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

As I mentioned, Jane's mom was here for a visit recently. While she was here, she mostly ate vegan.  But she couldn't give up milk for her coffee.  She tried, but she wasn't enamored with the soy milk or almond milk alternatives we had for her.  When she left, we had a bit of milk leftover that she hadn't consumed.  In the interest of "science" I decided to try it and see if it still tasted great to me.  Remember, we really loved cow's milk.  Not only did it taste weird to me.  I would have to say I didn't like it at all.  I know plenty of people who are omnivores who don't like milk, but I used to drink it all the time.

I found it very interesting that after two years I've grown to actually dislike something I used to love.  How quickly our tastes can change.  It makes me wonder how I would react to a meat-based meal?   Would it taste odd to me?  Would it be bad?  Not that I'm planning on experimenting here.

But what is even more exciting to me is that I can now say, in all honesty, that you can easily learn to adapt to a vegan diet.  And after a few short months, eating vegan will be the norm.