Crystal is our featured Mofo Vegan on the Move today. She has a relatively new blog this year and decided to join the Mofo ranks with Naked Vegan Lunch. Crystal and her partner Trevor live in London, Ontario, with their two cats and fully vegan fridge. She agreed to answer a few of our questions about blogging, shelter cats and cooking for the non-vegan.
How long have you been vegan?
3 years. It feels like forever, though, because I can’t imagine being any other way.
What sort of vegan outreach do you participate in? I believe that the most effective outreach is being a knowledgable and positive resource for people. Everyone has known someone who knew some vegan who was a real downer to be around, or who was allegedly really unhealthy. I think the best thing I can do is to help change that perception with the people around me and within my community. I aim to be really passionate about that in a way that comes across to people as a really positive thing. I want to show people that it’s not difficult or limiting to be vegan. Oh, and that the perception of the sickly vegan who is barely surviving on twigs and berries is totally not the way things are.
Tell us about the blog you are mofoing at and what its focus is. Naked Vegan Lunch started at the beginning of 2011. I’ve been a reader of MoFo since 2008, but now that I’m a blogger, I wanted to participate. Our ongoing theme throughout the weeks is veganizing traditional Hungarian dishes. I’m half Hungarian and my love of cooking really started as a young girl in my grandma’s kitchen. It seemed fitting to pay tribute to that for my first MoFo.
Why did you choose to do mofo this year? It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I signed up last year but got cold feet last minute. Cold feet over what? I’m not really sure, but it seemed like a lot of work and more of a commitment than I could make with my then non-existent blog. This year, I decided to just run towards the challenge, and just do it already.
What’s your favorite vegan thing to make for skeptical non-vegans? Something sweet! I think a lot of people have this idea that veganism doesn’t include things like brownies and cupcakes. Presenting someone with a cupcake is about an unoffensive as it gets. Once people start nomming, their response is usually “This is vegan? Wow, you wouldn’t even know! I thought vegans only ate salad.”
Are your cats from local animal shelters? Tell me about them. My two kitties are indeed shelter kitties! Gershwin has been part of our family since 2003. Trevor and I had just moved to Toronto and I knew that I needed the companionship of a cat to help me settle in my new surroundings. The shelter was filled with gorgeous cats and we really loved them all. However, when we set eyes on Gershwin (that was his name in the shelter), it was like, “That’s our cat.” It was love at first sight. Same thing with Tristan (also his shelter name), my little ginger snuggler who came to live with us in May 2010 at just 6 weeks old. He was in a local rescue foster home with other cats. I saw him on Petfinder, and again it was like, “That’s my baby.” So we went and picked him up, and now the 4 of us are inseperable. I plan on getting a tattoo at some point to honour the impact that they’ve both had on my life.
Isa Chandra Moskowitz, with the help of friends throughout the internet world, has posted The PPK 100 over on the PPK blog this week. Get on over there and check it out! I haven’t blogged here in over a year but that post really exemplifies why I had started this blog in the first place. Someone doing something positive to promote veganism. And even beyond that, Isa is promoting 99 other people/blogs/bakeries/businesses that were out and about in 2012 spreading the good word Vegan in the best way possible. In an age of increasing use of social media as a way of promoting oneself what a nice reprieve to see someone celebrating contributions from all over.
