It's the second Neugarten, and I'm taking over officially this year, as Gunter is...occupied. While it's nice having a bit more responsibility, the circumstances in which I've been given it aren't exactly what I'd have chosen. That's all I'm really wanting to say about that right now! Can we focus on some good things? Like making the world less of a drag?
So now that I'm in charge, I'm changing things up. Sure, we'll still have vegan food (sold by Rumi again, mostly) - it IS pretty good and now Wesley is running the grill I feel pretty good about having a veggie burger. But we also have a focus on items from local producers: meats, cheeses, artisinal products and whatever we could get our hands on, really!
I've also invited Shanti over from Saherimos to run a sustainability stall, which is pretty awesome. She has some great reuseable grocery bags and drinks bottles and stuff. It's not for everyone, but you can make a difference however you'd like - and creating less trash is a pretty good way to do it.
The Food Market has started selling a lot of last years stock, as they were such basic items and the demand for them grew. Now you'll be able to do your vegan baking all through the year if you like. I'll be selling the old Alegarten items in the Brewery as I did last year.
So yeah...Neugarten is here! Go eat food and buy stuff. I'm just glad to get out of the fast food kitchen for a week!
Neugarten will end at 11:59pm on July 5th.
If you're going to be making "vegan" items, make a lot more of them. A whole lot more. Otherwise it's painful how few there really are. It may have been better to label them as something other that "vegan" but it's too late for that.