Last Saturday my friend (my gardening angel) visited Wolverhampton Vegan Festival and we had a fabulous time. The Civic Hall was packed with stalls all selling vegan items from food and drinks (obviously) to clothes, make-up and beauty products. Between us we spent an absolute fortune but it was worth every penny!
The festival was over two floors of the Wolves Civic and included catering stalls, cakes & confectionery, other food & drink stalls, cosmetics and toiletries, vegan support & information, animal protection groups & sanctuaries, environmental & awareness campaigns and various other stalls. My favourite stalls included: Rainforest Kitchen, Goody Good Stuff, Ms Cupcake, Hempish, Toucan Fruit and Honesty Cosmetics.
After having a quick look around the festival and buying some goodies we were hungry and decided on Rainforest Kitchen for our lunch. We both had a Rainforest Box which contained around 7 different salads including, spinach, tomato & cucumber, tropical coleslaw, carribbean sunrise, red quinoa, wild rice, mungbeans & lentils and chickpeas, the box also included a falafel type ball, a dollop of sprouted houmous and a choice of dressing; tomato or hot pepper and all for £6.00. It was absolutely delicious and we sat eating ours in a cookery class, but more about that tomorrow.
There just wasn't enough time to fit everything in, as well as stalls and cookery classes there were also comedians, talks and workshops. I would have loved to go to the hemp-superfood talk, the vegan nutrition talk and the yoga workshop but we were just too busy visiting all the stalls and talking to the stall holders. Roll on next year!
We left the festival laden down with our goodies and as well as the soy milk you were given free on entering the festival I also bought; Organic Hulled Hemp Seeds, Hemp Tea, Home Made Seiten, Vegourmet Jeezini cheese slices, Honest Moisturising Cream and the Essential Vegan Cookbook. The cheese slices were the nicest I've ever tried I couldn't believe the taste and texture of them they were fantastic. I had to plead with the stallholder to let me buy one as they were only being used as samples. I'm dying to eat them up but then again I think they would be great on a vegan cheese board for Christmas. I need to order some more in! Unfortunately I didn't realise that the seiten had to be stored in the freezer below -8°C and as I don't have a freezer it has sat in my fridge and I'm not sure if it will be safe to eat. Can anyone help?
The hemp tea is fantastic and I'm really enjoying a cuppa especially after I've finished work, it seems to help me unwind. I'll definitely be ordering more of this. The stallholders of Hempish were full of useful information and told us many benefits of growing hemp. They told us that hemp needs no pesticides because it is unpalatable to insects, it needs no herbicides because it grows too quickly for any weed to compete, it takes about 100 days to mature, and it is one of the nutritious food sources in the world. It is one of the best plant sources of plant protein and fat you can find. The seed contains all nine of the essential amino acids and essential fatty acids that are necessary to maintain a healthy life. How could we resist in buying some? We were told that you can eat it with cereals, salads, add to hot meals or use in a smoothie. But its delicious just on its own, I could easily it the recommended 3 tablespoons a day just like that!
My other purchase was some moisturising cream from Honesty Cosmetics, since completing my aromatherapy blending course I've been looking for an affordable base cream to add my essential oils to and this fit the bill. I purchased a small tub of 50g for £5 and I'm deliberating which essential oils to add. I shall make a few different samples over the next few weeks which I'm looking forward to doing.
Come back tomorrow to read about the cookery class we attended and meeting Vanessa from essential vegan.
