–and I mean everything–has to be carried or wheeled down from a nearby road to the allotment. And because we’re on the side of a hill, the ground not only slopes but the surface is not smooth as there are many little tuffets to trip over! Moan. Mooooaaan. MOAN!
Anyway, all this and much more has led us to tend toward growing vegetables which are perennial and constant croppers (e.g., rhubarb, globe artichokes), herbs (e.g., lavender, rosemary) and plant fruit bushes and trees (e.g., apple, pear, gooseberry). Last year’s crop wasn’t so good, which is maybe why it didn’t get written about much, except for the strawberries. They were exceptional! Did I say how good the strawberries were last year? So, recently, the Grumpy Vegan has been putting his back into it and carved out from the side of a hill an expanded patch for strawberries to grow in. This will surely mean this year’s crop of strawberries will be crap. Let’s wait and see, shall we?
Veg News Responds …
I am, of course, sympathetic to the circumstances which Veg News describes in its response to VegNewsGate to the challenge of producing a magazine on a limited budget. I cited earlier my experience with The Animals’ Agenda magazine. I completely understand their circumstances.
Nevertheless I find their statement explaining and justifying their use of photographs of meat and dairy dishes and representing them as vegan as unacceptable. To use such a photograph once when at the last minute a replacement is needed under the pressure of a deadline is one thing. But to make this a routine editorial practice is quite something else.
This will, for many people, question the veracity of the magazine. A tragedy that could have been avoided. And helps no one.
Further, a colleague pointed out an earlier episode in which the magazine’s editorial integrity is questioned. Again, I know what it is like to publish a magazine and incur the wrath of people who disagree with what you decide to include or not and what you say or don’t say as the case maybe. Here’s the link. Judge for yourself.
Clearly, we need magazines like Veg News. I truly hope they take the necessary steps — and be seen to be doing so — to move beyond this crisis and resume their mission to advance cruelty-free living.
VegNewsGate
Having published The Animals’ Agenda magazine (1993-2002) I know all about producing magazines on the cheap. Magazine publishing is a tough world–particularly if you’re content doesn’t lend itself to advertising and the revenue it generates. The subscriptions you pay and the cover price you fork over generally meet one-third of the production costs. The Animals’ Agenda struggled to persuade advertisers to use us although we had an extremely loyal readership. Fortunately, I also had a wonderful group of people who worked with me.
Anyway, penury brought it’s own challenges and we often managed our meagre resources with gallows humour. For example, with zero budget for photographs we were forever begging, borrowing but never stealing for publication. An oft-repeated office joke at caption-writing time was “Animals [fill in name of animal] like these were [fill in how these animals were used].” Almost invariably we didn’t have a photo of the animal featured in the article or news report. Our creativity was often challenged with publishing photographs and writing captions which were as legitimate as we could make them but never misleading or misrepresenting the text it accompanied.
This is why I’m shocked but not surprised by the revelation that Veg News is allegedly caught with publishing photos of meat dishes and passing them off (some photoshopped) to look like vegan meals. I write allegedly purposely because I didn’t do the research but you can read it for yourself here.
It will be certainly interesting to see how Veg News responds.
Even though it’s only nine years ago that The Animals’ Agenda stopped publication it’s a lifetime plus with respect to how far and fast technology has moved on to making mass communication available for large numbers of people. I wish I had today’s means then. Further, this technology is such that it is virtually impossible to do anything underhand in any way without someone somewhere finding out about it and bringing it to everyone else’s attention, thank you very much.
By the way, Lantern published two anthologies of articles from The Animals’ Agenda which are still available. Indeed, not only are they still in print but they are also (mostly) current. They are Speaking Out for Animals (True Stories About Real People Who Rescue Animals) and A Primer on Animal Rights (Leading Experts Write About Animal Cruelty and Exploitation).
By the way, Erik Marcus makes a lot of sense here about VegNewsGate.
Royal Vegans
No, before animal activists on the Web get their garlic in a bunch. No, the British Royal Family have not gone vegan. Or banned animals with circuses.
But Windsor Castle cooked up a vegan banquet, as sniffily reported in The Daily Torygraph.
“Luckily there’s none of the dreaded nut roast,” it sneered.
Hands up, vegans, who ate nut roast in the last month? No one? That’s what I thought.
But still the tired old cliched stereotypes of pathetic reporting are pulled from the feeble brains on the reactionary right. It seems the vegan banquet was cooked only because too many brands of religion with differing dietary requirements were all gathered together under one roof at one time.
Catering for nine different faith groups puts the usual dinner-party dilemma of what to give the vegetarian into perspective. The Muslims need Halal meat while the Jewish contingent have to keep kosher. The Daoists avoid red meat, while Buddhists and Sikhs are generally vegetarian. Hindus don’t eat beef or onions. Sadly the Jains couldn’t come, but at least root vegetables can stay on the menu.
So, cook vegan! Then, everyone can eat it. And no one gets hurt. Or offended. Well, almost. The Torygraph is, of course, easily offended. Anyway, being vegan works for the Grumpy Vegan. Why can’t it work for everyone all the time?
But spare a thought for Phil the Greek. No meat, eggs and dairy means, of course, no alcohol. (Not chez moi, the Grumpy Vegan adds).
There’ll be no alcohol, of course, just fruit juice and tap water, although the Duke of Edinburgh’s favourite Old Windsor Gold Ale will be on hand in case the Royal consort fancies a tipple. As Colwell says, “It’s his house. He can drink what he wants.”
Yes, of course, Phil the Greek can have whatever he wants. The Royals generally do. But even that might be changing. League Against Cruel Sports commented recently.
The rumours have it that the press team have been told that there must be no more pictures of royals engaging in bloodsports!
It’s called “Bad press.” Apparently. But don’t tell PETA. They believe there’s no such thing.
So, Phil the Greek has been “asked to give up shooting at Sandringham, Charles is being asked to give up deer stalking at Balmoral and Harry is being told that he must not go out with a gun.”
The Grumpy Vegan doesn’t mind people having guns. Just wish they use them on themselves. Starting with the Royals. And leave the rest of us who want peace to be in peace. In a Republic, to boot. With no silly weddings getting in the way of our emaciated and boring, sad and pathetic vegan lives. Let the dreary vegan life live on!
(For more on the Royals and hunting, including the soon-to-be Mrs Windsor, read this.)
