September » 2011 » VeggieGirl

Eating Vegan in Watkins Glen

Usually when we go some place new, I scour the internet looking for vegan friendly restaurants in the area, but eating out in Watkins Glen is pretty easy, as most restaurants have vegan options. With Farm Sanctuary so close by, restaurants know they’d be missing out on too many customers if they weren’t vegan friendly. Hurrah for vegan supply and demand! Or is that demand and supply?

Whenever we go to Watkins Glen, we always have lunch at the Glen Mountain Market. Dennis and I like to order two different sandwiches and split them. One of the sandwiches we had was the Healthy Hoagie. It’s been so long since I had a sandwich loaded with so much stuff! This was so good!

We also had the Sanctuary Special, which was quite tasty as well. The cafe also has a nice selection of vegan pastries so Dennis got a bun to go.

For dinner we ate at The Wildflower Cafe. For some reason on past visits we’ve always walked past the Wildflower Cafe and gone for Chinese food, but we ate there this time based on the recommendation of another couple staying at the 1892 Seneca Inn with us. The cafe is connected to the Crooked Rooster Brewpub and serves the usual pub fare.

Dennis ordered the Moonrose Ribs. I was kind of afraid this would be one of those frozen rib patties that you can get at the grocery story that taste kind of strange and have too much sauce, but it wasn’t. It seemed to be pretty fresh and was very tasty.

I ordered the Black Bean Burger. Once again, this was not a typical frozen patty. It looked handmade was really good. Those mushy green veggie burgers that most pubby kind of places serve give vegan food a bad name, and it was so refreshing to order a burger that was vegan AND tasted good!

For dessert, we went to The Great Escape Ice Cream Parlor to sample some of their soft serve. They have vanilla soft serve that you can have a flavor added to.

Dennis ordered coconut and I ordered peanut butter. I’m not gonna lie – this wasn’t the best vegan ice cream that I’ve ever had. But it’s been so long since I’ve had soft serve ice cream that it was nice to be able to have that option.

Farm Sanctuary

Watkins Glen, NY is an interesting place. It’s a blue collar town whose main industry is salt mining, but it’s also a hot spot for tourists. People from all walks of life visit Watkins Glen for a wide variety of reasons: to do winery tours, to hike the gorge in Watkins Glen State Park, to watch NASCAR races at the race track, and to visit the rescued animals at Farm Sanctuary. Even though I did hike the gorge and visit some wineries, my reason for visiting was really the latter. I was there to visit Farm Sanctuary.

Most of us share our lives with cats and dogs, and we get to see them behaving the way cats and dogs do – lounging, playing, eating, sleeping and enjoying life. But we rarely get to see farm animals behaving this way. Sometimes we see pictures in books or footage on tv, but usually farm animals are kept behind closed doors. Perhaps this is because of the factory farming system or maybe it’s because most people don’t think farm animals deserve the same type of attention that our pets do. But farm animals are really no different from cats and dogs, and they like the same things – belly rubs, basking in the sun, playing with friends, etc. At Farm Sanctuary, animals get to enjoy their lives, and people get to see that cows and pigs are really no different from cats and dogs.

Farm Sanctuary celebrated its 25th anniversary this year! It all started with a sheep named Hilda. Since then, Farm Sanctuary has rescued thousands of animals.

The Watkins Glen farm is 175 acres. There’s also a farm in Orland, California for West Coasters.

Look at all that green and blue!

Such a pretty girl!

Watching this cow groom her friend reminded me of my cats. How cute is this?

Me with Freckles the sheep. Freckles followed me around like a puppy and kept nuzzling my hand so I would pet him.

So many cute little sheep!

Another sweet sheep.

This little goat happily posed for his picture.

Jack the goat is so hyper that we couldn’t enter the goat barn, fearing he’d get too excited with so many visitors.

Jerry Lee likes to play hide and seek.

Here’s a rooster who’s about to lose his apple to his turkey friend.

This little goose’s boyfriend gets so jealous that he doesn’t like people getting too close to her.

Cute little ducks.

Truffles is the matriarch of the pig barn, and she was super excited about her lunch.

The pigs didn’t care about their visitors – they wanted lunch!

Farm Sanctuary’s annual Walk for Farm Animals takes place across the country this fall. If you can’t walk, how about supporting me? http://events.walkforfarmanimals.org/participant/veggiegirl

Vegan Wine

I know nothing of the science behind it, but apparently the soil in Watkins Glen and the Finger Lakes area is perfect for growing grapes, so wineries abound. But not all wine is vegan. You would think it would be, because wine is just fermented grapes, right? But no, sometimes things like fish scales and gelatin is used in the filtering process. Fortunately there are websites devoted to letting us know if wine is vegan and Farm Sanctuary provides a list of vegan friendly wineries on Lake Seneca on their website, and most of the wineries are well versed in veganism because of Farm Sanctaury.

Not only is the soil in the area perfect for grapes, but it happens to be perfect for the grapes that are used to make riesling wine. Lucky for me, because riesling is my favorite!

The winery that makes the best riesling in the area is the Hermann J Wiemer winery in Dundee. And thankfully, all of their wine is vegan! Dennis and I had been looking forward to our visit to the Wiemer winery as soon as we booked our Watkins Glen trip, so we loaded up the boot of my Mini Cooper with delicious riesling while we were there!

Look at all of that wine fermenting!

Even more wine!

Grape plants

Stonecat Cafe

After a week of blog neglect, I’m back to posting about my trip to Watkins Glen! On our first night in NY, we went to the Stonecat Cafe based on my friend Rachel’s recommendation. It’s a cute little cafe that’s located on Lake Seneca in Hector. We called ahead to make reservations and ask about vegan items on the menu. The hostess must have written down that we’re vegan when she took the reservation, because our waiter Dave knew we’re vegan before coming to our table and he only suggested vegan dishes to us. How cool is that? If we hadn’t seen meat and fish dishes on the menu, we would have thought we were dining at a vegan restaurant. Now that’s what I call service!

If you time it right, you can watch the sun set over the lake from their deck outside. How pretty is that?

We started out with a bottle of delicious Wiemer Dry Riesling. Riesling is my favorite wine, and it’s the specialty of most of the vineyards on Lake Seneca. The Wiemer winery is our favorite in the Watkins Glen area, and all of their wine is vegan!

We couldn’t decide what kind of appetizer to get, so we got two! We had a really delicious greens salad with candied walnuts and edible flowers in a light dressing.

We also had a Olivado tapenade. Tapenade is usually made with anchovies, but not this delicious dish!

Dennis and I split two entrees. We had a really yummy shittake mushroom and Swiss chard risotto made with barely instead of rice.

We also had a delicious maple smoked tofu dish that came with summer squash and almond quinoa. This wasn’t on the dinner menu, but they made it for us anyway.

For dessert we had sorbet. Dennis had lemon and I had blackberry cabernet. Turns out that this brand is made right here in NJ and I was able to find it at my local Whole Foods when I got home.

If you’re in the Watkins Glen area, I highly recommend eating at the Stonecat Cafe and make sure you tell them you’re vegan in advance.

Wayne Pacelle Event In Montclair

Human Society President Wayne Pacelle is visiting Montclair! He will be at Watchung Booksellers on Monday, September 26th at 1:00. Wayne will be discussing his book The Bond: Our Kinship with Animals, Our Call to Defend Them. A book signing will follow the discussion. I’ll be there, so please stop by and say hi!

1892 Seneca Inn

During our visit to Watkins Glen, we stayed at the 1892 Seneca Inn, which is run by the super nice couple Susan and Michael. The Inn is located right off the main street so it’s easy to walk to restaurants and the Lake Seneca pier, but since it’s on a side street, it’s nice and quiet and there’s no street noise. And it’s directly across the street from Good Groceries, the town’s vegan friendly health food shop.

This isn’t a vegan bed and breakfast, but Susan will make vegan breakfast if you request it. They told us that quite a lot of vegans stay with them, and since Farm Sanctuary listed them as a vegan friendly B&B on their website, the 1892 Seneca Inn has scene a 25% increase in business! Vegan breakfast is in demand in Watkins Glen! At breakfast both mornings we were there, the veggies outnumbered the omnivores.

The Inn is really cute, and Dennis and I spent quite a lot of time oohing and ahhing over the fun antiques in the common sitting rooms. The B&B has four bedrooms, each with a private bathroom. (While I was looking for places to stay, I found quite a lot of places that didn’t have private baths, but sharing a bathroom isn’t my idea of a relaxing time away from home.) We stayed in the Coral Room which was decorated in greens and oranges.

Breakfast started with fruit, tea, coffee and orange juice.

Breakfast our first morning was yummy banana pancakes and soy sausage. All of the breakfast recipes come from Farm Sanctuary.

I didn’t get a picture of breakfast from our second morning, but it was super delicious French toast, which was even better than the pancakes, and vegan bacon. French toast was one of my favorite breakfast foods in my pre-vegan days, and it’s always a nice treat when someone makes it for me now.

Geka’s Soul Vegetarian Cafe

On our way to Watkins Glen, Dennis and I stopped at Geka’s Soul Vegetarian Restaurant in Elmira, NY. Elmira isn’t the most scenic of towns in the Finger Lakes area, but it’s become a stop for vegans on their way to Farm Sanctuary because of Geka’s. The restaurant is owned by Pam St. Louis, who is also the head chef. Pam cooks everything from scratch – there are no canned or frozen foods here!

All meals come with complimentary salad and delicious cornbread.

I had a vegan “turkey” dinner, which came with brown rice and two sides.

I picked steamed broccoli and candied yams as my sides. It was a little Thanksgiving in August!

Dennis had a vegan chicken salad sandwich with fries. The fries are fresh cut from real potatoes and they tasted nice and fresh. Frozen fries never taste good!

Me with Pam St. Louis. Pam is incredibly kind and giving. The restaurant serves free food on the last Thursday of every month. Pam also tells every one that if they can’t afford their bill to just pay what they can. We felt that we were undercharged for our feast, so we left extra money!

A Visit to Watkins Glen

Dennis and I had plans to go to Watkins Glen and the Finger Lakes in New York in June, but I caught the most horrendous cold ever and we had to postpone our trip. We rescheduled for last weekend, but once again things didn’t go as planned. As we were about to leave, our cat Archie started acting strange, so we rushed him to the vet. His doctor wasn’t sure what was wrong, but it seemed like he had a urinary blockage, which is really serious. We decided to leave Archie there for the long weekend so he could have tests and be observed in case anything went wrong. So we left for Watkins Glen feeling stressed and worried about our little cat. Fortunately the tests didn’t show anything major and after a day at the vet’s office, Archie seemed to be okay, so my friend Karyn picked him up and brought him back to our house.

Archie’s positive prognosis didn’t help alleviate the stress though. After hearing about Hurricane Irene, we decided to leave early and get home before the storm hit. There was so much talk about road closings and flooding, that we were afraid we’d get stuck somewhere and wouldn’t be able to get back home. So we ended up only spending a just day and a half in Watkins Glen. We crammed a lot into those 36 hours, but there was a lot more wanted to do, so we need to plan a return trip soon!

After a stressful drive through terrible storms to get to Watkins Glen, we went for a nice walk down to the pier at Lake Seneca and take a boat ride out on the lake.

The water was so blue and tranquil. Perfect for unwinding after a stressful day!

The main source of income in Watkins Glen is from salt that is mined from under lake Seneca.

That’s a lot of boats!

The next day we went for a walk through the gorge at Watkins Glen State Park. The park entrance is right off of the main street, and it’s strange to turn the corner and see this magnificent scene. It’s so beautiful that it seems like you’re stepping into another world.

You can look down onto Watkins Glen and the surrounding area from the top of the gorge.

The gorge trail is a mile and a half long, and every inch of it is gorgeous. There really aren’t any words that can accurately describe it.

The park also has a trail along the gorge rim as well as picnic grounds and a camping area. Whenever we’re in Watkins Glen, we usually spend all of our state park time on the gorge trail though.

Stay tuned for more posts about Watkins Glen!

Vegan Bake Sale

It’s time for another bake sale!! The money raised at this sale will go towards the Montclair Vegans Lecture Series. We have some great guests lined up, and we need to pay speaker fees, venue fees as well as travel expenses. All of our events are free and open to the public in order to spread the our vegan message, so we’re raising the money we need the best way we know how – with baked goods!

When: Saturday, September 17th from 11:00 – 4:00

Where: Go Lightly Eco Store, 4 South Fullerton, Montclair, NJ

We need bakers! If you can donate baked goods, please contact me. If you can’t bake, please come out and buy some goodies to support our vegan outreach!

Hurricane Irene

Dennis and I went to the Finger Lakes last week for what was supposed to be a nice long relaxing weekend. Once we heard about Hurricane Irene’s eminent arrival, we decided to return home to make sure all of are hatches were battened and our kitties were okay. We did our grocery shopping in Watkins Glen and loaded up my Mini Cooper with things like canned goods, cat food, bottled water, batteries and candles. We got home right before the storm rolled in and we prepared ourselves for the worst. While New Jersey was hit hard and some of my friends are still dealing with the aftermath, we were very lucky. We had a small amount of water in our basement, and we were without power most of Sunday, but other than that, we had an uneventful weekend. We spent Sunday reading, checking Facebook on our phones to make sure all of our friends were okay, and playing a nice long game of Simpsons Monopoly. And the lack of power didn’t stop us from eating good food!

When we called the power company to see how long the electricity would be out, we were told it might take a full week to restore power. A week! We wanted to cook some of the perishable foods first to prevent having to throw spoiled food away. Our stove is gas, so Dennis lit the burner with a match and I made a tofu scramble. Tofu scrambles are easy – just mix together some crumbled tofu with spices and whatever veggies you have in your fridge. In this case, I used onion, a red bell pepper, spinach and mushrooms. I threw in a little vegan cheese and nutritional yeast too. No package of vegan cheese goes bad on my watch!

For lunch I made some coleslaw along with chickpea mash sandwiches. The coleslaw was made with a bag of shredded cabbage and carrots I had in the fridge. I just mixed it together with some Vegenaise. The sandwiches were made with mashed chickpeas, mustard and Vegenaise. (I couldn’t let that jar of Vegenaise go bad!) Chickpea mash is another dish that you can just throw in whatever is in the fridge. I used shredded carrots, onion and a little more bell pepper. I also used some dried dill, salt and pepper for flavor. I had bought some really yummy rice chips in Watkins Glen so I served them along side everything. Sandwiches like this are perfect for power outages!

While preparing for Irene’s arrival, I made a pot each of brown rice and quinoa so that I could make dishes with them if we lost power. So for dinner on Sunday I mixed together a big bowl of quinoa salad. Once again, this is another dish that you can make with whatever is handy. In this case I used carrots, cherry tomatoes, onion, diced zucchini, some cashews and a can of chickpeas. I mixed together some lemon juice, olive oil, flavored vinegar with oregano and dill and mixed it in with the quinoa salad. This was really tasty and there was enough for a second meal for both of us.

Fortunately, it did not take a week to restore power, and the electricity came back on Sunday night, just in time for True Blood!

Oh yeah, and you know how animals are supposed to be able to sense impending storms and such? I’m pretty sure that’s a myth, as demonstrated here by the nap Tallulah Belle is taking in the midst of the house being pounded by rain.