Tricia Frances has a new web site address at www.GladToBe.co.uk. The site includes details of Tricia's research into food sensitivities and children's behaviour, vegan cookery books, and much more.
If you are visiting Norfolk there is a new Vegetarian Guest House for you to try.
The West Lodge Gatehouse is situated at Drayton near Norwich. They use organic,
fair-trade and locally produced goods.
West Lodge web site : www.vegetarian-bedandbreakfast-norwich.co.uk
For rented accommodation the VegCom service pioneered by London Vegans has now expanded nationally. We are running the East of England section covering Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, and Essex initially. If you are a vegetarian or vegan and looking for somewhere to rent you can browse the adverts in the accommodation offered section. Landlords can advertise rooms or properties to let in this section completely free of charge. Alternatively, you can place your own advert in the Accommodation Wanted section. The entire service is free to use, but if you do find the service to be of use think about making a small donation to help cover the running costs and to ensure that the service can be maintained and improved in the future.
VegCom web site: www.VegCom.org.uk
Alicia would like to start a parent and baby group in the Norwich area. If you are interested in meeting up contact Alicia via the Forum.
Joyce Long, the Society's President and founder, died on 7th July 2005 aged 94. The funeral will take place on Tuesday 26th July, 2pm at Geldeston Parish Church, near Beccles. This will be followed by light refreshments at The Orchard Room, Mangreen.
A new takeaway called Vegeland has opened in the city centre opposite Castle Mall. All staff are vegetarian or vegan. It is open Monday to Friday from midday to 5:30. Further details can be found on the restaurants page.
Ten members met at Priory Gardens for an enjoyable picnic. Afterwards two members decided to attempt the maze in the gardens whilst the rest went off to Sheringham Park for a walk amongst the Rhododendron's. The weather although cold and cloudy to start with, finished up with some welcome sunshine. A very enjoyable day amongst friends.
The AGM reported a record membership for the society which currently stands at 63. Membership fees stay the same this year, but there is now a Family membership rate of £10. Society finances remain healthy, a donation of £50 is to be made to the local Hillside Animal Sanctuary. Leslie Duffield has stepped down from the Committee but will continue as host for the Friendly Lunches. The whole events programme for the next year has been mapped out. In particular, make a note of the dates for the Boat Trip and the London Vegan Festival. Let the organisers (Jane for the boat trip, Lee for the Festival) know as soon as you can if you do (or definitely don't!) want to book places to make their jobs easier. You can find details of all the events on the Diary page. Finally, Peter is always on the lookout for interesting articles for the newsletter, and Anna is still looking for a few more original recipes to finish off her new recipe booklet.
Not in the Diary for a group visit are the two local animal sanctuaries, but you might like to make your own visit. Hillside Animal Sanctuary is open every Sunday from Easter to the end of October, plus Bank Holiday Mondays, 1pm to 5pm. PACT Animal Sanctuary is is also open on the first Sunday of every month from May to October.
Restaurants: I've been informed that the Angel Café in Diss changed owners back in December 2003 and is now no longer exclusively vegetarian.
The results are now through and Fiona achieved an excellent finishing position. She crossed the line in 30th place in the ladies race in a time of two hours and forty-nine minutes.
London Marathon (Sunday 17 April 2005)
It's that time of year again when you can see runners and joggers in every town and village
preparing for the London Marathon. One successful Vegan athlete is
Fiona Oakes, who this year has a place on the elite start. If you are
going down to London, or watching the coverage on television, keep an eye out for her.
Fiona has a full time job managing her own animal sanctuary in Essex,
Tower Hill Stables, where she single handedly
cares for over 250 animals. At the marathon she will be collecting sponsorship money
to help run the sanctuary.
The picture shows Fiona running in the Florence Marathon last November where she achieved an excellent fifth place in two hours forty-nine minutes. She is wearing the black and green vest of "Vegan Runners", a group connected with The Vegetarian Cycling & Athletic Club.
Friendly Lunch, Sat 12 March 2005 ~ Max d'Ayala
The last Friendly Lunch of Spring (the weather really has changed now)
saw a good turnout of over 30 members and guests. The next meeting
is the AGM on Saturday 9th April at 2pm.
Tricia Frances presented an interesting review of her allergy research. She has completed two main projects. One involving young school children, and the second via email with vegetarians and vegans. Carrying out the email based project proved the hardest, although once people started they tended to stay the course.
To Trisha's surprise many people stuck too closely to the printed recipes and didn't experiment enough. The feeling from comments made is that people like to try out the recipe as it is first, before they experiment to try and get something that suits them.
Of the recipes tried the lentil shepherd's pie came up trumps as the most popular dish. Trisha brought along her version of the recipe for everyone to sample. The least popular was Baberganouj (nobody liked it), and only one person attempted the mince pies.
Other discoveries included gluten being used to coat certain types of lentils to make them flow freely. Nobody had much success with trying to roll out gluten free pastry (it's the gluten that sticks it together!). Alternative methods were to try rolling it out between sheets of greaseproof paper, or just pressing into straight into the tin. Trisha has sourced a good supply of gluten free bread making mixture that she finds works very successfully and can supply this along with other gluten free ingredients.
With all the insights gained so far Trisha is planning on writing a recipe book for gluten free diets at some point in the future. She is also running some food and cooking workshops over the coming months. Check out her website for the latest developments: hoemtown.aol.co.uk/gladtobevegan/
Friendly Lunch, Mangreen, Sat 12 Feb 2005 ~ Max d'Ayala
High winds were whipping about outside, but inside the Orchard Rooms
a record turnout of members, guests and new faces filled the room with high spirits.
With forty mouths to feed there was always the worry of there not being enough food to go round,
but as usual there was more than enough with a little left over at the end.
Don't miss the opportunity to attend the last Friendly Lunch of the season next month.
Guest speaker will be Tricia Frances, who will be talking about the results of her recent
research into food allergies.
Pictured is February guest speaker Adrian Ramsey (left) with Chairman John Johnson.
Adrian is one of five Green Party councillors on Norwich City Council.
He will also be standing for election as a Parliamentary Candidate for Norwich South
in the forthcoming (date yet to be announced!) General Election.
Adrian became a vegetarian as a schoolboy and while initially rather nervous at how his family might react, found in fact that it didn't cause any problems. Later his mother also became vegetarian. Through joining the Vegetarian Society Adrian became more aware of the issues of milk production and at fifteen became a vegan. During the '97 General Election he saw a Green Party broadcast and became interested in their policies. He then joined the local Green Party and when he was old enough stood for election to Norwich City Council.
In the Norwich area Adrian would like to see a specific post for Animal Protection created. At the moment animal welfare issues are dealt with by the Environmental Health department. He would also like to see greater priority given to locally produced and Fair Trade goods. Currently in the local news is the issue of the Council advertising cheap flights from Norwich Airport to local destinations. Greener forms of transport that produce less pollution are available and preferable. In Westminster there is currently little impetus to tackle issues such as factory farming and vivisection by the main political parties, but Adrian believes the Green Party would be able to put these firmly on the agenda. Currently the plan is to have Green Party candidates standing in Norwich but there is not enough finance or resources to have candidates throughout Norfolk. If you want to take an acitve part in helping to deliver leaflets at Election time, or can provide any other help, Adrian would be glad to hear from you.
National Green Party: www.GreenParty.org.uk
Norwich Green Party: www.NorwichGreenParty.org
www.veggievision.co.uk : fledgling TV station. You'll need a broadband connection to download the video clips.
Veggie Lakeland Living : Bed and Breakfast in Lakeland.
The November Friendly Lunch proved very popular with a record breaking turnout of thirty five members. Fewer attended the Christmas Lunch although the Christmas Fairy did appear. The February Lunch has a guest speaker: Adrian Ramsay of the Green Party.
Note that the cafe at Cley has changed name (and web address) to terroir. Website: www.terroir.org.uk