Blogging For A Plant-Based Future

I was a late and unlikely convert to foodism. Having grown up on Kraft Dinner, and fish sticks, canned pasta and other microwave quick fixes, I viewed food and eating as inherently utilitarian, something that one did purely out of need. Which is not to say I didn’t enjoy eating, but a nuanced appreciation of good food, quality ingredients and the significance of communal meals, were not a part of my culinary perspective. It took a drastic dietary shift for me to finally dig deeper and explore cooking and food culture.

I developed a strong aversion to eating meat while I was in my teens - the hypocrisy of keeping and loving some animals as pets, while also exploiting others for food, didn’t sit well with me - but I had so little food knowledge, and was so accustomed to meal revolving around meat, that I couldn’t really grasp what any sort of alternative manner of eating would look like. Finally, in 2009, I made a perhaps abrupt decision to go fully vegan. I had just lost my dog of fourteen years, and that creeping sense of hypocrisy returned with vigour.

Veganism is often viewed from the outside as being at the far end of restrictive, an extreme dietary practice that is difficult and expensive to maintain. I probably thought the same prior to making the transition, and for at least several months afterwards my meals were a steady, unvarying rotation of salads, falafel and veggie burgers, but a frequent side-effect of this kind of animal-free ethical eating is that it forces you rethink culinary troupes and the imbedded ways we approach preparing meals. As I began to invest more time into cooking, and as cookbooks and blogs introduced me to new concepts and new ingredients, my passion for food deepened. My plant-based transition also luckily coincided with a deluge of new plant-based options and alternatives hitting the market - a trend that would continue as veganism became progressively more popular and ushered into the mainstream.

As my repertoire and cooking skills advanced, I discovered that there was also great pleasure to be had in cooking for others and sharing my enthusiasm for plant-based cuisine. I’d also discovered that a lot of misconceptions about veganism persisted despite its growing popularity. All things considered, veganism can hardly be considered restrictive anymore, but is often still cited as being a bland diet akin to pasture grazing, and aside from the ethics of it, it’s not often taken seriously by the culinary establishment as cuisine with any amount of legitimacy. In introducing others to the diversity, creativity and flavours of vegan cuisine, I noticed that perceptions do shift, even if it’s only in small incremental amounts.

I wanted a platform to share the joy of vegan food and to help dispel the myths and misunderstandings that still surrounded plant-based cuisine, so in 2016 I started my blog Plant and Pine. The original intention was to use the blog as a place to share recipes that I’d come up with, and I also wanted to use it as a space to challenge myself to develop the kind of recipes that I wasn’t seeing elsewhere, and make food that pushes the boundaries of what vegan food can be, and challenge the conventions of plant based cuisine. That was the kind of food that interested me as a burgeoning home cook and what I most wanted to experiment with.

It can take a while for this kind of project to take root and proceed without any kind of visible progress or success, especially without a lot of time to dedicate towards it. Between a full-time job, several part time gigs, too many unnecessary distractions and a tendency towards restlessness, it hasn’t always been easy to find the time, energy or focus to work on my blog. I have stuck with it, and my audience has steadily grown, but I have always wanted to expand the blog further, introduce new types of content, and explore some peripheral areas including vegan fashion, travel, and sustainable design,

The pandemic has undoubtedly forced a lot of people to reassess their priorities, to consider how fragile life can be, and how limited and precious the time is that we are given. It’s certainly made me rethink my approach. I don’t want the work I do, the career I have, and the passions and aspirations I keep, to be separate entities anymore. This, with the way our societies are structured, seems to be a big ask, but I’ll continue to push towards this goal, and I will infuse everything I produce, everything I write, with this ideal. It is my hope and belief that my audience, the blog’s readers, will be able to see the amount of enthusiasm and fervour that is put into the content, and be drawn in, inspired and motivated by it. The community response and interaction, not only with other vegans, but also those who are curious about plant-based eating, or searching for more sustainable and humane choices, or just getting started on a vegan culinary journey, is what has motivated me to continue working on the blog, and has been the most fulfilling part of the experience. Going forward, building on this community will be my primary objective and I believe one of the best ways to do this is by offering site membership opportunities. These are some of the ideas I’m considering that might be included in a membership option:

● Aside from what is posted regularly on the blog, members would have access to recipes released exclusively through a membership portal. These would be the extra special recipes, developed by guest bloggers, or dedicated to a specific theme like holidays or seasons. Packaged with this content, would be access to meal planning tools, ingredient sourcing catalogues, detailed vegan travel guides and more.

● A weekly newsletter will help keep members in the loop about what’s happening with the blog, but will also cover upcoming events (in-person and online) and other general news updates about the plant-based world and subsidiary happenings

● Plant and Pine has a storefront section that will sell blog merchandise. Membership would include a discount on the site store but could also potentially extend to other partnering vendors.

● The possibility of offering classes is particularly attractive to me. This to me, seems like the best way to build a rapport with an audience and I know from personal experience that taking a class can really help kickstart or rejuvenate a passion. Another lesson that we can take away from the pandemic is that we have the resources and technology to make classes and educational programs accessible on a global scale. Cooking courses would obviously be at the forefront, but tutorials gardening and food photography etc could be offered as interest dictates.

My ultimate goal with the blog is to create a space where veganism is not seen as a form of deprivation, but as an exciting and constantly evolving culinary world. As people look to make more conscientious decisions as eaters and consumers, this kind of space, the information and entertainment it can provide, will continue to be a draw.