Woman in Real Life

We have enjoyed another busy weekend so far. Yesterday, we travelled to our hometown of Hamilton, Ontario for the very first Veggie Fest, Hamilton's vegetarian, vegan and raw food festival. I am generally willing to travel for food.

We met lots of lovely people, like Jen from Apiecalypse Now (awesome name!), a vegan bakery in Toronto. Jen's baked goods contain no dairy, no white sugar, no lard, no chemicals, no GMO...and the list goes on. So what's left? Just delicious, animal-friendly treats, such as sausage rolls and cookies. More about that later.


These nice guys from the Hamilton/Halton Animal Liberation Team (H.A.L.T.) shared trays of veggies, crackers and dips to welcome visitors.


Which I appreciated, because this little gal actually munched on some celery.


She didn't really have any lunch after that though. By that time she had spotted the vegan baked goods and she was holding out for them. I had this amazing raw wrap though. The people from Raw on Dundurn Street South make wraps using dehydrated bell peppers and tomatoes. My wrap was quite delicious and had me thinking about buying a dehydrator. I also need a good juicer and a strong blender if I want to make all of the delicious things I saw yesterday.


We also munched on a bag of kale chips from Raw.


Then it was back to Apiecalypse Now. I had a piece of vegan marshmallow and chocolate pie. Of course, I also sampled the kids' cookies (just for reporting purposes of course). They made a big deal about me taking the tiniest of bites though. My fave was this cookie with vanilla icing, above.


My son thought this one was like a giant Oreo, above. Apiecalypse also had chicken(less) pot pies. I decided to come back and get one when we were leaving but they were sold out!


I also talked to the lovely Zoey from Tonica Kombucha. Zoey is a yoga instructor who founded Tonica Kombucha in 2008. Read more of her story here. I enjoyed the vibrant blueberry flavour, while my husband had the ginger rapture. Zoey explained that she developed the beverages to have a light, pleasing bubble so they would appeal to kombucha newbies as well as kombucha lovers. All ingredients are organic and free of allergens and GMOs.


We also chatted with the nice rep from Cedar Row Farm Sanctuary, a family-run haven for farm animals, located just outside of Stratford, Ontario. I am currently reading "Animal Camp" by Catskill Animal Sanctuary founder Kathy Stevens, and I have been really wanting to take the kids to a sanctuary.

Speaking of kids, this brave guy and his wife are expecting their sixth baby soon. And they are all vegan. I asked if they have a big grocery bill and he said they sometimes keep it really simple by cooking up a big pot of lentil soup. I think that's a great idea. Sometimes I get caught up in buying all kinds of expensive packaged products, but a nice tomato sauce or soup works just as well.

If you are in the Stratford area, Cedar Row is having an open house, bake sale and veggie barbecue on June 22nd, from 11 am to 4 pm. Sounds like a lot of fun!


My son insisted I get a photo of this stuffed carrot.


The family enjoyed taking a look at some of the buttons on display from The Button Pushers.


Why is it so hard to get a picture where both of the kids are looking at the camera?

By the way, do you like my new Matt and Nat purse? I ordered it (cheap-like) on Beyond the Rack a few weeks ago and I have been waiting for the opportunity to use it at just such an event. (Somewhere where you don't want to carry a giant, heavy purse.)

How is your weekend going? How far do you travel for food?