[Editor's Note: The following is a guest post from friend of vegaroo, Zarah, about her experience with the Vegan Speed Dating event at this weekend's Cruelty Free Festival. We'll have more event highlights coming soon!]

So you have a great boyfriend. He’s really good at fixing things, he cooks you yummy vegan meals all the time, and he has a pretty impressive beard. But then he dumps you. He’s not so great anymore. (Oh and he still eats cheese, yes that definitely removes him from the category of ‘greatness’).

Finding yourself suddenly single after a long stint of monogamous relations is pretty rough for most people. It can be hard re-entering the comparatively unstable and confronting world of dating. But when that world is reduced dramatically by your preference for a likeminded vegan partner, you’ve got yourself quite a challenge on your hands.

Thank goodness for the first appearance of Vegan Speed Dating at the 2010 Sydney Cruelty Free Festival!!! This could be quite fun. However you have noticed that vegan females seem to do a pretty good job at outnumbering vegan males and suspect that this may be the case in this scenario. You’re not wrong. The ratio is definitely not in your favour; your side is outnumbering the other by about three to one. An announcement is made on the main stage in front of a crowd of hundreds in the hope of attracting some more gentlemen to the mix. Come on men, there’s an abundance of single women by the rotunda, get over there! At one point it seems there are more people gathered to observe the spectacle than to participate in it. People even come to take photos to capture your desperation (thank you Matt).

As one male speed dater put it “there’s an imbalance of resources”. Single vegan men are indeed a resource. (However if the turnout for the later same sex session was any indication, you should be thankful you are not here to find a same-sex vegan dating partner.)

So we’re underway, with a total of 5 eligible vegan men on offer, but wait, there’s a late entry, taking the total to 6! (You later discover a third of them are not really vegan.) You do feel for them, all this attention, an inundation of eager ladies, having to answer “how long have you been vegan?” twenty times over. No wonder one guy makes an early exit (he “has to be somewhere” he explains).

There is definitely more to uncover about people than the three minutes allows. Hmm and you sense a reluctance on the ladies’ part to stick to the time limit and move onto the next gentleman when time’s up. Not one to muck around, you’ve got a date lined up this week with a renegade contender who didn’t want to play by the “we’ll email you your matches” rule. Success story maybe, let’s see if we can cut it on a ‘real’ date where we can’t conveniently just get up and move to the right when we’ve got nothing left to say to one another.

I have to admit, I thoroughly enjoyed the addition of speed dating at this year’s Cruelty Free Festival (it didn’t quite top Suzy Spoon’s cooking demo, but it was definitely up there!) Making superficial judgements about potential dates in a short period of time and being left wondering what else there is beneath the surface does have a weird attraction about it. Short of waiting a year for the opportunity to try my luck again at the next CFF, I think I might sneak into the realm of ‘non-vegan specific’ speed dating. We don’t all start out as vegans, right?

(Thank you to Sarah and Animal Liberation for once again putting on a super awesome festival, and for Sundara and Co for making the trek up from Canberra to introduce Sydney’s vegans to speed dating!)

This past weekend, over 4,000 showed up for World Vegan Day in Melbourne! In the rain! SHUT UP! That is a crazy turnout. So it’s up to us in Sydney to step it up this weekend. We’ve got two great events on!

First up on Saturday, it’s the last Sydney Vegan Bake Sale of 2010. I’ve hear rumours of cinnamon buns, donuts, the usual delicious cupcakes – maybe even some CUPCAKES IN ICE CREAM CONES – WHAT???

I will also definitely be making some of these bad boys:

Those are caramel apple muffins, slightly modified from this recipe. And since I’m planning on making roughly 4,000 of them, y’all better show up and buy!!! As usual the sale is from 8-1 at the Newtown Markets across from the train station. This time we’re raising money for Charlie’s Angels Horse Rescue in Queensland.

Then you can work off some off that sugar by walking to Belmore Park on Sunday for the 2010 Cruelty Free Festival! From 10am-7pm there will be over 60 stalls, many of them food-based, including vegaroo favourites, Funky Pies, Addiction Food, Nourishing Quarter, and many more!

Hope to see you all there!

Look, I organise a Vegan Drinks night. I love drunken reverie as much as the next person. And as a non-native Australian, I don’t feel quite right coming in and slagging off one of the country’s most celebrated customs. But as vegans, I think we all agree: Melbourne Cup is fucked.

And if you don’t, I’ll simply link you to this (difficult to watch) YouTube Video  and let you come to your own conclusions.

It can be an especially awkward time of year for vegans in the workplace who don’t want to come off as joyless buzzkills, but at the same time, can’t endorse the cruel “sport.” Our vegaroo contributor Tim recently lamented to me,

“I have a choice of either going along with the office and not really enjoying it, or ostracising myself by refusing to participate. While everyone else takes the day off to go party (and the next day to recover) I have to either stay in the office and work or take a day of leave. Either way, I feel like I’ll be judged poorly for not ‘playing with the team.’ “

So what are some alternatives?

For you Melbournians who have the day off, HorseRacingKills.com has a list of demonstrations and events you can attend.

If you’re in Sydney, I recommend this Not the Melbourne Cup Celebration at University of Sydney, which is what I’ll be attending. I also just learned about this Melbourne Cup protest happening that morning in Martin Place.

You can also sign Animal Australia’s pledge to never bet on horse-racing or donate to Charlies Angels Horse Sanctuary in Queensland, which is also the beneficiary of the next Sydney Vegan Bake Sale.

I’m sure there are far more events happening around the country, so I ask you to please share other alternatives in the comments.

Last night I returned home, exhausted, a little bit sunburnt, but mostly inspired by a great weekend in the Gold Coast for the 2010 Animal Activist Forum. I was honoured to be invited to speak about Activist Blogging, and for anyone who attended my talk, (or did not but would like more info) the resources page I put together can be found here.

Nerd talk!

There were heaps of other great presentations as well from groups like Animal Liberation NSW, Sea Shepherd, the Animal Justice Party, and many more organisations, businesses and individuals. One of the highlights was a talk on Intersectionality, specifically looking at feminism, sexual identity, and race within the Animal Rights movement, which was presented by Katrina Fox and our own vegaroo contributor Stephanie Lai. There was a lively discussion following, and I think we’d all agree that this could certainly be expanded into a much longer panel discussion next year. Katrina will be publishing their talks on her online magazine The Scavenger next month, so look out for that.

One thing that jumped out to me from listening to so many talks was the amount of time and money that so many activists spend, presumably out of pocket, for the cause. I’d love to see some discussion next year of how people for don’t have $2,500 to invest into throwing a festival can raise that kind of money, and what fundraising opportunities and resources are available to us as Animal Activists.

Many thanks to Jo and Roy who organised the event, and worked tirelessly all weekend to ensure everything went successfully. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the awesome food that was arranged, both at the dining hall at the Rec Centre where we stayed, and Saturday night’s dinner at Zullaz in Burleigh Heads. What kind of food blogger would I be if I didn’t include some photos?

Pictured above are the Fijian/Indian vegan feast we were lucky to partake in, as well as a specially made dessert: semolina pudding with sultanas and and orange sauce.

It was a wonderful weekend filled with sunshine, great food, and great conversations. Can’t wait till next year!

Few things make me feel warmer and fuzzier than bringing together an awesome group of people for a great cause. On Friday night, we had a crowd of over 60 people gather together at The Hive in Erskineville for October’s installment of Sydney Vegan Drinks – some traveling from as far away as Canberra! 60 PEOPLE!!! I didn’t even think there were 60 vegans in Sydney!

We raised $318 for Pet Rescue – many thanks to Tim for coming to rep the organisation and “pass the bucket.” So many people also came promoting wonderful organisations, campaigns, and projects, as evidenced by our literature table.

It was really wonderful to meet so many new people, and hang out with an awesome, diverse crowd of vegans in a casual atmosphere.

I’ve had a number of people ask me “When are you going to do an event in Queensland?” or “Hey, why don’t you start a drinks night in Melbourne?” Would that I had the disposable income to travel around the country planning and attending happy hours. But if anyone from another part of Australia is interested in setting up a vegaroo! drinks night, I’m happy to do all I can to promote. Check out the official Vegan Drinks website  too, for tips on setting up an event in your area.

A million thank you’s to everyone who stopped by, chatted, promoted the event and helped make the evening a smashing success!

I took heaps of photos, which are up on Facebook -  I didn’t want to post them here without people’s permission. Become a fan of vegaroo to see them! Small informal poll: Would early December work for our next Drinks Night, or are people generally starting to get busy with holiday parties and plans? Hope to see you at our next event, regardless!

UPDATE: Forgot to add, I had a few people who couldn’t attend Friday ask how they could donate to Pet Rescue. Why, by clicking here!

My daily walk to and from the Kings Cross train station generally involves dodging puddles of vomit and hoping I don’t get stabbed with an errant hypodermic needle. Up until recently my favourite part of the neighbourhood has been the guy outside that dollar store on Darlinghurst Rd with the microphone yelling out deals on toothbrushes and energy drinks over a recording of himself doing the same. (True story.)

But now the KX has a brand new attraction that I can get behind: Green Lizard Vegan & Fusion Raw Food Cafe. It’s like a little oasis of yummy health food. Green Lizard is vegan, gluten-free, sugar-free, and not all raw, but definitely raw friendly.

I got to come in last week and sample a bunch of different foods, starting with a yummy tomato carrot juice. Green Lizard’s proprietor explained that it would help aid in digestion. I’m sure he could explain a lot more about the health benefits, which were all well and awesome. I’m no health expert, but I am a deliciousness expert, so I’ll just serve up the food porn instead.

This was a crispy rice paper “pancake” topped with delicious fresh berries.

Spring rolls and broad beans (which were soooo good).

A raw tomato and sprout salad, made with sprouts they grow themselves.

Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve been promoting and organising  fundraising events here at vegaroo for the last six months, and now I’m happy to embark on our next phase: taking action. Sydney is a fairly vegan-friendly city in terms of dining out, but it could always stand to improve. Basically my goal is to make veganism as accessible and appealing as possible, and having more vegan-friendly restaurants is one step towards that goal.

We are piloting a Restaurant Outreach Campaign. For this trial we’ve chosen a restaurant, Govinda’s in Darlinghurst, which is already vegetarian, but disappointingly lacking in vegan options. I love writing positive restaurant reviews of vegan-friendly place, but I’m yet review Govinda’s because it’s hard to write much about $20 bread and soup.

I’ve emailed Govinda’s personally to inquire as to whether they could offer more vegan choices, what the barriers are, what the incentives would be, etc. As I’ve not yet heard back, I’m hoping that by adding more voices, we can show that there is a strong vegan community in Sydney and it would be worth it to them, to go all vegan – or at least offer more cruelty-free options.

Here’s how you can help:

By clicking the button above you can sign an email to Govinda’s asking them to add vegan options to their menu. Please feel free to add your own comments, as that always gets a better response. You could try highlighting the health benefits to veganism, pointing out the ways that eating dairy harms cows, and the Hindu arguments for veganism or just simply offer them more business.

We want Govinda’s and other restaurants to know that this is not about trying to force change upon them, but rather we want to work with them towards developing vegan menu options that will be good for both their ethics and their business.

This past Sunday was the VegOut picnic in Sydney’s Centennial Park, wrapping up the two week VegPledge as part of 350.org’s Global Work Party on 10/10/10. The sun came out in full force for a few hours to allow for a beautiful afternoon. Hundreds of Sydney-siders attended to form a giant 350 in the park for this awesome photo (which was featured on Ecorazzi – well done!)

It's like a real life "Where's Wally?" I am at the top of the 3, third from the left!

By my last count there were over 300 pledges on the VegPledge website and looking around the event, I saw lots of VegPacks. I did my part by ordering 4 for two people. The sacrifices I make for sustainability. The one pictured here was from Laurie’s Vegetarian Takeaway in Bondi Junction and there were others from Nourishing Quarter, and Fatima’s, a Lebanese restaurant, both on Cleveland Street. There was also a sweet pack from Addiction Food that was full of win. And chocolate.

There was also a Sydney Cyclist event called Keep it Wheel that joined in with the VegOut picnic, so it was great to know that there were vegan meals and good vibes going out to a group that might not necessarily eat vegan meals otherwise. Yay for positive veggie outreach!

Overall, it was a great day and event. Congrats to Tim, Bob, Donna and Nikki for organising it!

350 photo shared by 350.org on Flickr under a Creative Commons license.  To see a large, hi-res photo click here.

Last week I got together with a group of readers to do a bit of vegaroo! brainstorming. It was a great session and I walked away with lots of new ideas, some short-term, some long-term, for how we can improve the site and make it a valuable resource for vegans in Australia, (or the vegan-curious).

Based on that meeting and my own ideas, here are the five goals I’ve set out:

1. In general, make vegaroo! more interactive so that users can post their own events, volunteer opportunities, notices, etc. I’m struggling a bit to find a good plugin for this so if anyone knows a good wordpress developer, that would be swell. We have started a mailing list feature though, so you can sign up (top right corner of this page) for a weekly digest of new articles and events listed here.

5. And this is the one I’m most excited about. Next week I’ll be launching a restaurant outreach campaign. There are lots of restaurants in Sydney that could easily become more vegan-friendly with some simple menu changes. I’ve chosen one that I’d like to specifically target and will be calling on vegaroo readers to lobby them towards a more vego menu. I’ll get into more details next week and we’ll take it from there in terms of developing a strategy for reaching out to more restaurants and what incentives we can provide.

I’ve also got some other event ideas cooking and truly long-term thoughts. I always welcome feedback either in the comments, or if you’d like to email me directly at sharon@vegaroo.com with your ideas. What does the Australian vegan community need?

Thanks to everyone who’s given me feedback so far. I’m still a relative newbie here, but have loved getting to know the community over the last six months!

Woah. Does anyone else feel like there is SO MUCH happening right now? Labour Day weekend means it’s officially summer and I guess everyone’s coming out of hibernation and getting out there.  We also recently had a vegaroo! brainstorming session, out of which some awesome ideas sprang. I’ll have a full report on that here soon.

In the mean time, here are some big upcoming events you should know about:

Sunday Oct. 10 – The VegOut Picnic is a celebration in Sydney’s Centennial Park, wrapping up the 2-week long VegPledge. You can order one of their VegPacks which are all vegan and include yummy foods from Nourishing Quarter, and vegaroo favourite, Addiction Food. We’ll be there chowing down!

Tuesday Oct. 12 – Karen Dawn, author of “Thanking the Monkey” will be speaking at Samadhi Yoga in Newtown at 7:30. It’s a free event! And if you can’t make it then, be sure to check out Earth Cafe at Samadhi Yoga sometime for some rad vegan food.

Friday Oct. 15 – The Next Sydney Vegan Drinks is going down at The Hive in Erskineville and I have a feeling it’s going to be our best event yet! We’re raising money for Pet Rescue. You can RSVP on our Facebook event page.

Saturday – Sunday Oct. 23-24 – Following the Animals Australia AGM will be there Animal Activist Forum in Palm Beach Queensland. There will be heaps of speakers including, yours truly! I’ll be presenting on Activist Blogging on behalf of WSPA. I’d love to hear from anyone else who’s attending or speaking!

Sunday Oct. 31 – Melbourne will be celebrating World Vegan Day! Sounds like there’s going to be heaps of food and community organisation stalls. Anyone going and want to report on it for vegaroo? Let me know!

Saturday Nov. 6 – It’s the last Sydney Vegan Bake Sale of 2010 from 8-1 at the Newtown Markets. This time it’s benefiting Charlie’s Angels Horse Sanctuary in Queensland. Deliciousness guanranteed.

Sunday Nov. 7 – All the cool kids in Sydney will be at the Cruelty Free Festival in Belmore Park. With over 60 Food and Wine stalls, you may have to drag me away kicking and screaming at the end of the day.

Whew!