Xref: 127.0.0.1 rec.gardens.edible:61165

I could relate to the difficulty of eating vegetarian in Alaska. It was
even worse when I was there in the 1970s; there was no farmer's market and
hardly anybody was a vegetarian. When I moved down the Coast to Oregon (I
later settled in the Seattle area), I was overwhelmed by the bounty of good
produce. When I was going to the U of O, there were FREE plums, apples,
tomatoes, etc., from people's gardens--they would just put them out on the
curb, or put up a sign saying, "Please pick the plums." I loved it!


"Jan Flora" wrote in message
...
In article , Pat Meadows
wrote:

On Mon, 4 Aug 2003 12:28:36 -0700,
wrote:

Eggs don't have faces, neither does milk. However seafood does. These
people need to make up their minds.

It's simple - the generally accepted definitions go like
this:

vegetarian - eats no dead animals (this is the simplest way
to express it), many eat both eggs and milk, some eat one
but not the other [1].

vegan - eats no dead animals and no animal products either
(no eggs, no dairy foods, usually no honey) Many vegans also
do not use leather, or other similar animal-based products.
[2].

It's somewhat irritating to vegetarians when those who eat
seafood or chicken (for instance) call themselves
'vegetarians' because this creates confusion.

Yep, it does cause confusion. I know a lot of folks who don't eat
red meat, but eat seafood & poultry and call themselves vegetarians.
I have a cousin who is a vegan, who always looks too thin & puny.

It's hard in Alaska to be able to afford a totally veggie diet, because
veggies are *so* expensive up here. A cucumber is $1.49 at the
market. A peach is $1.50. An organic cuke at the Farmer's Market
can cost you $3. (We can't grow peaches here.) An artichoke is
normally $3. OTOH, 10# of Alaska-grown spuds is $2.99 and 5# of
Alaska-grown carrots is $2.99. We can grow root crops and brassicas
up here like crazy, but can't grow hot weather crops commercially
and sell them cheaply. Hothouse 'maters up here are $4/lb all year long.
I don't know what the organic 'maters cost at the Farmers Market.
Rice & beans are cheap up here, by the 50 or 100# sacks, but you
need a balanced diet and greens are just flat expensive in the north.
Lots of us forage for greens and mushrooms, but we have 7 months
of snow here, so the foraging season is limited.

I don't think of tofu as "food," but you probably do. Someone gave me
a soyburger once without telling me what it was. I commented on it
tasting funny. She spat, "It's soy, what's wrong with it??" I said,
"It ain't bad, but I'm a beef cattle rancher." She inspected her shoes,
until her face quit being red.

[...]

Pat (not a vegetarian at the moment, but have been one in
the past and likely will be again in the future)

I've never been a vegetarian, per se, but at times have quit eating
meat because I was too poor to buy meat (going to college) or for
health reasons, when I had to take the heavy protein load off my
system. I feel better when I limit my meat intake. Pop lives on meat
and spuds. I'm able to juggle our menu so he gets lots of meat and I get
big salads and some meat, and we're both happy.

Tofu sucks, IMO. Big salads, OTOH, rock, especially when they come
out of your own garden : ) And, IMO, broccali is a food group. I just
love it, so I have 8 broccali plants in my garden. (I'm misspelling it,
huh? *laugh*)

Jan

PS: Since this thread started with compost, I have to report that the
compost pile I started at about the same time we started this thread --
well, it's done. It got hot; it cooked along; I turned it last night and
it's
done. I found a good website for any northern gardeners who don't think
they can make good, hot compost, written by a gal down on Kodiak Island,
Alaska. (150 miles south of me.) Also looked at the Compost Calculator
website and got my C:: N ratio pretty close. That's probably what did the
trick. That's a *very* cool website.