Miriam Jones of Eastern Shore Sanctuary on Animal Voices 11/10/09 at 11am!

When I was driving up to Vermont to deliver some rescued fighting roosters to Eastern Shore Sanctuary and Education Center last month, I listened to several podcasts from Animal Voices. One of them was from June, on Why Cockfighting Must End. I was surprised, and a bit frustrated, to hear these rooster advocates state during their interviews that they didn’t know of anyone who did rooster rehabilitation.

Eastern Shore has been doing rooster rehab since 2001. They’ve written articles on their process, they’re in at least one YouTube video, law enforcement is more and more aware of their rehabbing ability, and now instead of Eastern Shore having to try to convince law enforcement to release confiscated fighting roosters to the sanctuary, law enforcement calls them. This is pretty significant.

Yet, the oddity is there – more people outside of the movement seem to be aware of Eastern Shore’s rehabbing than people inside the movement! I mean, think about it: the rooster rehab is featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal in 2005, yet, people advocating for the roosters don’t know about it in 2009? What’s wrong with that picture?!

I wrote to Animal Voices, asking them to consider doing a follow up on the Cockfighting show, by talking to Eastern Shore about the rehabbing. A few weeks later Miriam (of Eastern Shore) emailed me to say they’d asked her to be on the show!

And the date of that show is tomorrow, November 10, from 11am – 12pm EST, on cuit.fm. If you can’t hear it live, it will be posted to their website (animalvoices.ca) and to iTunes about a week after the show.

I’m really excited about the interview. It seems incredible to me that only one sanctuary in the entire country does any rooster rehabbing. And that so few people seem to know about it.

There are a lot of great links on Eastern Shore’s website. Definitely worth taking a look at what pattrice and Miriam (co-founders of the sanctuary) have written on the topic.

7th week of Izzy-Morty cuteness

As cute as the little piglets were when they first arrived at the sanctuary, I enjoy them more each week. To see them grow and develop, to see their personalities emerge, it’s very rewarding.

I saw them meet some of the young adult pigs through the fence. Izzy and Morty are too young to go into the pig yard, but they’re all very curious about each other. Especially the young adult pigs.

They clearly think of Terry as their mom, and so they tried to be wherever we are. They’d follow our voices to find Terry. This meant that they had to be put in their stall in the chicken barn when we let the horses out, so that they weren’t in danger of being trampled. After we were doing the chicken barn chores, however, they were let back out. And we had an overload of cuteness. They’re about the size of most of the chickens, though of course they weigh much much more. Even little as they are, they’re solid.

As we indulged in watching them root around the outside of the chicken barn after the chores were done, Terry remarked that because they’d both come to the sanctuary on the day they were born, they’ve never known anything but love.

It’s remarkable, when you think about it.

I also learned that usually they have their tails cut, ears notched, and their teeth cut on their first day of life. No pain killer, of course, no anesthetic. Not that either of those would make the mutilation okay, but the lack of it makes it that much more horrifying to think about.

My piglet video this week is longer, as requested! There was better video opportunity this week, and I also made sure to let the video run longer to satisfy those who can’t get enough of the cute little guys. You’ll notice when they’re in the chicken yard what they’re doing to the grass growing around the chicken barn. If you’ve ever wondered, from pictures taken in the main pig yard, why there is no grass growing there, I think that Morty and Izzy demonstrate exactly why that is!

Victor and Hugo: Turkeys at Poplar Spring

This month all of the pictures I post will be in black and white; I’m participating in Black and White November. It has nothing to do with anything other than photography, but for those interested, it is an idea originating with springtreeroad.com, and there is an associated flickr group. So if you’re surprised to suddenly see only b&w pics on this blog, there you go, that’s why.

Last weekend at the sanctuary I was captivated by the turkeys. The arrival of the three new turkeys has changed the dynamic in mostly interesting ways. The three new arrivals are more active, spend more time outside – they are younger, and that might be one reason. Since they are outside more, it seems that Victor and Gertrude are outside more often as well. Opal prefers to stay inside, basking in the sunshine she can find in the barn.

Victor is still the head honcho of the turkey tribe, but Hugo and the two females he came with tend to stick together. I was thrilled when I saw one of them part way up in a tree on Saturday. It was exciting to me to see something like that, it was such a wonderful bird thing for her to do. Dave says that they sometimes go higher up in one of the other trees. I’d love to see it.

It highlights some major differences between the new arrivals and the turkeys like Victor and Opal. The new arrivals, much like Gertrude, are much smaller, much more mobile and agile. They were perhaps bred for entertainment or for a certain look as opposed to immense size. Opal and Victor, on the other hand, have the mangled genetics that came from the human desire to have them grow as large as possible as quickly as possible. Their bodies are too large. Opal is further hindered by the fact that her toes were partially amputated.

So as Gertrude, Hugo, Giselle, and the not-yet-named third new arrival hop nimbly onto perches, and trot through the yard, or climb a tree, Victor and Opal limp ungainfully around.

It breaks my heart to see.

And yet….and yet, Victor doesn’t want my pity or my heartbreak. He struts, chest puffed out, feathers on constant display, his snood long and colorfully ostentatious. He circles around us, making sure he is always noticed. “Here I am!” his limping strut seems to say, his trills and puffing of air announcing his presence.

I was videoing the new three on Saturday when I heard the tell-tale trill followed by “poof!…thump…thump….poof!…thump…thump” to my left and slightly behind me. I stayed where I was, and sure enough Victor came around me, strutting, and making sure that we are all aware that no matter how pretty and fascinating the newcomers are, it is Victor who we should all be taking note of.

Victor makes me smile. It is heartbreaking what has been done to his body and the bodies of his unlucky brothers and sisters who are sent to slaughter at a few months of age, but Victor himself? He is the victory, the rescued one, the safe one, the proud one.

Morty and Izzy, week 6

I swear there are other animals at the sanctuary, not just Morty and Izzy, but I’m pretty sure it is expected by now that I’ll be posting an update on them every week that I am at the sanctuary.

I learned something interesting this weekend. Something I’m actually glad I didn’t know until now! Based on the somewhat scanty information that Terry and Dave were able to find online, they had seen in several places that piglets rejected by their moms had only a 50% survival rate. But they also found more information on one site that went into more detail. Piglets are normally 3-4 lbs at birth. If they are 1lb or less, their survival rate is 17%.

And Morty, the big one, was 1lb at birth. Izzy was half that. Oh, and I had thought that Morty had been given the chance to nurse once, for that incredibly important colostrum…but I was wrong. Neither of them had even a drop of it.

They’re pretty much miracle babies, and I have no doubt that the care Terry and Dave gave them is a huge part of why they have made it.

Not that they are out of the woods yet. For all we know, they could always be more delicate of health, though so far they actually seem pretty sturdy. Izzy had some times, especially in his first couple of weeks, when he didn’t do so hot, but it seems to have been an issue of nutrition, not susceptibility to infection.

Here’s a video of them from this weekend:

They’ve outgrown their playpen and are in a stall now in one of the chicken barns. You can hear one of the roosters crow – I think that’s Marcus. They’ll be in this stall for a few more weeks, and then when they get bigger they’ll be moved into the quarrantine stall in the pig barn. And eventually they’ll start spending time in the main pig yard. They’re really just too little right now. Big enough to get into trouble, small enough to wiggle through fences to find it!

Today is World Vegan Day, the beginning of World Vegan Month. If you needed a couple reasons to go or stay vegan, seems to me Morty and Izzy are about as perfect of reasons as you can get.

My final VeganMofo post for 2009

This final post means I’ve actually completed the minimum posts according to the rules. It’s been a stretch for me, but was perhaps a little easier than last year. Talking this much about food is not an easy task, and it’s one that definitely makes me realize (again!) that food bloggers take on a challenging task.

A fun one too, but it is no small amount of work!

Oddly one of the biggest challenges for me ended up being the earlier and earlier nights. Natural light just works so much better for photos, but this is a time of year when the light seems to leak away at an alarming rate.

I met some very nice new-to-me bloggers:

• Tasha, The Voracious Vegan
• Jeni, the Heathen Vegan
• Vegan Primate, I, Bonobo
• Niki, the Melbourne Vegan
• Bekcy, from Glue and Glitter
• Mo, at MosettaStone
• Laura at Veganlicious, Blogalicious
• Shanna at Funky Sunflower Foods
• Mindy at Veg Out With Us!
• Melisser, The Urban Housewife

I also feel quite honored to have been included in the the official VeganMofo Headquarters roundup on two occasions!

My go-to resource in my not-very-successful attempt to keep up with the other bloggers was the VeganDojo, which I found to be an amazing resource!

There were many other new-to-me people who commented as well as many of my long-time blogging or in-person friends, and I’m always happy to have people commenting! Thanks also to the link-love from Animal Rights at Change.org, Easy Vegan and Vegan Soapbox and Liberation BC on my Blog Action Day post.

I’ve probably forgotten others who deserve to be mentioned, and I certainly have done a spectacularly awful job at visiting most of the bloggers who took the time to leave comments for me, let alone the others in the greater VeganMoFo world! I vow to correct that in the coming month as best I can, which I might just treat as my VeganMoFo catch up.

One of the disappointments (other than the fading light) was that it took so much time for me to participate that I didn’t get to do much spectating. And I think that means I missed out on quite a bit! I might just take a different tact next year, and focus entirely on all the other participants! We’ll see, next year is 11 months away.

Thanks to everyone, and hopefully I didn’t bore everyone too much with my food blogging. More piglets to come, I promise.

In the meantime, I feel enriched to have met so many new-to-me bloggers, and seeing their creations and blogging fills me with awe and gratitude. There are some amazingly talented people out there, and hopefully it helps show the world just how awesome vegan food is.

Carob Molasses Cake

A year ago, miranda chelala left me an interesting sounding recipe in the comments of my “If you had carob molasses” post.

Hi all you carob molasses lovers. Yes I live in Beirut so carob molasses is plentiful and used daily as a dip at breakfast or in the afternoon as a snack. You mix tahine (sesame seed paste) with the molasses in a small bowl and use pitta bread to dip and eat. Yummy. You can also make a cake with carob molasses. Here is the recipe

2cups cake flour
2 cups semolina
1 cup corn oil
11/2 cups carob molasses
21/2 teaspoons baking powder

Heat oven to 300 F or 180 C . Place dry ingredients in a bowl mix togther. Add oil and molasses. Mix well. Use our hands its perfect. Prepare a round cake tin by lining with greaseproof paper and smoothing some tahina over the paper . Put the mixture into the tin smooth the top with wet hands and bake for approx. 20 mins on 300F or 180 C or until it is cooked. Cut into small squares once cooled. Absolutely wonderful and so easy to make. No sugar, no eggs, no butter. It’s good for you . Enjoy

I made it tonight, and I’m hooked. I used white spelt flour, because I didn’t remember to get All Purpose flour last time I was at the grocery store, but I don’t think it had any impact. Or maybe it did. See, the 20 minutes was a lot more like 1 hour 20 minutes for me. Maybe it was done before then – it is a very dense fudgy cake, so it’s possible that I was over cooking it. Or maybe it was actually too low of heat, but … I think that the long cook time at a relatively low (for a cake) heat worked out well. Maybe someone with more cooking / baking knowledge can weigh in here!

It is rich and dense and just as moist as you’d expect with a cup (a cup!) of oil in it, and yet it has a nice crispy top. The flavor is earthy and a little (but not overwhelmingly) carob-y. It’s nothing like the fluffy frosted cakes that we tend to have in this country. It’s not a cake that you have huge servings of. It is almost-not-sweet, and yet it is, actually, sweet. Sweet in a way that is not from sugar.

It’s hard for me to describe adequately. It’s something of an addictive surprise, much the way the Dibis Bi Tahina was. So maybe it’s the carob molasses I love most of all.

I love that it is such a simple cake, and that it is fairly fail proof. (I think I proved that!) I love that it’s not at all the typical cake, though I know it would not appeal to everyone. For instance, someone recently told me in detail how much they hated molasses. This is not a cake for that person!

However, for those with a fondness for molasses and a liking of carob, give this cake a try.

And then tell me what dishes you’d serve at a dinner that would be followed by this cake!

The Voluptuous Vegan

I asked for a vegan cookbook for xmas in my first year as a vegan. My mom didn’t trust herself to pick one, so when I was visiting them we went to the bookstore to take a look. I eventually narrowed it down to The Voluptuous Vegan.

My first few experiences with it were highly disappointing. I didn’t treat it as a menu-cookbook, I treated it the same as other cookbooks, as a collection of individual stand-alone recipes. It always seemed that everything was a lot of work for not very interesting results. Yet others would rave about it.

I finally started to understand that the recipes were not meant to be stand-alone dishes. One night I made an entire menu, and I was stunned. Individually none of the dishes thrilled me, but together on the plate it was an amazing blend of flavors, even for my lazy taste buds! Finally I could relate to what people were talking about. But I also knew that it was not a cookbook I would be using on a regular basis, because it was simply not meant to be an every day cookbook. It was meant for entertaining. This is actually made pretty clear in the cookbook, I just didn’t have a clue that recipes could exist such that they would only shine in conjunction with other dishes. (I’m typically a one-pot meal kind of cook!)

When I lived in Denver I had a friend who was interested in what vegans eat, and she was interested in it in a direct way. “Let’s make dinner together,” she told me one day, “so we can try your chili.” That began a semi-regular get together, where we’d try new vegan recipes. We used The Voluptuous Vegan several times, and it was a winner each time. She and her husband were more “foodie” than I am, which made it interesting, as they would put into words aspects of the meals that really just barely shimmered in my awareness.

I’d recommend this cookbook with enthusiasm and conditions. The majority of my experience with this cookbook was cooking with two omnis, one of whom was only cautiously open to new things. Thus, I feel confident in saying that these are recipes that appeal to all but the pickiest of eaters! There are ingredients in the book that are easy to find in most metro areas, but maybe not at the local supermarket in SmallTown, USA. This is a cookbook that pretty much requires you to make the whole menu, though there are a few recipes that work standalone, and she does a great job of pointing out which those are. She includes the order things should be prepared, including what can be done ahead of time. This was really handy when cooking with my friends, since we were chatting and drinking wine while cooking, and it was nice that someone else was organized for us! The recipes are not fast, in my experience, but they are worth it in the end. Especially if “the end” is a social evening with friends.

White Peppercorns

The Harvest Moon Soup I made recently called for white peppercorns. Through luck and a grocery list, I remembered to pick some up while at the grocery store. (Side note: I adore grocery stores that have a bulk section for spices.) Despite a rather eye-opening experience in my past when I learned that not all pepper is created equal, I was still skeptical of whether there was any real need for white peppercorns as opposed to the more common black. It was a light colored soup, and I figured that was the motivation. But it’s sort of silly to me, as far as motivations go. Personally I don’t care if my creamy yellow soup has black flecks.

The real question, to me, is whether the different types of peppercorn make a difference in the taste. The eye-opening peppercorn blend that I found so delicious in my past was a blend that had white, black, green and red, if I remember correctly.

I’m still not really convinced that the white peppercorns make a difference. I decided to do some online research.

It was interesting reading, especially about the history. And I had a little internal chuckle when I read that though Americans are the biggest consumers of pepper in the world, there’s virtually no market for high quality pepper here. It is hard to be surprised.

Spicelines said this:

Unlike black peppercorns which are harvested when the berries are still green, berries for white peppercorns are left on vine to ripen until they turn yellow or red. After the harvest, they are packed into jute bags or wooden barrels, then washed or soaked in cool water to loosen the outer shell. They are rubbed clean and washed again to reveal the pale inner core of the peppercorn, then dried in the sun or in a kiln.

White peppercorns tend to have a sharp. hot flavor and a relatively mild aroma since the outer pericarp where the fragrant compounds are located has been removed. White peppercorns that have not been properly dried and are still damp when packed develop an odor known as “dirty socks.” In the trade this refers to “a moldy, musty flavor” or a “soured aroma.”

And what did people, in general, have to say about the taste difference? Interestingly, people can’t seem to agree whether the white peppercorns are spicier or milder. It is said that there are less “citrusy” notes to the white peppercorn flavor. Citrus? I don’t remember ever tasting citrus with my black peppercorns!

Alas, this might be a question that is simply beyond my taste buds, which never function quite up to spec.

Harvest Moon Soup

I’m not nearly organized enough, nor do specific days matter enough to me to make the effort, but for some reason I’m still fascinated by the meals that are targeted for days in the goddess tradition. This is partially what drew me to “Recipes from a Vegetarian Goddess” on that long ago day when I found myself bemused to be purchasing my first cookbook.

This weekend I made the Harvest Moon Soup. The Harvest Moon came and went 3 weeks ago, of course, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to try the recipe. Especially because it would use up the other half of the orange cauliflower from last week!

It is a soup that requires a long simmer time – over an hour, all together. Sometimes this makes it too time-costly to make, when you need to get something on the table sooner than later. Sometimes though, it works well to sautee a few things, throw it all in a pot, and ignore it for an hour while you do other things.

It is also a pureed soup. What is it about pureeing that is such magic? The creaminess tends to be delightful, of course, but something else happens to the flavors after blending. Maybe someone has written an article about it. Or will! It won’t be me writing any such article, but I’d love to read what other have to say about it.

But back to the soup. It smelled delicious cooking. And it was a delightful autumn yellow color after it was pureed. But when I finally tasted it, it was quite bland. Maybe it is supposed to be bland, since the main ingredients are potatoes and cauliflower! Maybe it is my taste buds taking a quick vacation. Maybe there is something to be done for it that would make things pop. It was definitely better after the addition of the coconut milk.

The blandness isn’t something that would stop me from making it again, though I’d definitely end up playing with it, and that generally has near disastrous results! But on a food-as-fuel day, or on a day when I’m in the mood for something bland, it is soothing both because of how creamy it is as well as how filling it is. It might be something that grows on me. I have a feeling that mostly it is just too subtle for my under-performing taste buds. Or maybe this is one of those dishes that works best with accompanying dishes. The recommendation is to serve with muffins and a salad. I will try it again with toast and see what I think. Or maybe I’ll make some corn muffins.

Celebrating the lives of turkeys

Three new turkeys arrived at Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary a couple weeks ago. Saturday was the first time I’d seen them, since they’d been in quarantine at first.

Their story is an odd one. They were hanging around a man’s house, and he finally called someone to get them. The county thought they were wild turkeys. But what wild turkeys eat out of your hands?

They came to Poplar Spring, and it was really obvious that they were not wild turkeys! They are domesticated turkeys, and Terry is pretty skeptical of the story that the man just happened to notice them hanging around his house.

You see, you can buy domesticated turkeys from a catalog, just as if you were buying a bike or a shirt. They have many different varieties, they even have “heirloom” breeds. Many people buy these turkeys, raise them in their backyards, likely feeding them by hand some of the time, and then they “release” them and “hunt” them.

The DIY canned hunt?

So that’s a likely scenario for how these three turkeys ended up hanging around a man’s house.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and it is hard to forget that when we see the turkeys at the sanctuary. For most of us, holidays are filled with baggage. Family obligations of one kind or another. The emotional impact of a holiday where a dead animal seems to matter more to those of us around us than anything else.

For me, holidays lost any sort of meaning to me a long time ago. I’m not sure when or why, but they have become a day I’m happy to have off work, and happy to make no plans for. This bothers my mother, who has never understood her children’s happiness at being solitary so much of the time. So when she asks, I always tell her that I’m spending time with friends on these holidays.

This is always true; I go to the sanctuary to help out on Thanksgiving and Christmas!

And truthfully, especially as a vegan, I am so happy to have no family local, and no omni friends local-enough to feel slighted by my preference for mucking barns to socializing with a dead bird.

The real season’s celebration for me happens the Saturday before the official American Thanksgiving Day at Poplar Spring’s Thanksgiving for the Turkeys. It is a giant vegan potluck, more giant than I could have imagined before attending my first one. 300 people attended last year, when it was bitterly cold and windy. Tables upon tables (oh, those dreaded tables!) of vegan food that people brought…and then there were the tables of vegan desserts! It is a sight to see.

Of course before the humans eat we get the food ready for the Turkeys (and chickens and guineas!). All kinds of delicious goodies, painstakingly cut in small pieces by the kitchen elves, then spread out on a couple tables, which we put down in their yard for them. Terry gives a small speech about it all, and it’s all pretty sweet.

Last year there were people videoing. One woman asked me to tell what we were putting on the tables for the turkeys, assuring me that this was better than her taking notes. Assured that I was really just a talking scrap of paper, I listed everything on the tables. You can imagine my surprise (and horror!) when Terry said she’d found the video on YouTube, and that I’d “done a good job”!

It turns out that it was a pretty decent covering of the event, with a few interviews, and a great view of how much food there is and how long the line was.

I don’t know what this video was used for (aside from being put on YouTube!) but it is nice to see such positive coverage of events like the one held at various sanctuaries around the country. The feeling is so incredible, all these people there to brave whatever late November weather is being thrown at us, just so they can enjoy a celebration OF the turkeys, rather than the opposite.

Anyone else celebrating in this way for the upcoming (and often dreaded) November holiday? Or maybe you already have if you are Canadian or went to Woodstock’s ThanksLiving Celebration (a month early for weather reasons). I know Tristan went to Woodstock’s!

And finally, this week’s piglet video of Morty and Izzy. I had to use the thrilling Flip music to cover up the sounds of the wind in the microphone. That’s as fancy as I can get, sorry! (There is always the mute button!) They were so cute as they raced across the yard to Terry, and then Morty was happy to roll over for Belly Rubs. I’m still getting used to just how much they remind me of puppies, from their play with each other, to their interactions with people.