Yep, you Vegan Mofoers, it's that time of year again and I am back on my blog to talk about all things vegan....especially food! I will loosely follow this year's prompts and occasionally throw in a spin or two depending upon what is the rage in my life at the moment. Hang on tight...it may get bumpy!
The first day of Vegan Mofo is all about introductions - as I remember last year we had a similar prompt. I talked about how I found my morals along my journey into veganism and all of that. Today I am going to talk about how I wrote a book, The Easy Vegan and started my business...Vegan Feast Catering.
I always loved to cook - in fact growing up I did most of the cooking. My parents lived through the Depression so every little bit was a lot to them and boy, my mother could feed our family of five for $1.00 a day! I learned how to stretch and budget wisely. When I became vegetarian (1979), and then vegan (1994), I longed for those family favorites - the comforting, feel good dishes Mom would make ...like a warm welcoming hug. I began veganizing those dishes. Everybody loved them. It was 2000 and I veganized everything - we started having dinner parties and tastings (today you would call that a pop up). People I worked with brought over their friends and they in turn brought over others and the weekends became very popular around our neck of the woods. Everyone thought I should open business.
My goal was to bring the textures and smells of the foods people grew up with forefront - to provide that common link of happy memories and foods with vegan cookery. To introduce vegan food to folks and show them plant based is where it is at. In those years plant based was not a term and we did not have all the processed foods of today. Yes, we did have veggie burgers, imitation seafood and seitan products, but not to the extent that we have them in 2019. I wanted to show everyone vegan food was the ultimate answer to rainforest destruction, factory farming and dairy production, unjust and immoral treatment of animals, you name it.
In 2003 my MIL had fallen ill - I decided to care for her so I quite my daytime job. A short time later she passed on and that is when I decided to start my business - during a very painful lull in my life. Well, if you don't want to be bored, I say start a catering business! So much work, so much to learn, you really have to hustle. Talk about growing pains! About a year later I went back to my veterinary career as well (you can't keep me away). Yes, keeping busy keeps you out of trouble. I did birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, meal planning, corporate events...
One day a co-worker (veterinarian and author herself), mentioned that she had been to her book club and her agent mentioned that another author that was committed to a publishing a manuscript on vegan food had backed out. She recommended me! Next thing I know I am putting all the recipes into a cookbook for publishing! (and working, and catering). It was exciting and I learned so much! On the down side the publisher (Thorson's by Harper Collins, based in England), pulled the US company out just as the book was published and I was sort of left high and dry to be my own promoter. As well, Thorson's had hired another editor in the process so not only did my resource listings not get published, there were no photographs...but they had achieved what they wanted at that time (2005)...the largest vegan recipe book of it's kind.
Fast forward to 2012...I get a call from the original editor, now back at Harper Collins and he wants to rekindle the book and give it a facelift of sorts. I was able to include the resource list there and it was received more favorably. I since have another in the works - be looking for that in 2020!
So that is the low down about me! I am looking forward to reading all about my fellow bloggers- until tomorrow - enjoy Vegan Mofo 2019!
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