Early this morning, in a sleepless state caused by reading a 956 page novel in 30 hours, I read an amusing blog post by my friend talking about the typical response vegans/vegetarians get when the non-vegetarian we’re talking to finds out about our meat and/or dairy aversion. She is quite right, that the response is usually one of two: “Oh I could never give up my big steaks” or a confused expression of “What do you eat?”

First of all, I personally don’t expect people to give up their meat. I’m not the “holier than thou” type. It was after I made the conversion that I learned more about how cruelly we treat the animals we intend to eat, and now I really cannot think of eating an animal whose life was purely torture. A wild caught fish is ok, but a chicken that lived a life of disease, inhaling air poisonously heavy with ammonia from all the droppings that are never cleaned up, fed a diet that made it grow far faster than nature intended so that its heart likely was too small to support it adequately, then grabbed and shoved roughly in a crate with dozens of other birds to go to slaughter… no, I cannot bring myself to eat a chicken that comes from a neat, styrofoam package.

But I don’t condemn those who do, or those who are unaware of our cruel system. Most people are truly empathic to animals, and if they knew how the dinner on their plate had lived, probably wouldn’t eat it. At least I like to think so.

The other reaction – the ‘what do you eat’ question - amuses me to no end – it’s so easy to reply with “fruits and veggies…(duh)”, but I understand it too.

It is hard to think of a food in our American diet that does not require some meat. We humans are creatures of habit - most of us have about 10 recipes/meals that we rotate out on a regular basis, and I’m willing to bet that for most folks, all ten of them require some form of meat. Pull out your favorite magazine that includes a few recipes, and see if even one of them could be vegetarian, let alone vegan (no dairy/animal products). Meat is part of our culture, it’s hard to do anything different.

Just a month. That’s all I had in mind when I went vegan. Thirty days of avoiding meat and dairy - it was a culinary challenge as well as a quest for better health. I’d read so much about people feeling better and I thought it might be bullhockey, but I wouldn’t know unless I tried it. My first few weeks were terrible. It was so hard to think of new things to eat, and I was trying tofu and seitian and all these “vegan” foods and recipes from a highly touted vegan cookbook that were truthfully terrible. I was hungry all the time, because I wasn’t used to how fast the body goes through veggies and it honestly took me forever to come up with something to eat next. A container of cashews was a total lifesaver for me in those first weeks. I lost weight, almost alarmingly quickly, and I wasn’t heavy to start with.

Then the benefits started to make themselves known. My fingers and hips stopped aching. I was sleeping better - my insomnia disappeared. I had more energy. My headaches went away - I was accustomed to getting three or four per week. I had never thought of these things as symptoms of a problem, they were minor annoyances, a part of daily life. Everybody has headaches, lots of people have aches and pains, even young people.

After my 30 days were up, I never looked back. I’ve cheated from time to time, and I do regret it. I’ve cut way back on sugar even, after noticing that after I’ve had all that chocolate cake I really do feel like crap. I’ve mostly given up coffee, because I no longer like how it makes me feel for two days afterward (though it’s hard, and I do give in, and regret it, at least once a month).

I can sit here and tell you all the current fad reasons to be vegetarian. The headlines are full lately. Go Veg! It saves greenhouse gases to eat even ONE vegetarian meal per week! … Eat local! It saves even more carbon emissions!… Reduce your footprint! Here’s a few recipes!

For me, even though on the surface it makes me a bigger treehugger and has made my footprint small according to all those “carbon calculators” that are sprouting up all over the net, my reasons are purely selfish. All the rest – a clearer conscience, a reduced footprint, supporting smaller local farms, saving money – is merely a side benefit.

Kind of like how I prefer to hang laundry on the line. It isn’t entirely to be a greenie, but because I love it so.

Check it out, folks! The new look is definitely easier on the eyes than the previous WP skin (or was it the basic skull that was there? At any rate, it was bare bones).

I just bought a bike. A good bike, a bike that can take me long distances. But not a good bike for grocery shopping or hanging around town. I need a rack on the back, and I need it to be old enough that theft is unlikely and if it did, I didn’t spend more than $30 on it anyway. I’ll probably cover it in greenie stickers to make a great theft deterrent anyway.

The buzz on bikes to reduce gas mileage for local runs makes total sense. Not only can you leave the car parked in the drive, but you can cancel your gym membership too. Bicycling is great cardiovascular activity, health insurance plans should offer a discount to people who ride 20 minutes or more a few times a week (in that case, my health insurance should be nearly free because I spend about 11 hours a week in the saddle and about 3-4 more hours walking, and I don’t pollute my body with bad food, but that’s another post).

Now, for anyone else who’s thinking about finding a bike for this purpose, what are you looking for?

Some of it will depend on your local terrain. If the lay of the land is very flat, then you can get away with a fixed-gear bike (meaning, no shifting, just one big cog and one little cog). In my area, I need at least a few gears because we have a few hills.

The next thing is, you’ll likely want fenders in case it’s wet out - nobody wants roadwater splashing up their back or all over the goods sitting in the rear basket. And brakes - front and back - because you never know when you’ll need to stop quickly.

From there comes the fun! There are a multitude of baskets and panniers available. In my case, for grocery shopping or running local errands like dropping packages off at the post office, I’d need a good secure basket in the back - something like this: http://www.tahoemountainsports.com/store/folding-bike-basket.shtml.

But you can still be cute too - they do make wicker baskets for the front still, such as this one: http://www.tahoemountainsports.com/store/kruzer-baskets.shtml. And really if you have a rack on the back anyway, you can likely locate a wicker basket that will fit on it for the back as well - maybe just by taking your new used bike around the neighborhood garage sales.

You can also MAKE your own panniers, see this site for great ideas on using old cat litter boxes (um, clean first?) or surplus army bags. I think with a little creativity, you might find other things around the house that would make great bags for your bike - old purses, lunch boxes or bags, school backpacks, etc.

Bells are not outdated either - they warn people at fairs and streets of your presence. You can even put up a fun flag to increase visibility and make a statement. Ribbons, stickers, paint… there’s nothing wrong with getting a little artsy with your new mode of transportation!

I have definitely been absent for a while. It being August, most of the veggie crops are in full production and I’m preserving/canning/freezing/drying food as best I can. Thankfully most of the crops are staggered so I’m not totally inundated - I usually have one batch of something to do every day.

More than food, I’m also collecting herbs for medicines and salves. I must say, Calendula is one amazing plant. It has bloomed since Spring, non-stop, with these cheery yellow flowers. It is technically a form of Marigold, but it’s taller and doesn’t stink. I’ve decided next year it will have to be in the front yard so other people can enjoy it (when I don’t cut all the blooms off in the afternoon for drying). Calendula is good for making salves and creams with.

I’ve also got the first Lemon Balm tincture going. Lemon Balm has a multitude of uses, and a fresh tea will help calm you down after a rough day. It also works as a mild antidepressant, perfect for the winter doldrums. It’s weaker than St. John’s Wort, but you can take it more or less indefinitely, while St. John’s should only be taken for two weeks.

There are plenty of good medicines in nature. We don’t have to go to the pharmacy or the doctor. Really we don’t.

Tincture making is actually really easy. I don’t use the more precise weight-and-measure method, which is more scientific, I do it the old-fashioned way. Since the medicines are for my own use and I’m not trying to figure out dosages for other people, I don’t have to be so picky about how strong the medicine is from one year to the next.

What you do: Collect your material, in this case, lemon balm leaves, and stuff them into a jar. Pack them in as tight as you can, that way you know you have enough. Then pull them all back out, and chop them as finely as you can. Most herbalists would be shocked and horrified to know I put the collected matter in a food processor to chop it up really finely, as that’s really a very soulless way to do it. Then you take the chopped matter, put it back into your jar, and pour in enough alcohol (100 proof or better Vodka or grain alcohol) to just barely cover the chopped up mess. Put the lid on it, and shake it. Shake it well every day, at least once, for two weeks.

Next, you’ll need some fine cloth, like a handkerchief (new or very clean, of course) or two pieces of cheesecloth folded together. Squeeze the globby mess through the cloth, letting the liquid land into a clean, sterilized jar. Let it settle a while, then pour the cleaner liquid into amber or dark-colored glass jars (again, sterilized). You can use old wine bottles for this, or if there isn’t a lot of medicine in the bottle, I reuse vanilla bottles for this purpose. Stopper it tight, and you’re done! The standard dosage is 1/2 teaspoon, and can be mixed into water or tea.