Hippie Vegan Bull$#!* is a free, family-friendly event on Saturday, May 25 from 12pm-7pm, celebrating everything peaceful, organic, and weird in Austin. From food vendors and artists to yoga classes and drum spheres, the Empire Control Room & Garage will give Austinites young and old something to vibe out to.
The Empire parking lot will be home to a local vegan marketplace featuring food trucks by Roaming Hunger, a farmers market, and vendors selling miscellaneous hippie bull$#!* including custom t-shirt screen printing and professional tie-dying. The garage will serve as our bicycle & skateboard valet as well as the home of our massive group finger painting mural.

The patio will host a yoga class by Wanderlust with musical accompaniment by Jeff Liffman, drum sphere by Xandali, slack line demos by Keep Austin Slacklining, hackeysack and frisbee. The Control Room will transform into the Crash Pad where music-lovers can enjoy positive music & vibes courtesy of DJ Edica + and participate in an improvised jam on-stage (so bring your instruments!) Those who want to chill can enjoy the show from the comfort of bean bag chairs, all while surrounded by 300 degrees of trippy, psychedelic projections.

Here’s the facebook event – http://hippieveganbs.com

I understand that trailers are by their nature somewhat mobile and that trailer parks are owned by developers just waiting to turn their land into something more profitable because this is America goddammit. I sighed when I read a couple weeks ago that the landmark south congress trailers are this time really really closing. But I was beyond PISSED when I heard the vegetarian friendly trailer park that is five blocks from my office is closing to make room for condos. I’m the freaking mayor for godsakes. There aren’t that many walkable happy places to eat in this hood. I can get tacos at a place called Bacon. I can get a nine dollar smoothie at a gym. I can get a shitty bagel from a corporate behemoth or I can brave the crowds and mobs of babies at Whole Foods if I want to go somewhere for lunch without hopping in my car to the Wheatsville promise land. The Longhorn food court was like a dream come true.

I can clearly remember the first time I went to conscious cravings and soon after got my whole office hooked on the spicy chickpea wrap and the chimmichurri seitan. My coworkers even all ask for the vegan cheese! It fills my vegan heart with glee. We all make bad jokes about how we are consciously craving it.

And then when Capital City Bakery opened up I was able to turn everyone on to the wonder that can be vegan baked goods from the best in the biz. I think I also gained 10 pounds but it was all worth it! Whatever, I’m going to be glad I have it when the collapse of civilization comes and you all are regretting those juice cleanses.

And Moses Falafel is the only place I know of in the world that will substitute FRENCH FRIES in your falafel if you don’t like lettuce. And they even have falafel tacos. It’s so good.

The people that “own” the land, the people that these trailers pay money to every month, didn’t even bother to give the trailer owners 30 days notice. They were told they had to get out in a week. When I went yesterday none of the trailers knew what to do yet. They guy at Moses told me that hearing the news and having his credit card machine break down on the same day made it the worst day of his life. He said he is going to have to close for a while and reassess.  Cap City and Conscious Cravings are both looking for new spots. Probably east. URGH. I’m so depressed. I vowed to eat there all week. Some vegans are even getting together for a last Hurrah this Friday. And meanwhile Republicans are out there trying to get rid of the weekend. What a world.

UPDATE: Conscious Cravings will be moving north to 5715 Burnet Rd (right next to the Mister Car Wash)

Sometimes it feels like I read nothing but bad news.  I read all week (month? year? my whole lifetime?) about the republicans attempts to deregulate everything and help ruin all life on earth. Today I read they are working hard on destroying  the rest of the manatee in Florida. I also learned that “conservatives” are less likely to buy the same lightbulbs if you tell them it will help the environment.

Instead of wallowing in depression I’m going to try and raise some awareness for Lucky the elephant. Lucky was a wild elephant who was captured in Thailand and brought to the San Antonio zoo. Over the years she has watched as her companions have all died and now she is the last of her kind. Female elephants aren’t supposed to ever be alone. In the wild they always travel in packs. When they pass a spot where one of their number died, they stop and take a moment to mourn. Here is a video where you can watch them. Even many years later they will stop at the same spot. Elephants are giant animals and they also need a lot of space. In the jungle they actually make the paths that all the other animals follow on their never ending quests for food.

The San Antonio zoo doesn’t really have enough room for one elephant, much less two. It could be that these substandard arrangements have led to the death of so many of Luck’s companions. They are trying to petition their own trade organization to break it’s rules and keep Lucky by herself from now on.

 One World Conservation says ”According to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) guidelines, elephants should not be kept alone in captivity. It’s emotionally traumatizing. That’s why we’re asking that Lucky be removed from the San Antonio Zoo and sent to a facility that offers social grouping, natural substrates, strictly enforced protected contact management, high-end veterinary care, and the space to better meet the needs of her species.”

If you would like to help the first step is to sign the Change.org petition. There is also a link to call and email the AZA directly because they are going to be making this decision on whether or not to grant the San Antonio Zoo’s request very soon. There is also going to be a demonstration outside the zoo in San Antonio this Saturday, if you can make it they will even have signs and stuff available. You can also invite your friends on facebook to join the cause.

This is an animal that we can help.

Here’s some shots from the Counter Culture sale, I wish I could have made it to Monkeywrench. 

Thanks to everyone that helped especially Brittany my co-organizer, everyone that helped sell stuff all day, and of course everyone that donated!!!

Here is a post from The Horn about the Monkeywrench sale!

Austin Bakes for West is this weekend so please consider donating to their humanitarian aid for our neighbors as well.

Cherry Bomb from Capital City Bakery

This Sunday, April 28th, the Austin vegan community is holding two simultaneous bake sales and we need your help! We still need lots of people to sign up to bake and we need help running the tables as well. From 11-2 we are going to be set up at Counter Culture Vegan Restaurant and MonkeyWrench Bookstore. Our goal is to raise 2,000 dollars for Sunny Day Farms Animal Sanctuary and SARA Sanctuary but we can’t do that if you don’t sign up!

Sign up to make baked goods: http://tinyurl.com/2013AustinWWVBS

More info about the WWVBS: http://www.veganbakesale.org/

If you are looking for recipe ideas I am hoping that someone out there makes these Butterscotch Cupcakes With Coconut-Bacon from the ppk. Or what about these  Mini Almond Poundcakes or Cherry Chocolate Chunk Mini Loaves? I was thinking about making these Nanaimo Bars from the vegan cookbook aficionado because I became kind of obsessed with these on a trip last summer. Or what about these Balsamic Chipotle Roasted Strawberry Brownies with some Poteet strawberries from Eating Appalachia? They sound amazing. I have had these chocolate dipped candy covered pretzels from What does a vegan eat anyway pinned forever because I think they would be the perfect bakesale item for a non baker. I love pretzels & peanut butter with my chocolate and these Peanut Butter Fudge Pretzel Bars from Bittersweet would be awesome too and just a little more work.  And if you are gluten free please make these Brownies from Cakemaker to the Stars. They look scrumptious.

If you can’t bake for the sale we need lots of eaters and inviters too! So join the event on facebook, invite your friends, share on twitter, and tell your coworkers! Vegan bake sales are great for spreading the word that you don’t need eggs to make a cake and you don’t have to be only about health food if you are going to go vegan. We are going to have doughnuts from Red Rabbit Bakery and all sorts of other goodies from Mr Natural, Happy Vegan Bakery, Unity Vegan Kitchen, Sugar Mama’s, Sinfull Bakery, and Capital City Bakery too so there will be plenty of sweets to wow your most skeptical friends! All the proceeds are going to go to dogs, kittens, sheep, cows, pigs, chickens, and a whole bunch of other animals that need your support so please do what you can!

He was a great speaker, he talked a lot about how preventable heart disease is just by cutting back meat and that a lot of people know that and just replace beef with chicken. It’s not enough! He was dressed in his surgeons gear just in case any meat eaters showed up. I wanted to pay close attention but I just couldn’t sit still. I really wanted to get a shirt from Herbivore before they sold out. Then I got distracted by tacos.

Good Karma Kitchen had rolled in from Fort Worth to bring us their delicious tacos and noodle dishes. I got the barbecued Korean tacos with jalapeno cream sauce, sliced vegetables, and ginger pickles and they were amazing, and my favorite thing I ate all day.

I couldn’t believe the line for Arlo’s next door was a million times longer since Arlo’s is usually parked just down the street. They do have my favorite veggie burger in the world and people were waiting over an hour! I went looking for the Herbivore booth after trying some tempeh on a stick and then I ran into friends who wanted something sweet. We headed to Sinfull Bakery, I was stoked to finally try their Kolache after not being able to find one on a recent trip to Houston. I also tried one of their dark chocolate cookies and both were fabulous.

There were 5,000 people there and I saw so many folks that I have met over the years. It was sweet to see so many kids.

Actually, my favorite story of the whole day was hearing about a teacher that brought a group of her school children to volunteer for the day. Apparently she takes them to different places every other weekend to help out in the community and they had never even heard the word vegetarian before. They were really excited to see Omowale talk about boxing and wanted to try some of the food, but the teacher didn’t have the money buy them all expensive festival food and mentioned she would have to take them somewhere cheap like KFC. The Texas Vegfest staff heard about this and pitched in to buy them awesome local food from the vendors and they loved it! Meanwhile I was spending tons and tons of money gorging myself and Dan. I got him a plate from Aster’s Ethiopian because we don’t get up there enough and we love it.

We got to watch a very happy young lady dance for a while before she was joined by others,

But then I remembered I wanted to hear Colleen Patrick-Goudreau speak about how we are all taught to have compassion for animals but then we are taught to eat them too. She such an inspiring speaker. If you are considering trying to go veg I recommend checking out her 30 day program and her cookbooks. Halfway through the talk I remembered that I still hadn’t gotten my Herbivore T-shirt and by that time they had ran out of the one I wanted! Damnit! At least I’ll be in Portland soon enough. I drowned my sorrows in funnel cake.

and I got completely covered in powdered sugar.

The funnel cake completely did me in and I bought more treats for later.

And I missed so many other places I wanted to try. Mostly Unity Vegan Kitchen which I head everyone raving about. And the Happy Vegan Baker’s Mac & Cheese. And Capital City’s Cheesecake. And Counter Culture’s Sweet Potato Salad. And Sweet Ritual’s Salted Carmel ice cream in a Waffle Cone. There was a lot of food. I was so sunburned and exhausted I had to go home. It was all too much. As we were walking out Dan said, “you know the only vegan I didn’t see was Wes” and then there he was, waving to us goodbye Big Tex style.

It was that kind of a day.

Texas VegFest is tomorrow April 6 at Fiesta Gardens and people have already started celebrating, I’ve been enjoying watching photos from Herbivore Clothing, Food Fight Grocery, and Vegan Houston as they populate my instagram with Austin’s vegan goodness. Tonight is the Texas VegFest edition of Vegan Drinks and they are even going to have vegan trivia so bet there at Cheer Up Charlies! If you are curious about the festival details check out my interview with board member Molly to learn about the bands, speakers, children’s activities, and more and go to the official website. And join the facebook event. And follow on twitter. Earlier this week I interviewed speaker Christy Morgan and today we are getting the vendor perspective from local ice cream proprietress extraordinaire Amelia.

I’m so excited that Sweet Ritual is going to be one of the vendors at this year’s Texas VegFest, first can you tell us what kind of treats we can expect?

We’ll bringing several flavors of scooped ice cream, including dark chocolate, salted caramel (which is soy free!) and a few other flavors. We’ll have cups, cones, sundaes, caramel by the jar, and t-shirts to sell.

Oh that sounds so good, is this your first vegfest?

We were there last year with Salted Caramel soft serve

What was your favorite part about last year’s event?

As a vendor, I didn’t really get a chance go see the lay of the lend or participate in the fest because we were so busy serving ice cream. When we sold out early, I brought out my hand-cranked phonograph and played music for passerbys.

Serving ice cream kind of sounds like the best job ever but I bet it is actually really difficult. What is the most trying aspect of participating in something like this since you all aren’t usually very mobile.

We have to contend with ice cream melting at outdoor events. We’re bringing an arsenal of waffle cone bowls, so, if it gets too hot, everyone will have delicious ice cream soup!

I love waffle cones. I think I have even dreamed about them. OK last question, if you get the chance to trade ice cream for a snack from any other vendor what would you be most excited to try.

We are super-duper excited about Atkinson Candies from Lufkin, Texas being at the show with our favorite candy – Chick-o-Stick!

Oh, wow, I just looked at that list for the first time in a few months – I can’t believe how many vegan bakeries we have in Austin. That’s so amazing!

It’s going to be a great fest! Thanks so much for answering my questions and I will see you there!

Texas VegFest is this Saturday April 6 and I am so excited I can’t stand it. I think I should stop eating now to get ready. Or maybe eat a whole lot to stretch out my stomach? How does that work anyway? If you are curious about the festival details check out my interview with board member Molly and go to the official website. And join the facebook event. And follow on twitter. It’s going to be a hell of a time and you have to get their right at 11am to beat the lines and to get a good spot to hear author Christy Morgan do the first talk of the day at 11:30. I asked her a couple of questions so we would know what to expect.

Hi Christy, can you tell us a little about what you do?

My professional focus is teaching others how to make delicious, plant-based meals whether that be through my cookbook Blissful Bites, with recipes and videos on my blog, private and public cooking classes, or with my online wellness program Wellness Reboot. I travel quite a bit teaching at festivals and conferences.

In my personal life I’ve become pretty obsessed with fitness and working out. I’m training for a triathlon later this year so I’m working out a few hours a day 6 days a week. Eating a whole foods vegan diet, with ample protein, has done wonders for my active life. I’m able to push myself harder each day and lift more weight. I actually have bigger muscles than I ever did before I went vegan. It’s pretty awesome. I workout at Beyond Fit during the week, which is a gym run by a vegan. You don’t find that everyday!

That’s for sure, is there going to be a Beyond Fit presence at Veg Fest? Did you hear boxer Omowale Adewale is going to be speaking? Maybe you two should have a showdown. 

I actually saw Omowale when I was speaking at the NYC Vegetarian Food Festival but didn’t have a chance to say hello. I’m excited to meet him this time! I’m always down for a showdown

Yes, Chad and Beyond Fit will have a booth there and also the guys from VeganProteins.com will be there flexing their muscles. I love how these guys are proving that you don’t need meat or whey to be an athlete or bodybuilder!

I heard you are also going to be making food for us to try, can you tell me about it?

The focus for my cooking demo is on protein-filled dishes and a discussion on getting enough protein as an athlete. Since my life is all about training right now I’ve been experimenting with my diet and the amounts of protein that allow me to build lean muscle mass and recover from my grueling workouts. But it’s not just about smoothies, I’ll show you a few delicious way to incorporate protein into your diet.

That is exciting! God knows, it’s the number one question we seem to face as vegans, so I will be happy to have some more answers. Speaking of diet, is there anything in particular are excited to try at this year’s festival? There are a lot of vendors.

Well, I plan to fast the week before so I can eat at as many food vendors as possible. I can’t even name my favorites…I want to eat at them all! There’s such a great list of vendors this year; some names I don’t recognize so I’m excited to check them out. Thankfully my talk is at 11:30 so that will give me the rest of the day to enjoy the festival

I hear that! What, in general do you like to indulge in, when you are going to go all out?

I love me some desserts or pastries of any kind. One reason I work out so hard is so I can have treats every once in a while and not feel guilty about it haha. Capital City Bakery has the best naughty treats and I’m addicted to the gluten-free chocolate mini donuts from Mr. Natural. Counter Culture always has a delicious cheezecake too!

I haven’t had the mini donuts from Mr. Natural! I will have to check them out.

 

Thanks so much for your time Christy!!!

So Molly, can you tell me a little about your role in the festival this year?

This year, in addition to my role as a board member of Texas Veg Foundation (the group that organizes the festival), I’m in charge of social media. As a board member I have a really macro view of the festival, looking at the overall schedule, content, reach, advertising strategy, and so on. But I’m also the person tweeting at everyone to come volunteer. (Really, sign up to volunteer. It will be fun!)

What are some of the differences between this year’s festival and last one, (besides that I will get to go to this one?)

This one is bigger, in terms of expected attendees, number of vendors, and the kinds of activities we can provide. We have almost a hundred vendors, six bands, and a ton more kids’ activities (tennis! yoga! cooking demos!).  This year’s festival is more local. Due to some logistical issues last year, many of Austin’s vegan and vegetarian restaurants and food carts couldn’t attend. This year just about all of our food vendors are small, local businesses. And of course, our Premier Sponsor is Wheatsville Co-op. I also think this year’s group of speakers is a bit more diverse, which was a big goal for us this year. The vegan demographic is white, female, and young-to-middle age. And that’s not because that’s what it takes to be vegan; it’s because we’re not doing a good enough job reaching out to other demographics.

 So tell me about the speakers that I as a white, young-to-middle age female might not know about.

Here’s what you need to know:

Vegan food can be found in every part of the city, I have a comprehensive list of every option I know of in Austin, a vegan Austin tour if you want to explore our many food options, a sxsw guide and a brand new late night guide in case you don’t want to be bothered and just need to eat now (or later). Don’t try and subsist on free beer you are bound to regret it.

Counter Culture will be open until midnight during the music fest, it’s an all vegan full service restaurant on the Eastside on Caesar Chavez. They are going to have music on friday and a St. Patricks day party Sunday.

Cheer Up Charlie’s is going to have day parties every day, this vegan bar also on the Eastside is home of Arlo’s which has the best veggie burger and tons of other treats at their adjoining trailer park.

Music Promoter Brooklyn Vegan will also have day parties every day with free vegan breakfast tacos from Pink Avocado Catering Company and free food for lover’s nachos!! and on Friday Mr. Natural will be giving away Food for Lovers Queso as well!

If you can’t make it out of downtown you can now try Sweet Ritual‘s ice cream at Counter Culture and in milkshakes at the Hideout right on congress. But if you are in Hyde Park they are going to have caramelized banana splits on special!

Most exciting to me is the Beagle Freedom Project’s benefit showcase. This is a cause that is very close to my heart because I live with two beagles and learned that they are the most common dog used in animal testing because they are so sweet. If that doesn’t break your heart I don’t know what will! The BFP rescues dogs that would have otherwise been killed when the experiment was over and finds them homes to live out the rest of their lives instead. Seeing these videos of beagles seeing the grass for the first time will make you want adopt beagles and give the project all of your money, and you should! They are going to have free parties every day at the Free Now Showcase so go and have fun!

I have been having a blast at the interactive and film conference so far. Highlights have included being inspired by the 100 year starship project, seeing Marcon Maron ask James Franco about General Hospital and then later seeing my friend chase the latter down an ally at 4am yelling “MR. FRANCO”, #tacos, getting my picture with LeVar Burton, and seeing a gigantic decal of grumpy cat glaring over the 6th street revelers. I learned that smiling almost instantly makes you happier physiologically from a scientist and that we don’t tell our children “the future can be better” anymore from an astronaut. I went to a panel about universal love where we were all instructed to concentrate on loving the person next to us and while i was doing that the person next to me left! Harsh! Right now I’m sucking down a free sweet tea vodka and writing this post on my phone (so south by) so i hope you were able to bear with me.