I was quite lucky to meet Buhbah in August after the great Vida Vegan shindig went down. We are discussing top secret vinegar pie recipes in this Buhbah Friday photo.
Buhbah Friday
3
Author Archives: Panda With Cookie
Panda Bakes Cheerwine Cookies
Today panda bakes Cheerwine cookies. If you aren’t familiar with Cheerwine, it a a soft drink made in North Carolina that is cherry flavored fizz and sugar. I am a fan. And I decided to use it is a cookie recipe to make some very pink frosted cookies. All the coloring in these comes from the Cheerwine. I often take these to friends at the local ice creamery who keep lovely vegan flavours in stock.
Vegan Blogs From Back in the Day
For my Tuesday posts for Vegan Mofo I wanted to take a look at a couple of blogs that I have read for a number of years and that made a big difference in my becoming interested in veganism. Although many blogs had an influence on me, most of the ones I started reading 6 or so years ago are no longer around.
Today’s feature is Vegan Eats and Treats, written by the lovely Amey. Her blog has been around for a number of years and she always has something new and fun to share. She travels! She draws! She posts videos of her dancing dogs! How can you not want to keep her with what she’s cooking in the kitchen?
Known for her forays into cuisines from the world over, her Vegan MoFo theme last year featured a different country each day along with a hand drawn map tracing the month long blog journey. She recently canned 4,000 pounds (may or may not be a slight exaggeration) of tomatoes. She does giveaways for her hand drawn recipe zines. I’ve met her a couple of times in person and she is absolutely delightful. Check out her new Facebook page and keep up with what the gang is up to. She’s doing a spice a day for this year’s MoFo and you know you need to know what happens with the anise.
Panda Bakes Chocolate Cherry Bread
Panda here. I am comandeering Thursday at Vegans on the Move for the month of October and Vegan MoFo. I hope to post some baked goods each day for you enjoyment. We here at Vegans on the Move may not have the greatest food photos or the fanciest cameras but by gum, we have Buhbah. And Buhbah approves of my 1970s goldenrod counter backdrop so you know the bread’s got to be good!
This week I have a loaf of chocolate cherry bread I made from the recipe over at C’est la Vegan. I had a lot of cherries that needed to be used up and an overabundance of cocoa powder so I greased up the ol’ loaf pan and threw this together. It takes about an hour to bake and was a nice afternoon snack with a mug of tea. I left the knife and crumbs in the corner to class this joint up a bit.
Wingbean
Wingbean is a new all vegan food delivery service operating in Asheville, NC. Each week they have a new menu posted on their website and orders are accepted through Friday. Come Monday morning their delivery fleet heads out to drop off orders throughout the area. So when you come home that evening you have delicious, all vegan food waiting right on your doorstep. Food comes in insulated bags to ensure freshness for up to eight hours.
Wingbean is a collaboration between partners Pamela Lalik and Scott Myers. Pamela has been cooking and blogging in the vegan community for many years and Scott has been a small business owner for seven years. The Asheville area has a great program through Blue Ridge Food Ventures that allows aspiring business owners use of an industrial kitchen and also advice for navigating the ins and outs of running a food centered venture.
Ginger cabbage deliciousness
In late July the Wingbean website went live and a week later the first orders went out. Menus rotate weekly and although some dishes repeat thus far most have been different. Each single order consists of 3 entrees, 4 side dishes, a large soup, and a small dessert. Pamela and Scott focus on using local and organic ingredients whenever possible and are able to offer orders that are gluten free.
Wingbean provides an excellent alternative to families or individuals who are trying to eat better and fresher food but may not have the time to get themselves in the kitchen. Check out their Facebook page to keep up with announcements and if you’re in the Asheville area you can order directly from their menu page.
Vegan Mofo is Almost Here!
We’ve been a bit quiet here this week as we prepare for Vegan Mofo starting October 1st. The level of awesome food and vegans on the move and Buhbah is so great that we needed a week to get ready. Excitement is on the way! And if not, we have cats and you can’t beat that.
Blog Raffle for Ride to the Light
Ride to the Light is an annual 100 mile bike ride to benefit Lighthouse Farm Sanctuary, Out To Pasture Sanctuary and Hope Animal Sanctuary. Over at Don’t Eat Off the Sidewalk there is a blog raffle contest entry of fun going on. If you make a donation to the cause and then send Katie your receipt she’ll enter you into a drawing for Herbivore store credit, your choice of Herbivore shirt, a cookbook from the team of Celine Steen and Joni Newman, Liz Lovely cookie vouchers, a herbivore cross necklace, pins from Teeny Tiny Tantrums or artwork from Amanda Chronister. Each $5 you donate gets a chance, so if you donate $20 you’ll get 4 entries. She’ll be drawing on September 16th, so get your donation in today! All proceeds from the ride go to the three animal sanctuaries listed above.
Vegans on the Move for Sunny Day Farm Animal Sanctuary
Brooke with friend at Sunny Day
Sunny Day Farm Animal Sanctuary near San Antonio, Texas, has had a hard summer. With severe drought conditions the price of feeding and watering their animals has gone up and they are at a critical point right now. A number of people in the area have been working on numerous fundraisers to help the animals at Sunny Day.
A group has gotten together to run the San Antonio Rock and Roll half and full marathons on November 13th as Team Sunny Day and has a fundraiser page to accept donations. There was a big bake sale on August 27th with proceeds going to the sanctuary.
The lovely Celine from Have Cake Will Travel donated a copy of Hearty Vegan that will be raffled off at a Gathering of the Tribes potluck in the Austin area October 1.
The Sunny Days in Texas cookzine was compiled and is now for sale for $10 at both Herbivore and Food Fight in Portland, Oregon, as well as in the Austin, Texas area. If you are interested in one, leave a comment or be in touch at vegansonthemove@gmail.com and I will figure out a way to get one to you. All proceeds go directly to Sunny Day. Cristina, a friend and visitor to Sunny Day has set up a personal donations page to help raise money. The sanctuary also had a hay bale challenge to raise money that ended in August but you can read more about their financial worries here and see the idea behind the challenge. I am donating a dollar from each of my Tofu Pirate Comic zines sold and hope to raise enough to send money to buy a full bale of hay.
We wanted to give a shout out to all these vegans on the move for working to help out a place they love and coming up with numerous creative ways to help raise funds for animals in need. If you can, consider a donation or simply remember some of the ideas listed here to help out the animal sanctuary in your area.
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Vida Vegan Con
Waffle from Flavour Spot courtesy of Jill from Vegan Cuts
I am thrilled to have been present at the first ever Vida Vegan Conference for vegan bloggers in Portland, OR, at the end of August. I was there representing Panda With Cookie (as I am the only panda with cookie) but I arrived early to hang out in Portland and enjoy the multitude of food and activities planned. I spent my first few days roaming the SE and NE neighborhoods to get my scone and waffle fix. I was able to grab a late breakfast at the Flavour Spot Waffle Cart which has 3 locations and some damn fine vegan waffle options.
The fabulous Native Bowl food cart courtesy of Jill at Vegan Cuts
Anyone who talked to me for more than five minutes learned of my obsession with the scones from Dovetail Bakery and they did not disappoint with a blackberry jam option the morning of my visit. I also organized a trip up to Native Bowl on Friday afternoon to hit up the food cart owned by Julie Hasson and finally get a Broadway Bowl for lunch. It may have been a bit out of the way from the con location but it was absolutely worth the trip.
While at the con, I got to meet a bunch of bloggers I love, such as Mo from Mo Betta Vegan, Amey from Vegan Eats and Treats, Bianca from Vegan Crunk, Kristina from SpaBettie and Marika from the Madcap Cupcake. Due to my tabling responsibilities I only attended 3 panels, the Vegan Battle Royale (Team
Vegan Battle Royale courtesy of Vegan Crunk
Vegan Destroyer!), Terry Romero’s talk about storytelling and blogging and the Reality, Identity and Blogging panel. Vegan Battle Royale was pure fun. The other two talks had some good information for me as I work to keep this new blog relevant and interesting for my readers.
A highlight for me was the Saturday night Galarama that helped to raise funds for the fabulous Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. Jenny Brown is one of the best advocates for the animals that I have met and it was a pleasure to be there and see her again.
The organizers are planning the next event for 2013. I will be there, searching out the scones high and low.
Thanks to both Vegan Cuts and Vegan Crunk for use of their photos.
The National Museum of Animals and Society
Carolyn with Ramona at Farm Sanctuary
The National Museum of Animals and Society was begun in January of 2010 by Carolyn Merino Mullin. The museum is a nonprofit corporation in California “dedicated to enriching the lives of animals and people through exploration of our shared experience”. Carolyn spent some time answering our questions so we could spread the word about this interesting new museum which is just getting started.
VOTM: What made you interested in the idea of a museum dedicated to the shared experiences of humans and animals? How many people are volunteering with information and articles?
Carolyn: Spring cleaning. That’s what initially made me interested in the idea of an animal protection museum. While I was heading Farm Sanctuary’s California Education Department in Orland, each spring we would get in gear for the next visitor season, tossing outdated materials, including videos, leaflets, banners, etc. To me, that was history being discarded. It made me question what other sorts of artifacts were being destroyed and what still existed from our movement to protect animals and elevate their status in society. And our movement is not a new one. We began around the same time as the efforts to abolish slavery, reform prisons, and pursue children’s welfare and women’s rights. It’s simply incredible that there are museums solely dedicated to those social justice movements, but not ours.
The National Museum of Animals & Society (NMAS) does go beyond animal protection; we address human-animal interactions and relationships. In telling our story (I like to call it “Our Shared Experience”), we inevitably tell about the good, the bad, the quirky, and the fascinating and how we’ve expressed that through many disciplines, including the arts, film, religion, philosophy, etc.
We’re an all-volunteer effort at this point, with two staff members and 3-4 interns at any given time. With our dedicated team, we are able to offer classroom presentations, downloadable coloring books for kids, informative articles and blog posts.
VOTM: The National Museum of Animals and Society is currently an online museum. Are you working towards a permanent building, and if so, do you have set goals for location and time of opening yet?
World Fest exhibit
Carolyn: We are a mobile museum. The idea is to take the museum experience to the people. We go to parks, schools, festivals, and other venues with our latest traveling exhibit, “Our Shared Experience”. Future mobile and online exhibits are in the works!
But we recognize that we can still reach many more individuals online than in-person, so we do offer our educational materials online at our website.
We are definitely planning to have a brick and mortar facility. On average new museums give themselves about 10 years to fundraise, plan and design their edifice. (Anyone who’s interested in donating can do so through our ChipIn campaign!) Our location is still being determined and will take into consideration many factors. A large metropolitan city with great public transportation, such as Washington DC, would be ideal, but I’m partial to year-round sunny places like Los Angeles. LA is bursting with animal-friendly individuals and there is clearly a need here for our humane education programs.
VOTM: What sort of ‘in person’ type events or exhibitions have you done?
Carolyn: This year we’ve had a lot of fun getting involved in different communities in Southern California. In Ventura, we’ve partnered with the local library to put on storytelling and reading festivals. Humane Education is one of our core outreach programs. To date, we’ve reached nearly 1,000 students in LA-area classrooms tailoring our presentations to meet the needs of teachers and addressing everything from wildlife issues to animal agriculture.
Right now we’re finalizing the details on our Fall Lecture Series which will be going to 4 cities in 4 months in Southern California and partnering with local co-sponsoring organizations, including the Animal Protection and Rescue League and Go Vegan Santa Barbara. For the Love of Animals author Kathryn Shevelow will be joining us in San Diego and for our symposium in Santa Barbara we have Paul Shapiro from the Humane Society of the United States, UCSB professor Jo-Anne Shelton and a screening of Forks Over Knives. We’ve swirled around the idea of a film festival for next year.
The glamorous home of The National Museum of Animals and Society
VOTM: What sort of reaction have you gotten so far from the public?
Carolyn: The public has been tremendously receptive, and most everyone is surprised to learn that there isn’t already a museum of this kind. And whereas Civil Rights, Women’s Suffrage and other social justice movements have their own institutions housing their history; they’ve also made it into history books. The Caroline Earle Whites and Henry Berghs of this world deserve recognition and so do the animals they sought to protect.
VOTM: What are your goals for the museum? What do you want people to come away with from a visit (either through the website or in person) to the National Museum of Animals and Society?
Carolyn: Good question! I want the Museum to have a beautiful, modern building with exhibits that immerse visitors in the subject matter and stimulate them to consider their relationships with animals: from those they regard as family to those that may be on their plate. Museums are no longer cabinets of curiosities that leave the visitor to make what they will of the objects on display. They are places to evaluate who we were, who we are and who we can be. Animals need to be a part of that discussion. As a society, we have values and generally we like to consider ourselves a “humane society”. How can the Museum explore and foster that? Figuring out the best way to achieve that while exploring the human-animal bond will be our greatest challenge.
VOTM: Can you also tell me about other work that you do for the animals? I know you do reviews at VegBooks. What else are you up to?
Carolyn: I do review kiddy books at Vegbooks, which I greatly enjoy and have been doing for a few years. I’m relatively new to the LA area, but have been getting involved in the animal advocacy scene down here. There is incredible energy and momentum. Just last week over 500 folks showed up to protest the cruel treatment of animals in Ringling Brothers Circus. I think that’s a first in history. But what I find somewhat ironic is that members of the Jack London club, a humane youth organization of the 1920’s, were able to convince Ringling to stop using animals back then. Granted that only lasted four years, but who knew? Our history is rich and inspiring.
For readers interested in upcoming events, there is Farm Sanctuary’s Walk for Farm Animals which takes place in cities across the country and raises critical funds for the organization’s rescue, education and advocacy efforts. I’m coordinating this year’s LA Walk and we’re hoping to help meet the national goal of $1 million. The LA Walk will be held on Saturday, November 5th in Pasadena and will be by far the best one yet. I hope those from the area who are reading this will participate!
VOTM: Do you have any upcoming events you’d like mentioned?
Carolyn: I encourage everyone to sign up on our listserv, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and on our blog. Through these fun mediums, you’ll learn about new exhibits, upcoming programs, historical and contemporary information, and newly acquired artifacts.
