Third times a charm

Call me adventurous but our next swapping event will be not one but two swaps in one. A Vegan Meal and Vegan Dessert swap. Think potluck meets soup swap. You can participate in one or both of the swaps.

To participate:

Bring 6 servings of a vegan meal or a vegan dessert. If you are participating in both swaps, bring 6 servings of both a meal and a dessert (12 servings total). No matter how many servings you bring, you’ll bring home the same number of servings you brought. Meals/desserts need to be pre-portioned and packaged for easy take home. Plastic containers and baggies are okay to use. Something that ideally keeps well for a few days or is freezable is optimal. Also, please bring an ingredient list of your meal/dessert for those with allergies or aversion to certain ingredients.

What’s a serving? Let your conscience be your guide! Generally it’s how much you’d expect to eat if you were sitting down to a meal or dessert.

The method of exchange will be the same as the soup swap. The Vegan Meal swap will be first followed by the Vegan Dessert swap. We will draw numbers which will be the order the meals will be chosen. We will then have a ‘telling of what you brought.’ Then in drawn order, each person picks a meal …1,2,3 – until everyone has their first pick and then again 1,2,3 – until you’ve gone around the room 6 times. We will then start over again for the Dessert swap. The goal is to go home happy with a variety of items.

To give you an idea, here is what I am bringing: Six 1 quart ziplock containers with vegan lasagna and six with vegan chocolate cake with peanut butter icing.

The Vegan Meal and Vegan Dessert swap will be July 21st, 2012 from 3:00pm-5:00pm, swap starting promptly at 3:30pm.  All swaps are held at St. Pete Community Acupuncture located at 14 18th Street South in St. Petersburg.

Registration will be open June 15th. If you can’t wait until then or if you have any questions, email Heidi at stpeteveganfoodswap@hotmail.com.

Note: Six people need to sign up for each swap (meal and dessert) for the swaps to successfully take place. If we don’t have six people signed up by July 14th, then we will have to cancel one or both of the swaps. So please sign up early and help spread the word.

May vegan food swap reveal (a penpal vegan food exchange)

This month I participated in a vegan food swap put together by Cat of The Verdant Life.  I sent a box to Shelby of Everyday Vegan Girl and I received a box from Marie of Red Hot Vegans.

First out of the box was Food for Lovers Vegan Queso.  I had heard a lot of hype about this product and they ain’t exaggerating. Creamy and cheesy with bits of tomato and green chiles. I ate this dip straight out of the jar with corn chips. I would have licked the jar clean with my tongue if it were long enough.

Next out was Rattlesnake Chipotle and Pepper Olive Oil made by Texas Olive Ranch.  Made with cracked red pepper and chipotle chilis this olive oil adds a zing to anything it touches.

Next was Texas-Texas Peach Pecan Salsa. This salsa was made with Fredericksburg peaches and San Saba pecans. It had the perfect combination of spicy and sweet. It ranks 3 on their heat scale and had just enough heat for me.

Lastly, was a Mighty Maca Chocolate Energy Bar made by the Bearded Brothers. Made with dates, almonds, cashews, maca powder, cacao nibs, and mexican cocoa, this bar was almost 100% organic. Even though it had a lot of the same ingredients as a Lara bar, it tasted more like the Boulder bars I used to eat. I definitely want to try the other flavors: vanilla blueberry, mango coconut, and ginger peach.

Thanks to Marie for this box of local Texas vegan goodies.

Handmade/Homegrown swap recap

Our second swapping event was a Handmade/Homegrown swap. Anything vegan and handmade, homegrown, or foraged by you was fair game. Potential items were fruit jams, pickled vegetables, granola, breads, sweets, infused oils and vinegars, dips and spreads, fresh or dried herbs and spices, potted herbs or vegetables, fresh produce from your garden/fruit trees. The possibilities were endless.

So what did swappers bring?

Table 1

At table 1, we had strawberry jam made from homegrown strawberries; freshly picked parsley and eggplant; baba ganoush; and apple butter.

Table 2

At table 2, was rosemary lemonade concentrate; junior mints; three musketeer bites; jasmine shampoo; mexi-italian salsa; peach salsa; mother of thousand plants; parsley plants; and brewery dog treats.

There were samples.

Baba ganoush and apple butter

Peach salsa with lime and agave

Look how pretty. I would have swapped for one of these if I didn’t have 10 pints of my own at home.

Strawberry jam

Homemade vegan candy.

Junior mints and three musketeer bites

Plants.

Mother of thousands.

Even vegan dog treats.

IPA Beer Biscuits

Check out the handmade label.

Little Giant Brewery

If you missed this swap, don’t worry, we will be hosting another swap in June or July. Keep checking back for updates.

My vegan loot

Yesterday was the Handmade/Homegrown swap.

Here is a look at what I brought home:

Baba ganoush, apple butter, mexi-italian salsa, and jasmine shampoo. Traded for my rosemary lemonade concentrate, junior mints, and three musketeer bites.

Here is a closer look at the shampoo:

I like the label put on the jasmine shampoo ‘going green & saving green’. For those of you that brought home some of Danielle’s shampoo, this is what she used to make it: castile soap, lye, and jasmine essence.

I also brought home lots of parsley.

Thanks to Linda for giving away the leftover parsley she had that wasn’t traded. And to Amy, who gave me a parsley plant for free when I ran out of items to trade.

I will be posting a recap of the whole swap in the next couple of days.

The more the merrier

Don’t miss out on the fun.  As the saying goes, “the more the merrier.”  This holds true for a food swap.  It’s not too late to register for the Handmade/Homegrown swap tomorrow from 2-4pm held at St. Pete Community Acupuncture in St. Pete.

Swap Etiquette Part 3

Last part to swap etiquette. Excerpt from chow.com

Keep it low-key. The food swap is not an opportunity to promote your start-up kombucha or flavored-butter company. That’s missing the point, says Payne. The homemade look and feel and the relaxed atmosphere are part of the charm. Payne recommends a bake-sale aesthetic. In other words, put your matcha brownies on “a plate with a piece of Saran over it.” Skip the colored cellophane and ribbon curlicues.

Don’t haggle. The general rule of food swaps is one item for one item. Otherwise, it gets too competitive. No one wants to hear: “Well, I stayed up until 2 a.m. hand-shaping these empanadas, so one of them is worth at least two of your chocolate chip cookies.”

Do pity swaps. If you’ve got everything you want and you still have extra jars of your quince butter, don’t take them home again. Swap your leftovers with people whose offerings have been ignored. Rydmark says more sophisticated cooks may swap for items they don’t really want as a way to encourage beginners: “It’s like a foodie high-five.” Even if you aren’t particularly interested in someone’s gluten-free scones, you can probably think of something to do with them.

There still are spots remaining for our April Swap. Email stpeteveganfoodswap@hotmail.com to register.

Swap Etiquette Part 2

Part 2 of Swap Etiquette. Excerpt taken from chow.com

Unlike at a cookie swap, at a food swap you generally get to choose with whom to trade. But your fellow participants are often strangers, which means you don’t have to worry about giving offense.

Don’t be afraid to say no. A food swap is not like a family potluck at which you choke down a helping of Aunt Gertie’s gefilte fish casserole out of politeness. You shouldn’t worry about other people feeling rejected, any more than you worry about the people who run the gourmet food shop feeling crushed when you walk out without buying anything. Bethany Rydmark, who has organized food swaps in Portland, Oregon, recommends that hosts “announce at the start that people can accept or decline with no guilt. That helps set the tone.” Payne suggests a polite way to refuse: Simply say, “Let me see what I end up with, and if I have something extra I’ll talk to you later.”

Remember people have different tastes.  Some people don’t like orange marmalade (I’m one of those people) so don’t be offended if I don’t swap with you.  Just like I won’t be offended when you don’t want my strawberry lemonade concentrate because you hate strawberries.

* I am still up in the air with what I am bringing so don’t hold me to that strawberry lemonade concentrate. *

One month…

One month until our Handmade/Homegrown swap.
     Do you love canning jam or have a knack for making bread? Have too many herb seedlings or an over abundant grapefruit tree? Love to try out new recipes but always have leftovers? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then a food swap might be a place to unload some of your homemade goodies for someone else’s homemade goodies. You choose who you swap with so you are guaranteed to go home happy.  And the best part is, everything is VEGAN.  
     The swap will be held on April 14, 2012 from 2:00-4:00pm at St. Pete Community Acupuncture located at 14 18th Street South in St. Petersburg.  Register today by emailing your name and potential items you plan to swap (you’re not bound to your list, it simply helps in planning for table space) to  stpeteveganfoodswap@hotmail.com.