It’s springtime, you guys! The birds are chirping, the sun is shining and this crap as winter looks like it’s finally fading, which means it’s the perfect time to start checking out farmers markets! My new favourite is the Sydney Sustainable Market in Taylor Square!

I was there over the weekend running a market stall for my day job. (P.S. It would be wonderful if you joined the Humane Chain, followed us on Twitter and became a fan on Facebook. Ok, done whoring now.) The organisers are super nice and easy to work with and so were all of the other stallholders I encountered who stopped by to bring me and my volunteers some of their leftover fruit and veg at the end of the day.

And there were some great vegan products to be found! You may already be familiar with Addiction Food, as they sell at Vegan’s Choice and were at the Vegan Expo in May. They specialise in vegan and gluten free desserts. I had a coconut bliss ball that was lovely and the chocolate macadamia nut brownie was off the hook. I nearly died from it. So good. You might say I need some serious rehab for this addiction. (But not me, because I do not stoop to cheap puns.) They also sell through the Funky Pies website and have a Facebook fan page. You know what to do.

And a new vendor that *sprouted* up at the market this week (haha, who am I kidding – I love puns!!) was Fusion Raw and Vegan Foods. They were selling all kinds of delicious and healthy packaged foods which made me feel much better about all the chocolate I consumed. Pictured here are a tofu-stuffed tomato, a cabbage roll and mung bean pasta with tomato sauce and falafel. I sampled a little bit of everything and loved it all! They also sell all kinds of sprouts and had info on growing your own. Neat! Not sure if these guys have a website but will update if I find out more. I’m pretty sure they’ll be at the market every weekend though.

The Sustainable Markets take place on Saturdays from 8-1 and I recommend you get your hungover ass out of bed early and stop by.

I had my first Go Max Go Bar while visiting New York last year in a vegan old-timey ice cream and candy shoppe called Lula’s Sweet Apothecary. [Sidenote: Um... Who wants to open a vegan ice cream shoppe in Sydney??? And yes, it must be a shoppe, not a boring shop.] It was love at first bite.

Like any good infatuation, I couldn’t get enough. When I returned to San Francisco I would make trips to Whole Foods just to stockpile the delicious confectionaries. There’s nothing like walking out of a health food store with handfuls of candy bars. (They’re vegan, so they’re healthy, right??)

So imagine my delight when I learned that Go Max Go bars are available in Australia! You can buy them from the Cruelty Free Shop (who I forgive for forgoing the extra -pe because they are awesome) or at any of the locations listed here.

The flavours all have analogues to traditional candy bars. Mahalo = Almond Joy, Bucaneer = Three Musketeers, Jokerz = Snickers and Twilight = Milky Way [Doh! Thanks to Mandee for pointing out my American-centrism. Apparently the Aussie flavours correspond thusly: Twilight = Mars Bar, the Buccaneer = Milky Way and the Mahalo = Bounty]

Asking me to pick a favourite is like asking a mom to choose her favourite child. Because, duh, of course I have a favourite (and so does your mom, don’t let her try to fool you.) The Jokerz bar is a little slice of heaven in a wrapper. But it could be that I have an emotional attachment to Snickers Bar. In my early days of vegetarianism when I was super-poor I would sometimes have just a Snickers Bar and can of Diet Coke from the vending machine at work for lunch. And by sometimes, I mean several times a week.

Luckily, I’ve learned a thing or two about proper nutrition since then. So these days the candy bars suffice as more of a rare treat than meal replacer — something good for a special occasion. In fact I recently celebrated some good news with a Jokerz bar: I have a new job! Details forthcoming, but that is one of the reasons I’ve been quietish here on the blog lately. The days have been busy but, at least my beloved Go Max Go Bars have been there for me.

Ok you guys, much like your last family reunion where your Aunt Edie hiked up her skirt to show everyone that tattoo she got back in college,  it’s time for some wine-fueled confessions! Here’s confession number one. I’m actually a recent Aussie transplant, having moved here not too long ago from San Francisco.

SCANDALOUS, I know. The reason I bring this up is that living so close to Napa Valley, I got interested in wine-making. And, well, drinking. I’m not really knowledgeable enough to give out useful information, but I know just enough to be an obnoxious snob who turns my nose up at white zinfandel and says things like “mouthfeel” unironically.

One difference I can tell you between California and Australian wines is that in the states, winemakers are not required to list animal products used during the filtration process. And so my second confession here is that I haven’t always been 100% careful about making sure the wine I drink is suitable for vegans. But the first step is admitting you have a problem, right?

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