Superstar vegan brand back as sponsors

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This is the third year in a row I get to make this announcement and I am just as delighted as I was the first time.

Superstar vegan food brand Follow Your Heart is back as proud sponsor of UK Vegan Beer Fest 2018.

The cost of running a series of community-focussed events around the country while keeping all tickets under £10 (early bird tickets under £5 for most dates) can be daunting, but the financial support we receive from Follow Your Heart makes it possible.

Vegan Beer Fest UK events are focussed on creating inclusive spaces where people can celebrate their veganism (or vegan curiosity) with like minded party goers. Events this year include the 6th annual London Vegan Beer Fest, as well as outings in Sheffield, Glasgow and Coventry.

Every single person attending one of our beer events will be handed a durable pint cup to use on the day. The cups are decorated with the event details as well as the Follow Your Heart logo. Once the beer fest is over, attendees can take their cups home to use again and again.

Follow Your Heart makes these showcases of vegan beer and food providers possible and I am extremely grateful of their continued support of our community.

You can see the entire range of Follow Your Heart sauces, cheeses, mayo, dressings, and more online here.

You can follow the brand on Instagram, too!

Order your early bird tickets for UK Vegan Beer Fest now!

New vegan food business in Croydon

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Croydon continues to impress on the vegan food front as it says hello to The Vegan Grill.

The Vegan Grill runs as a pop up street food stall on the Surrey Street Market, Croydon. They sell vegan comfort food including burgers, hot dogs, chips and cake.

You can stop by their stall between Wednesday and Saturday each week.

To keep updated on opening times and other appearances, you can follow The Vegan Grill on Instagram and Facebook.

Now, let’s look at some tasty food!

New vegan food range launches in London shops

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Say hello to The Plantifull Food Co.

This brand new, 100% vegan food provider has just launched a range of ready meals and they look tasty.

The Plantifull range of four chilled vegan ready meals (Creamy Mac, Gluten-Free Creamy Mac, Shroomy Risotto, Three-Bean Chilli) are now available in 30 London stores including As Nature Intended, Eat17, Harvest, GreenBay Supermarket and Planet Organic.

Based on the glowing reviews I’ve seen, it shouldn’t be long until the range starts popping up around the UK.

If you aren not near any of their stockists or maybe in a different part of the country, you can also shop on the Plantifull website for delivery.

Follow Plantifull on Instagram.

New vegan food in Sheffield

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Big news, Sheffield.

The friendly people behind your fabulous Steel City Cakes bakery have gone and opened a new food outlet called The Plant.

The Plant is special for two reasons.

Firstly, it is located in the city centre. A lot of Sheffield’s vegan goodness is placed just out the centre, but The Plant gives an opportunity for vegan eating in the middle of the city.

In addition, The Plant is sort of billed as a vegan version of Gregg’s. They are serving pasties and there is no shortage of Henderson’s Relish bottles throughout the shop.

Basically, it is exactly what a lot of Sheffield people love but done vegan. Pastries, pasties, cakes and shakes!

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

Be sure to follow The Plant on Facebook.

Unwaxed fruit in London

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Here is a super short post to let you know that you can now buy unwaxed fruit on a regular basis at Hackney Downs Vegan Market.

Fresh Fruit Box is one of our newest traders and today they launched their colourful unwaxed fruit and vegetable stall at our weekly market in Hackney.

As you might know, a lot of supermarket bought fruit in the Uk is waxed with animal derived ingredients.

Fresh Fruit Box go to a lot of trouble to source unwaxed fruit from Spanish farms, meaning everything they sell is devoid of any animal products.

Visit Hackney Downs Vegan Market next week (March 31) to check out the gorgeous fresh produce selection for yourself and perhaps consider making this your regular shopping spot for fresh fruit and vegetables.

You can follow Fresh Fruit Box on Instagram.

New music from Colour Me Wednesday

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One of my favourite bands out of London is the fabulous Colour Me Wednesday.

This band releases some of the best music you will hear out of London and in even better news they also champion vegan causes.

Because I think it is a great idea to support independent artists (especially if they are vegan), I am sharing the link where you can pre-order the soon-to-be-released new album by Colour Me Wednesday.

Click here to order and help keep the arts alive… and hear some fucking fantastic music.

Order vegan pies to your home

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You all know about superstar vegan pie company Young Vegans.

The food business is one of our regular traders at Hackney Downs Vegan Market every Saturday and they also have their own pie and mash shop located in Camden Market.

This food has been adored by Londoners for the past few years, but people in other parts of the UK have had no choice but to look on enviously.

But today I have some fabulous news for you.

You can now order your very own Young Vegans pies for delivery anywhere on mainland UK.

The initial offering is the “Box Of Six” delivered next day to front doors anywhere in the UK and you get to choose whatever combination of pies you would like to go in your box.

The pies currently available are the classic Vegan Steak And Ale, All Day Breakfast, Curry (Gluten Free) and Sweet Potato (Gluten Free).

Young Vegans plan to add more pies soon including their new Cheese Steak, Chicken Parmigiana and Cheeseburger as well as other items like their Peanut Butter and Chocolate Mud Pies.

The ordering process is simple. Just click here to visit the shop.

You can choose which pies you would like to order using the drop down menus on the right and when you are ready, click “add to cart” and checkout.

A box of of six pies will cost you £23 plus next day delivery which is £6.71. However you can order up to 7 boxes for the same delivery charge, so some shrewd customers might buy more than one box at a time!

All of packaging used by Young Vegans is recyclable using standard residential recycling bins and they are in the process of organising a system whereby customers can send back the packaging for free so they can reuse it!

Get your pies in today, UK vegans. You deserve it!

Follow Young Vegans on Instagram.

New vegan eatery in Camden

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Hey, I just found out about a new vegan place to eat in Camden so I thought I should pass on the info.

The friendly Verena got in touch to let me know she has just opened this new food business on February 1, 2018 so it is super fresh.

This is what she had to say about Green Rhino:

The Green Rhino London is a proper sit down restaurant in Camden Town. We opened on the 1st of February this year. Our opening times are Thursday to Sunday from 5pm until 10pm. Our menu is small and simple because it’s just me at the moment but as soon as it gets busy I will be looking for helping hands.
Our idea of a regular vegan meal is plant based without many meat replacements or deep frying, so we offer a changing vegetable based soup that comes with wholemeal brown toast for £5.50. We also have two main courses for £8.50 each; a cauliflower and kidney bean stew in tomato sauce served with boiled new potatoes and a green crunchy side salad plus our vegetable medley with fresh veggies in a creamy coconut sauce served with brown rice and a couscous salad.
We try to keep the portions big to make sure everybody is full!
For the sweet tooth we have homemade vegan Snicker bars and muffins.

Sounds tasty and filling!

You can get along to Green Rhino at 25a Pratt Street NW1 0BG. Click here to see the exact location thanks to Google Maps.

You can follow Green Rhino on Instagram.

Now, let’s look at the food!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfisB9YFKho/

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bfn_nngFywv/

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bfi6I1_lG0K/

https://www.instagram.com/p/Be-UXVzlAwG/

Vegan support/FGV rant

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If you follow me on social media, you might have noticed this post yesterday.

In case the post doesn’t carry across from Instagram for you, the basics involve me being fired up about all the vegan events taking place that are run by non-vegan companies.

There has been a lot of discussion about the way I said what I said, so I thought I would take a little bit of time to address some of the points here. I don’t have time to answer every post individually so I’m kinda condensing.

Q: Would you rather these people run events selling meat/dairy/armadillo shells?

Of course not.

I have championed for non-vegan business to sell vegan products and services for two decades. I would never make an argument for boycotting a non-vegan business that sold vegan products unless the company was problematic in other ways. This might include bad worker treatment, racism, sexism in advertising, or homophobia.

But offering a vegan meal in a non-vegan restaurant is VERY different to a non-vegan business running a high profile vegan festival or market. These events are using our strong community to make a lot of instant money from the goodwill of veganism. They are not simply welcoming vegans to their business, they are crafting and co-opting our culture and our meeting spaces in order to make profit with little or zero concern for what veganism means.

Q: Why does it matter if a non-vegan business is running an event?

When a vegan person or business runs a large market or event, the central focus is the vegan message. This is something that can be glossed over when a non-vegan develops an event.

Large vegan events run by non-vegans taking place in London generate a lot of income for their organisers. This income is then gone from the vegan community, to be spent by individuals and the businesses involved on non-vegan concerns. Some of this money is used to promote non-vegan food events run by the same organisers. Yes, money made at some large vegan events in London is being used to help sell dead animals.

However, vegan events around the country that are run by vegans keep the generated income within the community. Vegans spend money on vegan goods, products and services. We shop with local, independent vegan businesses. We support vegan charities with the money we earn.

Q: Why do you want me to boycott vegan events run by non-vegans?

I don’t.

The idea behind my temperamental rant grew out of frustration.

I had just seen an announcement about how a new weekly vegan market is to be launched by a company that also runs a market that showcases dead animals.

I am not suggesting anyone boycott this or any similar event but rather I’m expressing how frustrating it is to see these events being launched by non-vegans when they could be and should be vegan led.

Q: Why are you angry at me? I don’t have time/I have children/I am just one person.

I am not angry at any one single person and I don’t hate anyone.

I am frustrated with our community as a collective. Yes I understand how incredibly hard a lot of us work because I have been on the front line for a decade with thousands of others.

My statement was an angry-sounding plea to our community to organise. This plea is sympathetic of individuals who do not/cannot organise due to a multitude of reasons. This might include disability, illness, financial restrictions, family commitments, mental health considerations, and other situations.

What I am saying is that we HAVE to fight hard to organise big ticket vegan events on OUR vegan terms. We need to do this for the animals and for the financial security of our community.

I have been doing what I do for a long time and what upsets me is the attitude I see in a lot of people in our community when it comes to organising. A lot of us would like everything done for us, no matter where this takes our money.

I stand by this. A hell of a lot of us could be doing a hell of a lot more. If this doesn’t apply to you, good. You know what you do and I’m not speaking about you.

Q: Aren’t you a hypocrite because you tell us about new vegan products are at Tesco/Wagamama/Pizza Express?

Once again, I have been extremely open about how and why I share news from mainstream companies.

I think it helps many people with limited finances and/or mobility considerations to be able to have easy access to vegan options. They also help people make a transition or stay vegan.

I would have something very different to say if Tesco started a weekly vegan lifestyle show!

I often bookend posts about Tesco or other mainstream businesses by stating how I think we should shop with local, independent vegan business whenever possible.

Q: Didn’t you support Arancini Brothers when they weren’t totally vegan? What’s the difference?

Arancini Brothers were not running large scale events based around the vegan lifestyle. They were trying to find a way to transition their business to a completely vegan one and I was attempting to leverage my platform to push them the rest of the way.

Q: Isn’t this easy for you to say as a rich vegan making thousands from events?

I’m not in the habit of justifying my income to anyone outside of UK and Australian taxation entities, but I hardly make what you would call a lot of money. In fact, mine and my partner’s current combined income from running vegan events is less than what I used to earn on my own as a school teacher. Seriously… and we all know teachers aren’t paid enough, either.

I make less money than non-vegans running vegan events because I charge businesses smaller amounts of money to trade at my events because I believe in supporting independent vegan business. Because I want them to be able to make a living out of saving animals. This rarely happens when non-vegans run vegan events.

Q: If I am confused by all of this, can you explain just the basics again?

Yes.

I would love to see more vegans being the driving force behind events and markets that are explicitly vegan events.

These events are generating a lot of revenue and I would like to see this money fed back into the vegan community instead of sucked out of our pockets and used by non-vegans.

I am also concerned that non-vegans running large, visible vegan events work to diminish our vegan activist voices and remove animals from the centre of our message,

No, I don’t think you should boycott vegan events run by non-vegans but I would like you to consider how you can support independent vegan business in order to strengthen our fight to improve outcomes for animals.

I would also like to see more people becoming active in staging large scale, visible vegan events and markets. I say this with informed compassion, knowing that not every member of our community can contribute to events.

Q: Why should I care what you say?

You don’t have to. This is my opinion. It is not the law. I am not the vegan police. I’m just a fat guy trying to do what I think is the right thing. Take it or leave it.

Vegan wings eating competition

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Have you ever felt you would excel at competitive eating but there just haven’t been enough vegan opportunities?

Well, say hello to Biff’s Jack Shack’s 1st Annual Vegan Wings Eating Competition.

National Wing Day is on Thursday 22nd March and not only will Biff’s be offering 50% off all wingz, they’ll be putting on a wingz party at Haunt London featuring the UK’s first vegan wings eating comp.

Actually, unless someone can prove otherwise I’m confident in declaring this the world’s first vegan wings eating competition.

Four challengers will get to eat their way through a bucket of ten of their crispy fried jackfruit wingz, slathered in special hot chipotle sauce.

The champion will get Jack Shack tees and swag for them and their crew, food for two at the Haunt, the coveted GOLDEN BUCKET, and a place in history.

If you want to take the challenge, you must:

👉 1. Follow Biff’s Jack Shack on Instagram
👉 2. Tag two wing-people that you’d bring down with you on the night in this post
👉 3. Tell the wing makers what makes you the ultimate wing fiend in a comment below the Instagram post

If the eating challenge isn’t for you, you should still get along to enjoy cheap wings and support independent vegan business.