Exciting New Product for the Shop!

 We ordered more gorgeous things for our vegan shop today (visit us at www.veganation.co.uk and also listed one of our favourite vegan products- gluten flour!!
  Wheat gluten is the stretchy chewy bit of the wheat, left after the starch has been removed. I have known vegans who have told me of making seitan themselves from wholewheat flour- and believe me, it didn't make easy listening: hours and hours of hovering over the sink, rinsing and kneading, rinsing and kneading, rinsing and kneading.... just terrible!

Cows at Hillside Animal Sanctuary

  So, someone invented robots, or something, to make it for us, and relieved of the burden of all that rinsing and kneading, we were free to discover art and music and occasionally sit down with a hot drink and read a book- actually, no-that never happens!
  Anyway, we really, really like seitan- you can do so many things with it including the most sublime slow simmered pot roast that takes hours and hours to make but is SO worth it!
  I never liked that kind of thing when I ate meat and all that yucky stuff as a child- I always felt strongly about animals and meat was really just too recognisably made of body parts for me, and I was really freaked out by things like gristle- I still don't even know what it actually is, and, before anyone helpfully tells me, I don't WANT to know, thanks.

SUPPER!

  We eat really lovely food as vegans- I have never eaten such amazing food and such an enormous variety of foods: certainly not back when I ate meat (I wish I'd been raised vegan!) and not when I was vegetarian either. As vegans we definitely have to be a bit more creative and inventive in the kitchen, but being knowledgeable about and very involved in the food that we eat seems right and natural to us anyway. So, we make our own pizzas, soups, stews, pies, pasta sauces- all good healthy food with lots of natural colour and we certainly don't feel deprived in any way, but even if I DID feel deprived, I'd do it anyway. As vegans we are very keen to spread the message that veganism is not all about self denial and it's true, it mostly isn't, but I can remember before there was a decent cheese substitute and I really missed cheese!

Pig at Hillside Animal Sanctuary

  I think the point that I'm trying to make is that being vegan is brilliant; it's the right thing to do. It's what has to be done to stop the exploitation and killing of so many wonderful creatures (and yes, vegetarians, your diet IS responsible for the deaths of animals- the grieving mother of the veal calf is a dairy cow) and we do it gladly, And the food is excellent and we love cooking vegan, but I just want to make the point (I seem to be rambling,but there IS a point!) that we aren't doing it for the food, we're doing it for the animals.

Please support us by shopping at the cutest little vegan shop in the world at www.veganation.co.uk