May 25, 2013

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January 2012 Archive for Our Vegan Adventure

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Share the joys, disappointments and cravings two protein loving farm kids, David Jones and Carrie Isaacson, experience as they embark on an adventure to discover firsthand what it is like to be vegan. Follow @carrie_isaacson and @david_jones for more!

The home stretch!

Jan 20, 2012

Today should be an interesting day in the life of a temporary vegan. Today for a dairy class, I'm going on a field trip to a dairy in the Fresno area. This means I will probably have to bring my lunch with me just in case. When I return this evening, I plan to go to dinner with some family in town and I'm positive this will be a challenging experience. I don't know where we're going, but I'm definitely not going to make them eat vegan along with me or go to a vegan restaurant. I may just have to have a green salad.

After having a wonderful Jamba Juice for dinner last night, I wasn't really in the mood for anything sweet, but Carrie had made an attempt at a vegan chocolate cake, and I felt as though I needed to taste this phenomenon. I'm not a huge fan of chocolate on chocolate anyhow, but the lack of eggs and/or butter just didn't work for me. Poor Carrie is developing a complex. Two failed cooking attempts have made her feel like she's a bad cook. She's not, but let's not tell her I said that. I want to poke fun some more.

This week hasn't been too hard. Albeit yesterday was the first day I really began craving chicken and beef. For lunch I went to retrieve some vegan chili, and the smells of campus dining made my mouth crave something with some meat in it. Don't worry folks, I don't give up that easily. I may be ordering a pizza at 12:01 a.m. Sunday morning, but we're in the final stretch. There's 39 hours left. I'll live.

Thanks for coming along with the adventure!

--- David

Vegans Support Agriculture Too!

Jan 19, 2012

Tonight, I had my first awful vegan meal. Sadly, I cooked it myself. My roommates and I were able to at least eat a serving of it, but David had three bites and announced that it was time for an emergency Jamba Juice run. My feelings were a little hurt, but then I remembered I hadn’t liked it either.

I started out with the best of intentions. After cruising around Pinterest this afternoon, I found a vegan stir-fry recipe that looked promising. It was jus a bunch of vegetables with some soy sauce and rice noodles. I can’t be one hundred percent sure, but I think it was the addition of the tofu that may have sent things downhill.

The dish was made up of the following: broccoli, carrots, celery, zucchini, bell pepper, mushrooms, ginger, diced almonds, rice noodles, extra firm tofu and soy sauce. I tasted the dish for the first couple of steps and everything tasted fine. I tasted it after the addition of the rice noodles and tofu, which is where things no longer tasted fine.

I did try. I even ate the tofu, because who would I be if I didn’t even try it? For the record, David did eat about five pieces of tofu in his three bites. The tofu didn’t really taste like anything, it just had a very interesting texture. While all the components of the dinner were okay, together, it just didn’t work.

Yesterday in his blog, David talked about growing up on a dairy and not knowing that there were people in the world who disliked what he and his family did until he was a teenager. This post got an amazing comment. The reader, who is a vegan, shared that not all vegans dislike farmers and ranchers, they just dislike some of their practices. She went on to say that just because some people don’t always agree with you doesn’t mean they don’t like you.

I’ve never really considered the fact that not all vegans are against all conventional farming and ranching. Just like it was a choice for us to go vegan this week and it is a choice for us to consume animal products normally, it is their choice not to consume animal products. These choices don’t mean we can’t be friends. This is definitely something I will be reflecting on for some time and something that I hope will help me to bridge the gap between the two groups.

This post has gotten a little long, but I had a lot to say today. I’m glad that this challenge is helping me do what I set out to do: gain an understanding of another group. I’m also happy that I am learning things I didn’t know I wasn’t aware of, such as being more mindful of all the producers in the agriculture industry. In just four short days, I feel like I have learned a multitude of new things. Read More.

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Our First Flop and Calf Delivery

Jan 19, 2012

Well, we had our first flop of the week. I had class until late tonight, so by the time I came over to Carrie's house, the tofu stir fry was cold. God bless Carrie. She tried very hard to doctor up this dish and make it worth eating, but if given the choice between that stir fry and sushi from a gas station, I'd probably be yodeling in the porcelain canyon by now. I did try some of the noodles and tofu smothered in soy sauce, and quickly decided it was time to make a run to Jamba Juice. This posed a problem however, because the Jamba Juice in San Luis Obispo clearly fails to recognize that smoothies are a viable dinner option, and thus had decided to close its doors before my arrival. I think I'm going to write a letter.

I felt slightly defeated until I realized I had some zesty vegan black bean burgers in the freezer. Since is was well past 8 p.m. at this point, I made myself a bean burger and made some sweet potato fries. The burgers weren't that great in my opinion, but the sweet potato fries made up for it. Delicious!

After fiddling around the house for a while and getting a few loose odds and ends tied up, I went to go push up feed to the cows on the Cal Poly Dairy. I had been on campus for ten hours and after eating this dinner, all I wanted to do was sleep. A Jersey cow had a different idea. You see, she had chosen this moment to go into labor. It seems that the less appropriate my clothes are for dealing with animals in the middle of the night, the more likely they are to need my help. I looked down at my red basketball shorts and rubber boots and realized I had made some more sound decisions in the past with regard to my work wardrobe. The cow needed assistance, so I jumped in and helper her deliver her calf. By the time I returned to the house, it was already a quarter to midnight. Despite my exhaustion and initial frustration, this delivery turned out to be great. I've done a lot of cool things in my life, but delivering a live baby calf has got to be one of the greatest feelings of accomplishment there is.

It's pretty late now, and I didn't get nearly the amount of work accomplished that I wanted to this evening, but delivering and caring for that calf was probably the highlight of my day. This is why I'm involved in the agriculture industry, because I get to experience mini triumphs like this every single day. Read more.

-- David

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Where I Come From

Jan 18, 2012

Perhaps I should take a step back for a moment and talk a little bit about my agricultural background. This will only take a moment, and I feel it’s necessary.

As a kid, life was never boring. Not only did we have tons of area to run free and play, I also had lots of pets. It was phenomenal. I’ve had pet cows, horses and dogs in my life, and I can’t think of a greater way to gain respect and compassion for these awesome four-legged critters.

Up until I was about three years old, breeding turkeys was our main business. We’d harvest fertile eggs from the hens and then send them to a hatchery where the chicks would eventually break out of their shells. I never had a pet turkey because I had a frightening run-in with a tom (male turkey) once, and that was enough to admire the birds merely for their nutritional contributions to society from that point forward.

Wanting to grow the business, my dad decided it was time to break into dairy. He’s always had a knack for raising animals, and dairy cows have always been his true passion. We decided to remodel some of our older turkey houses into cattle barns, complete with large exercise pens and clean, dry stalls for the animals to rest. Looking back, not only was it an economical way for us to expand the business, but it was an pretty green building project—retrofitting barns, rather than building them from scratch.

In addition to the dairy, we’ve raised some grass-fed beef cattle and grown most of the feed for our dairy cows on site.

I grew up in a household with fresh, great tasting meat, milk and eggs and I saw first-hand how these products were brought to the table. The idea that someone could hate me because I’m a farmer, or because of my nutritional choices seemed so foreign to me. I don’t think I even knew vegetarians or vegans existed until I was a teenager. I am so happy we live in a country where we are free to speak freely and eat the kind of diet we most desire. I do my best to be respectful of everyone’s choices and lifestyles, and all I ask in return is the same.

It might seem as though I’m biased to the dairy, poultry and beef industries. But this week has been about more than just abstaining from meat and milk and gaining a fresh perspective, it’s also been about experiencing a newfound respect for the fruit and vegetable industry. I mean I’ve always loved the stuff from the dirt, but this week I’ve been isolated to just those ingredients. So here’s some love to my produce growin’ friends. Thanks for what you do, and for helping to deliver a safe, delicious, nutritious and affordable product to my table. I’m not going to be a vegan past this week, but I promise to include more delicious fruits and veggies into my diet after this week!

--- David

Read about Carrie's Third Day successes.

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I’m Hungry

Jan 17, 2012

I’m sitting here in the Brock Center for Agricultural Communication, and I’m hungry. Not only am I surrounded by rum cake, chocolate chip cookies and pretzel M&Ms, but Sam Doty is in here making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and asking me how the Vegan Week is going. I’m putting off my visit to Campus Market for lettuce doused in vinegar for a little longer so I don’t starve to death again before dinner. I forgot how great peanut butter and jelly smells.

As David and I talked about yesterday, we have been eating a lot of vegetables this week. Instead of mainly supporting ranchers, dairy producers and poultry farmers, we are focusing on the fruit, vegetable and speciality crop producers. In these three days, I have already grown more mindful of the the different aspects of the entire agricultural industry. After the week is over I will be making an effort to spread the love a little more and support all the different kinds of agricultural producers, because they are all apart of the industry I love.

~Carrie

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Day Two Video Blog

Jan 17, 2012

Last night David and Carrie shared how their second day as vegans went. Check it out!

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Ripping Off the Band-Aid

Jan 16, 2012

Here is shopping yesterday from my perspective...

Had it been like any other morning, I would have simply climbed out of bed, rifled through the refrigerator as I impatiently waited for the coffee to drip faster and eventually picked out a yogurt and some eggs. This was clearly not just another day. In fact, as I looked through my refrigerator and pantry, I realized I could not be sure that a single food item I owned was vegan. Great start.

We have a chicken coop behind our house, and since Ben (my roommate) was not home this weekend, it was my task to feed the hens and collect the eggs. The chickens must have caught wind of my adventure into veganism, because they chose this weekend to be hyperproductive, out of what I assume to be their attempt at a cruel joke. I collected a total of 12 eggs in two days (we have six hens who lay somewhat irregularly), and proceeded to smack my forehead with a frying pan, trying to forget what eggs tasted like.

By the time I picked up Carrie this morning, it was already 11:30. Both of us starving from the lack of vegan variety in our households, we went straight to Jamba Juice. After officially confirming with one of the associates that the "all-fruit smoothies" were in fact made in accordance to vegan standards, I ordered the "Five Fruit Frenzy" and an apple cinnamon pretzel (who knew their apple cinnamon pretzels were vegan?!).

It was now time to get down to business and shop. Having a solid meal in my stomach and a shopping list in hand, we were prepared to tackle this whole "buying vegan" thing. Our adventure started at New Frontiers grocery store. I felt as I imagine Jasmine felt on that magic carpet ride, because this was indeed a "whole new world." The store was full of new sights: vegan cupcakes, organic soaps and detergents, an artisan cheese counter... Yeah, I said it. Cheese counter. Like a whole section of the store with its own attendants slicing and helping you locate the cheese you want/need/desire. I looked longingly at the counter as we passed, realizing this would likely be the first week of my life that my digestive system had been devoid of dairy products. I almost felt guilty leaving the store without any milk, as I felt I should be supporting my industry. Despite my efforts, Carrie would not let me purchase any dairy products. Even if it was just to support my fellow man.

After visiting two stores and frantically searching labels to determine their food classification, we had our groceries. Boy, did they look pathetic. I’m sure I’ll be shocked with the amount of food this prepares, but it just didn’t seem like there was enough food to sustain two people for one week.

"Don’t worry, David, we’ll be just fine," Carrie crooned softly as we paid for the groceries.

Once outside, she adjusted her tone to a snarky one by stating, "Clearly, you’re the weaker link here."

This comment coming from the girl who, after seeing the vegan menu at the Thai Elephant (where we ate tonight), whined, "I don’t want to be a vegan anymore."

Truth is, it wasn’t just Carrie who was skeptical about the food we were about to eat. I was slightly concerned, as this evening contained two "firsts" for me: 1) eating vegan food at a restaurant, 2) eating Thai food. After a day full of firsts, however, I threw caution to the wind and decided to try the vegan Pad Thai with soy chicken.

--David

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The Grocery Shopping Excursion

Jan 16, 2012

Well, David is already whining. This does not bode well for the rest of the week. We first hit up the local health food store, where we purchased blackbean burgers, vegan bread, tofu and some vegan crackers. I also found myself a vegan chocolate chip cookie, which I pretended tasted OK. David also had his first run-in with vegan cheese and milk alternatives. He handled it a lot better than I imagined he would, but he was still clearly upset.

Soy cheese makes David upset. Milk alternatives? Don't understand.

After the health food store, we headed to my grocery store of choice, Vons. There, we stocked up mainly on fruits and vegetables (kale, zucchini, spinach, oranges, tomatoes and carrots). While we were waiting in the checkout line, David mentioned that he didn’t think all that food in the cart could feed him for a week. I pointed out that it would have to feed two of us for the week. David then proceeded to look like he might cry.

Lucky for me, I really like vegetables. I just whipped myself up a snack of spinach, zucchini, tomato and yellow squash, all sautéed in olive oil with a little onion and garlic. When David dropped me off at my house, he mentioned something about frying some potatoes in vegetable oil to tide him over until dinner. I clearly have the dietary advantage here.

Throughout our shopping excursion, David and I kept making the same statement over and over: "This is hard."

It really is. Never in my life have I had to read product ingredient lists in the store and have to determine if I was allowed to eat it. It was also rather expensive. Vegan foods are considered specialty items, which comes through in the cost. Because of this, we bought a lot of vegetables instead of stocking up on precooked meals and packaged products. This first shopping trip definitely opened my eyes to how difficult it is to eat vegan. Even with something as simple as bread, there was only one option in the entire bread aisle that was completely vegan. Everything else had egg or honey in it. Of course, the vegan bread also cost the most. Read more on my blog.

---- Carrie

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An Udate: Our First Day Vegan

Jan 15, 2012

David's Journal

It’s here. Vegan week.

I woke up in a daze this morning and started up the coffee pot. It wasn’t until after I had poured myself a cup, I realized there would be no milk in this coffee. Even non-dairy creamer isn’t necessarily vegan. Strike one. This isn’t going to be easy.

My brain must have made the transition to veganism last night, because I definitely dreamt about it. My friends and I were at a cocktail party laughing and carrying on when I reached for a glass of wine. I was reminded that this item was not necessarily vegan, so just to be sure I should refrain. This continued to happen with party appetizers. I didn’t mind the fact that I couldn’t eat anything at the party until the hostess called us to the table for dinner. Each plate had a big, juicy filet mignon (my absolute favorite cut of beef) on their plate. The hostess stopped at my seat and apologized, saying she forgot to prepare something vegan, so I’d have to eat raw carrots instead. This is where I woke up in a cold sweat. It was 12:05 a.m.

I’ve grown up on a dairy my entire life. In fact, I can’t recall a single day in my life where I did not consume some sort of dairy product. I’m fairly positive that Paula Dean and I share some sort of lineage because my answer to any culinary dilemma is always, "more butter." Growing up Catholic, meatless Fridays during Lent were always a challenge, but I would thank God for the revelation of cheese and other dairy products.

I’m sure it sounds an awful lot like I’m complaining—I’m going to be a bit whiny this week as I continue to unearth the things I cannot eat—but in all actuality I’m intrigued and excited to try something new. I’m especially happy to have some vegan folks following along with this adventure, and thanks so much for the encouragement! Read more on David's Blog

Carrie's Journal

I am officially a vegan.

I’ve been one for less than eleven hours (eight of which I was asleep) and I’m already feeling the challenge. It wasn’t until my roommates emerged from their rooms about an hour ago and started pouring themselves bowls of cereal and adding copious amounts of dairy to their morning beverages that it really hit: I can’t have ANY dairy this week. Or meat. Or eggs. Or any of my food staples.

I had pineapple for breakfast. That’s it. It is literally the only vegan breakfast food in my house right now. David and I desperately need to go grocery shopping today and stock up on fruits, vegetables, quinoa and tofu. Putting the two of us together in a health food store is bound to result in some funny situations, so keep your eyes open for a blog post or two about our grocery shopping escapades a little later today!

Currently, I am in self-imposed isolation. I locked myself in my room so I don’t have to watch my roommates eat their dairy-ful breakfasts. I guess I should just be thankful they haven’t started frying up bacon yet. David better get here soon, because I need some food.

12:41 p.m.

I have finally been fed, though I am still hungry. David and I went to Jamba Juice and ordered off their vegan menu. David ordered the Five Fruit Frenzy with an immunity boost and an apple cinnamon pretzel (all vegan!) and I got the Pomegranate Pleasure with a soy protein boost (also all vegan). David thoroughly enjoyed his smoothie, but I wish I had picked a different one- it has kind of a chalky texture to it that I assume is from the soy protein boost. Read more on Carrie's Blog

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My Last Meal.....

Jan 14, 2012

In about 13 hours, I go vegan for the next 7 days.

Being the protein loving gal that I am, I have carefully planned my "last meal," and for those of you who have read my blog before, my choice should’t be a surprise. That’s right, David and I are heading to Firestone Grill for a tri-tip sandwich. Hopefully the glorious sandwich will get us through the next 7 days. David and I also plan to toast the week this evening with a glass of chocolate milk.

Pictures, tweets and more blogs to come!

Peace,

Carrie

Don’t forget to check David’s blog (www.agrilifestyle.blogspot.com) to follow his version of events and to check twitter (@carrie_isaacson and @david_jones_) for the most up to date experiences. You can also follow us on www.agweb.com under the "Our Vegan Adventure" blog!

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Well... Here goes nothing. We're going vegan.

Jan 13, 2012

By now I’m sure you’ve heard. Carrie Isaacson and I are going vegan for a week. As I sit here over my extremely non-vegan breakfast of two eggs, a sausage patty and key lime pie yogurt (my favorite), it’s beginning to dawn on me how difficult this whole "going vegan" thing is actually going to be. My only hope is that my digestive system does not decide to go on strike for the duration of this challenge.

When one decides to go vegan, it is a difficult (and emotionally challenging) time, full of research, substitutions and the horrible realization that the few items you thought might fit this lifestyle and make your life worth living are probably not vegan. Let’s perform an exercise, shall we? Pull out a pen and piece of paper. Now make a list of all the tasty things in your life you assume to be vegan. Now throw it away. Because you’re probably wrong.

Here is a very short list of the things I once assumed were vegan, but are not:

Starburst, heart-healthy orange juice (contains Omega-3s from animal sources), general anesthesia, non-dairy creamer, some refined sugar, many wines and beers (stemming from the filtration process)…. The depressing list goes on and on. And on.

As far as the "vegan lifestyle" is concerned, it’s pretty much impossible to pull off. Did you brush your teeth this morning? Do you wash your clothes? Do you enjoy those scented candles? Does your house contain sheet rock? If the answer was yes to any of these questions, you should thank Bessie the cow for her contributions to society (especially hygiene, no one likes that one guy on the bus who seemingly hates deodorant and shampoo). I guess the biggest question is, why shouldn’t animals be utilized to their fullest? It would be a waste to throw away parts we can get use out of, that’s just silly. This chart may be a bit extreme, but I’ve seen it floating around a lot lately. It highlights all the things in our lives that are not vegan:

Certainly you may argue that a lot of these products have vegan substitutes. That is true. But you’d go broke trying to replace everything in your life with things that are not vegan. Even your car is not vegan. Think about it folks, where did oil come from? How about all those plastic parts?

So why did Carrie and I decide to go vegan? Well I wish I could say this was a spur of the moment decision stemming from recent animal rights actions, but this idea has been in the works for months now. We’re not saying veganism is bad, certainly there are herbivores out there who support production agriculture practices and merely choose this diet as an attempt at a healthier lifestyle. It seems, however, a lot of vegans hold the thought that raising and eating animals is the cruelest thing in the world. As a dairyman myself, I can tell you that I care more about those girls on the dairy (and their comfort and health) than I do about just about anything else. I just happen to also care that their meat and milk are exceptionally tasty and full of nutrition, so sue me.

Probably, the biggest inspiration for our adventure into veganism is that so often we try to ask consumers to understand our perspectives as agriculturalists, when we don’t attemp to understand their choices. This week will be an exercise in "walking in someone else’s shoes," if you will. So join us if you want, make your attempt at veganism. Try to understand why someone would want to engage in this lifestyle. If we can do this, maybe, just maybe, we can be a little closer to gaining some common ground with consumers, understanding perspectives and communicating our positive messages as agriculturalists.

Until next time,

David

As always you can follow our adventures and see exclusive content on Facebook, on Carrie's blog or David's blog. Follow us on Twitter, @carrie_isaacson & @david_jones_.

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Will You Join Us?

Jan 13, 2012

Veganism: is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products.

Welcome to "Our Vegan Adventure," later today we are going to announce our "last meal" and share some more insights about our VEGAN week challenge prep, but we wanted to share some photos with you first.