Luscious Fibers, Food and Life

Fun on the Farm

Grant and I had a great weekend in NY. The snowy drive was a bit stressful at times, but it was more than worth it.  The celebration for the turkeys started off with an amazing VEGAN potluck at the Watkins Glen Community Center. There were about 150??? people there and everyone brought a vegan dish to share. The food was fabulous and it was great knowing anything I chose was animal free - yeah!

I also got to meet Colleen Patrick-Goudreau who has been an incredible inspiration to me during this past year as I've made my journey to being vegan.  She signed her book, The Joy of Vegan Baking, for me and we had our picture taken.  Interestingly, we also found a friend (actually she found us) who we hadn't seen in a couple years and we happily had dinner with her and her partner and were able to catch up.

After dinner and presentations, we headed to the Farm Sanctuary and spent the afternoon celebrating with the turkeys and visiting the other animals.  It was in incredible event and hanging out with the animals was amazing. They are such wonderful creatures and we are so happy to spend time with them.

We took lots of photos of the animals and the farm. You can see all the photos on my flickr.  Also, this time we remembered to take some video. So check out the videos below. Grant with the cow is typical Grant....

Celebration FOR the Turkeys

 

Today after work Grant and I are heading north to Watkins Glen, New York.  We are going to the famous Farm Sanctuary (a place I've wanted to visit for a while now) to spend the weekend celebrating Thanksgiving with the Turkeys (and other animals).

For more than 20 years the Farm Sanctuary has held a Celebration for the Turkeys where rescued turkeys are "doted upon and presented with festive platters of stuffed squash, cranberries and pumpkin pie". This year one of my favorite speakers and animal rights advocates, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau is speaking and signing her new book, The Joy of Vegan Baking.  Both Grant and I are very excited to finally meet the person who engaged us, got us thinking about our food choices and supported us as we became vegan.  Her compassion, incredible knowledge and calm speaking voice make her podcast one that can't be missed.

Factory farming of turkeys is cruel and horrifying. You know that ultimately I'd prefer everyone serve up some yummy tofurkey on their holiday table this year, but if that is not something you're not willing to do, please try to get your turkey from a local farmer.

Visiting Maine

Just a quick note to let you know I'm up in Maine visiting my family. We got here late last night and even though it's warm for Maine, it's SOOOO much cooler than DC.  I should be able to keep in touch as mom is hooked up with the technology.  More soon...

a road trip to stay cool

Yesterday, Grant and I took a road trip in order to cool off. We don't have air conditioning in our apartment and well hanging out in 90 degree temps with extreme humidity did not sound like fun.  So we packed up and headed to the Shenandoah Nation Park to drive along Skyline Drive. Grant had plotted out a route and volunteered to drive so I could work on my second sock.

It was absolutely beautiful up there and the best thing...NO A/C needed!!  The temperature was much cooler so the windows were down and the drive was lovely.

1. skyline drive scenic 1, 2. skyline drive scenic 2, 3. skyline drive picnic

After a few hours on skyline drive, we headed to Charolettesville, VA. I had been wanting to go there for some time now because my secret love, Dave Matthews (ok, not so secret) is from there.  It's really a cute little town. Very much a place I'd live (if it were not in Virginia)...a lot of character, crunchy, artsy and quaint.  We walked around the open air mall in the historic downtown and decided it would be a fun place to spend a day at. Lots of shops, yummy food and places to just hang out and people watch.

1. open air mall in downtown charlottesville, va, 2. flashy bags, 3. blue glass

All and all, a great day and we're looking forward to when we go back to both places.  I also looked for a number of purple things to take photos of and found quite a few.

1. little purple crocs, 2. lots of purple clothes, 3. a butterfly scarf, 4. more flowers, 5. purple flip flops, 6. purple table umbrellas