The Lobster

The lobster may be the gateway animal for veganhood.

For coastal New Englanders, lobster-eating is a summertime luxury. The bib, the mound of steaming corn-on-the-cob, the watery cracking of the shell, the large silver pot, the thick colored elastics. Native residents and visitors look forward to hot, sandy days on a damp towel overlooking the Atlantic and the subsequent late afternoon feast.

Here's the elephant in the room for my family members, though: I was never keen on the taste of cooked lobster. I remember enjoying it just one time as a kid, though I think that had more to do with the big bowl of butter. But after that day, I found the richness and texture of the delicate, pink clawmeat off-putting. As much as I love the ocean and the mysterious beauty of its plants and animals, the idea of tasting anything from it makes me gag. (Seaweed can occasionally be tolerated under heavily-seasoned conditions.) I even forced myself to retry lobster several times as an adult, thinking my tastes had matured, but no.

In short, not eating lobster was easy.

But as a kid, I watched their dark maroon bodies waving and arching frantically as they were taken from the brown paper bag and lowered into the boiling water before being let go to sink. It seemed horribly wrong. Their claws were even clamped shut, so their last defense for living was taken. The lid was pushed down and the clanking noises from inside the pot made my eyes widen. I knew how much it hurt to have a drop of boiling water hit my skin and how much the mark hurt for the next couple of days. What would it be like to have your whole body lowered into a tank of it?

And what got me was that it never seemed to bother anybody else. Perhaps it did, and nobody else was speaking up, lest it exacerbate my angst. But it was so unimaginably cruel and barbaric to me. I'd run away and cover my ears tightly so I wouldn't have to hear them fight the edges of the pot.

I find it hard to believe that I was the only child or adult bothered by this. We're usually not charged with killing animals ourselves. Instead, most of us pay the service of having others do it for us. Seeing the animal alive immediately before we kill and eat it is a unique experience nowadays. And for me, at least, it made me consider all animals' experience of death for my palate.

The argument has long been that lobsters don't feel pain. It's a rather self-serving argument, when you think about it. We can dump them in scorching water and not feel bad about it. And it's simultaneously fascinating, because most people would acknowledge that cows, pigs, and chickens experience pain, but that doesn't stop us paying others to kill them. We know they are in pain, but we do it anyway. So what makes people so defensive about lobsters' pain? Why go to such lengths to explain it away?

An ABC report from 2005 noted that animals with simple nervous systems, like lobsters, didn't experience pain. 

"I think that individuals, based on their heritage and their genetic makeup, do project their emotions onto animals," said Richard Cawthorn, director of the Lobster Science Center at the University of Prince Edward Island in Canada, who supports the research finding that lobsters do not feel pain."When people do anthropomorphize animals -- even cartoon animals -- it reflects our needs and our desires," said Stevens. "It's more of a political agenda than any kind of scientific or social discussion of the issue."

Excuse me while I compose myself after reading those snooty remarks. A political agenda? How is it political to protect someone from being hurt? We call that empathy, buddy, not politics. And what's more, he works for the Lobster Science Center, whose website reads  -- get this --  "Our research is based in the areas of lobster and crustacean science, focusing on the health of lobsters, crab and shrimp as they are a significant part of the economy in Eastern Canada." A significant part of the economy? And who has the political agenda here? Methinks someone wants to keep his job and eat lobster. (And don't even get me started on the word anthropomorphize.)

Later studies, though, showed that crustaceans were, in fact, feeling pain. D'uh.

In 2009, NBC reported the work of Robert Elwood, a professor in the School of Biological Sciences at The Queen's University in Belfast, and Mirjam Appel, a colleague. 

Elwood and Appel gave small electric shocks to some of the crabs within their shells. When the researchers provided vacant shells, some crabs — but only the ones that had been shocked —left their old shells and entered the new ones, showing stress-related behaviors like grooming of the abdomen or rapping of the abdomen against the empty shell. 

Grooming, as for a person licking a burnt finger, "is a protective motor reaction and viewed as a sign of pain in vertebrates," the researchers wrote.

...If crabs are given medicine -- anesthetics or analgesics -- they appear to feel relieved, showing fewer responses to negative stimuli. And finally, the researchers wrote, crustaceans possess "high cognitive ability and sentience."  

Elwood was also quoted in a 2013 Business Insider article titled "SCIENTIST: Yes, That Lobster You're Boiling Alive is Probably in Real Pain."     

Elwood told AFP [Agence France Presse] it was impossible to prove beyond doubt that the animals feel pain, but the research results were "consistent" with pain and added: "Perhaps we should err on the side of caution." 

Elwood said billions of prawns, crabs and lobster are caught or reared for human consumption every year and treated in "very extreme ways." 

"Crabs have their claws torn off and the live crab is thrown back in the sea. Lobsters and prawns have the front half of the body torn off from the abdomen which is kept for the meat. The nervous system in the head and thorax is still functional an hour later." 

The biologist said many people assumed that because crustaceans do not have a brain resembling that of vertebrate animals, they could not feel pain. 

"Crustaceans are invertebrates and people do not care about invertebrates," he said. 

"More consideration of the treatment of these animals is needed as a potentially very large problem is being ignored."

So yes, Virginia, animals do feel pain. Being thrown in boiling water tends to hurt a lot.

Lobsters provide people with a unique moment of seeing the animal as someone living and fighting to stay alive, not as an inanimate thing. That we argue so strongly against their feeling pain is very telling. We don't want to think of ourselves as someone who would intentionally cause suffering. 

But I wonder if there are other kids and adults out there who are watching how lobsters react to being put in that pot. I can't be alone in this. If I were, people wouldn't be arguing against it so strongly, because who cares what one piddly naysayer thinks. 

Nope. I suspect there are many others whose conscience is nagging them on this issue. And who knows where that might lead?

***

PS. Since I was small and pushed my nose up against a lobster tank, I've longed to free them. I dream of buying the entire tank of lobsters, renting a boat and taking it far far out on the ocean (away from lobstermen's traps), carefully removing the blasted elastics, gently placing the lobsters back in the icy water, and letting them go. They will float downward to the ocean floor, far from boiling pots, and live out long lives. 

Yes, I realize it doesn't make much sense to pay for them, as it only supports the industry that kills them. But I dream about it anyway. Because if I were born a lobster, I would hope someone would do the same for me.

This Week's Menu

This may be a bad idea. It's something that I may ultimately leave by the wayside. But I thought it might be interesting to anyone considering leaving animals off the plate, whose main question was "But what would I eat, exactly?" It could also prove enlightening to anyone who thinks I live on tofu and sprouts.

My new goal has been to do my grocery shopping on Saturday morning, after a splendiferous yoga session at Mystic Fitness. (The name sounds all mystical and incensey but they're lovely and very down-to-earth. The perfect balance of centering yourself, getting a good workout, and not taking yourself too seriously.) So I'm going to aim to get my menu planning and shopping list done on Friday night after work.

It occurred to me to post my weekly menu. This may seem like a huge step for narcissism, and believe me I can see why it would appear to be so. On the other hand, it might prove helpful in showing that vegan food can be phenomenal. (It can be equally possible to have a super lame vegan food, but I love food far too much to settle for blah.)

This is just an experiment. If it sounds like the most boring of posts, well, you may be on to something. But as my mentor teacher told me years ago, if you're going to make mistakes, make them big, beautiful mistakes. Don't be shy about it.

So with that in mind, here is this week's menu of dinners. It's short, as I hope to normally post a week's worth on Friday nights or Saturday mornings and this week is already well under way. I've not mentioned lunches because they are always leftovers from the previous night's meal. All the meals are quick and easy. I'm often tired after a day of teaching and I like to keep my time in the kitchen to a minimum.

SUNDAY
~Thai Coconut Corn Stew (Dreena Burton's Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan)
~Rosemary Boule Bread (I buy it half-baked at Whole Foods. Preheat your oven to 400, then pop the bread in for 10 minutes only. Gorgeous fresh baked bread comes out. You have to ask them for the half-baked at the counter; it's never displayed as it needs to be kept refrigerated.)

MONDAY
~Cocoa Coconut Chili (Dreena Burton's Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan)
~Rosemary Boule Bread

TUESDAY
~Soy Chorizo Black Bean Stew (Kathy Hester's Vegan Slow Cooker)

WEDNESDAY
~*Chickpea Piccata (Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Appetite for Reduction)
~Berbere Kale
~Quinoa flavored with a bouillon cube 

THURSDAY
~Curried Chickpeas and Greens (Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Appetite for Reduction)
~Ginger Mashed Sweet Potatoes and Apples (Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Appetite for Reduction)

FRIDAY
~Tortilla Soup (Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Appetite for Reduction)

* recipe I haven't tried yet! :)

Last night was the perfect night for Thai Coconut Corn Stew and fresh bread. It was my best batch yet, which may be due to shoveling and roof-raking our way out of a blizzard. Nothing like working hard outdoors in the cold to make food taste great.

Big Hair, Big Cars, or Big Ag? (oh my)

I walked the halls of Hanover High School in the age of big hair. The late eighties was a time when the female gender valiantly fought gravity with industrial-sized cans of Aqua-Net. I joined their ranks for a short while, sporting an embarrassing Joan Jett spiky hairdo in eighth grade that unfortunately didn't deliver the coolness factor I longed for. (Neither did the fluorescent-everything phase. Dang it!)

After a short while, I realized my new do was not bringing in the social riches I'd anticipated. Also, I had fine hair which didn't take well to onslaughts of hairspray. To use Eddie Izzard's words, it "collapsed like a flan in a cupboard."

Around this time, though, I learned that AquaNet was responsible for a mysterious, invisible hole in the ozone layer, so it was just as well. And I felt better, knowing I was no longer contributing to worldwide destruction through my stubbornly cornsilky bangs. By the time graduation rolled 'round, I was one of about four girls without big hair. I'm not making this up. My friend Nancy and went through our yearbook and counted.

As the years went by, though, it became apparent that it was not, in fact, Aqua-Net that was ruining the earth, but our big, bouncy, gas-guzzling cars. (Even so, the big hair went away. I think we all got tired from the effort. Plus we had our midriffs to start working on.)

In the last few years, though, the real culprit has been found. Transportation doesn't hold a candle to it. And hairspray quakes in its presence.

Animal agriculture is the worst contributor to climate change. Its effect on global warming is monumental. But we're not hearing a lot about it.

It's not because the research hasn't been done. Back in 2006 the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released a report that blew our worries about big cars right out the window. Or it should have. But most people never heard about it. I certainly didn't. It was entitled Livestock's Long Shadow. The report contrasted the environmental effects of transport against those of animal agriculture. There was no contest. Here is a telling excerpt:

Says Henning Steinfeld, Chief of FAO’s Livestock Information and Policy Branch and senior author of the report: “Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation.” 

Here and there, you'd hear little blips of information, but it was mostly done in a joking manner. I found out about it -- and I'm being completely serious -- through NPR's funny show Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me when one of their quiz's correct answers focused on the alarming amount of methane in, well, cow farts. Which is funny, when you think about it, but still. Why weren't we all curbing our animal-eating habits? Small and efficient cars became the new thing, both for the environment and for our collective wallet. Reducing or eliminating animal products on our plates would have had the same double-whammy effect, but most of us didn't change a thing.

Four short years later, the United Nations again pulled our attention to the catastrophic results of animal agriculture, this time insisting that a drastic change in our diets was necessary. (The United Nations for crying out loud!) The UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) released "Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Consumption and Production,"  a rather lengthy report that cautioned us to go to a more plant-centric diet in order to slow down the deleterious effects of global warming.

Food production is the most significant influence on land use and therefore habitat change, water use, overexploitation of fisheries and pollution with nitrogen and phosphorus. In poorer countries, it is also the most important cause of emissions of greenhouse gases (CH4 and N2O). Both emissions and land use depend strongly on diets. Animal products, both meat and dairy, in general require more resources and cause higher emissions than plant-based alternatives.

And further along the report: 

 “Impacts from agriculture are expected to increase substantially due to population growth increasing consumption of animal products. Unlike fossil fuels, it is difficult to look for alternatives: people have to eat. A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products."

Did you catch that on the news? Probably not. I don't know anyone who saw it. But that's a pretty big deal. If we were indeed focused on halting climate change, it should have been shouted from the rooftops. Instead we heard crickets.

Last month, President Obama was sworn into his second term. Among many things, he addressed climate change, which was heartening. Not surprisingly, though, animal agriculture was not even mentioned by the more renowned talking heads following the speech.  I didn't hear one word said, and believe me, I was on the ever-hopeful lookout.

If the United Nations has made such a big deal about the harmful effects of animal agriculture, why isn't it even being discussed? 

While I'm no Rachel Maddow, I can say this: the lobbyists for animal agriculture are very, very powerful. Look at Oprah, one of the most influential women of our time. She had the ex-rancher Howard Lyman on her show in 1996. When she learned that cows were eating other ground-up cows, making Mad Cow Disease possible, she stated, "It has just stopped me cold from eating another hamburger." She was subsequently hit with a suit for defamation from The Texas Beef Group. Though Oprah and Howard ultimately won two years later, it scared many people from saying "boo" about this nefarious industry. (They're just plain old creepy!)

There's more -- much much more -- to say on the subject, and I will be devoting a post to the devastating effect of fishing on our climate. But I did want to get this out there. Because most of us are completely unaware of it. And the fact that it is being hidden from us is, in my mind, downright criminal on several levels.

This ain't no fad. Even if one could argue that animals go through no suffering [they do], and even if one could prove that eating animal products is healthier than eating plant products [it's not], the stubborn fact is that our diet is well on its way to destroying the world we love. Sounds melodramatic. Even as I type this, I'm a little anguished, thinking, "How can I say this without sounding like a tree-hugging alarmist?"

The truth is, I'm not sure how to communicate it so that others will take heed and not dismiss it as simply interesting food for thought before they eat their meatloaf tonight. The facts are there, though, as much as we might wish them away. And as John Adams once said, "Facts are stubborn things." Global warming is not going to go away because big hair is out. It just isn't.  

Abby Normal

What's normal?

Ask anyone who's lived or traveled away from home for a spell and, as much as she may have enjoyed her time, she'll probably admit that there is something very comforting about returning to one's own culture where the rules and language are a given. This can be true for cultures in distant lands, and it can be equally true for a culture a mere fifty miles away from your front doorstep. Ryan and I trek to Pennsylvania each December and I love our time there. But there is an undeniable thrill in seeing the familiar green Massachusetts Turnpike signs and other visual markers announce that we are almost home. My favorite stations reemerge on the radio. Even the obnoxious Boston drivers are somehow endearing. Our wonderful known world comes back into focus.

Life has so many forced surprises in store for each of us, that framing our lives in "normal" gives us a wonderful sense of stability. It's an anchor that keeps us safely tethered in a world that manages to occasionally make us feel blown off course.

Like everyone, I have my normal, and I love it. It might be a bit bland for some, but it makes me happy. One example: I can read all day. Get me hooked on a good author, and I'll snuggle in bed with a tank of coffee and some salted dark chocolate, completely content. (The Sookie Stackhouse series is my current drug of choice.) That might be torture to someone else whose normal is training for a triathalon. But it makes my little world lovely.

Another cornerstone of my normal is going to the movies. I can go by myself, with one friend, or with eight. Just as long as I have my homemade berbere popcorn and a cherry Coke (it's my one naughty movie allowance and one of the few occasions when I crave soda.) I'm completely sold into the movie producer's vision. You know the AMC thing they show after the trailers with the two gals and the guy watching the movie? The one where all the seats start turning into plants and stuff as they stare at the movie screen, smiling as only models can and sipping their sodas in a sweet yet sexy way? That's me, minus the sexy part. (I'm the one enveloped in cozy clothes with spilled pieces of popcorn in her lap.) I disappear blissfully into the movie's world. It's heaven.

Occasionally we all veer off slightly from our normal and try something different. A new restaurant. An undiscovered road to walk or run on. I recently started taking art classes again, which was initially intimidating. But like all small changes, it quickly got absorbed into my slow evolution of normal. Small changes to our normal are whimsical and nonthreatening.

Normal has its dark side, though. It can hypnotize us from seeing what we'd rather not see. We get so wrapped up in our view of the world, that we often fail to connect the dots because our normal creates a rather comfortable haze around us.

For years I viewed veganism as decidedly "abby normal," to quote Mel Brooks. It was extreme. It didn't jive with what I'd been taught. Vegetarianism was cute and acceptable. But veganism? Egads.

Besides, the animal cruelty couldn't be that bad, could it? After all, my parents ate animal products and they taught me so much about being kind and fair to everyone. I have a vivid memory of my father trying to dissuade my younger brother from buying Nike sneakers because he'd heard the company used child labor to make the shoes. He lost that particular battle, but his words stayed with me. My paternal grandparents were phenomenal humanitarians and early environmentalists. When I'd sleep over, we'd take early morning walks in the woods behind their house, always with a plastic bag in hand to pick up trash. Gramma taught me to cut the plastic 6-pack soda and beer holders into small pieces, lest a creature get strangled in the plastic rings. She also scolded me once when I was nine or so when I shared with her how I'd learned to fish during a camping trip. "But I throw them back in the water!" I explained. She emphatically asked, "Well how would you like it if someone stuck a long hook through your mouth?" And yet she enjoyed the occasional dinner of fish, a thought that did not enter my mind until recently. My mother would care for wounded animals that got hurt in our yard, as did my father. And friends and family were equally thoughtful and kind. I was surrounded by wonderful examples of compassion.

But we all ate meat and eggs, wore leather, and drank milk. It was never presented as a choice, really. We all just did this. It was normal.

Flip that coin, though, and see the results of this normal from the animals' perspective? Quite a different story. And though I may be wrong about this, I believe that if these same lovely people saw and heard what happens to the animals used for these products, their reactions would be similar to my own. If they actually saw the journey of the cattle in India and China and what workers will do to a collapsed animal to get it back on its feet on its way to slaughter. If they saw the harvesting of the leather and realized that, dear God, that animal is still alive. If they saw what people did to those cute male chicks in hatcheries, the same ones we go gaga over in Easter commercials. If they saw animals destined for "humane slaughter," legs roped together and their bodies shaking from fear so badly that the sides of the pickup truck they are lying in rattle. How could any of us possibly support it once we knew? Once we saw? Once we heard?

And this is why we resist learning what happens. Why so many of us (me included) have said, "I can't bear to know," as we eat our bacon. We know, deep inside, that we couldn't support it. And that we'd have to divorce ourselves from our normal and be cast adrift from our beloved anchor.

The initial challenges of such break from normal are twofold.

One: The people in your life your hold dear may try to coax you back to normal, no matter how diplomatic you try to be. They may try to reason with you, debate with you, scare you, even roll their eyes at you. But, most fascinating, all but a rare few will not want to hear a word of what happens to the animals. Because it will threaten their normal. And nobody wants their normal threatened. I speak from experience because, while I never disagreed with people about animal rights, I was your classic example of "don't tell me." I knew that knowing the truth would be a game changer.

Two: While small changes are fun and playful, a large paradigm shift in one's normal is very intimidating. Cooking without animal products seems loony at first. It's a complete upheaval of so many dimensions of our lives. We worry about the health consequences. Losing our anchor is unsettling to say the least.

But here's what I discovered. I didn't go adrift. I still had the anchor. I had just pulled it up into the boat and then cast the sails to explore new ports. It was, in fact, actually kind of fun! The food I was trying out was surprisingly tasty. Sure there were some culinary disasters, but that had happened plenty of times when I ate animal products. We used WAY less trash, as most of our refuse went into the compost. And what did go into the trash didn't rot or smell. After a while and some experimentation the food got -- damn -- really good.

The salty old harbor I had long anchored in paled in comparison to the new places I was exploring. And there was an unexpected beauty to creating a new normal. A normal that finally matched the Golden Rule touted by so many.  Only a month after going vegan, I found it laughable that I'd ever considered it a big deal. My old normal seemed kind of pathetic and out of date. It smelled of mothballs. I loved my new normal.

In Young Frankenstein, Igor picked the abnormal (abby normal) brain by accident. But the resulting person ended up being a pretty cool guy. (And pretty good in the sack, if you remember Madeline Kahn's reaction to his overtures ...)

Because when you get down to it, normal is not all it's cracked up to be. Abby normal can be cooler. Healthier. More fun. And way more in line with your own ideas of what kindness and empathy really mean. 

Pull up the anchor. See what happens.

I triple dog dare you.

 ***

What are some fun sides of your normal?

Two Foodies Make Ice Cream for the World

Unlike Vancouver, New York, or San Fransisco, Boston does not (yet) have the reputation for being a vegan hub.

But things are starting to change. 

In Allston, a young, chic, urban couple decided to open an ice cream shop aptly named Fomu. (Do check out their website.) The ice cream is mostly coconut-based with a couple flavors made from an almond/cashew blend. (Soy soft serve will be arriving shortly.) I will admit that I had my reservations when I first visited last summer. Though I'd read nothing but rave reviews online, I prepared myself for their ice cream being "pretty good." But upon tasting the rich flavors, I actually laughed a bit at the disconnect in my brain, thinking "It isn't possible. This HAS to have dairy in it. It's so creamy!" In fact, the longer I tasted it, the more I came to the conclusion that this ice cream was far superior to any I'd tasted.

Deena Jalal and Hin Tang wouldn't, at first glance, seem like the couple you'd expect to obsess over frozen desserts. Deena had gone into marketing and advertising after school, and Hin was working in finance, which kept him busy consulting and traveling.  They were doing well in their respective careers.

Deena, one of the co-owners

And yet they both had a great fondness for fine dining, agreeably lumping themselves into the foodie category. With Hin's family's experience owning several small restaurants, they were familiar with the many aspects of the food business. Owning an ice cream shop became a dream they'd turn over in their heads. As Deena pointed out, ice cream is such a happy food; everybody loves it. Additionally, they began to question whether their current careers were adding value to the world. (Though Deena was quick to clarify that while both lines of work do provide much value as a whole, they were beginning to think their collective contribution to the world lay elsewhere.)

In the midst of all this consideration, the perfect space in Allston became available. It was just the size they would need, and it abutted two popular vegan joints: Grasshopper (a Chinese restaurant) and Peace o' Pie (a pizza parlor. You must get the barbequed chick'n with onion rings on top. Oy.). They realized, "If we don't do it now, we'll never do it."

And so Deena, nine months pregnant with their first child, and Hin bought the space and immediately went into action transforming it into a hip ice cream shop. A few weeks later, Deena gave birth to their son. And a few weeks after that, on May 30, 2012, they opened their doors for business. (I know. I feel lame too.)

Deena and Hin are not vegans, which may make their decision to open a dairy-free ice cream shop all the more surprising. Both, however, had many friends and family who were were either vegan or allergy-prone. (Though being lactose-intolerant is actually quite normal for adult mammals, but that's a whole other subject.) So their goal, in Deena's words, was to "bring ice cream to everybody!" She went on to confess that they were ice cream snobs, so they played with flavors and ingredients until they felt they had a superior product. (They continually experiment and come up with new flavors.)

Deena pointed out that they don't specifically advertise their ice cream as vegan, because some people shut down when they hear that word. In fact, the majority of their customers are not vegan and often don't realize that the ice cream is dairy-free. For Deena and Hin, though, it should be all about tastes that everybody can enjoy. And yet the vegan community is so strong in Boston, that the word spread immediately and they've had a very loyal following.

By the time Deena and I had sat down to talk about their business, I'd previously eaten at Fomu four times and was familiar with/addicted to many of the flavors. (On my first visit, I got my favorite concoction from childhood -- a mint chocolate sundae with hot fudge and coconut ice cream. All vegan. All to-die-for/I-need-to-be-alone good.) The most obvious question to ask was which flavors were her favorites. Her eyes lit up as she glanced up at the menu on the wall. (It changes often, as they only aim to use only fresh ingredients in season.) After thinking a moment she shared that her current favorites were  Cinnamon Bun, Thai Peanut Chli, and Cherry Amaretto. "Say," she said suddenly, "do you want to try some flavors?"

It was like the ice cream fairy godmother flicked her glittery magic wand.

They put a scoop of each of her favorites into a cup and I sampled each in the name of proper research. The Cinnamon Bun actually had pieces of gooey cinnamon bun inside. I wanted to cry a little bit, it was so good. The Thai Peanut Chili was, at first, just a lovely creamy light peanut flavor (and I normally don't like peanut flavors in ice cream) then suddenly the heat curled in a warm unfurlinglike way around the edges of my tongue. So fun and surprising! And addictive. But there was still one flavor to sample: Cherry Amaretto. This baby was plain naughty. The sustantial chunks of cherry inside made me scoop it all into my mouth an a voracious, unladylike way. (But as Ryan so often points out, "Hey. I married now. I can do what I like.")

This past August, Fomu participated in Boston's Ice Cream Showdown, a fundraiser that showcases local ice cream makers in an effort to raise money to fight hunger. Fomu was the only nondairy ice cream vendor there and initially people only trickled to their booth cautiously. Shortly after, though, the word spread and a long line of ice cream fans waited to sample their flavors. Deena was thrilled to see "an overwhelming response from dairy eaters." An interesting trend many noticed was that after eating Fomu's ice cream, all the traditional dairy ice creams seemed overly sweet.

Fomu is located in Allston, a huge student hub due to the gargantuan amount of colleges and universities. You can't walk two feet without tripping over a university. Here a hungry student gets fueled up before going back to work. (Presumably a student. I'm totally making this up.)

Nice little sitting area. I was there from about 4:30 - 5:30. As I left, the post-dinner crowd started to filter in.

I love the layout of this place. On the left is a freezer full of well-frozen pints to take home. They survived the heated one-hour traffic-ridden ride home on the Pike very well.

Very important to get a hot beverage if you're getting ice cream in winter.

I haven't tried these yet, but I have to believe they are spectacular. 

Fomu's been much talked about in Boston. There have been rave reviews from The Boston Globe, The Boston Pheonix, and VegNews. I even came across this random blog entry which mentioned a BEAR going into the store. I suddenly realized I was there at the same moment the blogger was because I remember seeing that bear last summer! And sure enough, you can see me in the background in one of the pictures, with a black tanktop on. Crazy coincidence! (If you are confused about the bear part, as well you should be, check out the blog entry and scroll down to the pictures.)

Anyhow, if you come through Boston, I hope for your sake that you check this place out. If you truly care about your taste buds, you will head straight over to Fomu. Try the aforementioned flavors plus the Salted Caramel and the Dark and Stormy. Mmm...

Go.

Humanity vs. Bovinity

Humanity. This word has been perplexing me lately. The more I think on it, the more the word is losing its intended meaning. 

The other day, Ryan and I were driving into Boston and listening to NPR. A story came on about the crisis in eastern Congo. A man and his family had just buried his young daughter, who had been killed by rebels. After the rushed burial, they fled the city of Goma with thousands of other displaced people. My heart broke for them and I thought, not for the first time, "What is wrong with people? Why are we killing each other?" I imagined what that would feel like. Burying your daughter. Fleeing your home. Not having any safety net. Why I happened to be born here and not in eastern Congo. What that child's parents are thinking and feeling at this very moment.

Morbid thoughts, perhaps. But as much as I like lightness and fun -- and my life is full of both and, in my opinion, both are necessary in order to do good in this world -- I do think it's important that we reflect on these ideas at the very least.

The story of this family is just one of millions happening in the world right now. Human and non-human animals are slaughtered every day. (With animals, though, it is 10 billion per year. And that's just land animals. In the United States.) We humans are capable of awful things. And what scares me a little, as I continue to age, is realizing that these behaviors aren't that unusual. I'd always assumed that, while there might be the occasional person with cruelty in their heart, most people were good. And now I just don't know. I want to believe we're all good, but there just seems to be so much evidence to the contrary.

Humanity, according to my American Heritage Dictionary,  means, among other definitions, the following: "the quality of being humane; benevolence."

Humane, in turn, refers to someone or something "[c]haracterized by kindness, mercy, or compassion; marked by a motivation by a concern with the alleviation of suffering." 

I don't see many other animals killing their own kind regularly. Sure, it happens here and there. But we don't put those animals up on linguistic pedestals and say, "Here is our model of behavior!" When you think about it, it's pretty audacious to imply that we are models of mercy and compassion. We even refer to mass murderers as "animals," when in fact non-human animals don't typically engage in such self-destructive behavior. We humans seem to have the monopoly on that one, don't we?

Do I think the majority of humans would kill others if given the chance? Not at all. Am I a "people hater"? No. I see beautiful kindness emanating from people every day. People in my life and in the world at large astound me with their gifts and brilliance. My students never fail to give me incredible hope and fill me with pride every day.

But I wonder at people who proudly proclaim they support "humane meat," (or who just eat any old meat) but who are not willing to find out if the treatment of these animals matches the behavior they hope is occurring. I'll save you the suspense. It's not. This is from one who hoped desperately herself that her humane meat came from happy animals. I did the legwork on this one, and the treatment of these beings is not, in my opinion, kind, merciful, or compassionate.

Here's some of what goes on at humane farms, slaughterhouses, hatcheries, etc. Male chicks ground up alive, gassed, or bagged up alive like trash. Animals in slaughterhouses who are very much alive as they go through "processing." Baby calves and goats taken from their mothers, often with their umbilical cords still attached, brought to market terrified, and killed. (We can't have them taking our milk and cheese.) Animals debeaked, detoed, dehorned, branded and castrated without any anesthesia. (Think on that a moment. They have nerve endings like we do. Imagine what that would feel like.) Cows forced to provide milk (while pregnant with their next calf), having their production wane after 5 years, and then being killed for hamburger meat. If this is what "mercy, kindness [and] compassion" look like, then I'd rather not side with humanity.

I could go on and on. And if I sound angry, that's because I am. There's always a bit of truth to stereotypes, and the "angry vegan" is no exception. When you see how awful people are to feeling, breathing beings; when you see the actual joy in people's faces with they do unspeakable things to animals -- you get plenty angry. Sure my life is terrific. And I'm a pretty happy person most of the time. But you can't help but get angry when you see what is really going on. And you can't help but feel angry when people put down one's choice not to participate and then laughingly joke about bacon, veal, and lamb just to hurt you. (And yet those same people would be incensed if you made them watch footage of how pigs, calves, and lambs got to their plate.)

I've talked with people who have gone undercover at slaughterhouses, hatcheries, and dairy farms. First off, these people amaze me. I could not imagine doing such work for so many reasons. But what's most remarkable about their work is that the awful footage they document is not an anomaly. It's everyday stuff.  It doesn't matter when they go undercover or where. It's always there. Butterball has been exposed twice in the last year for incredible cruelty but in their press releases both times the company feigned shock and surprise that this was going on. Please. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice ...

I'm always hesitant to write such posts because I feel like I'll come off as thinking I've got it all figured out and that I'm lily-white perfect. If only. As Jo March beautifully stated in Little Women, "I'm hopelessly flawed."

But after seeing the things I've seen, I'm pulling the words "humane" and "humanity" out of my vocabulary for a while. At least until we shape up a bit. Or maybe I'll come up with another word to describe kindness and compassion. Maybe bovinity. You don't hear about cows massacring other cows, do you?

There seems to be an unwritten rule that eating meat is normal and to question it is socially awkward and a little rude. But if we're going to tout the word humanity, shouldn't we be willing to back it up with a good hard look at what we're supporting?

May the coming season of giving be filled with great bovinity for you and your loved ones. :) (Autocorrect is getting very antsy over that word.)

And may the word humanity ultimately reflect its definition.



***

If you want to learn more about "humane" meat, dairy, and eggs, listen to this podcast. It's very well done!

A Cure for the Aisle Three Blues: Vegan MOFO Post #7

Our fridge. Payton, the turkey we sponsored last Thanksgiving; our cat butt magnets, a lovely housewarming gift from Ms. Tufts; and the thing that keeps me from going over the deep end -- our personal shopping list.

Raise your hand if this is you.

You go to the supermarket, perusing the different aisles and buying what is on your list. And then -- dang -- you realized you forgot such-and-such in aisle three. So you trek back through the crowds, colliding with other carts and politely letting others through.

You so meant to get here earlier today when there were no crowds, but so-and-so called and then you had to do that thing that you've been putting off. And then, of course, you had to go to that appointment at eleven that you scheduled four weeks ago. And, you sheepishly admit to yourself, sleeping in this morning didn't help either. (Apologies to all the parents out there who are now understandably rolling their eyes at the couple with no children.)

Before you knew it, there was no other time to go to the market than NOW. And NOW is exactly the time that everyone else decided to go to the market. (They had the same kind of unfolding day.) The last thing you want to do is to have to retrace your steps and go back to aisle three.

Can I have a Hallelujah?

After enough trekking backwards to aisle three in my life to cover the length of the Massachusetts Turnpike, I decided to make a grocery list that actually made sense. I don't like my precious weekend time eaten up by retracing my steps. There are gardens to dig! Movies to see! Games to play! (And yes, a house to clean and all that, but who wants to think about the boring stuff? A post devoted to food shopping is bad enough.)

To make a more speedy shopping trip, I mapped out in my mind the best walking route through my favorite supermarket (one end to the other, in a winding, snakelike fashion). Then I listed the groceries I normally buy along that route. After a month of tweaking this list of items, I came up with a shopping list that allows me to get into the store, do my thing FAST, and then get out in record time, allowing me to resume my weekend.

Notice that this is the same list, done twice. That way, I just print several copies, cut them in half, and then stick them on our fridge with a strong magnet, so they're ready to go whenever we need them.

I created it on my Googledocs account (or you can just create a Word document) and then shared the document with my husband. So now it's online where we can access it, edit it, and print it from anywhere. If you'd like a copy, leave a comment below with your email and I'm happy to share the document with you. (I won't enable the "edit" function for you, but you can just copy it and paste it onto a new document and then revise the whole thing for your eating preferences and store layout.)

Another thing I find helpful is to write the week's menus on the blank side of the shopping list and then when I'm done shopping, I hang the menu on the fridge so I can refer to it throughout the week. If I'm using a recipe from a cookbook, I list the cookbook intials and the page the recipe is on, so I don't have to hunt for it later in the week when I'm hungry and grumpy.

Sorry these are so out of focus! I have much to learn about photography. But this is an example of the list filled out. 

And this is the flip side of the list, showing our weekly menu with cookbook initials and page numbers. (As you can see, I cooked a LOT from the Vegan Slow Cooker cookbook this week.

What sorts of timesaving tricks to you use to make life about living and not about backtracking? (These can be kitchen-related or otherwise.)

Housekeeping

 A quick watercolor painting I did a couple years back. I took this with my camera, which is why it's sort of off-kilter.  Scanning would probably do a better job. But one step at a time, right?

This is more of an interlude than a post. I have a few updates, all of which are fun, but none of which had enough wheat-meat to warrant a separate post.

VeganBlogs

The first is that SSW is now listed on VeganBlogs. This gives the site much more coverage online.

The purpose of starting this blog over a year ago was to help family and friends better understand why I suddenly eschewed all animal products, what that looked like, what the health and environmental benefits were, and what animal agriculture business looked like to individual animals. I think too that often when one makes an overnight change like that, it can look a little cultish (and cultish ain't my bag). But the truth is, I just don't want to hurt animals. It's as simple as that. And the animal agriculture industries hurt them, no matter how many pretty humane/cage-free/organic/grass-fed labels you slap on the neatly packaged meat/eggs/dairy. 

Along the way, though, I found that readership was increasing to people I had not met (yet) and that as my circle widened, I was learning from them and joining a community of enthusiastic and creative people.

Since joining veganblogs, I've seen hits on SSW increase substantially, which is exciting! If you want to help out, you can go to this link and hit the "Boost" button. There's also a link on the right side of this page. The more boosts SSW gets, the greater its visibility online. You can even boost once every twenty-four hours, should your little heart desire to do so! But simpler would be to just press "boost" after you've read a new post. And if you're up for it, any comments you can add in that link's comment section would be immensely helpful. Thank you in advance!

Vegbooks

I've recently become a contributing writer to Vegbooks, which describes itself as "a resource for parents and teachers who want to support the vegan and vegetarian kids in their lives." To learn more about how Vegbooks started, read here. This site is a great place to learn about new (and old) books and movies for kids. (I first heard about it from the lovely gals from the Our Hen House podcast.) Here is my first post on the Lorax. I'm currently working on my second which should come out soon. I'm excited to be writing for such a fantastic website!

Vida Vegan Con (Say it three times fast.)

"See? I told you she joined a cult. I just knew it."

It does sound funny, doesn't it? Almost like a Star Trek convention or something. (Nothing against Star Trek, of course.)

In fact, it's a three-day conference of vegan bloggers in Portland, Oregon in May 2013, and yours truly will be there! (I'm bummed I can't stay longer, as my brother and his gorgeous family live in Bend, but I'm going to be taking red eyes to and from the conference so that I don't miss work. Being a teacher doesn't allow you to take long trips outside of our scheduled breaks. I'm not complaining, mind you -- that's just how it is.) I cannot express how excited I am to be meeting so many cool bloggers in person and to be attending workshops run by the superstars I've come to admire so much.

Legality, paintings, and photographs

As I mentioned before, this blog was started as an easy way to share with friends and family. I didn't anticipate it going anywhere beyond the borders of those I knew. But I did want to entertain, because good writing should do that. I'd often copy cool photos or videos I found online onto the site, never thinking about copyrights or such, since I wasn't making a dime off of it. I recently came to the realization -- particularly since the readership increased -- that I needed to be more mindful of what I was putting on here in order to be respectful to the owners of said photos and videos. To be frank, I feel like a schmuck for not having given it more thought before. (insert chagrined face) Thus, I've gone back and taken off a lot of images, and I'm starting to work on the videos. So you might notice some changes to past posts.

What you will see added shortly are sketches and watercolor paintings I've done to flesh out posts and add some personal zest.  I'm looking forward to it! In the past, I put a great deal of effort into each piece I've done.  It will be refreshing to do more whimsical drawings and paintings. (see above painting to get a glimpse.)

As well, I'm learning how to use our camera so I can include more photographs with posts.

One Lovely Award

Recently, SSW was awarded the One Lovely Blog Award from the equally lovely Epicurean Vegan, so I'll soon be doing a post on that to pass on the love to the many blogs I frequent and admire.

Oh, praise be, she's almost finished this endless drone of babble

And finally, I'm starting to think about creating an actual independent SSW website. I've barely scratched the surface, so any advice from more experienced bloggers would be very welcome!

That's the news for today. Thanks for reading!

Bah...

As freaky and melodramatic as Dickens could get (it was the Victorian era, after all), I love his tale of redemption in A Christmas Carol. The idea that it is never too late to be your best self and to change the world is one that reinvigorates me every year.

There is quite an array of interpretations of Scrooge's night on the town, but my all-time favorite is the aptly-named Scrooge, starring Albert Finney, who, despite being a young man at the time of filming (1970), does a phenomenal job of portraying an old man. Alec Guinness (Obi-Wan Kenobi) also makes a showing as an amusing and refined Jacob Marley.

First off, it's a musical. But even if you're not a musical fan, you very well might enjoy this. They did not choose Albert Finney for his operatic voice, but I like that. He sings like the broken-down old man Scrooge was, so his voice comes out refreshingly "off," in the way us laypeople sing in the shower.  The tunes are so fun and (for me anyway) tear-inducing at times. And if you don't find yourself tapping your toes to "Thank You Very Much," then you may want to check your pulse.

The film, in fact, was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Original Song (Thank You Very Much), Best Score, Costume Design, and Best Art Direction. 

My favorite part, of course, is the end when he realizes he is still flesh-and-blood and, while he can't undo many of his past wrongs, he has the opportunity to move forward in the kindest manner possible, leaving the earth a better place for having been there. (Sound familiar?) Here is that scene I'm referring to. I love how giddy he gets, releasing all that pent-up energy of a small child. :)

This is the scene I want to join in! It looks like such fun!! (Years ago,  I worked at a wonderful music camp where we did Saturday night folk dancing which thrilled me to the bone.)

And I think this one is the favorite of anyone who's seen the movie. Scrooge happens upon a future vision of Christmas, seeing all the people who owed him money celebrating some mysteriously wonderful thing he did.

And what would a musical be without a big finale? Love it!

 

So I encourage you to get this on your Netflix list right away! But if you can't wait, the whole thing is on Youtube in 11 parts. :)

I hope the message rings with you too! Our actions may have hurt animals in the past, but for most of us, it was done in total ignorance. So think about following in Scrooge's dancing footsteps, and just use the new knowledge you have to make the world a better place for all beings. As the Ghost of Christmas Present says below (5:39), "There is never enough time to do or say all the things that we would wish. The thing to try to do is as much as you can in the time that you have ... Remember Scrooge, time is short! And suddenly you're not there any more!"

John Denver, Freddy Mercury, and Peace on Earth!

I love Christmas. Love it.

I love the twinkly lights, the yummy tastes and smells, the tree, and the pretty wrapping. But more than anything, I LOVE the music. And not the new-fangled stuff you hear on the radio. Lordy -- they really should have stopped recording Christmas music after the 70's because it's mostly been an embarrassing mix of blah since then. (With the exception of James Taylor's recent album. Well done, James.)

When I was in third grade or so (1979!), John Denver and the Muppets released a Christmas special/album called A Christmas Together that became iconic in my little world. Some of the pieces weren't even traditional carols, but spirituals, and one in particular captured my heart. It's titled "It's in every one of us," and the words follow.

It's in every one of us
To be wise
Find your heart
Open up both your eyes
We can all know everything
Without ever knowing why

It's in every one of us
By and by

To me, it speaks of being true to your heart and ideals. Trusting that inner voice. And lately, of course, it speaks to how we should be brave and pay attention to the plight of others, be they human or non-human, despite the plight's feeling too big and unfixable. It's simply astounding the difference one person can make. Find your heart. Open up both your eyes. Such simple, powerful words!

So here is the song as was originally aired in the aforementioned Muppet special. There's a reference to Christian beliefs here that I take with a grain of salt. (I don't believe or disbelieve...I just take it in as I do the beliefs of other religions and let it sit there in my brain. Whatever makes sense to my little neurons hovers around in there, and whatever feels silly seeps out of my ears in an ethereal kind of way.)

"Say a prayer for the wind, and the water and the wood. And those who live there too." I mean, how great is that?  I have always had a smidgin' of a crush on John Denver, which my husband is very accepting of, among my other crushes. (Paul Newman and Robert Redford) I remember so clearly the day I heard John Denver died. I was traveling sola on a bus headed for southern Chile and saw the papers there covered with the headlines. It was a very sad bus ride. :(

Here's another version of the same tune with Freddie Mercury! No video here, but a great rendition of the song! Some songs just make you want to be a better person and this is one of them.

So I hope this song has inspired you as well. And you know what is just as inspiring? According to the Harris Interactive Poll, the number of vegans in the United States has doubled in the last two years. DOUBLED! Approximately 7.5 million people in the U.S. have said a resounding "Yes!" to following the Golden Rule and it continues to grow. The wall the meat industry put up is rapidly disintegrating and people are starting to see the reality of what is behind it.

And to leave you with a happy chuckle, lest I get too deep, here is another great moment from the Muppet special! Ah, Fozzie...

Do you have any favorite tunes (Christmas or otherwise) that fill you with similar hope and contentment?

Cowboys who are cool to cows

First off, I am a sap. Mix in the sensory overload of a seasonal change and I get extra wistful. Which is why so many of these posts harken back to earlier days. It can't be helped.

I was holding off on today's Cowboy post because it related to a birthday surprise for my Dad, which he received last night! (Happy Birthday Dad!) :) A very simple surprise, granted, but a fun one for the taste buds! My Dad's mother, my delightful Gramma, regularly made Cowboy Cookies -- the most cheerful and addictive cookies in the land. My Dad was quite fond of them! Gramma always kept them in a tall glass jar and the rattling of the jar top made us all salivate like Pavlov.

So of course, I had to see if I could pull off a vegan version and have the result be just as splendid as the original. I'll cut to the chase -- it worked and they were scrumptious. The only two substitutions were flax seeds for eggs and Earth Balance buttery spread for butter/shortening. And of course I made sure the semisweet chocolate chips had no milk in them.

I will warn you, though, that you should make sure you are not alone when these come out of the oven. Very dangerous.

Also, for those who are unfamiliar with flax seed substitutions: flax seeds can be bought whole in bags. Once you get home, put the bag in the fridge and keep it there. I use a coffee grinder to grind them up in small batches. (If there are coffee grounds in there, just throw in some uncooked rice, grind that, empty the grinder of the rice/coffee bits, and then clean out quickly with a paper towel. Very simple.)  Every Sunday, I'll grind up a several tablespoons, throw them in a small glass canister in the fridge, and use them throughout the week, mostly in my morning smoothies. These babies are LOADED with omega-3s.

To match the equivalent of 1 egg, you just use one Tablespoon of ground flaxseeds with 3 Tablespoons of water. I throw the flax seeds and and water in the small bowl of my food processer and let it whir for a couple of minutes until it gets a very egg-y consistency. Should you have no food processor, you can whisk them instead, though it takes a little longer.

Here a little excerpt from Wikipedia on the nutritional benefits of flaxseed (SO superior to eggs in nutrition and in kindness.)

Flax seeds contain high levels of dietary fiber as well as lignans, an abundance of micronutrients and omega-3 fatty acids (table). Flax seeds may lower cholesterol levels, especially in women.^[10] Initial studies suggest that flax seeds taken in the diet may benefit individuals with certain types of breast^[11][12] and prostate cancers.^[13] A study done at Duke university suggests that flaxseed may stunt the growth of prostate tumors,^[13] although a meta-analysis found the evidence on this point to be inconclusive.^[14] Flax may also lessen the severity of diabetes by stabilizing blood-sugar levels.^{[15] d]}

Gramma's recipe called for 2 eggs, so I used 2 T flax seed with 6 T of water, whirred them up and put them to the side until I was ready for them.

So here is the new and improved recipe for Cowboy Cookies that is completely cool with the cows.

Gramma's Cowboy Cookies

Sift together and set aside the following:
2 C sifted flour (I used regular white)
1 ts baking soda
1/2 ts salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder


In s separate bowl, blend together the following:
1 C Earth Balance buttery spread
1 C granulated sugar (Whole Foods sells vegan sugar*)
1 C brown sugar, firmly packed (I used light brown)


To the butter/sugar mix, add the 2 T flaxseed / 6 T water combination that you already whisked up.


Add Flour mixture and mix well.


Add:
2 C rolled oats (not minute)
1 ts vanilla
1 package semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Guittard)

Dough is crumbly and oh-so-tempting.
Drop by teaspoon on greased cookie sheet (I used parchment paper on a cookie sheet.)
Bake 15 minutes @ 350 degrees.
Set to cool on cooling rack.


Makes about 60-80 small cookies. Prepare to be very popular.

So back to the cowboys. Gene Autry starred in the record above, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I danced my little behind to that record throughout my childhood. I choreographed the whole damned thing and made my very bored family sit through the entire record one fateful Christmas Day while I strutted my stuff. It's a kids' album, no doubt.

There was one song in there, though, that will remain forever a part of my Christmas experience. Sleigh Bells. You may not have heard of it, but here is the actual tune itself.

Now, the part where he sings, "All the kiddies are sleeping, as he rides through the sky. But there must be no peeping, or he might pass you by!" This is the part that completely messed me up for several years. My relatively small ears did not hear "peeping" but "peepeeing." So -- I took it as gospel that if you wet the bed, you were toast. No presents, no stockings filled. He'd pass you by!!


I knew that I couldn't take any chances. And so, every Christmas Eve as bedtime approached, I would obsessively run to the bathroom to make sure my bladder was completely empty. Because you could not be too careful when it came to Santa. He knew if you were good or bad and if you wet the bed. He was omniscient in a jolly but confusing way. I wonder now if my parents thought I had a UTI every Christmas Eve.

Speaking of Autry, I never noticed this as a child, but those reindeer are flying pretty close to him, if you follow my drift. I wonder if he worried about antlers?

Do you have any favorite Christmas goodies that you've veganized or are planning to veganize? Or similar crazy stories? (And let me know if you try Gramma's Cowboy Cookies!)

*vegan sugar: Long before I became vegan, I saw vegan sugar alongside the other sugars and was very confused. What could possibly be in sugar to make it vegan or non-vegan? Well, as it turns out, they used charred animal bones from slaughterhouses to whiten/refine white sugar. Who'd a thought? I'm not too obsessive about this, though. If vegan sugar is available -- which it always seems to be -- I'll use it. If not, I'll use regular sugar.

The Yearly Quest (for DumDums)

The season is upon us. Kids are rifling through their rooms, finding more props for their costumes. And parents are putting off buying the candy because, after all, if it's in the house we're going to eat it, right? It's a tough balance for the adults. Buy it too soon and you're going to make yourself sick eating candy that was meant for trick-or-treaters. Wait too long, and you have less selection to choose from. Oy.

While you ponder that dilemma, I'm here to let you know how you can very easily make this holiday a kind one to animals.

As a kid, I would be overwhelmed with the responsibility of the quest before me. Within those few hours that fall within the acceptable trick-or-treat time, it was open season to get all the candy in the world. The supply was endless. The real challenge, of course, was how to get as much as possible in that short space of time, while being able to keep one's costume looking good. Oh, the pressure! I was always something awkward and big, like a robot or a pack of cigarettes (you think I'm kidding?) so the quest was that much more difficult. I never opted for the cute-yet-sexy-kitty costume or the creepy I'm-a-sexy-baby-girl-in-pigtails-and-pajamas costume. (A big nod of thanks to my parents for pointing me in the right direction. The cigarettes, I should point out, said on one side of the enormous carton, "Don't smoke" with a skull and crossbones. I believed strongly in mixed messages, apparently.) So with building an awe-inspiring costume and mapping the ideal trick-or-treat route, kids have enough on their minds. They don't have the time or energy to devote to deciding which candies are friendly to the animals they love.

As the new generation of grownups -- can that be right? -- it's our job to make this momentous night even greater by selecting goodies that use ingredients that keep our animal friends safe. And I'm sure you agree. So I did the legwork for you!

The most obvious candy that uses animal products is milk chocolate. Milk is not an innocent product and results in the death of all the cows and calves that are part of that industry. (See this link to a past post to learn more -- don't worry, I explain it in a way that won't freak you out.) So empty the milk chocolate right out of that cheap plastic jack-o-lantern because...

Dark chocolate is A-OK! The cows will totally approve and will love you for it!

Less obvious are the products that use gelatin. Many people don't realize this, but gelatin is derived from the collagen in slaughtered animals' skin, bones, and connective tissues. "Ew" on so many counts. There are plenty of other ingredients that seem, on the surface, innocent, but in reality come from some part of an animal. (Even urea -- as in urine -- is used to brown some brands of pretzels. I mean really. Can't we come up with something a little better than that? I wished I'd been in the room when they'd brainstormed that one. Honestly.)

This year, I thought it might be challenging to find vegan candy, but I was wrong. Super easy. Sour patch kids and Swedish fish? Vegan. Not health food, mind you, but vegan. Smarties? Vegan. Doves dark chocolate, Jolly Ranchers, Hubba Bubba gum (oh the memories...), Twizzlers (oh the stomach aches...),  DumDums, Fireballs, and Airheads? All vegan. Here are two lists of other vegan candies you can buy. List one!  and List Two!

This year, we're getting Smarties, which actually has a whole webpage devoted to vegan candy. Hmm.... there must be a market for it lately! (Perhaps this is due to lots of kind people like you milling about?)

And we just bought two big bags of Yummy Earth lollipops. The food editor at the Today Show wrote, "The BEST lollipop I've ever tasted." I was given some to sample at the Maple Farm Sanctuary, and they were UNBELIEVABLE. These are the new generation of lollipops. You may just want to get some for yourself. To hell with the trick-or-treaters. We got ours at Whole Foods. I think it was $5.99 for a bag of 50. Check out the video below about how they make these tasty candies!

This video is a blast! The makers of Yummy Earth show us how their lollipops are made. It's like seeing real-life Willy Wonka Dads. You MUST see this!

(So how cute were they? That video totally makes me want to be a candy maker.)

Does it really make a difference? Will returning those Snickers bars and Mars bars in exchange for some Twizzlers truly change the life of animals? You bet! It's simple everyday choices like these that change the world. We tend to undermine our power. But money talks. Lordy it talks. So take this baby step and use your hard-earned cash to buy something that leaves animals off the plate. Even if you still eat meat and eggs and drink milk, just try this one thing. I think you'll be surprised at how good it makes you feel. 

And stock up on those lollipops. If there are leftovers, you'll be very pleased. :) Heck -- get some DumDums and give those away and save the Yummy Earth ones for you!

Happy Halloween!

P.S. Remember to keep your black kitties safe!

So -- what kind of treats will you be buying for your trick-or-treaters?