vegan columbus: vegan living in central ohio

Am I the only one in the world that were duped by Quorn's packaging into thinking it was vegan when it wasn't? The letter I received in response to my complaint seemed so scripted and vaguely irrelevant to my claim that I can't help but wonder if this is a common complaint.

I got an email recently from Angela over at knitpicks.com. I wasn't familiar with her or her site before, but it sounds great from her email:

Hi,
I’m vegan, and I work at Knit Picks. Since our new warehouse is actually located in Columbus, OH, I thought you might be interested to know that we have 5 vegan yarns now-
With the addition of our newest cotton/acrylic blend, Comfy, Knit Picks now offers five cruelty free options for vegan knitters starting at only $1.99. CotLin is a DK weight, Tanguis Cotton/linen blend available in twelve colors for only $2.49. Our Pima cotton/modal blend, Shine, is available in sport and worsted weights. Modal is a bio-based fiber made by spinning reconstituted cellulose from beech trees into fiber, and it gives the Pima cotton a lustrous quality akin to silk. Shine sport is available in twenty luscious colors like Blush and Hydrangea, and Shine worsted comes in seventeen different hues. Both lines start at only 2.49 a ball.
Our fifth cruelty free yarn is our Crayon boucle; it’s 100 percent cotton, DK weight, and available in fourteen yummy colors making it the perfect yarn for kids’ projects or for drapey, soft summer knits.
On average our yarns are priced $4 to $7 lower than yarns with comparable fiber content sold by our competitors so they’re worth checking out.
The warehouse isn't open for retail purchases, but I could arrange a tour for you if you ever want to check it out. Just drop me a line at press@knitpicks.com
All the best, Angela

First of all, the title is a reference to this idiotic post on veganism from the "Stuff White People Like" blog. Summary: they think vegans are ineffectual people full of misguided liberal guilt, and they think it's hilarious. (whole separate rant could be written on how apathy is the only thing that isn't "lame" or "liberal" or whatever, but another time.)

So everyone knows that it takes so much more resources to produce the same amount of food when the "food" in question is animal-derived. Some huge percentage of the world's farmland is used to feed "food" animals instead of to feed people directly. It also wastes other resources like clean water and petroleum, since so much more transportation is required to get the grains made, and to get them to the animals, and to get the animals to the slaughter, and to get the meat to the stores, and then to get most of the meat back out of the stores because it goes bad so quickly. It would be much more efficient to use that farmland to feed humans directly.

But does veganism do anything for world hunger?

Naive answer: Yes, because if there's more food for humans then there won't be shortages.

"Educated" (read:hiply cynical) answer: No, because food shortages are caused by economic and geopolitical factors much more complex than simple net food resources on the planet.

No bullshit answer: Yes, because even though the economic and geopolitical factors involved are quite complicated in many individual cases, basic supply and demand economics still factor in significantly in the creation of this problem. When one considers world food shortages in terms of actual examples rather than just an abstract postmodern boogeyman, this becomes clear:

I'm making this tonight to reheat tomorrow for a delightfully lazy Sunday morning before the new quarter starts.

Julie Hasson with Everyday Dish (video after the break)

I had a note up for a while that claimed the croissants at Whole World vegetarian restaurant and bakery were vegan. I got this information from a waitress there who said they were, but was informed today by a different waitress that the croissants contain both egg and butter. Believe me, I'm at least as disappointed about this as you are. Sincerest apologies.

Like Isa from the PPK recently said, I am all for outing vegan "secrets". Things like vegan marshmallows, veganaise, agar powder should not be secrets to aspiring vegans or even regular omnivores! Some things like that aren't even particular to veganism, for example, Steel Cut Oats. I had never heard of these until I picked up vegan cookbooks. I have no idea why vegans seem to be the only ones always promoting them, but I'm glad they do. The Scent of Green Bananas blog has an easily veganized oatmeal brûlée that I can't wait to try out.

Perhaps it's the hype that taking four times as long to cook creates, but steel cut oats may actually be superior...

We recently got this question from a reader:

I see you are planning a vegan wedding in Columbus. My fiancé and I are also trying to plan a (mostly) vegan wedding. I wanted to have a vegan cheesecake for the grooms' cake because he doesn't really like cake. We had a great vegan cheesecake in Norfolk, VA, but I haven't found one in Columbus. Do you have any recommendations? Thanks!

If you post a comment and/or use the contact form to tell me you're interested in meeting up for a vegan knitting circle, I swear on a stack of Veganomicons that I will do my best to try to make these cupcakes for the event! (click image for link to source on veganyumyum.com.)

I bought a coffee grinder at Target (the one on Polaris Pkwy) and I went for the Mr. Coffee "Red Grinder" (Product ID #IDS76) because it was one of the cheapest (about $20 I think) and it's red. It turns out that it's also amazing. Now you may ask yourself, how amazing can a coffee grinder really be? But here's the secret: I don't use it to grind coffee. I use it to grind spices and garlic, and it does a bang-up job on both!

I was an avid knitter for many years, but have sort of dropped off since graduating from college. I've got a big box of unfinished projects, and in the time between then and now I became vegan. So I'm thinking a vegan knitting circle could serve the following purposes: