From info at fareshares.org.uk Sun Apr 3 09:20:46 2016 From: info at fareshares.org.uk (Fareshares) Date: Sun, 3 Apr 2016 10:20:46 +0100 Subject: [Fareshares_newsletter] Fareshares Newsletter, Spring 2016 Message-ID: <5700E06E.6060302@fareshares.org.uk> Fareshares Newsletter, Spring 2016 Read this on our web site, if you prefer. Everyone's Gone Vegan! When Ioan Marc Jones went vegan for January - to appease his veggie girlfriend & to show her it's no big deal - little did he realise that he was embarking upon a journey from which he may not return. 'I was dreading giving up meat - now I can?t find a reason to eat it,' he eventually reported in The Independent . 'To those people who love meat the way I love meat, I offer some advice: refrain from accepting the Veganuary challenge, or any similar campaign . It might just work,' he says, before concluding with a quip about kale and quinoa. Jones' article comes with the obligatory mainstream media list of two dozen 'celebrities' - some of whom you will definitely have heard of - who have embraced the vegan lifestyle, for various reasons: ex-President of the USA, Bill Clinton, quit meat for the good of his health while his former VP is no doubt motivated by the claimed effects of animal husbandry upon climate change. An emerging cohort of celebrated vegans is the roster of first class athletes who have emulated Venus and Serena Williams , both of whom adopted a raw vegan diet in the new year of 2012. Since then, Serena has won the US Open three times! A surprising subset of this athletic cohort is the Vegan Hard Men, led by 'Iron' Mike Tyson, who went vegan in 2010 at the age of 43 as a key part of a wider lifestyle detox. England's own David Haye renounced animal protein early in 2014 and, two years later, regained his heavyweight boxing championship with a first round knockout . Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fans will be aware that Nate Diaz , a vegan of twelve years standing, caused a recent upset when he beat a previously undefeated champ. That's not to mention the increasingly numerous vegan body builders and NFL (American Football) players . The budget cookery writer, Jack Monroe, also went vegan for January as a challenge and is also not going back. 'My meat addiction is over,' she announced in The Guardian . 'I?ve gone vegan, and it?s brilliant.' To Facebook followers, Jack explained, 'I feel I am going to stay vegan, although I prefer 'herbivore' but as ever, call me what you like as long as it's polite... you?ll all be seeing a lot more curry from now on. And a world with more curry in can only be a very good thing.' Since Jack's mushroom rogan josh was the most popular recipe re-posted on Fareshares' Facebook page all Veganuary, we concur . In A Broken Rice Dream As everyone goes vegan and their markets expand, pioneers of popular vegan products may be obliged to compromise. In order to ramp up production and provide access to weighty distribution & savvy marketing, they take on bigger corporate partners whose priorities may not match their original ideals. A case in point is Rice Dream , of which Fareshares sells gallons. Naturally lactose, dairy, gluten and soy-free with no added sugars and low in fat, Rice Dream dairy-free milk was invented by Robert Nissenbaum , co-founder of Imagine Foods . 20 years later, in 2002, Imagine joined The Hain Celestial Group?s family of brands that provide delicious ?better for you? foods loved by people of all ages.' Within only a couple of years, dark rumours began to circulate, which are detailed in the online version of this newsletter . Rice Dream has not necessarily done anything wrong, /per se/, but it's owned by a large corporate entity that keeps unsavoury company. So, the question arises, should Fareshares take Rice Dream off our shelves (as others are doing) even though we sell gallons of the stuff? What do say you, dear Fareshares shopper? Can you live without Hazelnut Almond Pralin? Rice Dream? Have you got your own recipe that replicates its creamy deliciousness? Or do you think we should give Rice Dream the benefit of the doubt, at least until we can source a satisfactory replacement? Aquafabulous! #aquafaba is the buzz word of the year and no mistake. In its announcement of 2016 as the International Year of the Pulse, the San.Fran. Chronicle reported : 'The most exciting new ways to use pulses are in baking, pastry and even cocktails . In black bean brownies ? the new gluten-free vegan potluck standby ? or Chocolate Lentil Cake , cooked and pureed pulses add a surprisingly un-beany complexity. Garbanzo bean cooking water, dubbed ?aquafaba? by its vegan devotees, can be whipped up into something almost identical to a meringue, an incredibly stable stand-in for egg whites in everything from macarons to Pisco sours. Eggless lemon meringue pie , anyone?' You may be thinking, '_Garbanzo_?' Chick Peas, by another name. 'Aquafaba' is the liquid that comes in the can, which has the right balance of proteins to do a lot of the things that eggs do in a recipe, from mayonnaise to meringue via omelettes . To make aquafaba from scratch, soak & cook chickpeas and leave them to sit in their cooking water overnight. (A pressure cooker, BTW, comes in v.handy.) You might use the peas to make hummus, but with their aquafaba you can do practically anything! #?heartysoup?: Top Six Recipe categories marked by hashtags on our Facebook page , including #vegeburger & #tempehtempeh, appear to expire and others may also use them, as you'll see if you search #heartysoup . As it is Spring, however, let us review the past Winter soup season and its six most salient successes (wot, neither cauliflower nor celeriac ?) In reverse order: *6*= (Combined score = 56): Squash Apple Soup or Apple Pumpkin Soup With Caramelized Onions - 'A perfect autumnal blend for when it suddenly gets a colder out. The sweetness of the squash, highlighted by apple, goes so well with the sage.' *5* (Score = 95): Slow-Cooked Split Pea Soup With Homemade Croutons and Coconut Bacon - Mmm... pig free bacon! *4* (Score = 97): Robin Robertson's Global Vegan Kitchen's Crockpot Callaloo Soup - R.R. substitutes spinach for callaloo and suggests chard as an alternative. It also includes thyme, but you might use za'atar. *3* (Score = 103): Vegan Chipotle Corn Chowder - Robin Robertson, again, using frozen whole kernel corn with some more exotic ingredients - liquid smoke; chipotle chile in adobo sauce - that one might have fun finding substitutes for. See also Smoky Potato Corn Chowder . *2* (Score = 130): Roasted Garlic-Ginger Carrot Soup With a Miso Cashew Cream - A classic ?#?heartysoup? given a twist with Miso Cashew Cream (blend soaked cashews with miso, lemon juice and water). *1* (Score = 192) -Chickpea Soup with Cabbage,Tomatoes & Basil - Simply the best. Urban Leg Ends Fareshares first Pickling Workshop on the final day of February was a great success on a number of levels. Of the 15 enthusiasts who learned (and practised) the art of salt-fermentation, only two were regular Fareshares shoppers, so its nice to get some new people interested! Everyone had a great time, and we're keen to hold more workshops on a regular basis. The next salt-fermentation pickling workshop will take place towards the end of April, and there'll be a Herbal medicine and another pickling workshop in May, so everyone gets a chance to learn and play! Keep an eye out for posters in the shop and on our Facebook page for dates/times/locations, or e-mail Zoe at jacob.zoe at gmail.com to get straight onto the workshops mailing list. There are plans to turn this into a series of monthly skills-sharing. So far we're thinking: more pickling/preserving techniques, vegan cheese-making, and craft workshops for eco-friendly plastic-free food bags. If you have ideas of things you'd like to learn, or skills you could share, Zoe'd love to hear from you! * After a year of talk about adding more shelving in the corner of the shop, one of Fareshares oldest - not to say, elderly - regulars caught wind of it and sorted us out without further ado. He refuses to be photographed for this newsletter, indeed wants no publicity, but big thanks are due to Billy. We probably are not going to paint your shevles in Evertonian colours in your honour though, La. It may be a while before we get around to painting them at all;-) * Myths & legends of how Fareshares started, back in the days when Pullens was heavily squatted, usually come back to a free-spirited character known simply as, 'Martin Oddsocks' or, as he was legally known in 2010, OddsocksmcweirdoeltuttifruttiMrfartohellohippotamusbumIthinkwecanallliveincooperationasfreeindividualswithouthurtingourfellowsentientbeingsbutwewillhavetoworkonittheworldisforsharing. Fareshares Food Co-Op : Liked by 550 on Facebook ! Join us! -- -- --------------------- Fareshares Food Coop 56 Crampton Street Thursdays: 2-8 Fridays: 4-7 Saturdays: 3-5 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: