Hi Bits and Bobs! Long time, no see! I’ll skip the pleasantries and excuses and just dive into it. Here’s what’s going on in the vegan world!

OzHarvest is a wonderful non-profit organisation with a new campaign called Feed Sydney that aims to provide over 250,000 meals to the city’s less fortunate. Read more about the initiative and how you can get involved!

And in other “awesome things you can do in the name of charity” news… Cupcake Day is coming! It’s like getting sponsored for a walk-a-thon only less getting fit and more eating delicious baked goods! And it benefits the RSPCA so lots of good karma abounds. It doesn’t require the cupcakes be vegan, but duh, if you love animals you shouldn’t bake with things that come out of them.

Have you guys seen the preview for Aduki Press’ Australian Veg Food Guide? It looks awesome! Pre-orders are coming soon. Well done, Aduki!

I heard a rumour that Radical Grocery in Victoria was robbed! Can anyone confirm this? I haven’t been able to find any news about it. Details much appreciated!

Umm… this raw vegan retreat in Queensland sounds like it was flipping awesome. Why do I always find out about these things after they’ve happened? I count on you, dear readers to send us hot tips! What else is coming up that vegaroo should know about?

Ok, all you sustainable foodies out there who are still eating milk and dairy. I know you won’t listen to goddamn hippies like me when we tell you to cut that crap out, but oh maybe you’ve heard of a little global organisation called the United Nations? They’ve called for a “global shift towards a vegan diet.” Yup, they actually use the “v-word” and everything. Pardon me while I do my “told you so” dance.

And now I am off to dive into Yum Cha! Because it’s my Birthday Weekend!!! I’m heading out to play country girl in Berrima at Zen Oasis on Saturday and checking out Bodhi in the Park on Sunday. I suggest you find something as awesome as Yum Cha to distract from this miserable weather. Have a good one!

Over 120 bake sales have taken part in this year’s Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale and there are still more to come.

This year Australia had 8 bake sale sign ups in in 5 states. Next year I want to see every state participate, Tasmania, A.C.T and N.T – I’m looking at you!

Kayla and Kaeli in Adelaide held a picnic with bands, bellydancers and baked goods. They raised $533.45 for the Australian Marine Wildlife Research and Rescue Organistation (AMWRRO).

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Hey, did you know we are in the midst of the Fair Trade Fortnight? It’s true. Why would I lie about that? They’ve got “Big Swap” events happening all over Australia and New Zealand, plus other events you can find on our calendar, which I’ve been told will have veg-friendly food. Sweet!

It’s a pretty exciting time of year for vegans. What else could I be talking about, but the start of avocado season! Did you know you can join an Avo Club? Go join it! And then go make me this green tea noodle with avocado sauce recipe! Om nom nom…

Please vote “Yes” in this poll on banning jump-racing, spurred by another tragic case of a horse needing to be put down. Seriously, who are these a**holes voting “No.” I’m going to throw a saddle on their children and ride them around until their limbs break! Even The 7PM Project brought some coverage to it this week – weigh in in their forums.

The Sydney Morning Herald has an interesting article on the chef at veg-friendly Japanese restaurant Wafu in Surry Hills, who apparently runs a pretty tight “clean plates club.” Anyone experienced her wrath? I went once and the food was great, so I had no troubles. Brown rice sushi is awesome!

What’s the deal with Perth getting all these awesome events lately? Is there a vegan revolution happening there? This Environmental and Animal Issues Forum sounds like something I’d be all up on. What do people from Perth call themselves? Perthians? Perth-people? Perthlings??? Perthlings: who wants to go to this and report on it here?

Canberra’s getting in on the awesome event action with the RSPCA-sponsored Million Paws Walk on May 16! Bring your furry friend! Or they invite the dogless to show up to gawk at other people’s dogs. So you don’t have to sit in the park on dog meet-up days and watch jealously and creepily from a bench… uh, not that I’ve ever done that the first Sunday of every month or anything.

It is getting cold!! Do you need some cute new winter gloves? Cate from Aduki Press made these and they’re adorbs!

Bundle up, make yourself some awesome vegan soup, and enjoy a great weekend, everyone!

Roll call! Who’s going to the Living Planet Expo in Sydney this Sunday?! I’ll be there repping vegaroo and there will be all kinds of yummy food and speakers (who may or may not be yummy). Tweet at me from the event if you want to meet up!

Also coming up in Sydney, Animals Australia are looking for volunteers to staff their stall at the Mind Body Spirit Festival at Darling Harbour, May 13-16. I can’t find details on their website but I’m sure you can email them for more info. There’s festivals happening in Melbourne and Brisbane too for all you crystal-worshipping vegans seeking “Animal Insights into the Afterlife”. No judgement, weirdos.

Isabel Lucas has been named Australia’s Sexiest Vegetarian and credits her conversion to the film Earthlings. I guess I moved here too late to be nominated. There’s always next year!

Roll call! Who wants to make me this Sri Lankan No-Chicken Curry from Chew on This? Anyone? Anyone?? …Bueller?

Is anyone interested in writing Master Chef recaps for vegaroo a la my favourite San Francisco blog vegansaurus? You all certainly love to tweet about it CONSTANTLY! I guess if I had television I’d be all over that too.

There are more vegan bake sales happening this weekend in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. Best of luck to all the bakers! Drop us a line and let us know how it goes.

Happy Weekend, everyone!

Editor’s Note: Please Welcome our newest writer, Stephanie! She wrote this post on Wednesday morning, and we were saddened to learn later in the day that Edgar Allan Pig, the namesake of the Animal Sanctuary featured in this article, passed away. You can read more of the story in this letter from Co-Founder Pam Ahern. Our deepest condolences to everyone at Edgar’s Mission. In the spirit of celebrating life, we present Stephanie’s article here.

On Sunday I took some time out to venture north to Edgar’s Mission, which is coincidentally the charity for this month’s Sydney Vegan Bakesale.

Edgar’s Mission is about an hour North of Melbourne (at least, it’s an hour from where I live in the Republic of Moreland), and on Sunday we went up to visit Edgar on the occasion of his 7th birthday! There was an art show, and a birthday cake for Edgar, and lots of vegan deliciousness.

Food report: I ate a gluten-free cupcake, provided by tart’n’round, and a sausage inna bun and a rice paper roll.

There were also lots of animals! We went for a wander, hearing the life stories of many of the animals who now make their home on Edgar’s Mission. I’m really happy that they’re all getting a chance to live on the mission, but it makes me sad to hear about how they got there. We met Ruby, a kelpie, who was too inefficient as a sheepdog so her owner asked a neighbour to shoot her. The neighbour was so won over by her adorable friendliness that he couldn’t do it, so he brought her to the mission. Now she runs around and is happy and adorable all the time! This, of course, raises the question of how many non-adorable dogs (and other animals) are being killed for the crime of inefficiency + non-adorableness, and I think Ruby is a good example of what a great place Edgar’s Mission is, and how sad our farming industry makes me.

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Better late than never, right? Sorry we’ve been light on posting in the last few days. We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming next week and blah blah blah… here’s the news!

We can’t get enough of Lisa Dempster’s phenomenal series this week on going vegan, especially the part about getting involved with the vegan community. Send it to everyone you know!

Word on the street is that Aussie company Inika Cosmetics products are no longer all vegan – some of their lip glosses now contain honey, so be sure to read carefully when ordering from them. You can let them know how you feel about this change on their Facebook page.

Everyone’s buzzing about this week about Pamela Anderson’s new vegan milkshake, to which I say: Really? I mean, how hard is it to make your own vegan milkshake? Mmmm… milkshakes….

Oh and speaking of gorging yourself on food, guess what, Australia, your diets are now worse than those FATTY McCHUBBERSONS in America, if you can believe it! Read the story and totally obnoxious stock photos of headless fat people here on ABC news. Do I smell a “Go Vegan for Your Health!” campaign? Eh… probably not.

Looking for something to do in Brisbane tonight? The Blasted Health are playing at Jubilee Hotel and Animals Australia will be there! And so will vegan cupcakes! Do it to it!

And in Victoria tomorrow, Sydney Vegan Bake Sale beneficiary, Edgar’s Mission is having a party! It’s a birthday party for Edgar Alan Pig! And a Compassion Art Day! There will be a vegan BBQ and face painting, and pigs in party hats!!! Do you need more motivation than that?

Have a great weekend, everyone and try not to go too Hog Wild! (Ugh… sorry. I’ll show myself out…)