Wednesday, September 17, 2008

If You Put Vegan Lipstick on a Pig...

it is much more humane than eating the poor, sentient, intelligent creature* so eat Field Roast Grain Meat instead. Meatfree Mike clued me into this new-to-me line of fake meats sold locally at Common Ground. I'm no fake meat connoisseur, but I can tell you this is not your ordinary soy protein isolate laden meat analog. We tried the Smoked Apple Sage flavor the other day sauteed with green peppers from the Market at the Square as a side dish with pasta and veggie tomato sauce. We were impressed. Not that it tasted so much like meat because frankly Rob and I haven't eaten meat is so many years I doubt we could remember what it tasted like and I personally believe most of what people like about meat is the seasoning anyway. The Field Roast Grain Meat Sausages were just tasty. They are also expensive so we won't be eating them often, but they are made with better ingredients than your average processed food. I think I'll play around with some of the homemade vegan sausage recipes out there soon and see if I can come close to recreating something like the Smoked Apple Sage at home, but we will definitely buy it again. You don't have to be veg to enjoy these!*Seriously, get to know a pig. They are amazing animals. At Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary back in Maryland, I named one of our rescued pigs, Parker (before I had a son to name). He has one blue eye and one brown and he is just a sweetheart. He was rescued from an truck which was left with a couple hundred pigs in downtown DC (the driver was off getting drunk or something) around the time Rob and I got married (many of our guests went to go help take care of the pigs after the reception). Some of the pigs had already died when the truck was found. The pigs were in awful shape; urine burns from being in their own excrement, broken legs, scratches and bites from being confined together in a tight space with no water or food, and they obviously had never walked on real grass before and they were terrified. I had never seen so many pigs in one place before and they were noisy and I wasn't sure what to think. I spent a lot of time with these pigs and got to know them. I watched them grow to be huge lovable creatures from the poor, scared, mistreated animals I had seen arrive at the sanctuary. I helped feed them and clean up their poop. I fed them produce donated from My Organic Market and saw how they came from being half-starved to being a little picky about what produce they would eat. I was vegan for years before these pigs came, but knowing them made eating pigs as difficult to see as eating a dog would be hard for many Americans to see. Pet a pig today!

For more stories about how some of the animals came to be at PSAS, please check out this site. I think many people would be surprised how "farm" animals are treated on small and big farms alike. If you are in the DC area, take a trip out to PSAS and or look for an animal sanctuary in your area. They are great places for kids and adults to learn more about the animals which many people call food.

5 comments:

Jumbleberry Jam said...

We LOVE Field Grain Meat Co. (based in my beloved Seattle). We made our first trip to the Co-op this morning. What a FABULOUS place! They had everything our vegan hearts desired. Very happy. We'll probably go to Siam Terrace for dinner tonight. Hope to see you during our visit!

VeganLinda said...

Inanna,

I'm so glad you love the co-op and I hope you like Siam Terrace. My favorite is Tofu Supreme, Parker's fave is the Mock Duck Curry and Dema likes Seitan Meets East. If you have time, we would love to see you while you are in town.

Dilip said...

I'm so glad you have discovered Field Roast. My wife and I also don't like things that look like meat - but products from this company are a big exception -- we like them in spite of what they look like! --Dilip (P.S. Drop me a private email if you can re: something I want to ask your advise on.)

Misc said...

I will have to try those. I'm partial to Morning Star Farms sausage links (not a fan of meat sausage at all).

Pigs are great. Have you read Kitty Fitzgerald's novel, Pigtopia? I think you might like it.

Leighann of Multi-Minding Mom said...

I want to give these a try. They showed meatloaf on their website. Does the co-op have the meatloaf? It's one of the few things I miss (isn't that strange?).

My favorite dish at Siam Terrace is the yellow curry with tofu. They have the BEST tofu in town in my opinion!

The fresh spring rolls are pretty good as well.

Oh and the salad at lunchtime with the shaved onion and lime. Oh my, I may have to go there next week.