Jane and I went to see Food Inc. in June (here's our review in case you missed it). Many of you emailed us and expressed interest in the movie, but it had a limited run and so you may not have had the opportunity to even get to a theater to see the movie. But now you can pre-order from Amazon. The movie will be released on November 3rd, 2009. It will change the way you think about food!
UPDATE: CLICK HERE
On Tuesday, we put down our special girl. She was with me for just under 16 years. While many of our friends comment on how special and friendly our boy cat is, she was more selective. We were her tribe and she always wanted to be with us. She would greet us when we got home. She would walk us to bed every night and stay with us until we fell asleep. She always sat with us. She talked to us constantly. We absolutely knew she loved us.
She was very headstrong; whatever we were doing, it always had to be her idea. Toward the end of her life we had to give her antibiotics. (She had cancer and the tumor was rotting her face.) Jane would give her her pill and then give her water to drink. After which Jane would reward her with some food. One morning they did the pill, water, food routine and then went to sit down. Ten minutes after drinking and eating our girlie sat by the door, looked at Jane, and went pah-tooie, and spat out the pill. When we told the vet, she commented "Clever kittie!" This is just one example of our girlie's personality, and part of what made her so special. She is greatly missed.
At this point, the thought of food, or writing about food, is not something either of us feels up to. We will be back... we just need a little time.
Life is short... show the ones you love how much you love them.
Jane and I are struggling a bit. One of our kitties, our favorite, has terminal cancer. The vet has prescribed pain killers, along with some other fun things. And we've been instructed to pay careful attention to her level of comfort and when it appears she is suffering, we should euthanize her.
On a logical basis, I know this is the right thing to do. It is our responsibility to our pets to care for them as best we can. Personally, I would want someone to help me end it when the pain became unbearable. The only difference here is that I expect I would be able to communicate my desires when the time came. The thing that scares us both is that we won't really know when it is the "right time." So we are going to have to make the decision to kill a being. And realistically, it will likely be too early, or too late.
We got the pain killers today. We knew our kitty had been ailing. She has a mass growing on her face, and when she finished her first round of anti-biotics she started smelling really foul, as if she was rotting. (Which btw, is what the vet said is happening with her tumor.) Occasionally she would pass on her food and Jane would spend significant time coaxing her to eat. But our kitty still wanted to hang with us, and she would purr when we petted her. We had no idea she was in pain. After her first dose of pain killer, she was much more playful and her purring was louder. So is she stoned, or had she been suffering and we missed it all?
We love this cat. I mean, really love this cat. She is our child. Our other kitty is great, but he is a pet. This cat has a real personality. Neither of us is happy with the idea of putting her down. She's almost 16. She's had a better life than many people on this earth. But how do you actually make the decision to kill another being? Even if it is the compassionate thing to do?
It's All Veg Broth!
Hi Everyone,
It's Jane writing tonight. As the "executive chef" here at the Vegan Bits household I need to clear up a little mistake Lane made in last night's post, the review of Temepeh-Tations. (And can I tell you we've gotten quite a few concerned email messages about our status as vegans...) I/We don't use chicken stock, and here's a photo to show you all what's in our pantry, at least as far as broth is concerned. We've got Trader Joe's Savory Vegetable Broth Concentrate, Trader Joe's Vegetable Broth, and VEGETARIAN Chicken Broth (powdered). It almost looks like an ad for Trader Joe's, eh? I actually used some of the boxed broth in last night's dinner. Hope that clears things up.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has a petition going on Facebook that is worth signing (or at least taking a look at)! They are trying to get Congress to include more vegetables, fruits, vegetarian foods, and healthful nondairy beverages in school lunches. Congress is currently revising the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act, which helps determine what foods are served in school lunches.
You can view more information about the petition and sign here. Or you can sign on their Facebook page.
Earlier last week, the New York times published "The Hot Spots for Organic Food" in which they provided maps of farms in the United States. The data was compiled for the 2007 agricultural census.
I've published the map of all vegetable farms, as a vegan that is the most interesting to me. The rest of the short article has maps of all farms, the organic farms, orchards, and dairy farms. It's an interesting look at where our food comes from. You may even be surprized.
Vegetable Farms as of 2008
Hello everyone. Sorry for our unexplained absence. We were unexpectedly called to New York and didn't have easy access to a computer. Okay, we certainly could have written something at some point, but our minds were elsewhere, and as much as we love our blog (and hope you do too), it isn't either of our day jobs. So where were we? Jane's aunt, the one who's liver cancer inspired us to go vegan, passed away. She was a wonderful woman and will be sorely missed by our family.
We'll be back to our regular blogging on Monday.
Just as the vegan community had good press on the Today Show yesterday (see yesterday's blog post Vegan Firefighters On Today), we had bad press on the Tonight Show last week.
Comedian Tom Papa did a standup routine on the show. Overall I found it rather humorous, but his wife should train him a bit better. If she really is vegetarian as he mentions, she should have him praising the diet in public.
Below follows a brief transcript of his routine. (I love the part about the billionaires.)
Here we are at the beginning of the next Great Depression. Wow, I'm looking forward to it . I'm so tired of all the old people, "we're the greatest generation, we survived the great de na na."
We can do it too, come on. How easy is it to be poor. It's fun, you don't have to get up early for work, you don't have to get up ever. It's awesome.
How about these billionaires. These billionaires are killing themselves. They're losing their money and they're killing themselves. How insulting is this? They'd rather die than live like us. "You want me to eat at Applebee's - I don't think so."
I think it's good for us. Simplify things. We're gonna be fine. We're America, we'll be fine. It'll be nice. Get joy out of the little things for a while.
Soup. I love soup. A nice chowder, a nice bisque. Get a big stale piece of bread. Gum it for weeks at a time.
I eat like that all the time. My wife's a vegetarian.
We go to vegan restaurants. Ever try that, you ever go to a vegan restaurant? Yeah, that's a bummer of a night. Talk about the Great Depression. You want to celebrate life you go to a steak house. People are filled with joy. Beer and wine, people slashing each other with knives. Blood dripping off your chin. Everybody's laughing, pounding on the tables. Ha Ha Ha Ha.You go to a vegan restaurant nobody's laughing, they're so weak they don't even have the breath. Aaah. They can't even lift the fake buffalo wing made of tofu and bark nuggets up to their mouths.
And there you have it, the stereotype of the weak, helpless vegan.
Anyway, if you'd like to check it out yourself, you can find the Tonight Show episode here. It's chapter 5 if you don't feel like watching the entire episode. It's episode 3717 and aired Friday, February 21st.
We wish everyone a happy and healthy 2009, a bit belatedly. As you can see, we've been busy putting a new coat of paint on Vegan Bits, which was much more time consuming than we expected. And is, unfortunately, not entirely finished. I've also been taking a little "time off" to spend with friends and family.
We've updated our Vegan Resources page as well. Hopefully the Resources tab will be back on top of the blog in the near future (but you can always find Vegan Resources"t by using the search button above, or clicking on the link in the right column down below under "pages." Things are still a bit unfinished, but this is the general look you can expect for the next bit of time.
If you're tired of Tofurky and don't feel like trying something new like the Holiday Nut Loaf or Tofurky Take 2, Whole Foods has an option that looks like a lot of fun... a vegan turkey. At $50, it's not that steep if it truly feeds the 10-16 people it claims it will feed. However, it's only 4 pounds so we're skeptical.
Thought you all might find it interesting. (Sorry about the poor quality photo, we don't usually have our camera when we're at the grocery store.)
* Note: If you were planning on making the Vegetarian Plus Whole Turkey, make sure you got/get the package that reads Vegetarian Plus VEGAN Whole Turkey. The photo above is of the vegetarian, not vegan, product.
Sophie's Kitchen Reviews
VEGAN BOSS Performs at Animal Advocacy MuseumVEGAN BOSS Performs at Animal Advocacy Museum