How to contact New Leaf Vegan !

Email Dale Ball at vegeats@gmail.com with questions or comments, and recipes from events.   I'm working on setting the blog up to be a little more user-friendly  :)
Thank you for your patience!

Dale Ball

Portland, Oregon and the Let Live Conference

I flew West from Virginia to Portland , Oregon on the 24th of June to attend a weekend of  animal rights and vegan advocacy workshops and meetings.   The Let Live Conference was organized by Student Animal Liberation Coalition, with support from Let Live Foundation as well as local area businesses such as Herbivore Clothing, and Food Fight Grocery. Total immersion  in animal exploitation issues for a several days in a row could be very difficult, but the organizers kept things mixed-up to keep the optimism and spirits high.   There was an animal rights themed spelling bee the first evening.....a  lot of fun, a little educational, and a great ice-breaker to relax everyone.   We came from all over the country and from many different perspectives, but advocating for the voiceless unified us all.
Jasmin Singer from Our Hen House guided several of the workshops and discussions, providing both framework and humor to the topics.     Gary Lowenthal from Compassion For Animals shared his experiences with animal rescue and tips and in developing the World Wide Vegan Bake Sale .   Isa Chandra Moskowitz, author of many great cookbooks, sat on several panels and offered her take on food activism.

Pictured below are , from the left : Glenn Gaetz, Lauren Ornelas, and  Christopher Greenslate in one of the workshops.   And some neat cast cement gigantic diatoms as sculpture on the streets of Portland....nice !

  
A strong showing of  very active, very brave activists who were hosting this event  implored us all to dig deeper and work beyond our comfort zones to be more effective advocates.   I am inspired by their dedication and applaud their work.  Check out the Let Live link for the list of speakers and exhibitors.
It's really hard to pick just a few favorite speakers, so I will close with two new-to-me people and their grassroots organizations that are working for positive change: Lauren Ornelas of the Food Empowerment Project and Glenn Gaetz Liberation BC.

Off To Portland June 24 !

New Leaf Vegan Society is going to Portland ,Oregon !   Well, at least I, Dale Ball, will be going....!

I'll be attending the upcoming Let Live Conference from June 25-the 27th...check it out !   Looks to be mostly local folks as speakers, but Portland is now such a vegan mecca,  it's  natural that it should be there.  There will be speakers coming from the East coast as well....Jasmin Singer from Our Hen House, and Gary Loewenthal of  Compassion For Animals and the World Wide Vegan Bake Sale are flying out.   I myself am coming from Northern Virginia, and am looking forward to a few days of vegan immersion.  Can't wait to visit the Vegan Mini Mall and eat at some of the vegan restaurants in the area !
This year's  conference ( the 3rd ) is...." focusing on creative activism, expanding activist skills, and building relationships in the movement and beyond".   Sounds great.
Oh, what does the stink bug in the Coreopsis have to do with anything ?   Nothing  !   I just liked his ( or her...who can tell ??? )  position on the flower in my window sill.  I set it free outside a few minutes later.   We were "visited" by hundreds and hundreds of them over the last 8 months.   It is kind of hard to get too worked up about them.   the worst they do is sometimes go off and set up a stink, but they don't destroy anything or sting or bite.   Mostly they just die.   In the window sills, behind the plants, in the plants' pot, in the cabinets, under the bed.....

Cinnamon Buns

The need to make these came as a surprise.  After all, Winter baking is behind us, and the flurry of baking for a tabling event with Jocelyn for Valley Earthfest in Berryville, Va ( see her nice coverage of that on her blog Vegan Family Values ) and a few contributions to Gary Lowenthal's World Wide Vegan Bake Sale in Falls Church ( with help from my daughter ,Libby ! ) had me up to my elbows in flour and sugar and nose buried in recipes online and in cookbooks.  I thought I'd had enough for a while.  The outside calls......tomato plants needing planting and staking and caging.  Lettuce and beets need thinning.  And  the  weeding never ends, of course.  But thoughts of  soft warm, yeasty cinnamon buns kept creeping into my brain.   Then I was at Vegan Baking.net, and saw this recipe, and figured it was meant to be !    I had a few alterations in mind, since I have a Bob's Red Mill bag of coconut flour  (a by-product of making coconut milk )  and have been curious about using it.   I ended up only using 3 Tablespoons, along with an equal extra amount of liquid ( as recommended ) because this stuff really sops up liquids !   And instead of using margarine in the dough, I used some avocado oil I had.    I also subbed half of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat pastry flour....replacing 3 tablespoons of the wwpf with the coconut flour.  I used oatmilk in place of water.    The dough was pretty soft, but boy did it rise and stay risen !  I had left out any raisins or nuts, since this was my first time using that recipe, and didnt want to waste any more ingredients than necessary ....if they didnt turn out !
The filling is great....brown sugar, maple syrup, margarine and cinnamon...mix it all up and spread it on the rolled out rectangle just before rolling up and cutting into 8-12 pieces.   Thank you Mattie, over at Veganbaking.net for continuing the research and development of vegan baked goodies !   Next up :   Mattie's fudgy brownies...he sez they are the Ultimate !  

Earth Day Events Coming Up!

Even though New Leaf thinks every day is  "Earth Day"  (of course !) we  do like to participate in festivals that highlight our connections to the planet, and spread the good vegan word :)   We will be at  two awesome celebrations this month.   The first one is Valley Earthfest, in Berryville , Va. on the 18th, organized by the indefatigable  Cheryl Ash.  In it's 3rd year, this event combines heart felt , grassroots exhibits and vendors with fantastic music and a small town, family-oriented feeling.  Jocelyn, of Vegan Family Values fame, will be there with her family to help reassure folks that, yes, you can raise awesome, healthy vegan children !
We are also planning to join in on  the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale that day with yummy vegan baked goods !

The other event, Earthday@Loudoun is happening the following weekend on Sunday the 25th, outside of Leesburg , Va.  This will be its second year, and if it is anything like it's first year, they should expect several thousand enthusiastic people to visit and learn what they can do to lighten our footprint on the planet while having fun.  Lori Seidmeyer and Oya Simpson team up and bring together lots of diverse vendors and exhibitors to satisfy just about everyone...and New Leaf is honored to be one of them!

Look for our tent at both events, it'll be packed with free information on how easy, delicious and Earth-friendly going vegan is, as well as nice people to answer questions, and a chance to win a free vegan cookbook  !

Some Compassionate Easter Candy Ideas

Here's a link to a post I came across this morning for some great looking Easter goodies
Even though our kids are 31 and 27, I am going to give the Cadbury Creme Eggs a try...I think I even have some little eggs molds somewhere. I'll post a picture when I get them made.

Vegan Irish!

Here's some fun things to cook and drink ( of course! ) for St. Patrick's Day on the 17th, from Vegweb!