vegansaurus!

Guest post: Maintaining your vegan values through the winter  »

Being a vegan can be especially difficult in the winter. Follow these tips in food-growing and gathering to help get you through the cold moths with your vegan values intact.

Winter Prep
A home garden can be a vegan’s best friend. Use winter as a time to prep your plots for the spring. Once warm weather hits all your tending time will be spent on plants. So work on projects like elevated planters, compost piles or growing structures now. Don’t be intimidated by the mathematics of building. A few good bamboo poles and twine can get you really far in a garden. I just used a table saw to cut my shoots into random lengths and then started tying knots wherever they made sense. I’m a hippie, not an engineer. But my result was a trellis any bean plants would be proud to climb.

Food Delivery
Being vegan is a choice you make every day. Sometimes it is effortless; sometimes it requires a ton of effort. As creative as vegan cooking can get, sometimes you just run out of ideas. This is the point when more liberal eaters would just order a pizza, but vegans don’t all have that luxury. Instead, several new businesses are answering the tired vegan call. Vegin-in of Asheville, N.C., and Nashville, Tenn., delivers fresh vegan cuisine to your doorstep. Fresh n’ lean does the same for L.A. These services deliver in bulk and a la carte, helping vegans fill their bellies for a night or their fridges for a week. Check to see if you are lucky enough to have a similar store in your city.

Farmer’s Markets
I don’t know where I would be without my local growers, and I’m sure many other vegans feel the same. Just because it is winter doesn’t mean the farmers quit growing. Cabbage, beets, broccoli and Brussels sprouts are just a few of the many plants still available fresh in the wintertime. Because farmers are even more eager to sell in the slow season, they are more willing to cut a deal. When going to winter farm markets I’ve found that the lower the temperature is, the lower the prices are. Farmers just want to sell their veggies and get back home. Winter is the best time to buy in bulk and really sprout some deals.

Danielle uses a delicate mix of hummus and garlic to keep vegan life running smoothly. She blogs on behalf of Sears and other prestigious brands she loves, but spends her offline time ankle-deep in soil. Danielle thinks the best moments in life come when you are drinking straight out of a garden hose.

[photos by Susy Morris and James Lavin via Flickr]

How do I know god loves you? Vaute Couture is having a sale!  »

Our beloved Vaute Couture is having a 25 percent off sale on most of their coats! This includes the FW10 Vaute pictured above. Just enter “LOVEYOU2” at checkout for the discount. If you were waiting to get your $400 Vaute Couture coat, it’s now $300! Now you too can frolic in the woods with no pants on!

Some kind of hot/cold fashion/weather pun: Men’s winter coat round-up!  »

What up, homeboys?! I didn’t forget about you! I know you get cold. How about some nice winter coats?

But not before a refresher on the evils of down (not for faint of heart):

So sad. And as the video says, there is no way to tell where the down in any particular jacket comes from. Let’s look at pretty coats and be happy we don’t hurt geese.

First up, this Patagonia number.

This is your standard hooded-bomber that anybody can wear. It’s filled with primaloft and made of 100 percent recycled polyester! Yay! Besides the many eco-benefits of these down-alternative coats, many of them say down-alternatives mean you stay warm when the coat gets wet. NICE! We RULE!

Here’s a rather exciting coat, the Special Blend Rifle insulated jacket.

I’m into it. It’s kind of subtly ’80s.

Here’s a handsome coat!

Hello, Shimmer Me Timbers jacket from Columbia! Let’s cozy up!

For a grown-up look, here’s the Hamilton jacket from Marmot.
What’s up, dad! No, but for real, I like this jacket. And it has like 80 million features, which is exciting!

Let’s get a little hipper with this Under Armour coat.
This jacket highlights another bonus you get from synthetic insulation: you can move! It’s warm but thin.

Here’s my favorite, a good-old Carhartt parka!
There is nothing better than a nice boy in a Carhartt—that’s my word! Holler at me, Carhartt boys!

Finally a vest! It’s the Baffin vest from Marmot.

I wouldn’t recommend this vest for everybody but it’s pretty cool. Only get it if you think you can pull it off. Just leave it home if you’re going out on the Razor, please.

There you go, boys! Stay warm!

Women’s winter coat round-up! Stay down-free without freezing!  »

Good lord, I totally forgot about snow! That shiz is COLD! My peacoat was fine in SF but New York is going to require some serious GEAR. Plus I know you SF bitches go skiing and whatnot—suit up with my women’s winter coat round-up! Totally DOWN-free. Why? Let’s ask the World Society for the Protection of Animals:

[…] [M]illions of birds are plucked alive every year in Europe alone. The figure is even higher in China, the world’s largest producer of down and other feathers. China exports to a number of European countries where the down is used in duvets, pillows and jackets. Regardless of the origin of the feathers, the consequences for the geese are clear: they are tormented and badly stressed during the plucking process.

That’s right dudes, they pluck them LIVE. Holy crap.

On to the beautiful coats!

First up, this lovely Patagonia number, the women’s Rubicon Rider jacket.

Check it: “Insulated with lightweight, compressible 150-g Thermogreen® polyester (90 percent recycled) that stays warm even when wet”—sounds good! I like this one because it’s modern but it kind of has a ’70s, Three’s Company vibe. Especially in the red.

Next, a nice faux-fur hooded parka!

The Berghaus Mid Insulated Parka is also filled with polyester. I like faux-fur and I like how brownish faux-fur looks with the black coat. Also, this looks warm!

Next, from North Face, we have the Whitby jacket.

Another “eco” insulated jacket! See? Once again, we vegans are better for the environment! Huzzah!

Now from Marmot, we have the women’s Zurich jacket.

This one is uber-modern looking. I’m into the contrast piping and stitching. This would be great for riding your hover-board during the winter days!

On the super-high-end vegan side, here’s the Airs from Vaute Couture.

Another coat with environmentally friendly insulation! Unfortunately, there are only a few sizes left in this design, but they say they are making more so keep an eye out. It’s pretty fly. Comes in hot pink too for you daring girls! What’s that? I can’t hear you over how loud your coat is!

Finally, a nice Patagonia vest.

The Kitlope shell is 100 percent recycled polyester. Booyah! I’m loving how eco-friendly this list is turning out—it’s purely coincidental! We just rule! Now, I love this vest, I’m really into the yoking, I just don’t remember how to wear vests? I know I used to in my high school Wu-Tang days but now I can’t remember why we wear vests? Don’t your arms get cold or your body gets too warm? Still, it’s dope.

Have a happy, goose-friendly winter, pals!

Winter boot round-up from Planet Shoes!  »

Hey people! You know I have fly shoes and now that I’m back on the East Coast where we got the snow, I began to worry about my superdope boots! I don’t want the rain and snow to ruin them! AND THEN! Reader Shelly P. sent us these Patagonia boots to check out as they are made of all kinds of vegan materials! Perfect timing, Shell-boogie! (today only! Free nicknames!) So I was looking for the boots online (you know, the internets) and found them along with several other nice winter boots on planetshoes.com, who has a lovely vegan shop. Let’s check them out!

First, we have the Patagonia boot that inspired this round-up. It’s pretty dope. I like the whole handle thing it’s got going on, seems very practical. And you know me! Señora Practical Shoes! But for real, I’m always like, Why the heck do I not own a shoehorn? The shoehorn is really some genius time-tested technology. It should totally be added to the Simple Machines list. I know, right?

Next we’ve got the Earth Pride boot. I like the fake shearling and it comes in plum—purple is so hot right now. So hot.

This is a hemp boot from Simple. Look jerks, I’m not a hippy! These are just kind of cool and look a little rough and tumble. Or rififi as les French say. Damn, I’m always teaching you guys stuff. Congratulations!

All right all right, here’s your round-up wild card: the Acorn Ergo bootie! I know, they look a little ridiculous. Truth be told, I could do without the embroidery but I think it’s quiet enough over the charcoal color. These could be totally fly with some skinny jeans, for real. And like all the others, they are waterproof! SHWING! (today only! Wayne’s World exclamations!)

OK, that is your winter boot round-up—for the time being! Stay warm! And classy!

[images courtesy Planet Shoes]