Debra Daniels-Zeller provides information on selecting and preparing fresh pea dishes including Braised Pea Shoots, Pea Shoots and Quinoa, Minted Sugar Snap Peas and Leeks, English Pea Guacamole, Sesame-Ginger Snow Peas, Snow Pea Slaw with Red Peppers, Mac and Peas, and Penne Pasta, Sugar Snap Peas, and Tomatoes. Enjoy!

The entire article can be read here: A Passion for Peas

To subscribe to Vegan Journal, visit: http://www.vrg.org/member/2013sv.php

photo from Merrell

Enjoy the outdoors: you may want to go hiking in the USA, Canada, and/or Europe. Below is a list of online stores offering vegan hiking boots and shoes.

Ethical Wares out of Wales in the United Kingdom offers a wide variety of hiking boots See: https://www.ethicalwares.com/footwear/walking-boots-and-shoes/

Merrell in the USA offers some vegan hiking shoes. Search under “vegan hiking shoe or boot.” See: https://www.merrell.com

REI offers several vegan hiking shoes and boots. Search under “vegan hiking shoe or boot.” https://www.rei.com/

Thesus headquartered in Toronto, Canada and will ship hiking shoes for women to Americans. Search under the word vegan boot. See: https://thesusoutdoors.com/

Will’s Vegan Store in London, England offers hiking boots for men and women. See: https://us.wills-vegan-shoes.com/

photo from Camp4Real.com

Here are some possibilities:

Vegan Camps

Camp4Real in Charlottesville, Virginia serves vegan meals. See:

https://www.camp4real.com/summer-camp/

Veg Eco Camp in Canada serves vegan food: https://vegcamp.ca/

Vegan Camp in New Jersey serves vegan food: https://tomorrowsadults.org/camp/summer/

Vegan-Friendly Camps

Camp Zeke is a Jewish camp that will accommodate vegans. They are located in the Pocono Mountains in Lakewood, PA. See: www.campzeke.org

Mountain Camp in California offers a vegan option at every meal as well as a salad bar. See:  www.mountaincamp.com/about/food-at-summer-camp

Takodah YMCA camp in New Hampshire offers a vegan option at every meal. See: https://www.camptakodah.org/summer-camp/about/food-nutrition/

Urban Adventure Camps Culinary Camp 2 (vegan cooking) located in Oakland, California. See: https://www.urbanadventurecamps.com/culinary-camp-2/

I want to update you all on my wins throughout my time at University of California San Diego. In June 2025, I graduated with a dual major in Political Science & Data Analytics (BS) and Global Health (BA) + a minor in Climate Change Studies.

Through my time at UCSD, plant-based and sustainable food advocacy was extremely important to me. Luckily, I was able to work at UCSD’s Sustainability Team and serve as a Sustainable Food Procurement Fellow through UC’s Office of the President. With these roles, I worked on a range of sustainability projects including creating plant-based educational resources, increasing plant-based options at UCSD’s markets, and most recently (as of Sep. 2025): eliminating the upcharge on ALL plant-based milks served at UCSD’s coffee bars!

Now that I have graduated, I hope to continue plant-based advocacy throughout my career.  I am so grateful for the support from VRG since my time in high school, and really appreciate all you do!

See Arpi’s VRG scholarship information: https://www.vrg.org/blog/2021/05/17/california-student-arpi-keshishian-wins-10000-vegetarian-resource-group-scholarship/

For information on other winners and applying to VRG’s annual scholarship contest, see https://www.vrg.org/student/scholar.htm

Pasta with Tomato-Pumpkin Sauce photo by Hannah Kaminsky

Who doesn’t love Italian food? The latest issue of Vegan Journal includes vegan Italian recipes from Donna Spencer. Enjoy preparing Italian Roasted Cauliflower, Tuscan Bread Soup, Pasta with Tomato-Pumpkin Sauce, Braised Lentils and Kale, Rustic Blueberry Crostata, and Garlic Beans and Greens.

Find all these vegan recipes here: https://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2026issue1/2026_issue1_vegano_italiano.php

To subscribe to Vegan Journal in the USA only, visit: www.vrg.org/member

Recent topics brought up include:

– Henry is born and raised vegan. He won 1st place on Saturday in the 2026 MI HS Nordic Ski State Championships at Hickory Hills in Traverse City for both the classic and the skate pursuit races!

– What are some examples of confusing advice in the 2025-2030 Dietary guidelines for Americans?

– USDA Issues Implementation Requirements for the Use of Plant Milks in the National School Lunch Program

https://www.facebook.com/groups/VRGparentsandkids is intended to be a group that offers support for families raising children on vegan diets and for vegan kids around the world. We envision it as a place to get advice about a wide-variety of topics: pregnancy, birthday parties, school lunches, Halloween, non-leather apparel, cruelty-free products, summer camps, and more. Please use it as a place to share your wisdom, seek advice, or just find a sympathetic ear. The goal is to offer support.

Consequently, any profane, defamatory, offensive, or violent language will be removed. Feel free to disagree, but do so respectfully. Hateful or discriminatory comments regarding race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or political beliefs will not be tolerated. We expect that posts should relate to vegan diets and lifestyles. The Vegetarian Resource Group reserves the right to monitor all content and ban any user who posts in violation of the above rules, any law or regulation, SPAM, or anything otherwise off topic.

Please share this information with any veggie families that you know! Thanks.

photo from Matt & Nat USA

Are you looking to buy a non-leather vegan wallet? The following companies in the USA and Europe all offer a variety of wallets for men and women.

USA

Doshi offers wallets for men and women.

Fabric Horse sells wallets for men and women.

K Carroll sells wallets for women.

Labante has offices in the USA and United Kingdom and offer wallets for women and men.

Matt and Nat sells wallets for men and women. Ships internationally.

Mechaly sells a variety of women’s wallets.

Moo Shoes sells a variety of wallets for men and women.

Vegan Chic sells women’s wallets.

The Vegetarian Site sells hemp wallets.

EUROPE

Corkor in Portugal sells wallets for men and women made out of cork.

Labante has offices in the USA and United Kingdom and offer wallets for women and men.

By Jeanne Yacoubou, MS

Manufactured in Spain using native persimmon fruit agricultural waste that would otherwise rot in a landfill offgassing methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to the climate crisis, Persiskin is a 100% animal- and dairy-free material used mostly today in the automotive industry but also in footwear, leather-like goods, and home decor.

To find out more about Persiskin, The Vegetarian Resource Group corresponded by email in February 2026 with Stéphane Mérit, sales director at Persiskin. We learned that Spain is the world’s largest persimmon exporter, producing roughly 1.1 billion pounds annually, an increase from 661.5 million pounds just six years ago. Before Persiskin, over 50% of that annual harvest was left on the trees because it is not commercially viable. According to Mérit, it is destined for the dump.

Now, because of the diversion of all of this waste into Persiskin manufacture, nothing is landfilled or burned. Further, since their raw material making up roughly 75% of their final product is local, Persiskin does not need to import it from a distant country like some of their competitors do, thereby reducing the carbon footprint of their product even more. Incidentally, Mérit told us that they are currently working on calculating the carbon emissions of Persiskin. We will update this article once their report becomes available.

As we reported in a 2020 article on several vegan leathers, polyurethane (PU), derived from fossil fuels, is a substantial component needed to make the materials resistant to wear, light, and water. Mérit told us that Persiskin contains approximately 25% PU, on the low end compared to competitor products. As Mérit points out: “…The current state of the art in vegan materials has not come up with [a PU-free] material, at least [not] at the industrial level. Anything that wears out too quickly will mean a need to replace it and this is not sustainable…”

Mérit noted that Persiskin material is derived entirely from the persimmon fruit; not the tree or leaves. As The VRG has discussed the water footprint of foods in several articles, readers may be concerned about the water requirements of persimmons, especially as Spain is experiencing desertification in some regions although the 2026 rainfall so far has been good according to Mérit.

“You need 375 liters of water to produce one kilo of persimmon [(i.e., 45 gallons/lb.)]. This represents the water consumption of 123 people in a year. If you take this figure to the entire production of persimmons in Spain, this represents the water consumption of 1,046,986 people in a year,” stated Mérit. However, if you take into account that without the Persiskin company over half of that water would be wasted growing fruit that won’t be sold, the company is responsible for saving half of the embedded water consumed by the persimmon harvest. Mérit put it like this: “At Persiskin we do not grow persimmons. We just collect those fruits that would otherwise be sent to the landfill. By doing so, we give a purpose to this wasted crop. And therefore, we justify the use of water to grow these fruits. That’s one of the advantages of using a material like ours. The more Persiskin we produce, the less wasted water there will be.”

Readers interested in purchasing Persiskin may do so through their website. Prices start at approximately $3/sq. ft.  https://persiskin.com/

The contents of this posting, our website, and our other publications, including Vegan Journal, are not intended to provide personal medical advice. Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified health professional. We often depend on product and ingredient information from company statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a statement, info can change, people have different views, and mistakes can be made. Please use your best judgment about whether a product is suitable for you. To be sure, do further research or confirmation on your own.

You can find more non-leather information at https://www.vrg.org/nutshell/leather.php

To support VRG research, donate at vrg.org/donate or join at https://www.vrg.org/member/2013sv.php

photo from Freepik

by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

With cold weather on the way, I look forward to a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. But not just any bowl of oatmeal. I like to experiment with different toppings, both sweet and savory to add variety. These toppings work whether your bowl of oats take less than 5 minutes to prepare or you cook the oats for hours in a slow cooker.

1. Swirl a spoonful of peanut butter (or other nut butter) and a spoonful of fruit spread into your bowl of oatmeal.
2. Add a little plant butter to a bowl of hot oatmeal and mix in nutritional yeast flakes, salt, and pepper to taste.
3. Top oatmeal with a dollop of tahini and sprinkle with za’atar (or with Aleppo pepper for a little zippiness).
4. For a New England-style bowl of oats, drizzle with maple syrup and mix in fresh or frozen blueberries and chopped walnuts.
5. Many people eat bananas on cold cereal. For a change slice a banana onto a bowl of oatmeal, add your favorite plant milk, and sprinkle with cinnamon.
6. Check the refrigerator for condiments that could enhance a bowl of oats. I’ve enjoyed oats topped with mango chutney.
7. Add more oats to your oatmeal by sprinkling on homemade or commercial granola.
8. If you are looking for a savory bowl of oatmeal, add a spicy peanut sauce or simply mix in a spoonful of peanut butter and sriracha or other hot sauce to taste.
9. Dried fruit goes well with oatmeal because the hot oats can soften dried fruit that’s been in the pantry a while. Raisins or dates are traditional additions to oatmeal or you can try dried apples, cranberries, cherries, or even dried mango cut into bite-sized pieces.
10. You may have heard of cheese grits – why not cheese oatmeal? Mix in shredded vegan cheese or vegan cheese sauce (commercial or homemade) to taste.

All oatmeal starts as oat groats. Groats are the hulled kernels of the oat grain. Oat groats, and oatmeal, are classified as whole grains because they contain all three of the parts of a grain – bran, germ, and endosperm.

Steel cut oats are made by cutting oat groats into pieces. They can take 15-20 minutes to cook once the pot of oats comes to a boil. Scottish oats are made by grinding oat groats into a coarse meal. They cook in 10 minutes once their cooking water boils.

Old-fashioned oats, or rolled oats, are made from oat groats that are steamed to soften them and then passing the softened oat groats through large rollers so that they are flattened. Then they are lightly toasted. Old-fashioned oats take 10-20 minutes to cook on the stove or 3-5 minutes in the microwave.

Quick oats are made similarly to old-fashioned oats but are rolled thinner so that they cook faster. They take a couple of minutes to cook on the stove or in the microwave.

Instant oats are chopped more finely than quick oats so that they cook in 1-2 minutes in the microwave or can simply be mixed with boiling water.

If you like oats but don’t want to take the time to cook them every morning, you can make a large pot of oats on the weekend or in the evening, refrigerate them, and use the microwave to heat up the amount you want to eat for breakfast.

Oats are a good source of soluble fiber, a type of fiber that can help you feel full longer as well as helping to lower blood cholesterol and blood glucose. According to USDA’s FppdData Central, a cup of plain cooked oatmeal has 154 calories, 5.3 grams of protein, 2.6 grams of fat, and 4.1 grams of fiber. It has about 9% of the Daily Value for iron and 14% of the Daily Value for zinc.

For other ideas for vegan oats see:

Vegan Overnight Oats

Peach Passion

Be sure to follow The Vegetarian Resource Group on Instagram: @vegetarianresourcegroup