Alnwick Castle

Greetings fellow travellers,

So what is the collective noun for a group of Vegans? I’d never had to wonder about this question before as I had never come across so many in one place as I did at the North East Vegan Gathering held up in Morpeth, Northumberland this April.

I found out [...]]]>

Alnwick Castle

Greetings fellow travellers,

So what is the collective noun for a group of Vegans? I’d never had to wonder about this question before as I had never come across so many in one place as I did at the North East Vegan Gathering held up in Morpeth, Northumberland this April.

I found out about it from Mark who runs Alternative Stores up in Newcastle after I had bought some stuff from the online shop and ended up on their mailing list. As it was the week before Easter and I only had to take four days off work, I thought “Why not?”. I was quite apprehensive about going to an event where I knew no-one, but I figured that it would be a positive thing to meet other vegans and escape the distinctively non-vegan “real” world for a week.

I arrived on the Saturday morning (the site was booked on a Friday to Friday letting), and within the hour I had been recruited onto a walk to explore the local area and was chatting happily with people of all ages from all over the country. One chap had even come up from Brighton on the night bus, and had come out on the walk (I think he could have done with a sleep instead).

The Sunday was an open day where people from the local area who weren’t staying over were able to come and see what was going on. There was a pot luck buffet and in the afternoon a talk on home schooling and vegan ethics. Some of us ended up going to the beach though as it was a fine afternoon and the weather forecast for the rest of the week wasn’t great, so we thought we’d take advantage of the good weather. It was still windy, somehow I let myself get talked into paddling in the North Sea. In April! Freezing!

The great thing about the gathering is that there were people of all ages there, families with young children as well as couples and single people. There were two designated party houses where there were no children and we stayed up late and told silly jokes and learnt a random dance from Latvia among other things. The site, Micklewood Park, was good for kids too as there was a large playing field, with swings and climbing frame as well as an indoor playroom.

House Party

There were some workshops which took place during the week, particularly good was the raw food demonstration. Although I don’t have a Vitamix and am too poor to even contemplate acquiring one in the near future, I have had a go at trying to recreate one of the dips which you soak cashew nuts overnight, drain and then pulverise with red pepper and nutritional yeast. They also made some raw chocolate with chilli which we were able to sample the following day at another pot luck picnic. One workshop which I didn’t get into due to lack of space (and getting up late) was Thai massage, but the people who did do it said that it was really good – apparently Thai massage is a clothes-on massage and very vigorous by Western standards.

There was also a talk by Maureen Robertson from Drimlabarra Herb Farm up on the isle of Arran, which left me thinking about how the natural world is so much more than the sum of its parts and this is what is lost when we focus only on “active ingredients” and what we perceive to be immediately useful to us. It’s like modern life encourages us to wear blinkers. As vegans, we are painfully aware of this in our day-to-day encounters with folk.

Seahouses Harbour

There’s also a lot to visit in the local area, we visited Alnwick Castle, where parts of Harry Potter’s flying lessons were filmed, Cragside country house and various parts of the coast. Other people variously went to Lindisfarne Priory, Newcastle (to the climbing wall) and for a walk in the mysteriously named Blubbery Wood.

I met loads of great people who I’d like to stay in touch with and no longer feel like the only vegan in the village. In fact, you don’t have to be vegan to go on the gathering, only agree to be vegan for the week. There were quite a few veggies there, which was nice as it made it less cliquey and could help people go vegan full time.

Next year’s gathering will take place from Friday 2nd to Friday 9th April 2010, details on how to book are available on the VegNE website www.vegne.co.uk/vegan-gathering and become a fan on Facebook!

I have already booked, see you there!

~ Quirky Vegan