Yippee, an ice storm!

By Monica on December 11th, 2007

Yippee, another ice storm! Here are a couple of shots I took on my way down the driveway this morning:

Birch tree in the front yard:

One of my poor little apple trees:

Now for something a little sunnier! A couple of weeks ago I spotted the “V word” on the front page of our local paper. There it was, staring at me like a beacon: “VEGAN”, on the front page. I think my heart skipped a beat. Inside, I was amazed to find an article about accepting the month long vegan challenge in November. Even further, Isa was pictured WITH A RECIPE. (Granted, it was next to a Turducken recipe, but this was a victory!)

I sent the author an email almost immediately, hardly able to contain my excitement about veganism in the local newspaper. And a few weeks later, here is the follow up article with mention to my little food blog. The best part is that a few local veg*ns have contacted me, terribly excited that they’re not alone out here in the sticks. Woo!

Ok, I’ll put my superstar status (har) aside and move onto the food. I wanted to give my vet a little gift of some sort for taking such amazing care of Sampson. (I’m so lucky to have the most amazing holistic vet on the planet, I drive 2 hours to get to her office and would drive 2 more!) Fruit baskets and the like seemed cliche, so I opted for Lindy Loo’s snowman testicles and a selection of home canned goods from my cold cellar.

Below, starting on the bottom left, we have: Apple Cranberry Relish, Brandied Pears, Blueberry Jam, Pear Sauce, Organic Apple Sauce. From the top left: Cinnamon Red Hot Apple Wedges, and Blackberry Rhubarb Jam. This is typically what I give everyone in my family for Christmas and it always goes over well, so I hope she and her staff enjoy it. Does anyone else can stuff? I love it!

Lastly, I am going to throw in a recipe that is perfect for days when you shivering and holed up inside because everything is covered in 1/4″ of ice. It relies heavily on vegan convenience foods, but frankly it’s so good that I don’t care. I made this as an omni and dare I say, it’s even better vegan.

Cheezy Tofurkey Stew
1T vegetable oil
1 package Tofurkey sausages (I think the kielbasa style work best here)
1 package vegan cheddar cheeze, cubed
1 medium yellow onion, diced
4 medium potatoes, peeled & cubed
1 can green beans, or even better - an equivalent amount of frozen
2 cups non-dairy milk
1t pepper
1t salt
1-2T flour

In a large pot, brown the sliced sausages in the vegetable oil. Add the diced onion and cook just until translucent. Add all of the other ingredients except flour. Bring to a boil until cheeze is melted, then reduce and simmer until potatoes are soft, about 1 hour. When potatoes are soft, add the flour as necessary to thicken.

You can also make this in a crockpot if you’d like, just reduce the amount of liquid used.

My Sampson

By Monica on November 29th, 2007

With his insurmountable pride and dignity intact, Sampson left us yesterday after an ultrasound revealed diseases that even his indomitable courage and fighting spirit could not overcome. His quirk and snark were surpassed only by his sense of humor and enormous heart. His constant voice and warm snuggles will be missed terribly.

Farm Sanctuary!

By Monica on October 27th, 2007

At long last, here is the Farm Sanctuary Critter Post! It was terribly hard to narrow down my favorite pictures so please forgive me if this takes forever to load!

Before we get started, here’s my “Iz it can be time go to Farm Sankuary now?” picture. This is Boone, of cat helmet notoriety.

Having never been there, we stopped at Niagara Falls on the way to FS. I’ve been disappointed in a lot of US tourist attractions in the past (cough*StatueOfLiberty*cough), so I was skeptical of this silly waterfall business. However, I quickly changed my mind when we could already see the mist hovering over the city still about a mile away! It was stunningly beautiful and we ended up spending quite a bit of time there getting soaked by the mist and hiking through the state park.

From Niagara, it was only a couple hour drive to FS and admittedly, I drove like a mad woman I was so excited. The scenery along the way rivaled any fall colors I’ve seen anywhere else in the world. It became comical at a point; anywhere you looked could be a postcard. This is a shot of Seneca Lake in Watkins Glen, a few miles from FS.

We finally arrived and checked in. The cabins are adorable and a lot more spacious than you’d think. Of course, pictures of the residents adorned the walls and FS made sure to provide lots of literature on factory farming for guests to read. There was also a journal inside that guests were asked to contribute to. It was touching to read how other guests have been moved by meeting some residents, and entire families pledging their devotion to veganism. Ray drew a picture of his favorite critter and I wrote my journal page on the last morning there while I watched the sun come up over a pasture full of grazing pigs.

But, without further ado, let me introduce you to some of the FS residents we met!

Upon entering the sanctuary, the first critters you meet are the cows. I was quite pleased to have met Maxine and a few others I had read about, but the legendary Annie Dodge was in a distant pasture and unavailable for ear scratching. The ambassador of the special needs cattle herd is Opie, and he was all about ear scratching! I was floored by how big Opie is, easily standing 6 feet at the shoulders and weighing 2300 pounds. Apparently that’s about average for his breed!

Opie was destined for veal, but I think this life suits him a little better.

This is the beautiful Penelope, who was ever so kind to lay still while we petted, kissed, and told her what a nice cow she was. Penelope’s head was soaking wet from being groomed by another cow, but that was not about to stop my niece and I from loving on her.

From there we headed up to the sheep hill. Most visitors don’t go up here because it’s quite the climb, but our tour guide rocked and took pity on me when I mentioned that I didn’t get to see any sheep the day prior. This is the view of the farm from atop the sheep hill.

And here’s one of the critters who grazes atop the hill all day long before coming down for chow time each night. Isn’t he amazing? We also met Dino the goat up here.

Coming down from the sheep hill, our next stop were the goats. I have so much fun with goats; I just love their personality and spunk.

Ray and I have been talking of adopting a couple of goats for years, this may have been the nail in our coffin.

Below is Zoop, Ray’s favorite FS critter. Like all the residents of FS, Zoop has a story on how she came to be there and despite having lost one of her legs, Zoop has an indomitable spirit and even rammed us all a few times in play.

The next stop is the turkey barn. We were greeted by none other than Chicky, who is terribly sweet and affectionate! If you haven’t heard it before, turkeys make the coolest noises!

Across from the turkey barn is the bunny house. The bunnies have a deluxe set-up with bales of straw inside to hide in, and a big grassy enclosure outside. A lot of these rabbits were rescued from the ‘live markets’ in NYC.

Everywhere along our route were chickens, too. This guy liked to hang out underneath an apple tree near the turkeys and was especially photogenic.

From here we got another unexpected bonus from our tour guide. FS had just taken in a piglet, only two weeks old. Rarely does FS get them that young, so this little guy was very special and he was in the hospital room being nursed round the clock. Our tour guide indulged us in a quick visit.

Next up was the duck and goose habitat. They have the best views of any resident, overlooking their own pond and miles of the Finger Lake region.

And then there’s the pig barn, where we probably spent most of our time. My first impression of the pigs: OMG are they huge! We’re told the big girls are about 700lbs.

As it turns out, even these great big pigs are lovers. Amazingly sweet and gentle, we could go right up to them and they would immediately flop over so you could rub their bellies!

They are ever so gentle, and very aware of their size. We were able to snuggle right up with them, and honestly I’m not sure if we enjoyed it more, or if they did. My niece is a pig fanatic and we nearly had to pry her off the pigs when it was time to leave. She chose Truffles as her favorite resident, who alongside her brother Rudy, had fallen off a slaughterhouse transport truck and escaped to freedom.

So those were just a few of the critters we met. Coming away from my first trip here, I am struck by a number of things:

First, they should call this place Human Sanctuary. What a healing experience to be in the company of such inspiring people who work and volunteer here, to be among these amazing creatures in one place on earth where no cruelty exists. I awoke one morning and looked out the cabin window to see all the pigs outside in a pasture grazing and rolling in mud. A simple thought suddenly dawned on me - these pigs weren’t going be slaughtered, ever. They were going to wallow in mud, sleep in deep straw piles, be cared for and loved until their natural lives cease. It was a feeling of calm and peace that I’ve scarcely experienced before.

Second, I was humbled by the ability these animals have to forgive. Mankind has done terrible, cruel, things to them - inflicted pain that I cannot even fathom. Yet they want to meet me. They approach me. They want to be scratched and loved. I only wish I had that capacity inside me, but in that respect, these creatures are far my superior.

Lastly, let it never be said that we cannot make a difference in this world. Farm Sanctuary was a great reminder of that for me. Whatever your cause is, whatever you can do, do something because it does make a difference. These animals are a testament to that.

How to gain 10lbs in 3 days

By Monica on October 23rd, 2007

We’re back from Farm Sanctuary!  While I haven’t had time to go through the 700 pictures we took on the farm, I can muster up pics from the amazing vegan vittles we found in the Finger Lakes region of NY.

Living where we do, a vegan-friendly establishment is really exciting to us. It’s hard to refrain from ordering every item on the menu in a gluttonous “OMG I can eat ALL of this” frenzy.  No side dishes or iceberg lettuce for us this weekend, baby!

Friday night we went to Jerlando’s in Watkins Glen.  Farm Sanctuary said they’d be happy to make us a vegan pizza, and indeed, they were.  Three of us ate the entire thing, after we cheekily decided that eating it all would be more environmentally friendly than using a take-out container.  Here’s their cheeseless veggie pizza, which was delicious:

Despite being stuffed, we waddled ourselves over to the Great Escape Ice Cream Parlor because one is never too full for vegan ice cream.  They had mocha and Oreo vegan flavors, both were fabulous, and their staff was well versed in which cones and toppings were vegan.

Saturday we went to the Crooked Rooster Pub & Wildflower Cafe for lunch.   I wish I could say it was as great as everything else we had this weekend, but it really paled in comparison to the other options in the tiny town of Watkins Glen.  I had the ‘Pasta with Beer & Good Stuff’, which was essentially fettuccine with canned artichokes, canned peppers, and beer poured over it.  Strangely sour, I abandoned it mid-meal to eat some left over chips on my niece’s platter.  She had the ‘Moonrose Ribs’ which turned out to be a plain Gardenburger Riblet thrown onto French bread.  Ray had an average portobella burger and the lunch meal for 3 of us, with two small beers, was $70.00.  Yeah….

Determined not to let that ruin our jolly times, we went back to the ice cream parlor and feasted upon some vegan sundaes which they topped with hot apple cinnamon sauce.

Sunday we ventured into Ithaca due to the rave reviews of Pizza Aroma, who has the only soy cheese pizza in the area.   I had an amazing calzone, aptly called “The Vegan” which was absolutely brimming with spinach, eggplant, garlic, FYH mozzarella, roasted red peppers, and other good stuffs.  $6.50 well spent!

Ray and Rachel split the “Veggie Pizza” complete with FYH soy cheese and it was equally delicious.  We took about half of it home and ate it all the way back to Illinois, the tantalizing smell of garlic wafting through the a/c vents for 700 miles.

Without exaggerating, there were about 30 vegan friendly restaurants to pick from between the tiny rural town of Watkins Glen and Ithaca.  Between all the great eats, the splendor of Upstate NY in the fall, and the haven that is Farm Sanctuary, I think this is about as close to vegan heaven as I’ve ever been.  More to come on the FS critters soon!