Provincial towns you jog round

Micro vegan dairy and deli in UK first

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If you haven’t been to Norwich lately, now might be the right time for you to start planning your trip.

Tofurei (pronounced tofu rye) is a fabulous business located in the historic Norwich Lanes District of the East Anglian city. Not only is Tofurei an amazing deli with all manner of treats and drinks, it doubles as a micro soya dairy and supplier of tofu-making ingredients and tools.

Get excited, coming soon ✨

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Yes, there is also soft serve vegan ice cream!

Tofurei make all of their own soya milks freshly on site in their very own micro dairy, meaning you can stop in to buy flavoured or plain milk and milkshakes daily. If you fancy getting involved in tofu and milk making in your own kitchen, the store also sells everything you need including soya beans and coagulants.

The Norwich outlet is as famous for their sandwich and cake offerings as it is for their soya facilities. Check out some these stunning options.

Ohhh my, chickpea tuna and turkey cheese salad

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From frozen to yummy in 10-15 minutes!

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Two tasty gluten free options today! Craaaazy carrot cake and a charming chocolate orange torte

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Such satisfaction! Look at all the fresh milkshakes beckoning you

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Yes, this shop front in Norwich really does have it all. Vegan meats, cheeses, fresh milk, fresh tofu sold by weight, sandwiches and cakes.

You can visit the Tofurei website and follow the shop on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

Huge vegan street market in Birmingham

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Kings Heath Business Improvement District is teaming up with The Vegan Grindhouse and Kitchen Garden Cafe for the all new Kings Heath Vegan Market in Birmingham.

This thing sounds huge.

This Sunday (May 21, 2017) between midday and 5pm there will be 100% vegan street food from The Vegan Grindhouse by Vegan Vox, Bare Bones Pizza, Mex It Up, Pietanic and Michael’s Caribbean, as well as cold food from Vegetropolis, Rachel’s Cake Delights, Vork Pie and more.

There will also be an outdoor vegan bar from Twisted Barrel Ale.

The Kitchen Garden Art Market will showcase the work of talented local artists, creators and makers, while there will also be live music all afternoon from local musicians to keep you entertained.

Money raised from the market will go to Grace’s Rest, an animal welfare charity for rescued exotic animals.

If you don’t have a lot of spare cash, you’ll be delighted to hear that the market has free entry all day! Click here to see exactly where it will be located.

The vendor line up is so huge you must get over to the Facebook event page to see the entire thing.

Yay for vegan markets!

New vegan venue with LOTS of jobs

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If you have ever been to Glasgow, you will have eaten with The 78, Mono, Stereo, The Old Hairdresser’s and/or The Flying Duck.

What you might not know is that all these vegan venues are owned by the same organisation, Thoughtful Enterprises.

In the biggest vegan news out of Scotland for ages, Thoughtful Enterprises has announced plans for a brand new vegan café and bar in Edinburgh!

Details are still rolling in, but in the meantime maybe you or some people you know would like to apply for one of the jobs being advertised in the new Edinburgh venue.

Details below:

The MONO/STEREO/THE 78/FLYING DUCK/OLD HAIRDRESSER’S family is expanding and we are excited to announce the opening of a NEW VEGAN BAR & KITCHEN in Edinburgh.

We are looking to build up our team and looking for like-minded people to fill all positions:

  • BAR MANAGER
  • CHARGEHANDS
  • BAR STAFF
  • CHEFS
  • KP
  • JANITOR

Please state which position you are applying for and send a CV and cover letter with two references to: vsohenderson@gmail.com The deadline for applications is Friday the 19th of May, 2017.

Get on it, Scotland!

Truffle Pig in Sheffield

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Here’s a snappy little post to get you acquainted with a cute-as-a-button treat business called Truffle Pig.

This Sheffield-based chocolate artist has so many reasons why I think you should be excited by her, I’ve gone ahead and listed them:

  • Truffle Pig founder Lily has dedicated the business to her chocolate-loving Nanna, Doris Gaskill
  • Lily is a musician and roller derby athlete
  • DIY underpins pretty much all she does
  • A portion of profits from Truffle Pig is donated to animal charities

OK. I’ve sung Lily’s praises enough and you wanna see the good stuff, right?

Well, before I post some tasty photos I want you to know you can order these handcrafted delights online from Lily directly. Get to the Truffle Pig website to shop for delights that will be posted straight to you!

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It all looks superb. Did you see that chocolate bar with crunchy golden pieces?!

Follow Truffle Pig on Facebook and Instagram for all the glorious photos and for info on where Lily will be trading in Sheffield and further afield.

And for the love of vegan independent business run by rad people, buy some truffles online now!

Leicester gets into the community spirit

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As someone who puts a lot of time and effort into running community events, I love hearing about other activists undertaking similar projects in their areas.

Take the Leicester Vegan Community, for example.

This group is a not-for-profit collection of local vegans who promote veganism through a series of special events, markets, meetups and fairs.

Their events have a no-fee policy for vegan charities and are powered by the strength of local volunteers.

The next big event on the Leicester Vegan Community calendar is the third edition of Leicester Vegan Market coming up on Sunday June 11, 2017.

This is a totally vegan takeover of Leicester’s market space, so it will be well worth the journey if you are in the surrounding area.

Like the Leicester Vegan Community group on Facebook and RSVP to the market Facebook event.

And for the love of carrots, get inspired by these humans and start this sort of thing in your area!

Another online vegan shop for the UK

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Dear UK vegans. You are getting too much choice.

I’ve recently posted about Greenbay of London launching their online shop, as well as Veganubi.

Now Plymouth-based vegan grocery store Ethica has joined the party and you can order plant-based groceries from them for delivery anywhere in the UK.

Just visited this super awesome 100% #vegan grocery shop in Plymouth. Yay for Ethica!

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What I love about the Ethica online shop is the sustainable policy underpinning everything.

Check out the following statement on the Ethica website:

We’re really conscious of making our packing process as eco friendly as possible.

All of our boxes that we send out are re-used. They’ll either be ones we’ve been sent by our suppliers or, when we run out, we buy in used boxes and give them a second life (so no new material or energy has gone into producing them!).

We’ll also never send out any packaging material that isn’t completely biodegradable. All materials are either 100% recycled paper/cardboard or wheat based degradable nuggets (for cushioning). Even our packing tape is made from just paper and starch, so no non-biodegradable acrylics or PVC!

As we’ve just started our online ordering, we’re pretty limited with our post options but as soon as we can we’ll be switching to a carbon neutral courier!

Click here to get shopping now (orders over £50 won’t cost a penny in shipping) and follow Ethica on Facebook and Instagram.

And of course visit the physical shop when you are in Plymouth.

Beer and vegan food event

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A Facebook reader named Chris gave me some exciting beer-related news.

Magic Rock Brewing in Huddersfield is going full vegan and they have a month-long celebration to usher in this new era.

The entire month of June will be all about being vegan. Check out the celebration line up below.

Vegan Street Food Festival 2017
2nd Jun — 25th Jun

Each weekend in June, Magic Rock Brewing will have a different vegan street food trader (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) PLUS an all day vegan festival on Saturday 3rd June to celebrate the fact that their beers will now be fully vegan.

Dates include:

2nd, 3rd, 4th June – vendor TBA

Saturday 3rd June with four / five street traders (12pm-9pm)

9th, 10th, 11th June – vendor TBA

16th, 17th, 18th June – vendor TBA

23rd, 24th, 25th June – vendor TBA

Put one, two or all of these dates in your diary and get along to help this Yorkshire brewery celebrate going vegan.

Click here to visit Magic Rock online and follow the brewery on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Vegan in Skipton

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I love reader tips and submissions.

I can’t eat in every town on the planet, so readers sending in guest reviews and photos means this blog can report on a wider selection of experiences than would be possible if I was the only one contributing.

Take these photos from Tina as an example. When would I have ever found an opportunity to go to Skipton?

Tina sent me an email accompanied with these photos showing some of the delicious vegan food being served by The Castle Inn located in Skipton, North Yorkshire.

Check out the menu and these top food shots.

Follow The Castle Inn on Facebook and visit them soon for delicious eating.

Vegan fish and chip shop now open

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We’ve had a vegan cupcake bakery and a vegan fried chicken shop, so it’s about time the UK got its very own vegan fish and chip shop.

Say hello to Matter Fastfood.

If you are reading this from outside the UK, you might not be familiar with the term ‘chippy’. Chippy is a colloquialism for chip ship, a fast food outlet serving fish, chips, battered sausages, and all manner of comfort food delights.

The clever and compassionate people of Matter have made the population of Bristol incredibly happy by opening their vegan version of the much-loved chippy.

Check out how they describe their business:

We offer the healthiest fast food possible, everything from our vegan take on chip shop right through to super salad bowls and wraps. Imagine pie, chips & peas, vegan fried cheeken (a take on fried chicken), gluten-free battered sausage with chips, or the much-loved tofish and chips. We have kebab wraps, homemade sauces such as chilli, sweet & sour, gravy, curry sauce, garlic mayo all made without salt, oil or MSG. We have plans to develop the menu to include other classic takeout wok dishes and pizza. Our desserts range from pineapple/banana/apple fritters through to high-end raw vegan cheesecakes and homemade super chocolate. Tasty, affordable, nutritious and satisfying, our dishes are aimed at everyone (not just vegans).

Sounds fab. But how does it look?

See for yourself.

Not sure when I have time to get to Bristol this year, but this is as good a reason as any to make the effort.

You should follow Matter on Facebook.

You can see the exact location of the shop thanks to Google Maps.

Extra note: these photos were used with permission of the owner, so do not steal them.

FGV top picks VegfestUK Brighton

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Hey!

I don’t know how this comes around so quickly. Has it really been a year since the previous VegfestUK Brighton?

The Brighton version of this mega event always holds a special place in my heart. It still has a slightly small-town vibe than its cousin in London and you get to be beside the English seaside while it’s still blustery and cold.

This blog post and my ‘things you don’t want to miss’ list for VegfestUK Brighton is tinged with a little sadness as I can’t be there this weekend. As you might now, I live in Mexico City for six months of each year so it seems I won’t be getting to this event again in the foreseeable future.

Drats!

In loving memory of the good times I’ve enjoyed at this show, I’ve gone through this year’s programme to put together FGV’s top picks for VegfestUK Brighton (March 11 and 12, 2017).

Food hall

  • Beelzebab – stunning seitan kebabs from one of the best fast food vendors in the entire UK
  • Butcherless – from the people who brought you Sgaia comes a food stall of epic deli proportions
  • Brownins – I always make time for their deliciousness, especially their gravy

Talks

Check out the Intersectional Vegan Summit especially Ruby Hamad talking about links between animal oppression and capitalism at 4:00pm on Saturday via Skype and Christopher-Sebastian McJetters discussing connections between speciesism and racism at 5:00pm on Saturday

Cooking demo

Make time to see my buddy Adrian of Vegan Peasant demonstrate canapés and party food. I just wrote about his upcoming pop up event in London, so this is a great opportunity to see how the magic works at 5pm on Saturday

Stalls

  • Ananda’s Marshmallows – get the Round-Up wagon wheels
  • Conscious Chocolate – so rich and creamy
  • Dr Hadwen Trust – actively campaigning for animal-based experiment alternatives
  • Follow Your Heart – best vegan mayo on the planet and sponsors of Vegan Beer Fest UK 2017
  • Lakeside Ethical Treats – always has a great range of vegan sweets and treats

Of course there are dozens and dozens more stalls and talks taking place, but this list includes the things I personally would make a priority.

Hope you all have a great time and check out VegfestUK Brighton online to plan your weekend and get your tickets.