Jain Vegans ►Vegan Xmas Fayre this Sunday in London & other news

When: Sunday 7th December, 10:00 - 17:00

Where: Kensington Town Hall, Hornton Street, Kensington, London, W8 7NX. (map)

Entrance: £2

http ://www  .  animalaid  .  org  .  uk/h/n/NEWS/news_living//3154//

Animal Aid's Xmas Fayre is run by people dedicated to ahimsa and reducing animal cruelty. There will be around 100 stalls promoting ethical living. Visitors will be able to attend cookery demonstrations, get information about health and nutrition and even sample different styles of non-leather shoes. Opportunities will be present to support local animal sanctuaries and to listen to talks by well known speakers. Make sure you come hungry as there will also be heaps of vegan treats to try - cakes, ice creams, chocolates, cookies, savouries, healthy salads.... and so much more!

As in previous years, we're expecting many members of the Jain community to be present, and hope you'll be among them:-)  Vegan caterers Shambhu's will have Jain-friendly options available on request at their stand.

If you fancy volunteering at the event for a few hours while you're there, Shambhu's is looking for enthusiastic people to help serve out their vegan food and drinks. If you're interested, please email Mahersh Shah of Shambhu's with your preferred time for volunteering, and the number of hours you can spare:


Mahersh will then come back to you with more information.

On Saturday 29th November, more than 5,000 buffaloes were slaughtered as part of the Gadhimai festival in Nepal.  The slaughter of these animals drew in critcism from animal charities and activists around the world.
The Jain Vegans Working Group was asked to encourage its subscribers to sign petitions and join in demonstrations.  We wrote a blog on the subject, which was circulated via our Twitter and Facebook pages.  You can read the blog by clicking on the image below:


 

1. An update from the latest Jain Vegans Cooking Club event 



The latest meeting of the Jain Vegans Cooking Club took place on 16th November. Yet again, it was a very productive and useful event. As well as being vegan, all dishes were free from root vegetables. The recipes that were tested this time were: 
* chilli tofu
* noodles with stir-fried pineapple, celery and multi-coloured peppers
* vietnamese summer rolls
* pineapple and tomato sweet and sour sauce 
* sweet chilli chutney.  
If you like the sound of the Jain Vegans Cooking Club, please email to be invited to future events. We generally meet in North London, and the next event is likely to take place in January. We would typically ask you to prepare a vegan dish to bring to the event, and also to fine-tune/write up the recipe in a standard format with metric measurements, so that we can publish it online. Recipe creators/adaptors will be acknowledged where possible.
Please also feel free to send in any Jain Vegan recipes to . More information about how we use the recipes can be found further below in this newsletter.


2. Keval Shah's most recent school speaking event



On 18th of November, Keval Shah gave a talk to students at Harrow High School on 'religious views on animal rights'.  The talk formed part of their religious education studies.  The talk focussed on the 'Golden Rule' - treat others how you would like to be treated - which is a key principle of all religions.  Keval also discussed how following a compassionate, vegan lifestyle is not inconsistent with any religion.

If you'd like a speaker for your or your child's class, please ask the teacher to contact Animal Aid. You also may make a request to have Keval as the speaker. 

School talks are an important and highly effective way to convey the important message about why a vegan lifestyle is important for everyone to seriously consider. If you're interested in becoming a school speaker, or even a vegan cookery demonstrator, please visit this link for further information . 


3. Information on some upcoming Shambhu's festive cooking classes




a) Adult class: Festive 3-course meal

Date and time: Saturday 20th December, 1pm to 4pm
Venue: Queensbury Methodist Church, Queensbury, north-west London
Price: £45 per person
Advance booking required: www . shambhus . co . uk/adults

Shambhu's chef, Nishma Shah, will demonstrate how to prepare the following festive plant-based dishes:
Starter: Sweet potato and coconut soup
Main: Chestnut roast with gravy
Accompaniment: Fresh cranberry and apple chutney
Dessert: Chocolate bomb

Light refreshments and recipe pack included.

For further information and to book your place, please visit:
www . shambhus . co . uk/adults


b) Children's class: Handmade chocolate treats

Suitable for children aged: 8 to 13 years
Date & time: Saturday 27th December, 10am to 12pm
Venue: Queensbury Methodist Church, Queensbury, north-west London
Price: £30 per child
Advance booking required: www . shambhus . co . uk/children

In this hands-on class, children will be taught how to make:
Picnic bars
Oat & coconut jaffas
Chocolate bomb

The ingredients used to make the above will include: chocolate, dried fruit, cereals and vegan ice-cream.

By attending this class, children will pick up a variety of food-making skills and food-related knowledge. They'll also learn about alternative ways of sweetening foods.

Recipe pack included.



4) Shambhu's awarded for Best Environmental Practice

Last month, the vegan catering business, Shambhu's, run by Nishma & Mahersh Shah of the UK Jain community (and who are also part of the Jain Vegans Working Group) was awarded a Green Apple Award for Environmental Best Practice:





You can learn more about Shambhu's from their website: www . shambhus . co . uk



5) Compassionate Derby

A vegan festival based in the Midlands on Saturday 6th December.
Please see http ://www . compassionatederby . com/ for further details.


6) Other vibrant upcoming vegan events & socials in London -

For information on monthly informative talks, regular scenic walks at different locations in London, social meals at some of the best vegan-friendly restaurants in the city, social meetups in London among like-minded folk, check out the follow links:

www   .   londonvegans   .  org  .  uk/lvdiary
and
www  .  londonveganmeetup  .  co  .  uk

Some of the vegan Jain recipes that have been sent to us have now been tried and tested and have been published on our new website . However, we need lots more. So please send your vegan Jain recipes to us: . 


At present, we're also particularly looking for vegan yeast-free pizza base recipes.

We will aim to test out the dishes through the Cooking Club, make any adjustments and then publish them on our website with  credits to both the creator and adaptors. To help us in this process, we would be grateful if recipes could  as far as possible use accurate metric measurements of all ingredients used.

The abuse and killing of cows on dairy farms is the main reason why many members of the Jain community have decided to make a switch to a vegan lifestyle:

1. The cow is forcefully impregnated by means of artificial insemination. If a cow isn’t made pregnant, she won’t produce milk.
2. The newborn calf is normally taken away from its mother within 24-48 hours. This is traumatic for cows, who, like human mothers, are very motherly and develop strong bonds with their babies.
3. Male calves are killed shortly after birth or sold on for meat/leather production.  They have no other use to dairy farmers.
4. Female calves are kept on to replace their mothers as milk-producing cows.
5. The mother cow will be killed when 5-7 years old, even though she could live for 20 to 30 years if given the chance.  This is because after bearing a calf and giving milk each year, her milk yield drops such that it is no more profitable for a dairy farmer to keep her alive.

It is possible to get a range of dairy free alternatives to traditionally animal based products. Normally available from free-from sections of supermarkets and also from healthfood stores.

You can easily replace:

• Cow milk with Soya/Rice/Almond/Coconut Milk (Supermarket ownbrands, Alpro, Provamel, Bonsoy, Ecomil, Koko)
• Yoghurt / Dahi with plant based curds (Provamel, Alpro, Sojade)
• Butter with vegetable spreads (Pure and Vitalite are commonly available from supermarkets. Note many margarines contain butter milk and thus are not suitable for vegans)
• Cheese / Paneer with Dairy Free Cheeses (Tofu, VBites, Scheese, Tofutti, Vegusto, Vegourmet)
• Ice Creams with sorbets or dairy free ice creams (Bessant and Drury, Swedish Glace, Booja Booja, Worthenshaws)
• Chocolate with dark chocolate (Plamil and Organica do specialist dairy free ‘milk chocolate’ and many brands do vegan dark chocolate)
• Eggs with egg replacement powder (baking) or tofu (scrambled)
• Honey with  maple syrup, rice syrup, agave syrup, date syrup or golden syrup