How many vegans on board?

LilacLouisa

savvy wrote: »

This is something that we are feeling quite strongly about, and can't remember where I heard it (it was a programme tho), but a few years down the line Britain will not be self sufficient as Supermarkets are importing more and more of our food, thus having a knock on effect for our producers who can't sustain themselves (think of all the farmland going for development). It's a frightening prospect that the world could one day hold us to ransom over our imported food :eek: obviously that the extreme view, but has made us support our local producers at farmers markets and shopping in small independent shops. Although we do some shopping in Waitrose, we buy as much British food as possible.

This is something I feel very strongly about. I am old enough to remember when we used to have cherry orchards which produced lovely cherries, but all I can find now are imported ones. I am going to try to grow a small cherry tree. not sure if just one will work though, will have to find out.

In the 70`s when freezers were became popular, it was wonderful to buy British fruit and veg in season, even those which weren`t the best frozen (like berries) could be turned into something nice.

I rarely buy anything except English apples, I would rather just eat them when they are in season and eat other fruit during the rest of the year. Sadly, I have reached the age when fruit and veg usually tasted better years ago. I have just about given up on Jersey Royals too, mostly they taste nothing like they used to.

I buy my weekly groceries from Tesco online, but have given up buying much fruit and veg from them because can`t see the country of origin.

P.S I am a vegan, as is my daughter.

paulwf

pinkclouds wrote: »

Apologies if this is an inappropriate place to ask but could anyone please suggest/recommend nice non-dairy cheeses? I am quite keen to try some.

If it makes any difference to your recommendations: I like rather boring cheeses (cheddar, gouda, occasionally philly), am indifferent as to whether my yoghurt is dairy or non-dairy (will eat either so long as it's not plain), drink soya milk sometimes (but never cow milk) and dislike cream. Essentially, I hate really "milky" tasting food.

Any help appreciated, thanks.

Scheeze by Bute Island Foods is a great range of cheese, both hard and soft:

http://www.buteisland.com/

We buy the smoked cheddar style by the case, it has more flavour than the others so you don't have to use so much.

The main competitor for hard cheeses is Redwoods, some people prefer them so give them a try although I find them too dry and not so much flavour. Tofutti is the main alternative to soft Scheeze although I find Tofutti a bit to thick and cloying. Redwoods and Tofutti are in Holland & Barrett though so easier to find unless you are blessed with a good wholefood shop.

Sometimes we also get Pure processed cheese slices from Morrisons, great for veggie cheeseburgers. I'm not sure they actually taste of much, it's just a psychological thing to have vegan junk food

Ben84

LilacLouisa wrote: »

This is something I feel very strongly about. I am old enough to remember when we used to have cherry orchards which produced lovely cherries, but all I can find now are imported ones. I am going to try to grow a small cherry tree. not sure if just one will work though, will have to find out.

Just one tree is possible for fruit, if you buy one that has a branch from another tree grafted on to it. They're pretty easy to find, in fact I'd expect most big garden centres to sell them or be able to order you one. We have one in our garden, which is doing well, but you have to wait a while for them to get established before they start giving you lots of fruit.

greenbee

LilacLouisa wrote: »

This is something I feel very strongly about. I am old enough to remember when we used to have cherry orchards which produced lovely cherries, but all I can find now are imported ones. I am going to try to grow a small cherry tree. not sure if just one will work though, will have to find out.

You might find this interesting

LilacLouisa

Thank you Ben84 and green bee for your very helpful replies.:beer:

pinkclouds

paulwf wrote: »

Scheeze by Bute Island Foods is a great range of cheese, both hard and soft:

http://www.buteisland.com/

We buy the smoked cheddar style by the case, it has more flavour than the others so you don't have to use so much.

Thanks for the recommendation. I have now ordered some Sheese strong cheddar, smoked cheddar and gouda. I've also ordered some "Parmazano" and something called "Marigold Yeast Flakes", which the website (Veggiestuff.com) assures shoppers to be an "almost cheesy taste". Er. I do hope some of this turns out to be cheese-like as it is all a gamble in the dark at the moment! I am particularly curious about the bizarre sounding yeast flakes. My beloved Vegemite is made with yeast extract but I wouldn't call it cheesy in the slightest!!

paulwf

I'm not sure how I'd describe yeast flakes...quite a mild taste, slightly tangy or nutty but not really cheesy. I really like them sprinkled on pasta with a passata sauce, you need a a bit of liquid so they can soak in. One word of warning: the tub stinks when you open it, don't be put off! It's an acquired taste, a bit like marmite (another yeast based product).

Sainsburys (in the "free from" section) and Holland & Barrett usually do the fake parmesan and it's fairly nice, quite a mild taste though and much more expensive than yeast flakes which are fairly similar.

With some products it's best not to try and think of them as replacements but as ingredients in their own right. I hated carob when I thought of it as a chocolate substitute, but if I think of carob as carob it's quite nice. When I went vegan I really craved cheese but after a while I found the cravings went and now if I see a Pizza Hut advert with all the gloopy cheese dripping off it looks revolting! So stick with it, after a while you might not care about cheese so much. We still get through a fair amount of Scheeze, just that not everything we cook has to be smothered in it. Unfortunately nearly every vegetarian dish seems to be cheese laden so becoming vegan requires a bit of a cheese detox I'm actually enjoying tasting ingredients now rather than having everything taste of cheese

pinkclouds

paulwf wrote: »

When I went vegan I really craved cheese but after a while I found the cravings went and now if I see a Pizza Hut advert with all the gloopy cheese dripping off it looks revolting! So stick with it, after a while you might not care about cheese so much.

I sooo hope you're right. I thought about it last week and decided that as the only meat product I really eat is pre-cooked bacon (which according to carnivore hubby isn't "real" bacon and might as well be a sort of crisp) that I might as well be vegetarian (and just eat actual bacon-flavoured crisps). And then I thought: why stop there? I've always wanted to cut out dairy products. Except the stumbling block is cheese. Anyway, the "cardboard cigarette" is on the way so no doubt I'll be sampling it next week.

paulwf

pinkclouds wrote: »

I sooo hope you're right. I thought about it last week and decided that as the only meat product I really eat is pre-cooked bacon (which according to carnivore hubby isn't "real" bacon and might as well be a sort of crisp) that I might as well be vegetarian (and just eat actual bacon-flavoured crisps). And then I thought: why stop there? I've always wanted to cut out dairy products. Except the stumbling block is cheese. Anyway, the "cardboard cigarette" is on the way so no doubt I'll be sampling it next week.

Redwoods do a fake bacon (we call it "fakon" for short) which probably doesn't taste much like bacon (but is really nice) and good to have as part of a fry up, especially as you won't be missing out if your hubby is having real bacon.

If you let me know what area you're in I might be able to give some ideas for shops/restaurants/events that may help.

pinkclouds

paulwf wrote: »

If you let me know what area you're in I might be able to give some ideas for shops/restaurants/events that may help.

Please do, if you know anything in or around Daventry (between Rugby and Northampton).

As this is MSE, I am simply not replacing stuff rather than binning it. However, I am checking labels as I go and I'm quite taken aback by the quantity of food products in the house that contain either gelatin or (cow) milk. I think this may be more... challenging than I thought.

I thought it would just be eliminating and substituting a handful of items but the more I google, the more shocked I get. Cereals, pop tarts, crisps - even my Quorn!! I thought I was semi vegetarian already. Why would you put gelatin in cereal?? I'm slightly mortified that I never noticed these things before.

I think I need to set myself more achievable goals. If I can eliminate all the obvious/visible dairy products from my diet then I won't fuss too much if something turns out to be vegetarian rather than vegan. And I'm going to buy some cookbooks - I clearly need them.