Neugarten, the new Alegarten

June 22, 2018 4:11 pm

Summer is here, my liebchens, und look at this sunshine! There's nothing I like more than sharing food, drink und good times with old friends und new friends under ze sun, ja? I am very excited this year because I am getting to see you early, und also because I am finally able to really turn over ze new leaf und go full vegan! Saying goodbye to my old ways was tough, but rewarding. It was ze right time for me, und even if it isn't ze right time for you to make ze full switch or being vegan isn't something you're into or able to do, I hope you'll come und enjoy some new foods und ideas during this festival.

A new leaf requires a new name, ja, so I'd like to welcome you all to celebrate Neugarten with me! I’ll be grilling up hot food und vegan ale und beer over at Gunter's Grill, und two others from ze vegan community are joining me to sell some awesome vegan products. Manwar from ze Trading Card Center is here selling many packaged vegan ingredients und replacements, from non-dairy milks to his favorite hummus recipes, und Rumi from Stick it to ze Man! is here selling various Fashion und Lifestyle items. Just a taste of vegan life right now, hopefully, next year we can come back bigger und even better!

My niece, Anne, asked me if she could stand in for me to sell some of our old products, which I'm pleased for her to do, I like having my niece around! I also love all my customers, und hope you will try new things as well as ze old!

Come along, enjoy some new food und we're here for questions if you're interested in learning more. We’ll be here until July 3rd at 11:59PM!

June 22, 2018, 7:02 pm by

Well I really have had people say why they can't go vegan when I just MENTION that I am, not so much in this post, lol. I do agree that not everyone can be vegan, just like not everyone can "cure" their illnesses and ditch their meds eating organic/whole foods (which is something I myself find infuriating with some vegans). But I think most everyone is capable of making more animal/environment conscious choices in their lives, and while many people already do, there are a lot who just want to do whatever they want and don't seem to give a crap about how their actions affect the earth or animal welfare. THAT I have a problem with, more than the idea of "every human/animal interaction is horribly cruel" like a lot of vegans put out there.

Yes, it's more of a personal problem than a vegan problem. I've seen people with any other sort of belief system or opinion with the same "my way or the highway" attitude. I think you just see rude vegans more because our society basically revolves around eating or wearing animals, so there's a lot of opportunity for them to say things.

June 22, 2018, 7:00 pm by

- I also have a friend with a micro brewery in his back yard, and I've been on a few brewery tours this past year for birthdays and such, it's SUPER interesting and also smells so nice!

June 22, 2018, 6:58 pm by

- i've gone ahead and had Gunter adjust his words a bit as I do think you're right that there are some people that are not able to go vegan (or would just really struggle with it which is still very hard) due to dietary restrictions or living in food deserts or many other reasons. Or they just aren't interested and may never be, but are down with trying any kind of food!

Mostly I think if you can and want to, just cut down on animal products. I also agree with the eating local when you can, but that's a whole further discussion.

If you're (anyone here) is interested in learning more, there are many resources out there to help you on your specific journey. I can only really speak for the kind of person I am and what I have had to face, I may not be the right person to help people on a different journey - but I can recommend some thought-provoking things to watch and books to read if desired.

If somebody wants to know why I'm vegan/working towards being vegan then I'll tell them, until then I really just want to share food and be able to go out with friends to places to eat and be able to have more than a side salad or fries, or go to somebody's house and not have them be super uncomfortable with me - which is something that will come from more information, more representation and more people knowing what to even cook!

June 22, 2018, 6:56 pm by

That's really interesting! I didn't know any of that, but I drink cider, not beer, and and I'm typically more concerned with the lack of additives than how it's filtered. I'ma read more into that, I like learning new things. Plus my coworkers family has a brewery and are the type of people who would probably love trying to make a vegan beer.

June 22, 2018, 6:47 pm by

while i agree with you that the some people can sometimes selectively ignore why others cannot go vegan, i'd like to point out that phrases such as "cruelty free" are actual labels used in the US for products and food, and regardless of what they might imply they are identifying labels that people actually use. Also, I have yet to find an item description (though i haven't looked at them all yet) that implies that people who aren't vegan just "aren't ready".

I totally see your point, but would just like to point out that those are specific to certain (definitely problematic) people rather than the vegan community as a whole, and while its important to point them out, its dangerous to ostracize an entire community of people for a few (very vocal) outliers

June 22, 2018, 6:38 pm by

People don't react that way just because you mention veganism. In fact, if someone's coming to my house to eat, I want to know all their food preferences/dietary needs and restrictions, so that I don't serve them food that they will dislike, or worse, get sick from.

It's when people start talking about WHY they are vegan that things get heated. I have a couple friends who are vegan because animal foods disagree with them. We have never had an argument about the fact that I need to eat meat and they need to not eat meat.

But when people start talking about cruelty and immorality and implying that people who don't want to be vegan or vegetarian just aren't ready yet, then yes, people will explain why they cannot eat vegan (or at least not 100% of the time), because many vegans make it very clear that they believe everyone can and should be vegan, and that nobody's health depends on animal protein.

I am 100% fine with the store being full of vegan foods. I will probably buy some of them. I would probably eat some of them IRL, provided they didn't contain wheat, rye, or barley glutens either as ingredients or contaminants.

I am not 100% fine with some of the stickers and tee-shirts. Vegan AF - that's just fine, good for you! Walk into my house wearing that and I know what not to put on your plate, so we're good. Commentary about the 'cruelty' of other people's lives, particularly people who can't even afford to eat that way, not so much.

And I'm not fine with the implication that I'm just not ready to be vegan YET. I find that just as annoying as I find the Christian side of the family's insistence that us Hebrews will all eventually see the "light".

June 22, 2018, 6:35 pm by

- oh for sure! We honestly had such a big list of things I wanted to see on site (we don't even have many beans or tofu right now!) but I didn't want to do EVERYTHING in one go so we have a big list to work from in years to come :)

Uh hello I would like this cookie recipe please??? I just made vegan shortbread the other day and they were basically heaven and only like 4 ingredients (flour, sugar, vegan butter, salt) but I want to make more cookies, all of the cookies.

Oh gosh yes about surprise ingredients - there's a bakery here that makes these Belgian buns that I adore and are vegan, but apparently they have sweet potato in them which my friend found out because her husband is allergic and did not expect to find them there! Basically I think good labelling is really essential.

June 22, 2018, 6:30 pm by

Yeah it seems to be a mostly US thing to do, though I would love to see a vegan sugar bag to go along with all the restockable baking stuff ! And vegan chocolates. I recently did some BOMB vegan cookies that made me search for vegan chocolate chips. So many random things in our foods. I have to watch out for apple products in non-apple items because of my allergy and the food industry using it as a flavor enhancer.

June 22, 2018, 6:28 pm by

June 22, 2018, 6:24 pm by

- Yup! Less so in the UK, I don't think any of our big sugar companies do that so I tend to forget about it, but white sugar can definitely be bleached with bone char from animals. There's a ton of weird stuff that you wouldn't think would have animals in that...has animals in it. Lanolin (from sheep's wool) is used to make the D3 vitamins I think that's added to a lot of foods. I expect a large part of the animal agriculture industry will try to sell to as many places as possible, which is why so many food products have milk powder in when you're like 'but why?'

June 22, 2018, 6:19 pm by

Same thing with sugar. While sugar isn't an animal product, there's specific vegan brands because some (many/most) sugar makers put their sugar through a process that uses bone char.

June 22, 2018, 6:11 pm by

- some good ideas!To answer the beer thing - not all beer is vegan! Many lagers generally are, but a lot of ales use a fining process to remove things like yeast particles and bits left over from the brewing process. They will use things like isinglass (fish bladder) or sometimes egg or gelatin to remove these leftover bits (which is called fining). A lot of craft beers now will contain lactose too, but obviously these ones do not!

Some people identifying as vegan are ok with or just don't worry too much about the beer thing as they're not ingesting the actual animal product, it's a process, and it can be tough to figure out if some places are doing it. You do your best, y'anno?

June 22, 2018, 6:11 pm by

vegan options and vegan pride stuff: fair, alright vegan stuff that openly or indirectly accuses meat eaters of cruelty/immorality: i'll pass

June 22, 2018, 6:07 pm by

Oh. The comments are turning into Tumblr.

June 22, 2018, 6:02 pm by

eally enjoy the character evolution here, especially since Gunter is this big burly manly man who's now vegan and loves his leetle goat. Happy vibes.

I am a bit confused at the vegan brews, I assume it's more for the theme and less because booze is almost exclusively vegan. I am also a bit sad because there's only been a handful of holidays that always involved alcohol (because clearly my bb Saladin is lacking, nit, but that's besides the point).

If there's an opening for suggestions, I'd love to see more "natural, sustainable, organic, eco-friendly" beers, and ciders (they're amazing too okay) and such. There was a really neat concept on Bill Nye Saves the World, where a brewery (I believe it was in Phoenix AZ) that actually used recycled waste water to make beer. I would really love to see some evolution from not only animal friend/cruelty free, but earth friendly..... I could see that coming heavily from Esther's education. Or a small collaboration between them would be heartwarming idk

June 22, 2018, 6:01 pm by

Why do people feel the need to tell all the reasons they're not vegan WHENEVER veganism is mentioned? No one even asked you and nobody cares. Not everything to do with veganism is an attack on meat eaters, it's called diversity so everyone on subeta is happy.

June 22, 2018, 5:59 pm by

Sounds good to me, though I don't judge people who can't afford or don't live in an area where they can find that kind of meat! :) I really like coconut ice cream and am quite fond of soymilk :) I'm just not fond of the attitude.

June 22, 2018, 5:56 pm by

Heck yeah! I am an equal opportunity food-eater! But I'm gonna do my best to find a joint that does ribs from a local family farm, or other sustainable and ethically raised-and-euthanized farm!! >D

And I totally agree. I'm in the SJV of California where all the almond trees are and none of the water T-T I can't digest dairy milk but luckily bodegas have kept coconut milk suuuuuper cheap around here. Plus it's easy to source local family farms for EVERYTHING, animal products and produce alike.

June 22, 2018, 5:55 pm by

This is a wonderful, unexpected surprise. And vegan, too. Thanks!

June 22, 2018, 5:51 pm by

Thanks! :)

June 22, 2018, 5:50 pm by

Yes! Nothing new was added to the Brewery (which Anne is running at the moment). Everything new can be found in Manwar's, Rumi's, or Gunter's shops c:

June 22, 2018, 5:49 pm by

Wanna go out for ribs?

I'm not really complaining, because this IS an accurate portrayal of the things many people who aspire to be vegan and finally pull it off really do say, but I live in the SF Bay Area where there are a lot of proselytising vegans and it's really very tiresome, particularly when they try to tell you how much damage dairy farming does to the water table during droughts with an almond milk latte in their hands. (There is almost nothing that drains the water table like almond trees, dude.)

I have celiac disease. I can't eat numerous grain proteins that vegetarians use to balance out their amino acids. Being vegan would be very difficult, though some people do it; but since I like meat , I'm okay with that. When people say "well, you're just not ready" or tries to tell me that I'd be super healthy and thin (the fattest person I have ever known was 100% vegan) if I'd just stop eating animals... yeah no, go away.

June 22, 2018, 5:45 pm by

All the items from Manwar, Rumi and Gunter are new? Just wanting to spend my sp wisely, lol.

June 22, 2018, 5:44 pm by

As the resident Angry Veggie, this makes me soooooooo incredibly happy! I love and need all of it!!!!!! :D

June 22, 2018, 5:43 pm by

Ah whoops, I must have missed that post.

Anyway, the new items look great! Can't wait to spend all my money. :P

June 22, 2018, 5:42 pm by

Oh, cool. I more meant in the future anyway xDD. GUNTER U NEED TO TAKE THESE HELMETS OFF MY HANDS SO I CAN GET A TITLE(S), KTHX.

June 22, 2018, 5:39 pm by

Already answered this further below! It's not a thing at the moment, we might bring it back in future Neugartens. THIS IS FIRST YEAR UNDER REBRAND, GUNTER IS BUSY

June 22, 2018, 5:39 pm by

Woohoo! :)

June 22, 2018, 5:36 pm by

Just curious, but is Drunk Gunter still going to be a thing, or not anymore? There are still the achievements for this, so I'm just wondering.

June 22, 2018, 5:35 pm by

OMG LOL LMAO ROFL IDK MORE LAUGHING ABBREVIATIONS

June 22, 2018, 5:34 pm by

Nice to see so many tasty looking vegan items! I'm not a vegan myself, but I eat a lot of vegan foods and wish that more people appreciated them too.

Oh, and love the "honesty pot" at Quick Bites. xD

June 22, 2018, 5:30 pm by

Ahh so many cool new items! I have a lot of spending to do. :) <3 exciting for my first Neugarten, though I suppose technically it's everyones first neugarten... but you know what I mean. Also I love the Oatmeal based items... So cute!

June 22, 2018, 5:21 pm by

MISS VEGGIE, MISS VEJIE, MISS VENJIE

June 22, 2018, 5:19 pm by

ahhh this makes my vegan/foodie heart so happy, thanks staff! ❤️

June 22, 2018, 5:17 pm by

Not vegan in the least, but these items look tasty! I just... Don't like beets XD. But these will be great for Vacutainer to munch on.

June 22, 2018, 5:17 pm by

I love these foods, I love that there's a much better range of stuff to help include people (and animals) that have dietary restrictions or life choices, and I even love that they even had a character whose whole life kinda revolved around meat and non-vegetarian/vegan products change. I personally will not be going vegan any time soon though. And I also kinda want to burn some of Rumi's items.

June 22, 2018, 5:14 pm by

the point of the event isn't Hinduism, it's something like an Oktoberfest, and now we have a vegan-friendly option. The hinduism part would actually fit in a new Shengui Guo shop, I guess, maybe even Bathhouse Shop.

June 22, 2018, 4:57 pm by

I'd love to see some stuff related to Hinduism and Jainism, since lots of people who follow those religions are vegan! I'd also love to see like a "LACTOSE FREE" sticker or something like that, perhaps something about sustainable food? The "CRUELTY FREE!" sticker is definitely more of the track I was hoping the event would stick to, pretty much.

I don't mean to sound ungrateful! I just was hoping for less of the like... "othering" that comes with being vegan/veggie, not everyone who lives/eats like that is all "rarara I am a warrior and you are bad if you are eating meat or other animal products!!" and it's a stigma that I want to help eliminate :3

June 22, 2018, 4:55 pm by

The stickers are jokes. Ever seen Finding Nemo? And Vegan Warrior is just hilarious. Have some fun!

June 22, 2018, 4:52 pm by

- what sort of things would you like to see?

June 22, 2018, 4:50 pm by

Oh my god this food looks so tasty. Props to subeta artists for constantly making me want to eat pixels

June 22, 2018, 4:49 pm by

As happy as I am for the new foods and stuff, I was half expecting something more sinister when I saw the swap, knowing the family history ;)

June 22, 2018, 4:48 pm by

Me: Oh I'm sure Subeta will be reasonable and unbiased about this! There are many reasons people choose to eat vegan or live a vegan lifestyle!

"Friends not Food! Vegan warrior!"

Me: -_-;

June 22, 2018, 4:48 pm by

He's too busy to get drunk right now. :) We might do that feature again in the future, but atm no.

June 22, 2018, 4:47 pm by

Is Drunk Gunter still going to be a thing we can do?

June 22, 2018, 4:45 pm by

I still don't see the reason for changing something cultural into vegan... but ok :b

June 22, 2018, 4:43 pm by

oh yeah ... hahahahhaha. Once the holiday is over, Gunter's image will pop up back there so it'll make sense again. HE'S BASICALLY NEXT DOOR ATM

June 22, 2018, 4:43 pm by

Haha, I was super confused a while back when I was refreshing at the brewery (for the battle opponent) and suddenly Gunther turned into Anne! Now I'm just super happy for all the items ^^

June 22, 2018, 4:42 pm by

ingredience

June 22, 2018, 4:40 pm by

not vegan myself but its always nice to see dairy alternatives 👍 milk that doesnt kill my stomach (thx lactose intolerance) is always good milk in my book always a lil bit of everyone in these events and theyre great

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Neugarten, the new Alegarten

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