Maple Spring Garden CSA

For years John and I have been talking about joining a CSA. For those of you that are not familiar with the term, it stands for Community Supported Agriculture. We go to the Durham farmers market each Saturday to buy produce, but sometimes we (and by we, I mean John) have a hard time getting up on Saturday morning to get to the market before all the good produce is sold. We sometimes find ourselves busy on a Saturday morning and cannot make it to the market and a CSA gives us an option for fresh, local produce even no matter our Saturday plans. We will continue to make regular trips to the market to support our  favorite farmers like Piedmont Biofarm, Maple Spring Garden Gardens, Tiny Farm, Four Leaf Farm, and Wild Scallions.  


CSA's and the Durham farmers market appealing to us because all of the farms that sell must have their farm within 75 miles of the market. Therefore, truly selling local food. For the past six years, we have made it a point to purchase as much produce as we can locally. We want to support the local economy, reduce our impact on the environment, know where our food comes, and to be part of our local community. We only purchase from farmers that refrain from selling meat and engage in farming practices that are healthful to the environment (for example, none of the farmers we buy from use pesticides). 


After the advice from friends, we decided to go with Maple Spring Garden CSA. They run a traditional CSA where you can purchase a small or large share and you pick up your order at a specified location each week. We decided to go with a CSA that picked the produce for us. We are not picky when it comes to produce, so we appreciate the surprise each week. It has now been four weeks and we have been impressed with our boxes. We have received broccoli, asparagus, strawberries, turnips, Bibb lettuce, romaine lettuce, red leaf lettuce, kale, spinach, Swiss chard, arugula, spring mix, leeks, and onions. All of which we have used throughout the week in our meals. 

Our box this week: spring mix, red leaf lettuce, Swiss chard, strawberries, and broccoli

 You don't have to be vegan to enjoy a CSA, it is for anyone. No matter who you are, I recommend you check out a local CSA. Beware though, there are companies that say that they are CSA's, but they provide produce from far away. Stick with those that provide only local produce, preferably from their own farm. I like to know where my produce is coming from and with Maple Spring Garden, I know that they follow organic practices, even though they are not certified as organic. 

Our box last week: turnips, Bibb lettuce, spring mix, arugula, and strawberries

Enjoy your fruits and vegetables! Happy Spring!

Chocolate Lavender Cake by Wholesome Chow

It is a new year and over the past four months, I have become a new me. More like an improved me. I hope to change my blog up a bit with a redesign, fresh image and logo, etc. One of the changes is to add a review of vegan and gluten free products. I am not sure a blog is the best place to do this. Maybe I should start a dedicated blog for this? Or maybe even a website?

I don't want to wait to make a decision before I highlight an awesome company that I came across last year. The company is Wholesome Chow and they make vegan decadent baking mixes. They use all-natural and organic ingredients. They are allergen friendly by excluding eggs, dairy/casein, and peanut/nut from their products. They even have a gluten free line of mixes!

I don't remember how I stumbled upon this company, but I am delighted that I did! During one of their sales, I purchased three gluten free baking mixes. Below is a picture of their new package design. I love the design and the best part is that their packaging is compostable!

John's birthday was in early January and I decided to make him a cake. Normally I would make a cake from scratch, but GF baking is still a bit of a challenge and an experiment. I have realized that it is ok to have help from mixes. Especially ones that don't contain chemicals, additives, coloring, high fructose corn syrup, and animal products. I can stand behind organic, vegan, and gluten free. So, why not?

I made the Chocolate Lavender cake and a homemade rich chocolate frosting. I served it to John (of course!) and my parents (who aren't vegan). My Dad would not try it because it was the dreaded v-word! That just meant more for me, John, and my Mom. Good thing for us because we all loved the flavor and consistency. The cake was light in texture, rich in flavor, and moist. The lavender was a perfect pairing with the chocolate. I had never had the combination before, but I most certainly want it again. The most exciting part was that the cake did not taste GF at all. Instead, it tasted like a normal and delicious cake! This may not seem like much to most, but many GF baked goods taste nothing like the original baked goods they attempt to mirror. They taste grainy, starchy, and crunchy. This cake was nothing like that and gave me hope. Maybe GF, vegan baking isn't so bad?

The only thing I would have changed was the flavor of the frosting, which was all my doing. It worked well with the cake, but a vanilla lemon icing would be perfect for this cake. I could see the chocolate, lavender, lemon, vanilla flavoring at a summer or spring gathering. I think I'll have to buy this mix again and try my icing idea.

Lucky for me, I have two more mixes to try. Now, I just need a special occasion to try them- OR- maybe not! :-) If you are looking for a GF, vegan cake mix (or just a vegan cake mix), I recommend stopping by the Wholesome Chow website and placing an order today!

Chocolate Chip and Blueberry Pancakes

Blog #17 for the vegan MoFo 2010 challenge!

I have posted about blueberry pancakes before, but felt it was time again. Before going gluten free, we used to make pancakes from scratch with wheat flour. Now that I have made the switch to gf, we buy Bob's Red Mill Pancake Mix. I prefer to make food from scratch, but it has gotten more complicated at times and it is sometimes nice to use a mix that is premade. With this mix, you just add in your favorite non-dairy milk, a little oil, and egg replacer. To make these cakes my own, I add in blueberries, chocolate chips, a dash of cinnamon, and vanilla.

The process is quite simple. You mix the egg replacer with water and mix it in with the remaining ingredients. I usually use organic frozen berries, so the mix turns a purplish blue. When the pan is nice and hot, you pour enough batter out for your first cake. Then, you let them roll.

The best part is taking them out of the pan and onto your plate to enjoy. We serve them with fresh fruit, vegan margarine, maple syrup, cut up raw veggies, and sometimes tofu or tempeh bacon. It is a sweet treat that we don't eat often, but when we do we love them!

Even if your not gf, give this mix a try sometime. It makes fluffy and rich pancakes and you would never know that they were gluten free!

Toronto Enviro-Friendly Hotel Effort

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was sent to Toronto for the first week of August. I booked an early afternoon flight to try and avoid the mess that happened last year -> my flight was delayed and I did not get in until 1:30 am with no baggage. I must ave been lucky because this year I arrived on time. After gathering my baggage, I headed to the Cambridge Suites Hotel in downtown Toronto off of Richmond Street East. The hotel was right in the heart of downtown.

I checked in and headed to my room to settle in before I ventured out. The room was a suite that included modern furniture and a great view. I looked around, as I always do, to see what the room had to offer. I found a small bar area with a mini refrigerator in a cabinet, sink, microwave, and mini bar.


I looked in the information book to see if they had anything useful, such as internet connection, and I came across a green section. The usual was included about in-room recycling and linen replacement. To my surprise something extra was included. The bath products were vegan and parabin/sulfate free. The products that they stocked are from Pharmacopia I was so excited that carried vegan bath products and that they decided to highlight this in their information book.


After reading this, I hurried to bath products and confirmed that they did carry the lovely products from Pharmacopia. I opened all of the bottles and smelled each one.They smelled of lavender, lemon grass, and other pleasing scents.

This is a win for the environment and animals. While this seems like a small step, it has the promise of leading to other things. Hotels/businesses could follow suite and provide vegan products or hotel patrons could read about the products and investigate why vegan products are important to the environment and to animal welfare.

Maybe I am making too much of a small thing, but it gave me hope. What if vegan products were someday mainstream and even more readily available? What if people had the chance to make better decisions without going to great lengths? My mind was and is still flowing with hope and possibilities. It is small gestures like these that keep my dreams alive that the world will change for the better.