Just curious, are there any veg. homesteaders around?

-- Helen (bluechicken@wildbearnet.net), June 06, 2000

Answers

I have been vegetarian for quite awhile. My husband is not. The children are hybrids. I only serve meat when my husband starts to complain(about 2-3 times a month). My reason for not eating meat is not because of animal rights. Originally I started to cut down the fat in my diet, later I became aware of the hormones and antibiotics that was in commercially raised meat. This is my first year of growing my own. Chickens, turkeys and our own goat for milk soon. I can raise hogs at a relative's farm next year. I didn't this year because I already had so many new projects in the works. I think I will probably always prefer lower fat fare from the garden, but it's nice to have the best of both. Denise

-- Denise (jphammock@earthlink.net), June 06, 2000.

Helen, I gave up meat several years ago because I lost my immune system due to use of chemicals! I was 5'8' tall & weighed almost 80 lbs when I gave up meat--& started useing natural remedies. I will always have problems when I'm around any form of chemicals---but changeing my eating & doctoring have changed my life! I give all the honor & glory to God--as all the doctors had sent me home to die! My system can no longer cope with any form of meat now! If I happen to get food seasoned with meat drippings--or any form of meat ---it is like I have a really bad case of the flu!!! Most people don't understand if someone doesn't eat meat it will make them VERY, VERY SICK if they do eat it! I was raised on a farm with meat & potatoes at each meal! Since I have gone vegetarain--I entered a world of wonderful food --I never would have experienced! Also presenting the food I fix now is also a part of the joy! I just ate food before--now I think about what I eat & enjoy it! Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), June 06, 2000.

Sonda, Have you found a way to fix dishes that taste as though they have meat in them? Or do you find that you no longer need that taste anymore? I once bought some of those "Vegie burger" things when they first came out. Oh!! they were awfull! I tried them again recently in the hope that by now they would be much improved. Still awfull! Was thinking of getting a vegetarian cookbook. I don't think we could cut out meat completely but definitely need to improve our diet. Please share one of your favorite recipes. All best wishes, Pauline

-- Pauline Adderley (tworoosters_farm@AltaVista.com), June 06, 2000.

I've beena vegetarian for most of my adult life. I ate chiken and fish for a few years because I hadn't paid enough attention to protein and was getting sick fairly easily, so I ate the lighter meats maybe three times a month. But since last July I haven't touched it and now it makes me sick if someone puts a drizzle of grease on something. You are absolutely right Sonda, people don't understand the stomach aches unless they are or were vegetarians.

My reasoning behind becoming a vegetarian was that I don't feel that I should eat what I can't kill. Seems that we are very removed from our entire food chain as a society and if someone else takes care of the yucky part we can just pretend it doesn't exist. Of course I realize that plants are alive, too. I also realize that life feeds on life, but some cycles are a lot quicker than others.

-- Doreen (livinginskin@yahoo.com), June 06, 2000.

My family is vegetarian, and we definitely do it for the animals! As for yukky tasting veggie burgers, well, I hate to slam a brand name, but Boca Burgers are inedible. Morningstar Farms, (green box, frozen foods section) have a big variety of "meatless meats", as they're called, and they are very, very good. It's important not to over-cook these products or they become tough. We eat them about 4 times a week in some form or other.

-- Shannon (Grateful Acres Animal Sanctuary) (gratacres@aol.com), June 06, 2000.

Pauline, I typed you a message & while I was doing it my daughter sent me an instant message & I lost what I had posted for you---so here we go again! No, I do not eat that, what looks like meat stuff! (except once in a while my grandsons want to have a hotdog & marshmellow roast, so I buy those veggie dogs--they aren't good but -- it sure beats eating what body parts are in meat hot dogs!)I'm going to list what are the web sites I have written down in my web book for vegetarain recipes--ok? www.wegweb.com --- www.vrg.org.com --- www.cyberveg.org/navs --www.vegsource.org ----www.all4vegan.net www.iva.org/recipes/ ---I am not vegan as I eat cheese, butter, milk, etc. I use less & less but I do still use some! The hardest thing for me is living in Ks. where there is one in 500 places to eat that really has something I can eat! They think a lettus leaf & a baked potato is what I live on! I use to just eat---now I know what is going into my mouth & I enjoy what I eat! Presentation of the food is a real joy for me also! If the people who eat meat had a good vegetarain meal fixed for them --most would not ever miss that meat again! My hubby eats very, very little meat now! (and only does when we eat out!) I eat lots of grilled or steamed veggies of all kinds! Look at the recipes--there should be lots to choose from! Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), June 06, 2000.

www.vegweb.com is what it is suspose to be I hit too many w's -- sorry! Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), June 06, 2000.

We are vegetarian most of the time, simply because store meat is expensive and so contaminated as to be inedible. I was a teenager when I stopped eating meat, partly due to a favorite goat that had strangled to death on a tether, which my parents then butchered and ordered us to eat. when I stopped eating meat, they said that I would waste away and eventually die(!), and that I would not have a feminine figure,etc, all of which proved to be false. We now eat meat maybe two or three times a month, usually homegrown or from friends who have grown it. A couple of times I have gotten a craving for meat and bought store meat, and then when it was prepared, it had a nasty, urine type taste, not at all like the home grown beef our friends grow! I really like the garden burgers, of course they don't taste like meat, but they are good in their own right. They can be put in a toaster for a quick lunch. We don't buy them though, because they aren't cheap. I don't really see a lot of point in analog meats, if a person really wants to eat meat, why don't they eat the real thing? A lot of people seem to have the notion that vegetarians live on brown rice and beans, salad, and alaflfa sprouts! We use the moosewood cookbook a lot, and tend to eat a lot of pasta and soups as well. It is interesting that people have come up with hundreds, maybe thousands of ways to serve meat, and meat is only one food. There are hundreds of vegetables, grains, and fruits that are commonly eaten in only one or two ways. Potatoes are a good example of how versatile a vegetable can be, also tofu. When meat is out of the way, you learn how to use other food in new ways.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), June 07, 2000.

Thanks Sonda! I'll check out these sites. Maybe like you I will gain a new interest in cooking. As it is right now I usually don't think about food until my stomach starts to grumble or my hubby calls to say he's about to leave work. I'm also the worlds worst at remembering to take something out of the freezer in time for supper. If there's the option of pitching out the barn or cooking I'll take the barn in a heart beat!! thanks again, Pauline

-- Pauline Adderley (tworoosters_farm@AltaVista.com), June 07, 2000.

No one really asked, but...my absolutely favorite vegetarian cook book is The NEW Vegetarian Epicure menus, with 325 all-new recipes, for family & friends by Anna Thomas (1996). Reading this book changed my way of thinking about food and gave me great new ideas for my garden. I love this book! I first found it at the library and kept checking it out so often that I finally bought my own! The fresh corn tamale recipe is now a summer favorite - we live in corn country, don't you know- and the fresh tomato recipes are sooo good. I got an ice cream maker at a garage sale just to try the ice cream & sorbet recipes...Oh, dear I could go on & on! Honestly, I read this book from cover to cover. All good, real food. Not a speck of tofu in it! I think you will like this book, too.

-- Jean (schiszik@tbcnet.com), June 07, 2000.

we are semi vegens,we eat meat about 3 times a week[hubby complains other wise]We just went to the greatest veggie restaurant called greens in san francisco and the food was heavenly. They had the most exquisite crispy ginger pear cake which was better then chocolate [ i love chocolate]and they seared there swiss chard with pine nuts and seasonings tell lightly wilted it was fantastic and a cheese tart with spinach, I hold that meal against any with meat.a good quick veg meal when its hot is to sear a large onion in olive oil [ about 1/4 to 1/2 cup] tell light brown, add chopped tomatos and can cut up olives [with a little olive juice] pour over noodles and mix well then enjoy.

-- kathy h (saddlebr0nc@msn.com), June 07, 2000.

Great, I love reading everyone's responses and reasons for going veg. My family, consisting of my husband and I and our 3 kids,we are vegetarians since 9 years. We are not "militant" or in-your-face animal rights people. Just embracing many of the reasons for eating lower on the foodchain. And we feel great and are thankful for all the good food available to us. I try as much as possible to only buy whole foods and organic foods and cook everything from scratch. It is frightening when you read labels and half of the stuff you can't even pronounce let alone figure what it is. Kids respond very well to vegetarianism. It makes sense to them. We don't eat our cats and dogs and horses, so why should we eat our pigs and cows? They sometimes give me a hard time about eating the eggs from our chickens saying they are babies, but I tell them not all eggs are only if a rooster is around and active! I too will check out Vegetarian Epicure. It's one of the books I have looked at many times!! I have used Laurel's Kitchen a lot, and all of Molly Katzen's books and various websites. Happy Cooking to all, Helen

-- Helen (bluechicken@wildbearnet.net), June 07, 2000.

Helen, We have been mainly vegetarians for about 15 years, sometimes vegan, sometimes fish/egg/dairy vegetarians. It is funny how our kids have turned out; my eldest (at first raised vegan) has now chosen to remain mainly vegan (except for ice cream!) and my other 2 go back and forth on the philosophical implications of meat, fish, and dairy (all at a tender age of 6 and 4) My dillema is that we have chickens and I want to feed them (the chickens) something a bit more organic than the chicken food we've been giving them, who knows what's in that food, and I can't justify even having chickens if we are to feed them this(PURINA) Any suggestions?. We don't eat the chickens, so we also have a difficult time with hatched out roosters....the last people swore they were going to cook them up for homeless people in NC, and then we found out they were fighting them!So we don't have a surplus chicken outlet now unless we eat them, which no one wants to do here. Just the eggs. I personally love the Vegetarian and Vegan homesteader recipes in Carla Emery's book (Country woman's Encyclopedia) and I have an allergy cookbook that I use for myself, but feel good that our children get a good variety of flours, nut butters and vegs using it so they don't develop allergies from over-use. It is called FREEDOM FROM ALLERGY COOKBOOK by Greenberg and Nori. Over 450 easy recipes, mostly vegetarian. Also, if you want to "hunt" vegetables,my friend publishes a bimonthly newsletter WILD FOODS FORUM with featured seasonal edible wild foods and great resources to expand the vegetarian's pallette. It is published in Virginia Beach, and available if you write PO BOX 61413 Virginia Beach, VA 23466-1413 It's $15 a year for six issues, and worth every penny.

-- Michelle Maggiore (mmaggior@mindspring.com), June 09, 2000.

It makes me very happy to find that so many of my Countryside friends responded to this question. I've been a vegetarian for many years, and I bet a lot of you will relate to this story....When I was twelve, my Dad decided he would save some money by raising our own meat. I was the oldest of six kids, four of us girls. I was Dad's helper. He said, over and over, "Honey, don't get attached, these animals aren't pets." Of course I named them all, and as any twelve year old girl will do, I fell in love with each and every one. I can't even write this without crying!! This was thirty years ago!! I cannot eat meat without seeing a pair of trusting eyes. Shannon, I'm with you. My goal is to own land and do rescue work. I live an hour from Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, N.Y. It's quite a place. In the meantime, I run the kitchen in a healthfood store, and love helping people learn that eating meat-free isn't boring or difficult. When I started dating my honey several years ago (he's 6'2'', 200 lbs) he was supportive of my food choices, but was sure he needed meat to stay big and strong. He's done a lot of reading, and come to the conclusion that from a health perspective, he's better of without it. We don't live together - he does most of his own cooking, and I'm delighted that he made the decision to not eat meat two years ago.

-- Cathy Horn (hrnofplnty@webtv.net), June 11, 2000.

I almost forgot...The Greens Restaurant has two great cookboks, but my favorites are by Lorna Sass, "Complete Vegetarian Kitchen" and anything written by John Robbins. Also, Farm Sanctuary has a website and a wonderful cookbook, "Vegan Vittles", starring some of their earliest rescues.

-- Cathy Horn (hrnofplnty@webtv.net), June 11, 2000.

Cathy,were can you get the greens cookbooks? what are they called and who wrote them? thanks for info

-- kathy h (saddlebronc@msn.com), June 11, 2000.