Trees for the Forest

One year later and all the better for it.  Here is the  info on this year’s Veggie Fest from their official site.  Click on the brochure to the right if you would like to see my photos from this year.  Having some idea of what to expect definitely helped me get some better shots than last year.  I look forward to next year to do an even better job.  For some strange reason, mayhaps the tastiness, I almost completely neglected to take pictures of any of the food I was given in demos or that I purchased in the food court.  I promise to do better next year.

I only had a few complaints, some aspects of which were out of the organizers’ hands.  I remembered to wear a hat this year and even bought one of the event hats, but the sunscreen samples seemed to be absent this year.  I stayed in the shade as much as possible, but the sunscreen was a standout example of forethought from last year.  It’s possible they couldn’t find an animal friendly sample for this year.

Another issue had to do with the sound system.  The lavaliere microphones which were being used couldn’t pick up the speaker’s voice unless they were holding them right in front of their mouth.  This created the spectrum of the first food demo I attended being very difficult, if not impossible, to hear to the final demo being a ear drum shattering event as the speaker decided to both shout and hold the mic right in front of their mouth.  A little training for the speakers and testing of the equipment ahead of time might have helped with these issues.

My last gripe was truly mostly out of the organizer’s hands in that it might have been harder to predict.  On day 2, the wind was whipping up quite a fury.  The demo tent sides were blowing back and forth quite violently and they made many of the side seats useless.  The food court umbrellas blew off of their axes several times, that I witnessed, and trying to put one of the umbrellas back was a shoulder dislocating endeavor, as I can attest.  In the first case, the tents could have been secured better on the sides, I would have thought, and in the latter, a bit of tape would have properly kept the umbrellas from blowing to Oz, perhaps.

Enough complaining.  The event overall was a definite improvement over last year and that is saying a lot, since last year seemed quite nice.   Despite my previously mentioned problems, the general organization and feel of the fest was even better a year later.  I felt like there were more vendors, more demos, and more speakers.  In this case, more was better and the grounds were able to handle the decent amount of people who braved the heat, sun, humidity, and wind.  The first day even threatened to rain, but by the time the fest opened, the threat seemed to have passed.

Each day, to start out, I made sure to attend the breakfast demos and came away with some personal revelations on a small scale.  The All American Breakfast demo focused on tofu scramble with a side of vegan (Gimme Lean from Lightlife) veggie sausage.  What I learned here was to let go of worrying about pressing or draining tofu so much in a situation like this.  Worst case scenario, you can cook the extra water out.  Definitely pat the tofu down with paper towels, but don’t worry about the water.  There are cases, marinating for example, where extra water will inhibit absorption, but I will be making more tofu scramble now that some of the water stress has been alleviated.

The other breakfast demo was from Nature’s Path, the fine people who gave out the stellar red and yellow bags.  They had granola with vegan yogurt for sampling along with a bit of waffle.  I love granola, but have never been a yogurt fan before or after becoming vegetarian.  The sample they handed out gave me a way, that I hadn’t really thought of before, to possibly enjoy yogurt in the future.

The one nice surprise of a demo was the arrival of Chicago Diner.  When I saw them in the program on the following day, I knew I would make it to the audience of this one.  I have fond memories of when I used to live within easy distance of this fine eatery and to find them out here in the burbs was a pleasant event.  The demo itself was everything I expected.  They made a spring roll which looked wonderful.  I say looked, because I passed on it just as they ran out of samples.  I was having an interesting reaction to the heat, so I wasn’t too disappointed right in that moment.  Fortunately, the next item they demoed was chocolate mousse and they made sure those missed on the first round were the first recipients on that round.  Quite soothing and delicious and the perfect antidote to a thankfully passing condition.

I didn’t plan this, but I also attended several raw food demos this year.  The first one I went to was just a warm-up since I didn’t make it all the way through, wanting to go to the first breakfast demo, but the reminder about how many times we cook things on a day to day basis was key.  It made me appreciate the later raw food items I was able to try and keep an more open mind about it.  I spent more time at the next raw food demo.  The presenter was engaging and told a great story about her and her hockey playing Blackhawk’s husband going vegan around the same time (coincidentally around the time I went vegetarian).  She then went on to describe the transition to raw food and how her three children have been brought up vegetarian and more and more raw food has made it’s way into their diet.  The dish she started with was a fairly basic salad, but the tip I walked away with was to make the dressing in the bottom of the bowl and add ingredients mixing as you go along.  The last raw food demo I attended, also my last demo of the fest, was one where a chocolate cake was made in about 5 minutes.  The result was delicious and beyond that I learned a few more things about raw food.  I got a better feeling about how the soaking of nuts fits into the whole process and the concept of using avocado as an egg/cream replacer was introduced to me.  I am still going to be cooking things for the time being, but these demos have opened my eyes quite a bit to the world of raw.

I did a round of the vendors and volunteer organizations, but didn’t come away with anything in the way of merchandise or handouts.  Each day I also tried something from the food court area.  The first day I had my old standby, falafel.  It was tasty enough, but not as crispy as I normally like it.  The second day, I tried a veggie dog which turned out to be quite nice in taste and texture.  I finished that meal off with a dessert made up of one spelt doughnut which was quite tasty.

All in all, I can’t recommend this event enough.  The food is great.  The people are great.  The venue, although it has some issues, is great.  The bonus on top of it all is that this year for the first time, they offered a shuttle from a nearby train station, which means that a car isn’t required to attend this event.  It had seemed strange to me that they didn’t provide an option for this in the past and, in my mind, just this fact absolves them from some of the other lack of planning I complained about at the outset.  Good job, Veggie Fest.  I look forward to many more years of celebrating all things Veg.

When I was back in Seattle I attended a similarly branded “fest” a couple of times.  A place for anyone who was interested to come and sample various vegetarian and vegan food and to attend panels on cooking, health, and ethics.  It was called Veg Fest NW there and was organized by Vegetarians of Washington and seems to be still going strong.  I had seen that the brand had more or less made its way here a few years ago, but this was the first chance I able to check it out.  Veggie Fest Chicagoland is organized and took place on the grounds of the Science of Spirituality Meditation Center.  More on the obvious differences caused by sponsorship concerns later.  I was able to make it to the final few hours of the second day.

The event in Seattle took place in one of the meeting halls at Seattle Center, whereas this gathering was spread among tents outside the Meditation Center.  It reminded me of the now defunct Book Fest in Seattle which for a couple of years was inside a building but the building itself was often an aging pier warehouse in November, so the effects of its walls were often minimal.  I missed those Book Fests, so it was nice to find something in this area that had even a small amount of similarity.  It was far from cold and I made the mistake of not bringing a hat, but they were distributing free sun screen which helped me avoid the worst of the sunburn.

The organization of the grounds seemed organized and parking was plentiful.  I was a bit annoyed that something like this was out of the reach of public transportation, but I got over it.  I attended two different panels, one by a web based vegan meat substitute company and the other a demonstration of vegan Mexican cooking.  A nicely produced cookbook was provided and I will be trying some of the recipes from that presentation as well as some of the others soon and post my results here.

The aforementioned philosophical undertone present at this event was not overpowering, but it was certainly obvious.  I commend the Meditation Center for continuing to put on this event and, a side note, the depth of the spanish language accomodations was both interesting and suprising to me for some reason I can’t quite put my finger on.

If they continue with these events in the future I certainly plan to try to make it on Saturday as well.  The overall atmosphere was splendid and it does provide a nice balance to the Annual Ribfest which happens in the same suburb for the 4th of July. The local papers were quick to point out this irony, but with all their statistics I think they have missed the point that some of us are grateful that events of this kind exist at all.