Wayne County Veg*n Resources

A little over a month ago, we started to re-plant our garden.

In magnitude, our garden lies somewhere between the biggest “serious” suburban gardens in Richmond and the small casual gardens. We grow mostly conventional vegetables and herbs, although this year we have a large (40+ bulb) plot of garlic! We have a few flowers and shrubs for aesthetic charm as well.

The technique we use for our main flowerbeds is called “Square Foot Gardening” from a book by Mel Bartholomew. SFG is a terrific technique for people with a small plot of land that want to maximize their yield and minimize the maintenance. (Our land parcel in southside Richmond is just under half an acre, I think, and most of that is occupied by our house.) read more…

We’ve got a table set up on the second floor of Springwood Hall (IU East) for the Wayne County Family Earth Day Celebration!

Come down and see us!

Eating a healthy and delicious veg*n diet requires fresh veggies, herbs and fruits.

Maybe you don’t have any yard space, or don’t have a clue about gardening?

Maybe you have a huge garden and could use some help?

Join us for our final Peace Forum of the semester! We will share community gardening ideas and dreams, and discuss possible partnerships for this summer, and beyond.

Come with your own ideas and questions, and enjoy a free, delicious, vegetarian lunch. Also bring suggestions for next year’s Peace Forum topics. Contact Anna Lisa at grossan@earlham.edu with ideas if you can’t make it. Thursday, noon in the Earlham School of Religion (228 College Ave) dining room.

Sorry for the month of absence. Melissa and I are both completely swamped with finishing out our Spring semester!

But we’re still here!

And we will be at the Family Earth Day Celebration up at Indiana University East. Here are the details:

Saturday, April 25th, 2009
10 AM – 2 PM
Indiana University East
FREE ADMISSION

There’s a whole slew of events and featured presentations for all ages. (The Silly Safari thing is fun, they had that last year.) Just so there’s no confusion, this event is the same Earth Day celebration that was held down in the gorge the past two years — it’s been re-located this year!

We will be there to answer questions, provide reading material, and give away free recipes! (We were going to serve food, but are unable to because of legal reasons) The event is going to be really exciting, and there will be lots to see. Make it a point to come up and check it out!

Spring is here! Just think how easy the 100 mile radius potlucks are going to be soon!

In the meantime, for the hardcore, curious and determined among you, our April potluck will be on Sunday, April 26 at 6pm.

We’ll meet at the Cycling & Fitness Warehouse. CFW sits near the Cardinal Greenway, so it’s easy to find by bike or on foot. It’s a bit harder to find by car, but there are directions on their site, and here is another map. It’s near Richmond’s main post office, and we’ll put up signs next Sunday. Thanks to CFW for hosting.

As always, 100 mile radius potlucks are a chance for us to learn more about the bioregion we live in, and try out a new style of cooking. Most of all, potlucks are a time to be with new and old friends, and share ideas and enthusiasm about sustainable living. 100 mile radius potlucks are mostly vegetarian, but usually have at least some local animal products.

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Ed. note: These events are awesome. If you haven’t yet attended one, I highly recommend it!

Green Gear is a series where we discuss different kitchen tools, how they can be used with Veg*n cooking, and some other helpful tips about them.

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We bought our first Food Processor when we got married, a little over two years ago. It was an Oster model; I think it held 10 cups. We bought it with some wedding money.

After we got it, we quickly began to wonder how we had ever functioned without one. We used it so much, it rarely sat clean and dry on our counter for long, and more often than not would be rinsed in the sink only to be used again immediately.

We used it so much that after about 2 years, the handle broke and it had to be jury-rigged to function for the last 5 months. Then we got our new beautiful model (pictured): read more…

O’Charley’s isn’t a restaurant we’d normally go to. I understand that it mainly functions as a steakhouse — which typically isn’t where you’d find a lot of fine vegetarian fare — but we had a gift card that we got for Christmas and a non-veg*n lunch guest — and so that is where we ended up.

The menu offerings were pretty sparse. If you’re just wanting an appetizer, there are three options — the spinach artichoke dip, the cheese sticks and these crazy cheese-loaded potato chip things. Other than that, there were no specifically meat-free dishes on the menu.

We got the cheese sticks appetizer. They were just okay — nothing particularly special about them. Aaron ordered a chicken salad, minus the chicken. It had strawberries and other things in it. They let him substitute a side of french fries for the chicken — at the same price. I ordered a side salad and onion rings for my “meal”.

First of all, I have to say — the side salad I ordered was $3.99 and contained nothing more than iceberg lettuce, a few shavings of cabbage, grated cheese, two cucumbers and two roma tomato slices. The onion rings were right around $3 because they consider them a “premium” side — but that included about half a dozen grease-soaked battered onion rings. The onions they used were pretty tasteless too. They tasted like deep-fried batter, nothing more. I should have gotten the baked potato. I would have spent a dollar less and gotten more food. Total, my “meal” was around $14 with a soft drink and a piece of key lime pie for dessert. With the appetizer, Aaron’s salad and drink and my dinner, drink and dessert, plus the tip and tax — our bill was around $40 for lunch. Aaron says he tipped 12% (the service was less than stellar).

It was a terrible value and crappy dining experience, honestly. I would not recommend this restaurant.

I wish the chain restaurants would realize that vegetarians do not want to sit down and order side dishes as meals. Nor do we want to pick and choose through salads. Nor do we want to pay the price for meat we ask to leave off our dishes. Offering one or two vegetarian options on a menu as vast as O’Charley’s doesn’t seem like that much to ask for — but apparently it is. Even though Aaron didn’t get chicken on his salad, he still paid $10 for it. I spent nearly as much for two tasteless sides. I can’t even recommend the appetizer we ordered because it just wasn’t very good (Gallo’s cheese sticks are about the same size and much tastier).

The key lime pie was pretty good.

The service was bad to mediocre. I know we’re not reviewing service, but I feel compelled to mention that. There are a few restaurants in town where I feel like excellent service is part of the dining experience, but this is not one of them.

So if you’re looking for veg*n options in Wayne County, don’t even bother with this restaurant. Nothing about eating here will leave a good taste in your mouth.

Happy Valentine’s Day! This is one of my all-time favorite dishes. 

Back when I would eat meat, I used to love it when my mom would make Sloppy Joe’s (we called them “Barbecue”), which generally involved a pound or two of ground beef, some spices, and other goodies.

Fortunately, this is one of the entrees that has a terrific homologue in the domain of vegetarianism. The recipe we use is from the New Farm Vegetarian Cookbook, a book Mel picked up either at a library book sale or through paperbackswap.com. The recipe goes like this: read more…

UPDATE: Aaron’s fortune with making Spanish Rice (read below)

While I’m in class in the evenings, I have to trust my husband to feed the spawn. Usually he does pretty good — with a little pre-planning on my part. Aaron isn’t a cook. He has a very utilitarian approach to eating. If it’s edible, he’ll probably eat it; while I’d prefer to cultivate a more civilized dining aesthetic for our son.

Tonight they’re having tacos. In our house, tacos is anything ranging from refried beans and cheese smothered on a tortilla to full-blown enchiladas. Mexican cuisine is easily adaptable to a vegetarian diet — and it’s yummy! One point to remember when you’re buying cans of refried beans in the grocery (you can also make it yourself from pintos) is to find those specifically marked “Vegetarian”.

As a compliment to any “taco” meal we have, I like Spanish rice. I use Elise’s recipe — modified for vegetarians (and for our family of 2.5). It’s so much better than Spanish Rice you find in boxes at the store. This is my version: read more…