A local group to support and encourage a compassionate, cruelty-free, vegan lifestyle. We hold cooking sessions, tasting sessions, information sessions on everything from cruelty-free moisturisers to leather-free walking boots; vegan textiles to the best dairy-free cheese for cheese sauce!
Scrambed tofu and other vegan treats on a sample plate from the Big Veggie Brunch.
We had a wonderful time running the Big Veggie Brunch last week as part of National Vegetarian Week in Todmorden, offering free vegetarian and vegan breakfast foods to all. One of the most popular dishes was Andrew’s scrambled tofu. Here is the recipe for you to try it yourself!
Ingredients
Large block of plain tofu (cheaper stuff, e.g. from Chinese supermarket, works better for scramble due to higher water content)
Sunflower oil
Turmeric
Soy Sauce
Seasoning
Method
Scramble the tofu using a fork on a chopping board (or directly in a wok)
Heat in a large wok and mix in 1 tablespoon of oil
Heat on a medium flame for approximately 12 minutes, stirring often, until most of the water has evaporated and it has started to (very, very slightly) brown. The consistency should look like scrambled egg.
Stir in 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1/3 teaspoon ground turmeric and other seasoning (e.g. ground salt/chilli/garlic) to taste
The yellow colour of turmeric with the salt of the soy sauce helps to make this look and taste a bit like scrambled eggs (but better, in our opinion). Feel free to change the flavours to whatever you like, perhaps Mediterranean herbs or Chinese five-spice.
Cooking scrambled tofu (photograph by Estelle)The Big Veggie Brunch photo collage (images by Estelle and Phil)
In our biggest event yet, 3 Valley Vegans is part of National Vegetarian Week 2016! The theme is “Celebrate your food, stories and traditions”. With the help of Incredible Edible Todmorden, we are doing this by hosting a free community brunch at Pollination Street, the community green space next to Todmorden market.
Come and test out vegan versions of traditional breakfast and brunch items, plus a few original ones. Make up your own plate combination and tell us what you think of it — you might be surprised! #NVW16
There will also be a children’s activity, where we will provide paper plates for children to draw their favourite brunch item of the day on. These will be attached to a wall and collected as a local art piece.
Pollination Street (green space next to Tod market)
To make this event a real success we’ll need plenty of help. We need people to set up (from 9 am at least) and to pack away (from 2 pm)
We need people prepared to cook and hand out food, to work with the children, to give out info and generally to engage the public. If any of these tasks sounds like something you’d be able to help with, please email Hilary.
Recently I have been appalled by the way real fur seems to be creeping back to acceptability. Celebrities such as Kate Moss and Kim Kardashian parade around in mink coats and fans of TOWIE sport their bobble hats topped with racoon fur.
Sunday supplements regularly feature real fur on their fashion pages (most notably I’ve noticed the Sunday Times Style magazine) with fox fur handbags as well as key rings and handbag charms made from mink fur.
I think it’s so sad the way these poor animals’ fur is dyed in rainbow colours with wiggly eyes attached to try to make these trinkets look like “fun” little monsters in order to detract from what they actually are. Whether it came from an animal on a fur farm or one who was trapped in the wild, every fur coat, trinket, and bit of trim caused an animal tremendous suffering—and took away a life.
Animals on fur farms spend their entire lives confined to cramped, filthy wire cages. Fur farmers use the cheapest and cruelest killing methods available, including suffocation, electrocution, gas, and poison. More than half the fur in the U.S. comes from China, where millions of dogs and cats are bludgeoned, hanged, bled to death, and often skinned alive for their fur.
The Sunday Times is one of the nation’s favourite newspapers, it would be great to see them listen to their readers and stop supporting fur!
We will be running an information and food stall at this event being held at Mytholmroyd Community Centre (just over the bridge at the start of Caldene Avenue HX7 5AF) on Sunday, 17 April 2016.
Elizabeth will coordinate the 3VV presence at the event so please communicate with her via elizabethking@talktalk.net if you are able to help or provide nibbles for the stall – we always need help at events like this so don’t be shy in volunteering any time you can spare.
The festival will include entertainment and will be open between 10am and 5pm.
Our animals are in danger. Under secretive new government plans, factory farm bosses would be put in charge of monitoring how well they treat their livestock. [1] It would mean putting the protection of our sheep, cows and chickens in the hands of companies whose whole purpose is to make a profit out of them.
It’s like asking children to mark their own homework.
The government thought they could sneak past these changes on the quiet – and they’re planning to start dishing out powers to farming bosses in just a few weeks. [2, 3] But if we come together in huge numbers and prove how unpopular these plans are, we could push the government to back down – and give our animals the protection they deserve.
If you think animal welfare rules shouldn’t be left in the hands of factory farming bosses, add your name to the petition here. It’ll take less than a minute:
38 Degrees members stand up to companies when they try to put profit over basic decency. Cows, chicks and horses don’t have voices of their own – it’s down to us to speak up for them. So when 38 Degrees member Cas heard the news about the animal welfare plans, she knew she had to start a campaign.
Here’s what Cas has to say:
“The meat industry has had many scandals over the years.
“Weakening regulations can only increase animal suffering – and impact the people consuming meat reared under poorer quality conditions.”
Please sign this petition to help to stop the barbaric killing of baby foxes. ‘Cubbing’ starts in August and ends in November each year. In the name of hunting, young fox-cubs are used to train young hounds, in a reduced woodland with little to no chance of escape before being ripped apart. Underground holes – fox earths and badger setts – are blocked to prevent the cubs having a safe place to hide. If these poor creatures escape underground, ‘terrier-men’ are on hand to ensure that they dig out the fox-cub. Hunt followers surround the woods to ensure that any terrified fox-cubs trying to escape are ‘flushed out’ and scared back into the mouths of the pack of hounds.
There need to be much tighter controls on ensuring that the illegal act of ‘cubbing’ does not take place and strict sanctions for those whom aid and abet it. 80% of people in the United Kingdom are against hunting in the United Kingdom. Please sign this petition and demand that our government and Defra uphold the law against this cruel and outdated practice, so that ‘cubbing’ is consigned to the history books forever.
3 Valley Vegans 