Oakland Plant Will Make Meatless Burgers!

http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/03/23/oakland-impossible-meatless-burgers-ramp-up-production-at-new-facility/

Uh, oh. The Rain Was Bad for Produce

Too bad that after such a long drought, the heavy rains this past winter damaged some crops and is now delaying the planting of other crops.

Tara Duggan is the one who often reports on food, and two days ago (Wednesday, March 22, 2017) she reported that the continued rain is already causing nationwide produce gaps and high prices for products like lettuce, greens, strawberries, broccoli and cauliflower.

Apparently in March the production shifts from Arizona dnd Coachella and Mexxico to salinas Valley, at least for some items.

At Happy Boy Farms, flooding wiped out crops, carried away small equipment and destroyed a tractor and motors that run pumps for its wells in two fields.

http://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/California-s-vegetable-farms-still-digging-out-11017533.php

Dear Abby Shares trend "Freeganism," Free and Vegan

In a March 16, 2017 letter, a writer calling herself "Grossed Out" describes her father's "dumpster diving" although she doesn't use that term.  She's concerned about his serving this food to guests.

After Jeanne Phillips advises her to alert the relatives if she can't convince the father to let them know the source of the food, she adds a much longer PS:

'A World wide trend I heard about recently is something called "freeganism."  (The term is derived from a cross between "free" and "vegan.")  Freegans "rescue" food from behind markets to share amng themselves to combat food waste, and in Paris, France, there's even a restaurant that serves food procured this way for a reduced fee. ..'

 I found an article on this Paris restaurant:

https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-04-08/paris-restaurant-freegans-fight-waste-cooking-food-diverted-dumpster

Delancey Street Vegtarian Dinner for CCSF Shining Stars

Last Sunday's dinner offered by Carol Fregly at Delancey Street Restaurant for CCSF Shining Stars was special in a lot of ways including being vegetarian and, for the most part, vegan.  I think there was a milk-based dip, but aside from that everything was something vegans would choose to eat:  Crudites, Corn Chips and Salsa Cruda, salad with balsamic vinaigrette, breads (?), Moroccan Vetetarian Stew  and, for dessert, fresh berries in Grande Marnier and chocolate dipped biscotti.

(I suspect that the biscotti were not vegan, but they COULD be!)

For more on the event (without the vegan focus), here's a link:

http://theccsfsfconnectiontinamartinretiree.blogspot.com/2017/03/ccsf-shining-stars-hosted-by-carol.html

Vegan Products, One through the Mail

Just got back from treating two friends to lunch at Greens, where Javier, Sandy, Paula, and I had two delicious vegan desserts (after lunch, which was mostly vegan).

But what I came in to share are two vegan products farily new to me.

The Original Sausage "just add polka" is what I used for sauerkraut at my post-Oscar Monday party, and it was good!  I didn't see it at Trader Joe's this last visit, but I did find it at Lucky!

The other is Follow Your Heart Vegan Egg, which I got through Amazon and haven't tried yet.

I have tried Net Egg for the Tortilla de patatas, and it tasted fine but I didn't like the visibility of it--sort of coagulated.  I've tried only the Neat Egg, and it held things together, but I didn't like the consistency of it--the way it looked, sort of coagulated gray.  But maybe that's because I used aquafaba instead of water with the egg--not their recommendation.

I plan to continue to experiment with tortilla de patatas.   I know the Neat Egg says the contents are just garbanzo beans and flax seeds.

Spoken Word Illustrates Plate-to-Plate Vegan Pilgrimage

I made myself finish my plate-to-plate vegan pilgrimage this morning because I want to move on and it was already so long!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDaIlEwQ8D0 

There are so many things I'd change about it if I had a higher standard!  But at least this is from the heart! 

Joshua Garcia --Did He Really Want to Hear from Vegans?

This is how the announcement came to us:

AN EVENING WITH THE STARS! NBC VIDEO JOURNALIST JOSH GARCIA, WED. FEB. 22 AT 6 PM

On Wed. Feb. 22 at 6 pm, meet Josh Garcia, NBC Videojournalist and creator of the hit series, "The More You Know."

Josh is currently filming a brand new travel series on VEGAN and ECO travel. Josh and the Electric Vegan Smart mobile are coming to the Bay area & San Francisco to seek out and capture on video the best in Plant-based cuisine, Eco-friendly travels and Outdoor Adventure sports.

Josh will be sharing with us about this vegan travel series. And he wants to hear from you! During the evening, he would like to do some interviews for NBC, about vegan ethics, food questions and other topics.

Be in on this cutting-edge event! Meet Josh, find out about what he is doing and, if you like, be featured on this exciting NBC series.

This will be a great opportunity for Bay Area vegan activists to have your voice heard, on a national scale. Don't miss this event!

To start the evening, enjoy a delicious, full-course vegan dinner planned by a certified nutritonist. People LOVE Patricia's dinners!! Find out why. Come experience it for yourself. ALL vegan, ALL health-supporting and ALL you care to eat! Bring a container and take some home with you!

He talked a lot about his route to fame and how much he wanted to "make it."

He was much more charming when he started showing his home-made and then more professionally-made videos.

But he never showed an interest in talking to any of us.  I approached him before dinner about my plate-to-plate pilgrimage saying honestly, "I'm interested in talking to you and hearing what you're doing."

He only mentioned his series on Vegan  and Eco travel.

He also didn't give us anyway of contacting him!

An Open Letter to Farmshop, Larkspur

Dear Managers/Decision Makers/Staff of Farmshop,

Before I give you over-all praise and make a suggestion, I want to give a special thanks to Rene, a staff member who ran after me (quite a distance!) when I left my shoulder bag at your restaurant yesterday.  I had two other bags and failed to pick up the third, which was the most important of all!

We love your restaurant and eat there regularly.  Your dishes are delicious and innovative.

My suggestion is that you add a vegan entree to your menu.  I know you prepare seasonal dishes, and that's wonderful.  It  would be great to see an entree listed, and it might be easier on both the servers and the cooks to have something already established.  (I certainly have been impressed with what they come up with on the spur of the moment.  I'm attaching a picture of the entree as well as of the starter-dish without the cheese.)

Two months ago, the cooking staff prepared a vegan entree for me, and another customer at a nearby table saw it and said, "That looks good!"   She hadn't known that it was possible to get something not on the menu.

Also, I heard that your cookies were awarded recognition by Oprah Winfrey's crew.  Would you consider creating one that's vegan?  I usually just bring in something from Mariposa's bakery, which has a lot of choices.  But I'd like to support your baked cookies if you ever have ones that are vegan. 

Lots of wishes for continued success!

Tina Martin

Farmshop Larkspur Has Great Vegan Dishes--but Not on the Menu!

Just look at this sumptuous dish:

And this one!

 But vegan dishes aren't on the menu except for the humus with guacamole and pine nuts, which is delicious.  It's not an entree.

At our request they were able to put the cheese on the side of the artichoke dish, and it was spectacular.  Once when I ordered a special-made vegan entree, another customer wanted one too, but she only knew of the possibility because she saw mine.  It wasn't on the menu.

I knew they didn't have an vegan desserts, so I brought in some--from Mariposa at the Ferry Building in SF.

No, Aquafaba Can NOT be Used in Place of Garbanzo Bean Flour

So now I now for sure.  Aquafaba (of which I had a quart--from four cans, I think) cannot be used in place of garbanzo bean flour.

This morning I had only 1/3 cup of Neat Egg, so I used that along with 2 cups of aquafaba, and the tortilla de patatas didn't congeal.  When I saw this clearly, I added 2/3 cup of garbanzo bean flour directly to the flying pan uncongealed mass, and right away I saw better results.

I plan to give up on my aquafaba and start experimenting with different recipes for tortilla de patatas.

Sjaak's Vegan Truffle Assortment

Yesterday at the Loving Hut, where Javier and I had brunch--always delicious and 100% vegan--I saw a box of Sjaak's Dark Chocolate Truffle Assortment.

Since most chocolate candy has milk products, it's nice to see an attractive alternative.

Taco Tuesday at a Zumba Class in Los Angeles

One of the perks to being a donar to Vegan Outreach is that I get personal e-mails.  I even got help in finding a place that could provide vegan "chicken" for my post-Oscar party.  (More about that in a separate post.)

Here's something on Taco Tuesdays!

https://www.facebook.com/VegansOfLA/videos/1731800753800688/