{"id":13941,"date":"2019-08-01T09:00:17","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T13:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=13941"},"modified":"2019-07-23T13:23:50","modified_gmt":"2019-07-23T17:23:50","slug":"houston-vegfest-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2019\/08\/01\/houston-vegfest-in-texas\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston VegFest in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Kavitha Shankar <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you thought Houston or Texas, in\ngeneral, is only about barbeque and grilling, think again! The fourth largest\ncity in the United States recently hosted the vegan festival, VegFest 2019,\norganized by the Vegan Society for Peace. The Houstonians braved the steamy,\nfairly typical Texan Summer day and made it to the historic Minute Maid Park to\nwitness and enjoy this event tailored for plant- and earth-lovers. When I\nlanded there at 11:00 AM sharp, I was pleasantly surprised by the queue snaking\naround the parking lot. Several vegan food trucks and beverage carts with beer,\nwine, and water laced the sidewalk with the hopes of keeping the crowd occupied\nand nourished while they waited to get in the door. I slowly passed through the\nrather strict security check and entered what seemed to be a tree-hugger\u2019s\nhaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the gated entrance, I promptly\nwore my wrist band, picked up an event brochure, and walked into the corridor\nthronged with people. A quick scan of the landscape made it evident that this festival\nwas true to its name. It was festive, vibrant, full of energy and vegan. It\nshowcased everything from T-shirts to books to baked goodies and even\nmicrogreen growing kits.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first stop \u2013 One Earth<\/a>.\nThis booth had some of the most eye-catching merchandise. What really drew me\nto this and dragged my feet into their artsy looking tent was the stainless\nsteel, re-useable straw travel set, beautifully wrapped in a blue, printed\ncotton pouch. Browsing their neatly laid shelves, their wares seemed easy on\nthe pocket too. Naturally, I picked up a straw set for my children and walked\naway content. Before we switch booths, a quick footnote about this store.  Every purchase with One Earth helps\nendangered animals. That is a great incentive to go spend at a great store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that I had made my first\npurchase and boasted an earth-friendly straw set, I ambled on. Suddenly, I was\ndizzy with excitement and stopped speechless at this stall. Attention! All wine\ndrinkers, you are in for a treat. Have you ever struggled to find vegan wines\nin your regular grocery stores? Fret not, for you can now invite these\ndelicious, hand-picked bottles of pure vegan wines right to your doorstep!\nScout and Cellar is your friend. I met with the beautiful and very\nknowledgeable Patsy Balacchi, a wine consultant, who explained to me how Scout\nand Cellar\u2019s wine sommeliers traveled the world and did the hard work for us of\nscouting for vegan wines sans fish bits, egg yolks, and not to mention,\npesticides. If you are in the market for vegan wines, check out their website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that covers clothes, kitchen\ntools, and alcohol. What about food? Oh! As you can guess, there was absolutely\nno dearth for that either. The place was filled with booths selling vegan\ncupcakes, vegan parfait, Ayurvedic entr\u00e9es and fruit smoothies. The visitors\nwere enjoying their brunch, I could tell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I was wrapping up my visit, a few\nspecial mentions in my notebook were due. I sampled the yummy and healthful\ngolden milk from the Roots in Harmony<\/a> booth. This is an herbal tea and spice store who sell online and also at the\nlocal farmers markets. Lastly, I am sure you have heard the hype around BPA. It\nis everywhere. Most of us tend to think nothing can be made sans plastic or\ntoxins. But wait! VegFest just gave me the opportunity to rethink. Eye Glassiers<\/a>\nsell a whole line of natural, plant-based eye glass frames. Impressive? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay, so that was the last booth I\nstopped by as I reluctantly walked out of the Minute Maid Park. However, I left\nhappy. VegFest 2019 was a feast to my soul. It showed me a tiny shimmer of hope\nthat the world is inching slowly toward becoming a better place to live. We are\ngetting there. I cannot wait to see what the Vegan Society for peace has\nplanned for the VegFest 2020. http:\/\/vegansocietyofpeace.org\/vegfesthouston<\/a>\nUntil then, hug trees, save animals, and live well.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kavitha Shankar If you thought Houston or Texas, in general, is only about barbeque and grilling, think again! The fourth largest city in the United States recently hosted the vegan festival, VegFest 2019, organized by the Vegan Society for Peace. The Houstonians braved the steamy, fairly typical Texan Summer day and made it to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13941"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13943,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13941\/revisions\/13943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}