Medwell - Bed & Broccoli: A very special vegan experience: the food, the lifestyle

Words can be put onto paper by anyone. Recipes can be handed down by anyone, and life stories can be told around the dinner table. But combining them all takes a great messenger, and in this instance it is a little red hen that is in the drivers seat. I am merely her vessel. This book is dedicated to one of the most beautiful souls we have had the privilege of encountering in this lifetime. Her purity is so great I cannot type without tears. I hope that you all walk away feeling Dinked when you read about her in this book.

To Miss Dinks, this book is dedicated to you for showing us the power of unconditional love and all the lessons you shared with us and your army during your time here. Until we meet again dear friend. All our love.

RIP Miss Dinks

3 March 2011 12 September 2013

A laptop, a blanket, three beers, three cows and a paddock; ground zero for the birth of this book.

My husband, Scott, and I find food to be the great subliminal educator, on even par with kind interaction or observation of animals in their natural surroundings. Choosing a vegan lifestyle is a shift in consciousness. It is not a trend or something you can pretend to do. However, if you do pretend long enough, you have the chance of your choices becoming habitual.

Our vegan bed and breakfast property, Bed & Broccoli, does not actively seek out animals in need; rather, it is the other way around. They seem to find us. When a local dairy farmer asked if we would like some bobby calves destined for veal, how could we have said no and ever slept again?

Chickens have been dropped here or we have been phoned asking if we can help with some homeless ones. As this little family grew, so did the dynamics of our village. A community developed, and it is lovely to sit and watch them go about their business with the same thought and focus we go about our days.

We chose a vegan lifestyle out of our love for animals. There is no reason a living, feeling family member of the animal kingdom should die for the sake of satisfying the palate for a few moments of our day. Especially with much tastier and healthier options out there! With this choice came the comfort in sharing our time and space with our animal friends. There are no hidden agendas.

The discovery of what it means to be vegan, not only to us but also to the animals of this world, pales in comparison to the discovery of the variety, simplicity, fullness and healthiness of the foods available. To choose the lifestyle for the animals seemed natural and aspiring. Discovering the food was amazing!

We believe cooking vegan is a vocation everyone should aspire to. It fills you with passion and knowledge. Your body thanks you, animals thank you, so why wouldnt you?

The recipes in this book are designed to offer variety for different levels of culinary skills some I have created, others I have modified, and some I have been making for so long now I dont know their origin. Enjoy them with a clear conscience. These are simply some of the meals we eat here.

I hope through reading the words in this book, admiring the beauty in the photos and enjoying the fear-free food, you can enter an imaginary place that will transport you into our lives, for what we have here should be shared.

Whether you have adopted this lifestyle, are thinking about it or in the transitional stages to change, I hope this book inspires you and helps guide you forward. There is nothing extreme in what we do. I was raised vegetarian, started eating small amounts of meat when I left home, went back to being vegetarian and then ultimately became vegan.

Scott went from being raised as a big meat eater to being vegetarian, to being vegan. At first he was so sceptical of the vegetarian dishes I used to put in front of him; hed look over them thoroughly and then move it about on his plate with his fork like there was a hidden bomb under the capsicum! If you havent done that, you may know someone that has or still does or you may find yourself doing it one day. If you do then hopefully you will laugh as you remember the words written here.

We used to consider ourselves animal lovers and abhorred any cruelty towards them. But our eyes were blind to what was hidden. When we started to look into the end of the line for food animals, our hearts and souls were ripped in two. How could we have been blind for so long? Why had animals begging for their lives fallen on deaf ears for so long? The answer is simple; because we are shielded from it from birth. Most people dont want young children to see upsetting images or to hear horror tales that might give them nightmares, so the cover up begins and through no fault of the people around the child. They have been through the same cultural upbringing.

I was the same, but one day I picked up Jonathan Safran Foers book Eating Animals , and the penny dropped. So powerful were his words that I could take myself to the places he wrote about, and instinctually I knew that how we treated animals was so incredibly wrong and one of humanitys greatest shames. Suddenly being vegetarian was no longer enough. I closed the book and emptied my fridge and pantry. By the time I was done, I could empathise, not only with all creatures, but with Old Mother Hubbard too! My cupboards were bare.

Scott walked in the door and asked how my day was. I replied, Good. We are now vegan. That was 2009.

What a real pleasure it is to see Nikkis book come to fruition. I had the good fortune of being one of the first guests to visit Bed & Broccoli, and I still have many fond memories of our time there. The food was incredible, from the welcome platter of freshly-made foccacia served with beetroot, pumpkin and garlic dips to the do-it-yourself homemade sausages for the barbecue dinner and the amazing big breakfast of Dutch poffertjes and scrambled tofu on wholemeal bread (freshly baked of course).

But more than delicious vegan food, to me Bed & Broccoli is about allowing people to experience the simple pleasures of being with animals who have been rescued and given a place of sanctuary, where they are valued not as objects for consumption but as individual sentient beings who have an interest in continuing their lives and avoiding suffering.