We all want to live in an equitable world where everyone has the same opportunities to achieve happiness and freedom. But unfortunately, many governments fail to protect their citizens, allowing big corporations to set up shop without proper guidelines to ensure fair wages, benefits, and basic human rights.

The practice of fair trade works to help communities being taken advantage of by corporate greed. It aims to fight for fair wages, humane labour conditions, and environmental sustainability. Some of the industries most affected by unfair labour practices are coffee, tea, chocolate, cut flowers, fruit, jewelry, and apparel.

Garstang fairtrade town

There are many organizations fighting for fair trade practices around the world, but mostly in Latin America, Asia, and Africa:
â?¢ Equal Exchange: Certifies chocolate, tea, almonds, pecans, cranberries, and sugar
â?¢ Fair Trade Federation: Covers almost any imaginable product, including food, flowers, jewelry, clothing, and more
â?¢ TransFairUSA: Certifies coffee, tea, cocoa, sugar, fruit, rice, flowers, and wine
â?¢ VeriFlora: Certifies cut flowers that are also sustainably grown
â?¢ World Fair Trade Organization: Certifies a very wide range of products, including clothing, food, beverages, jewelry, and so on

Unfortunately, not all is crystal clear in the world of fair trade. Fair Trade Certified coffee in particular has been attacked by some who suggest that coffeeâ??s low price is a result of overproduction and not unfair labour practices. They claim that by focusing on fair trade rather than finding other crops for farmers to grow, fair trade organizations are perpetuating a broken system. Itâ??s hard to say whether these problems are true. Most still believe that purchasing fair trade at least means their personal dollars are going to support ethical companies. Weâ??ll leave it to you to decide for yourself.

Want one source for all of your Fair Trade goods? Check out the Fair Trade Online Store that sells coffee, chocolate, tea, food, clothing and accessories, jewelry, and more, all from various fair trade organizations. And for more information on fair trade labels, go to the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International site.

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With the Swine Flu in the news everyday, i thought this was a much needed post

We all have our own reasons why we choose vegetarianism or veganism. Whether you have been a â??veggieâ?� since birth, or if you are for political, health, taste or humanitarian reasons, it doesnâ??t matter. Just add these 10 other reasons to be thankful that you donâ??t eat meat.

If you eat meat, beware. You could end up feeling very, very ill. Hereâ??s a list of illnesses that are directly linked to handling and eating meat.

1. Salmonella Poisoning â?? bacteria found in feces. Causes diarrhea in humans and may lead to death in infants, elderly and immune-compromised.
2. Campylobacter Poisoning â?? bacteria found in raw fowl. Infection symptoms include nausea, headache, backache, fever, diarrhea and abdominal pain. Prolonged illness can lead to arthritis and paralysis.
3. Escherichia coli (E. coli) Poisoning â?? bacteria that is part of the normal intestinal flora. Some strains have been found to cause food poisoning due to fecal contamination of food. Symptoms of infection include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea (sometimes bloody). May lead to death in children, elderly and immune-weak.

4. Listeria Poisoning â?? bacteria associated with farm animals. Causes miscarriages, stillbirths and serious illnesses in newborns.
5. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria from the widespread use of antibiotics.
6. Irritable Bowel Syndrome â?? triggered by eating such foods as red meats, poultry (dark skin and meat), dairy products and egg yolks. Symptoms vary per person and can include constipation, diarrhea, bloating, and general gastrointestinal discomfort.
7. Pancreatic Cancer â?? has been linked to prolonged ingestion to processed meats.
8. Hardening of Arteries â?? a diet high in saturated fats (meat, dairy, fast food) are risk factors linked to the formation of plaque in the arteries that can lead to heart attack.
9. Colon Cancer â?? eating a lot of red meat over a period of time has been linked to increased risk of colon cancer.
10. Heart Disease â?? most instances of heart disease and fatal heart attacks can be avoided by decreasing or eliminating meat from oneâ??s diet.

I’m off to enjoy a nice veggie pasta dish i think ..

I love the Innocent company and look forward to their quirky newsletters arriving every month, eagerly scrolling down to the bottom to see what amusing link delights await me. I love the cute marketing, the colourful bottles of lovely juices, the funky little knitted hats and the fun blog where everything about the company it totally transparent.

But, i am stunned that they have given a 30 million stake in their business to the corporate giants of soft drinks Coke. Coke stands for unhealthy drinks so loaded with sugar that when my baby brother drinks it he bouncing off the walls for an hour.

James Quincey, group business unit president for Coca-Cola Europe, said the group was delighted to be investing in Innocent. “We have long admired their brand, their products and their unique approach to business,” he added.

co-founder Richard Reed of Innocent said “every promise that Innocent has made, about making only natural healthy products, pioneering the use of better, socially and environmentally aware ingredients, packaging and production techniques, donating money to charity and having a point of view on the world will remain.We’ll just get to do them even more.”

But i don’t understand, Innocent employs 275 people, has a turnover of more than £100m and sells about two million smoothies per week, why do they need this involvement from Coke, Ok they can do more work for charity but what harm are they doing in the process. I just don’t see how they can up hold their ethical credentials in light of this, after all Coke was recently made to correct its advertising campaign in Australia because its claims that Coke did not make you fat or rot your teeth were deemed “misleading”.

Read the Twitter feed to see just how pissed some of their customers are http://twitter.com/innocentdrinks

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Vegan margarine replacing dairy margarine

When i first morphed into a Vegan one of my major fears was loosing my beloved margarine on my toast and crumpets, so when i discovered ‘Pure’ i didnt look back. The other great things about ‘Pure’ is its healthy cholesterol levels and a source of Omega 3.

The Sunflower oil ‘Pure’ that i prefer (basically as it tastes just like normal margarine) is FREE FROM:

- Dairy products
- GM ingredients
- Hydrogenated oils
- Artificial colourings & preservatives
- Added flavourings
- Soya products
- Gluten

Pure dairy free spread

Check out the Aldo Zilli’s Monthly recipe using the ‘Pure’ vegan spread as one of the main ingredients and i’ll try and post a few more of these.

Photos and observations from the coolest vegan festival in the UK

I heard about the Vegan Fayre from Ali and thought that it would be something that Minkbaby should pop along to, so i popped. Well i popped, after going to the Brighton Dome finding out the Vegan fest wasnt there and then arriving at the Brighton Centre to find a half naked guy attempting to swallow a pretty big sword. Sorry i didnt take a photo of it, but heres an empty entrance hall and a shiney floor.

The main hall was up stairs and bustling with stalls catering to all kinds of colourful veggies and vegans. They were walking around talking and bustling, â??I mentioned the bustling right?â?� Buy mostly they were looking for Vegan cheese, an obsession I too have felt drawn too. So off I set across to the far end of the grand hall where a number of people were mingling.

So, I found it an entire corner of the room devoted to cheese or rather sheese, the alternative to Dairy and the only thing in the room disappearing at 100 mph, one tiny toothpick at a time. Ok, so.. you ask â??Whatâ??s its like this cheese alternative?â?�â?¦ and I am going to be honest with you, the few little morsels I had at the stab and grab stall I enjoyed. But and thatâ??s a big but, my further purchase of smoked Sheese from my local Deli left me a little cold and I am still missing my old cheese buddy. But i have faith and i am sure i will find it soon.

The Viva stand had me grabbing for as much animal welfare leafletage as i could possibly contain in two hands. Viva’s adverts have impact because of their honesty, a calf sitting on a plate, a man in a business suit suckling from a Dairy cow and the sweet face of a piglet looking out from the glossy leaflet - all making a pretty poignant point individually and all begging the question â??why?â?� not a soft cuddly â??aw we shouldnâ??t eat them, they are cute.. whereâ??s my beef burgerâ?� but a â??Whow, is it really right that they should suffer so much for addictionâ?� kind of question. Viva website

I had a lovely chat to Caroline from ‘Good Oil’ and will be covering the company in more detail in a future post

The Good oil website

Alan knight from international animal rescue is a great guy and they do some fantastic work, the fact that they a few bears off putting an end to the dancing bear trade in India was inspiring. You can read about it and help them on their website IAR

Infinity foods really didnt want to have their picture taken, but i took it anyway. Infinity are the ‘vegan nuts’ they have all you would ever need as a vegan and never leave you wanting more. You can check them out on infinity foods

Being a big fan of Keith Mann a former ALF organiser, this stand was very interesting. I bought the book “Dusk til dawn’ with a picture of Britches the tiny monkey part of the famous ALF rescue and will be reviewing it in a later post. The kid and his mum were lovely and very informed about Keith and his work. You can read more about him here the think bookshop .asp

Caroline was a little hung over but still very professional, she makes all her own vegan chocolate eggs and i couldnt resist buying one for my flat mate for Easter. I’ll be reviewing the egg, once consumed in a later post the chocolate alchemist

This charity is wonderful, they rescue and care for monkeys that are kept as pets in the UK, something that i couldnt belive was still happening here. I am going to pop down to visit them in the next couple of months monkey sanctuary

If you have read any of the other posts you will know that i wasnt too happy about the sentance dealt out to the SHAC members recently. I did ask how they are and the girl on the stand said that they are all doing well, but are all still in prison. I know alot of people find the methods that SHAC use distasteful but i have to say that the methods Huntingdon use are far more disgusting and disturbing. Go to the SHAC website to read about it.

Big shout out to conscious chocolate they are by far the most amasing vegan chocolate company. I took a few bars of the essentia organge oil and mint oil into work and my omnivorous workmates fell over themselves to munch down.

I also met the fantastic Karin Ridgers who runs ‘Mad Promotions’ and ‘Veggie Vision’, i had a great chat with Karin who was busy protecting a plate full of vegan cake and will be writing an article on ‘Veggie Vision‘.

I was very impressed with the Eco Garage, they sell electric cars and i for one think that the funky little orange numbers looked fab. Charging your phone and your car overnight seams like a good idea to me. I’ll go into more depth in a future post but for now click on the image to go through to the website.

I left the festival feeling inspired, the people there were active interesting individuals that spent their time doing and not procrastinating. It was a good feeling being one of them

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The Vegan Society's 30 Day Vegan Pledge 2009

So as some of you may know, I took The Vegan Society’s 30 Day Vegan Pledge in January 2009. I had been meaning to review that experience for a couple of weeks but wanted to let it sink in (and also seemed to have no time at the moment!). I was reminded however by a blog post from Big Green Purse called Ten Reasons Why You Should Eat Less Meat, and suddenly I really wanted to review my 30 vegan days.

Did I lose any weight during my 30 Day Vegan Pledge 2009?

Veganism - not necessarily your key to lasting weight loss

Everyone asks me this because everyone seems to think that all vegans can eat is fruit and vegetables, which would, one might properly reason, result in a supermodel-type physique but not for me I’m afraid.

No, in fact I gained a lot of weight. Much of this was due to my own personal addiction to junk food - I was so panicked at the idea of giving up the food I use to get throught the day (I know, awful isn’t it) that I spent a week eating everything in sight and put on 14 pounds. Not the best start in the world. But I wasn’t worried because I too thought that once I was eating vegan I would lose all those pounds and more. But twas not to be.

An example of the kinds of vegan junk food on offer

I went from regular junk food to vegan junk food - oh yes, the vegan world is awash with meat and dairy analogues, that attempt to reproduce the flavours of animal fats and fluids by piling in the sugar - not exactly a good way to lose any weight, and probably not that great for your teeth either. Some I liked - most I did not like, but either way many were eaten, some in an attempt to sate my junk food monster, some for the sake of trying things out and some because I had to eat something other than tomatos on toast.

I if ever manage to become vegan I will not be eating this vegan junk food - most of it doesn’t taste that good anyway - the makers of the vegan cheeses I tried should be prosecuted for crimes against the human palette! I wondered many times if some of these vegans had just forgotten what cheese and chocolate actually taste like… but anyway, no being vegan for a month did not result in weight loss for me - some of that was just because of my junk food addiction, which I am now having treated by a professional counsellor (diets don’t work so it must be somethnig else) and some of it was just down to the bad vegan food choices I made.

My extreme reaction to this vegan experiment and the associated weight gain at least led me to get some help for what is clearly a mental health issue and notso much about food. So I see that as a plus really.

Were People Supportive of My Vegan Month?

Whoever said being vegan was socially advantageous has probably not tried it

No so much.

My husband was actually great about it and didn’t protest when I refused to cook meat for him. Others were either politely non-commital, a few were slightly passive-agressive about it and some treated me to out-right mockery and derision. I began to dread eating in company.

Once the month was over, pretty much everyone I knew told me that it was basically a silly way to live, which is fine - people are entitled to their opinons but I was surprised at how much resistence there was to my being vegan for a month, when no one castigates me for all the junk food I eat (well not to my face anyway :-D)

Did I have any revelations as to how I could more easily integrate a vegan life style into my life?

Eureka!

I did indeed, but they took a while to surface.

Just after I had finished my 30 Day Vegan Pledge, Claire and I went to Total Raw Food’s open day, and among other things we listened to Raw Food Coach Jessica Fenton talk about Superfoods, Raw Food Veganism and many other things. She also talked about the value of gradually integrating healthier and more ethical foods into our diets rather than trying to switch over night, which often does lead to giving up. I have taken that on board and have started trying to take a more gradual approach.

Have I made any changes to my diet now that I’m no longer doing the 30 Day Vegan Pledge?

Oh yes!

Milk

Milk - Like taking candy from a baby...only worse

I seem to have lost my taste for milk - even to the point where I don’t want it in my coffee, which is a mini-miracle as I have been addicted to very strong coffee with lots of milk since I was about ten years old. Now I prefer my coffee weaker and black, which is healthier for me and kinder to cows.

Eggs

Eeeew!

I cannot eat eggs. I feel too bad for the chickens. Even the free range ones, because free range isn’t really a solution - if every animal we ate/used was free range we’d soon run out of room to grow food for them and us, and we’d be out of space to live. What we need to do is make smarter food choices. Eggs are out for me. That said though, I do eat things that have eggs in them, and milk too - like cake (of course) but I still see this as progress.

Meat

It's just not true

I am eating much less meat and I feel bad about it when I do eat it. I have started making my own pasta sauces (without milk or flour). Basically I cook up some vegetables, such as courgettes, with some vegan stock (it’s nicer than the non-vegan kind, I found), some white wine and garlic then I use a hand blender to mush it, pour it over some wholewheat pasta and bobs your uncle, yummy pasta sauce.

Cheese

Cheese, tastes good, but made with cruelty

I still love cheese even though I know it’s icky and contains cow stomach. I’m eating less of it. That’s about the best I can do right now. Jess Fenton, the Raw Food Coach, also mentioned in her talk at Total Raw Food’s open day, that sometimes the desire for cheese is actually a desire for a pure source of sodium (or something like that), and so I might follow that up as she mentioned a raw form of salt that is supposed to sort that out.

Raw Vegetables

Mmmmm - nicer than I had thought!

I have discovered a love of vegetables that I didn’t know I had - especially raw vegetables. Even now when I’m having a junk food session, I find myself reaching for raw tomatos, cucumber and peppers to go with them, where as before I would have eschewed them. As a result my daughter has developed quite an obsession with  what she calls “OOdumber” or as we like to call it, cucumber. She eats it by the bowl load, but does prefer it with the skin off.  So we’re both benefitting and hopefully she won’t develop the damaging eating patterns that I have.

So what did I gain from you 30 Day Vegan Pledge?

Well that’s a good question.

Here is a list of things I gained form the 30 Day Vegan Pledge 2009:

• Sixteen pounds in weight (eek!)
• Guilt everytime I eat meat
• An inability to eat eggs
• A love of black coffee - I no longer like it with milk, which is kind of a revelation for me as I used to drink it very strong with lots of milk - really bad for me and for cows. And now I don’t do it.
• The knowledge that the terms ‘vegan’ and ‘healthy’ are not necessarily synonymous
• The realisation that I needed professional help with my eating issues and not another ‘diet’
• The recognition that many peoples’ reaction to veganism is one based on misinformation and fear of change.
• The insight that I can transition gradually towards veganism rather than try to make a dramatic switch over night.
• A new found love of raw vegetables

It’s a mixed bag and no mistake, but it is progress towards an eating pattern that is less environmentally damaging, more healthy and more ethical, even if a few of the steps seem to be taking me backwards.

What is your conclusion about your 30 Day Vegan Pledge 2009?

I think it was a good learning experience and it has definitely helped me make progress on the road to becoming more careful with the choices that I make. I’d do it again. I’d probably make more use of my vegan mentor too.

How will all this be reflected in your food choices from now on?

So I have decided that the best way for me to go is to try to have a raw breakfast, a vegan or vegetarian lunch and a free range dinner. Hopefully this way I can start to wean my body off animal products and harmful E numbers and encourage a reliance on healthier foods without stirring up my binge reflex. I think the therapy will help with that too, which can only be a good thing. The only thing worse than finding a problem is ignoring that problem and letting it fester. I resolve to fester no more!

• Have you ever tried to make your diet more environmentally friendly, more ethical, or more healthy?

• Was it easy? Was it hard? Did you give up or are you getting there, one increment at a time?

• Do you also find that you can’t seem to put down the junk food and ricochet from fad diet to fad diet?

• Would you be interested in trying 30 days as a Vegatarian, a Vegan or a Raw Food Vegan and documenting your experience in a review for Minkbaby?

We love to hear from you, so why not get in touch now - ali@minkbaby.co.uk

Total Raw Food Open Day

The Fear

I knew that I was scared of going to this event, and I was pleased to find out that Claire was also scared.

Is it?

I was scared because during my 30 Day Vegan challenge I had observed lots of vegans and raw foodists being quite narky with one another about whether you could wear leather under any circumstances, the plight of bees (i.e. whether or not a vegan can eat honey), and whether or not failing to supplement raw and or vegan children was a form a child abuse (or not) and so on and so forth, at times ad nausea.

Of course there were also lovely sites and forums where this was either not the case of kept to the minimum but I had been a bit shocked by the vitriol I had stumbled across, whenever I found it - perhaps that just shows how naive I am rather than how chiaroscuro the vegan landscape is, but hey…

Vegetarians (and more recently vegans in all their forms) have been perceived by many (including me) as being undernourished hippies, spouting peace, love and slogans like “no food with a face” (yes, I know, I don’t know what I thought animal rights activists were about but there we are…)

The reality is that wherever politics and activism lurks, there too you will find feelings running high and the diligent fervour of the religious convert. Did I mention that religious fervour also makes me nervous?

So when I said to Claire, on the morning of the Total Raw Food’s Open Day, “Let’s not go!” I was perfectly serious. And I am perfectly serious when I say to you now that I am 120% glad that she felt the fear and did it anyway, called us a taxi and made me go with her.

So what was the Total Raw Food Open Day Like?

Although we were technically late by the time we got there, in actual fact our timing couldn’t have been better. We took our seats a few minutes before Tom began to introduce the Barefoot Doctor, and had just enough time to discover and rootle through our Total Raw Food goody bags before settling down to enjoy the office-opening ceremony, some barefoot banter and general warrior wisdom.

The Barefoot Doctor Opens Total Raw Food’s New Offices (but not in this picture)

The Urban Warrior Himself

I would love to tell you all about what Barefoot had to say. Sadly I was so busy listening that it never occurred to me to take notes. This was error number one. Luckily Claire had the wherewithal to take notes, and once she has conveyed those to me, I will replace this apologetic paragraph with a lovely summary of what he had to say.

Unfortunately Claire was not immune from making the odd schoolboy (or girl) error - it was only yesterday that she confessed to me that had thought she was filming the talk and realised about a quarter of the way in that she hadn’t turned the digital recorder on! We have so much to learn! Tom and Jess were miles ahead of us however and appeared to have engaged someone to take pictures and to record the talks, so we are hoping that they will make those available to us so that we can post them on this post.

We were hoping to get to have a chat with the Barefoot Doctor but he had to dash almost as soon as his talk was finished, so we settled for vegan fruit punch and some chit chat with the other attendees.

Jess’s Raw Food Demo

Following this was Jess’s raw food demo, which included useful information about the raw super foods she was using (origin, quality, ethical supply, practical uses in food and health benefits thereof). The proof of the pudding is traditionally in the eating, and Claire and I were delighted to be presented with raw vegan chocolate ice cream to try.

Now for anyone who hasn’t tried any kind of vegan substitute for dairy (cheese and chocolate are the worst offenders here), you should know that there are many products out there that profess to be just as good or even better than their dairy counterparts and, for the most part, according to my research so far, most of the purveyors of these non-dairy substitutes must have pants that are currently on fire.  By and large, the word ‘yuck’ doesn’t begin to cover it. During my 30 Day Vegan Challenge I would frequently wonder if other vegans have been vegan so long that they have forgotten what chocolate is supposed to taste like in the first place. Perhaps this is how they appear to have been so easily duped. But I digress…

Well, I was ready for an experience like that. Yuck. What I got from this raw chocolate ice cream was one of the smoothest, richest, most chocolaty ice cream experiences I have ever had. Seriously. YUM! If this is an example of Jess’s raw food desserts, then I am going to have to get myself her raw food desserts DVD demo.

We did get a chance to have a brief chat with Tom and Jess, but they were understandably pretty busy making sure that everyone was getting the most out their open day. They were both very friendly and Jess looked radiant - a raw food vegan diet is clearly not a problem, even during pregnancy - I certainly didn’t have Jess’s energy when I was 34 weeks pregnant!

It would have been nice if…

It would have been nice if the demo could have been done on a raised platform, so that people at the back (like Claire and I) could have seen the demo rather than just heard it. Or perhaps the demo could have happened more towards the middle of the room, with onlookers in a kind of semi circle. Aside from that though, the day seemed to go very well, with herbal teas, fruit punch and raw vegan snacks on offer and lots of super foods and other raw products on sale for those who wanted to shop without the usual p&p charge, and take advantage of the 10% discount that was offered to us that day.

We met some lovely people, some of whom were vegan, some of whom were raw and some of whom were not. No one made caustic comments about my leather boots. Everyone seemed very open minded and interesting, which was lovely. I was so glad that my online experience was balanced by meeting people in the flesh. I can’t wait to meet more vegans, raw food or not. I am much less afraid, and I am ready to make raw ice cream ASAP!

A Gentle Way to a Vegan Diet

An easier way to get on board with vegansim

The thing that really struck a chord in me though was something that Jess talked about during her demo - the idea of introducing quality, natural whole foods into your diet and observing that a person who does so will most likely begin to phase out other kinds of foods, without having to forcibly deprive themselves of the unhealthy foods they like.

This not only makes a lot of sense to me because I want to continue eating as I did before my 30 Day Vegan Challenge but also because I do have a food problem which is exacerbated - triggered, even - by my trying to cut out the junk foods that I crave. As soon as I try to ‘make myself’ eat a certain way, I am beset by uncontrollable urges to binge. If I donâ??t censor what I eat, the binging doesn’t happen.

Jess’s words made me feel hopeful because I had started to think that ethical and healthy eating could only have an effect on you if you ruthlessly and wilfully eradicated all but the purest foods from your diet, which did not bode well for me. Listening to Jess gave me a new perspective - a less extreme approach that may help me to improve my eating, from an ethical and healthier stand point, in a gradual and therefore more attainable way. So thanks for that Jess, and we wish you lots of luck and health for the rest of your pregnancy and all that comes after!

Brits - Pigs and Jamies mission to change it

After last nights superb ‘Chickens, Hugh and Tesco too’ where the Celebrity owner of River Cottage, Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall rallied support from Tesco shareholders to try and change the supermarkets ‘dark ages’ approach to ’standard chicken production’.

As part of the ‘Food fight series’, this Thursday sees celebrity chef Jamie Oliver do the same for the pig. Jamie is calling for UK consumers to boycott EU pork until they change their use of sow stalls. Sow stalls are vile contraptions that contain a female pig for around 16 weeks at a time, usually during pregnancies and during most of the piglets feeding. The stalls are so small that sows are unable to turn around, clean them selves and infact all they can do is lie down. Pigs aren’t the ‘dumb animals’ that we ‘the consumer’ are led to believe, they are extreamly intelligent animals that can solving complex puzzles.

In tests it has been shown that piglets can recognise themselves in mirrors, pigs can play video games better than chimpanzees and they show a level of not simply following commands but considering those commands and being creative with their thinking, showing an awareness of themselves.

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver

The EU is not taking any action on removal of sow stalls until 2013, which Jamie considers is putting our UK pig farmers on an unfair playing feild and could mean that UK pork is soon off the menu forever.

The UK pig farming industry still have a long way to go before they meet the concerns of people like myself, when tail docking, tooth clipping and castration are all done on young pigs without anaestic in the UK and most pigs are still keep in doors, even though the labelling on the pork says “outdoor rearered’, and they arent given any kind of activities to stop them from becoming clinically depressed.

Sows trying to sleep in tiny sow stalls

I only hope that Jamie’s highlighting of the cruelty to pigs rasies an awareness to the plight of pigs and maybe make UK consumers think twice before buying EU pork in the future and consider the welfare of our own British pig.

When you see a pack of sausages next or grab a hotdog from the cinema, remember that that was in fact ta pig, a creature more intelligent than your dog and with their own personalities and foibles. (like Cinders, shown below who hates mud).

Piglet 'Cinders' wearing her pig wellies

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Organic Waffles, anyone?

The Mink Baby and I had a stressful morning today, during which she managed to get her little 18 month old finger caught in the door handle of my car. I don’t know how she got her finger in there but the only way I could see to get it out without compressing it further was to pull the finger out (out of the door, not from out of her little baby hand,) which led to a bleeding and bruised baby finger, a howling little Mink Baby and one MInk Mama at the end of her rope.

Having tried to calm her by administering a plaster with cartoons on,  giving her milk, her favourite bear (Spencer), “In the Night Garden” and her favourite Paddington book, all to no avail, a still sobbing Georgie agreed to stop crying if she could see her Nanny.

Nanny

After some ringing around it transpired that Nanny was located at her swimming morning, with The Salmon Club, where she (thankfully) was not swimming but rather sitting on the door, checking people in and out.

So off we went to Nanny, who proved to be an excellent remedy for Georgie’s damaged finger (so if you ever hurt your finger and can’t stop crying, and you don’t have your own nanny to hand, we can rent Nanny out to you for a minimal fee…)

To thank Nanny for all her finger-kissing, Georgie the Mink Baby and Ali the Mink Mama took her out to lunch at The Waffle House in St Albans, where she had recently said she wanted to go, and where I knew I could get a delicious, vegan-friendly spelt waffle, with houmous, avocado and chilli sauce.

(Or so I thought - I checked with the waitress and was assured that everything I ordered was vegan friendly - only later did it occur to me that this person may not know what is vegan and what is not, so I’ll be giving them a  call to check later, after the lunch rush. I do know that they are a vegan-friendly establishment from reading this, however I also read this, which made me think perhaps I was wrong to eat the waffle, even though I asked for a spelt one. I will find out and update this review as soon as I can find out what the score is - I’m new to this, so bear with me!)

I have discovered that waffles are great. I don’t own a waffle iron but from what I can tell from the back of the packet, Birdseye Potato Waffles (besides being waffley versatile,) go really well with almost anything I want to eat (and sometimes with absolutely nothing on them.) So I am always up for waffles (as long as they’re vegan, of course.)

The Waffle House in St Albans has been around for over twenty five years, specialising in delicious sweet and savoury Belgian waffles with many organic and free range ingrediants. They are eco-conscious, child-friendly. What more could you possibly need?

The service was good and pretty fast, considering how busy they were already (we got there about midday). They are usually very busy between 12 and 3, especially in the summer, so be warned!

One thing I love about The Waffle House is that it is close to town, so you can pop in for lunch there and then go shopping, or you can go shopping and then pop in there for lunch.

Likewise, you can take your kids to Verulamium Park to feed the ducks and play on the swings, wear them out and then take them to the Waffle House for lunch (the kids, not the ducks).  By this point, the children should hopefully be too tired and hugnry to do anything but eat! Perfect.

Or you can take your children to The Waffle House for lunch, after which they fall asleep (if they are young enough) and you can go for a peaceful walk into the park, the pub, into town etc. If they are too old to fall asleep, you can take them to the park and let them run it out before going home. You get the idea.

Of course you don’t need to have children to go there. People without children can also enjoy The Waffle House.

If you find yourself in the area (St Albans in Hertfordshire, England) then you should definitely check it out, (or you could try The Waffle House in Norwich, which is the same company) whether you’re vegan, vegetarian or an eco-conscious omnivore.

Have you been to The Waffle House, either in St Albans or Norwich?

What did you think? Why not leave a comment and let us know?

Or email me at ali@minkbaby.co.uk

Related Articles:

Reviews of The Waffle House, St Albans, from TheRestaurant.Guide.com

Reviews of THe Waffle House from VeggiePlaces.co.uk

Plamil Organic Chocolate Spread

I know I’m posting a lot of about vegan food, but these are the eco products I’m buying the most at the moment.

There wll be more gadgets to come but for now, to the important things in (my) life, the important questions, such as what does a vegan eat when she has a chocolate jones on?

Answer - Plamil Organic Chocolate Spread.

Before I get into my review, let’s look at the product and its manufacturer in more detail…

Plamil Organic Chocolate Spread - Background Information

This chocolate spread is made by Plamil Foods Ltd, an award-winning company who produces products that exclusively avoid using animal, dairy and egg products, so they are all suitable for vegans. Furthermore, all their products are nut and gluten free.

Plamil Foods Ltd are also very eco-conscious:

“Ethics are always high on the agenda with us, that’s why we score so highly in magazines such as Ethical Consumer. For us it’s not just about sourcing ingredients but it’s through the whole way we do business. We’re proud of the fact that all the energy we use to make our products, even to run our computers, is all sourced from 100% renewable source.” [link]

Plamil Organic Chocolate Spread -Taste Test

I have sampled a reasonable amount of allegedly chocolate flavoured products that are also suitable for vegans. I have liked some of them and will post about them later.

This one goes first because Plamil Organic Chocolate Spread is the very first one I have tried that I have not only liked, but that tastes so good, I’m willing to bet your wouldn’t know it wasn’t normal chocolate if no one told you.

The only thing that really differentiates it from regular chocolate spread, sensation-wise, is the texture, which is kind of firm, which can make it a little harder to spread than regular chocolate spread, especially if your kitchen is very cold. Also its texture is a little grainy for a chocolate spread in comparison with most chocolate spreads that I have tasted, such as, for example, Nutella.

The kind of cake I aspired to make with Plamil Organic Chocolate Spread

I haven’t tried to bake with this spread yet, but I expect that warming it will help and mixing it into other creamier products will make it smoother - I was thinking a chocolate cream mixture to go inside the Ogran Gluten Free Chocolate Cake Mix that arrived (finally!) with all my other goodies from Goodness Direct.

Apparently Plamil Organic Chocolate Spread is also good for spreading on your lover…(not sure there’ll be any left by the time my husband gets home…)

Don’t get me wrong though - Plamil Organic Chocolate Spread tastes so rich and chocolatey that I would be very surprised if anyone who usually liked chocolate was put off by an unexpected but entirely unoffensive texture.

Ingredients

Raw Sugar*
Sunflower Oil*
Cocoa powder (13%)*
Soya Flour*
Palm Fat*
Emulsifier: - sunflower lecithin

* from controlled organic agriculture, which benefit both the local population and environment. Organic Certification UKS.

Nutritional Information (Typical Values per 100g)

Energy           580  kcal
Protein              8.3g
Carbohydrate  48.4g
Fat                  40.2g

Eco Snack Conclusion - 4/5

I really like it! In an ideal world it would be easier to spread and smoother. If they could do that, it would be a 5/5 for sure!

£2.18 Plamil Foods

£2.15 mungodeli (Limited delivery options)

£2.40 Goodness Direct

Related Articles

• Dairy Free Chocolate Valentine Day Heaven For Chocolate Loving Healthy Eaters & Vegan Valentines

• The Chocolate Room - Vegan Chocolate Listings & Recipe

Would you like the chance to try Plamil Organic Chocolate Spread for free?

Contact me now to find out how!

ali@minkbaby.co.uk