Linda Soper-Kolton - Compassionate Cuisine: 125 Plant-Based Recipes from Our Vegan Kitchen

Copyright 2019 by Catskill Animal Sanctuary

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Sean M. Smith/Echo66

Cover photo credit by Alexandra Shytsman

Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-4437-0

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-4438-7

Printed in China

Contents

Kelly Mullins, Animal Care Director, and rescued goat Leo who was blind and deaf from birth

Dedication

To the animals. All of them, everywhere. For the ones who have called this place home, who have been given names, who are known to us, and who have quietly changed the hearts, minds, and appetites of thousands upon thousands of people. And for the ones who still suffer, who are exploited, who are neglected, who are namelesswe know you, too, and we are coming for you. With every breath and with each bite, with hope in our hearts and fire in our bellies, we are coming for you.

May you know what love feels like one day.

To the people. For the compassionate choices you make each day and for the ones we hope you are inspired to make tomorrow, thank you.

To the staff and volunteers at Catskill Animal Sanctuary, past, present, and future. For choosing work that serves and defends the defenseless. For every keystroke, task, project, letter, post, report, and appeal that makes this sanctuary hum. For every day you workwith joyful or broken heartsundeterred by blistering heat or bone-chilling cold, to tend to each and every animal with tenderness and respect. For all the loving kindness each one of you pours into the lives of our friends. For emptying your hearts into your work each and every day. For teaching, inspiring... and hoping. You are true heroes.

To Kathy. For encouraging... and demanding the urgency that pulses through our veins. For your pain-filled tears and raucous laughter, for your wide-open heart, and for creating this unique and magical place. Your love lives on in every two-legged and four-legged creature fortunate enough to have been touched by your spirit.

With awe and gratitude,

Linda

Welcome to Our World

Its there when I walk in the barn:
a love so palpable I often feel my heart will explode.
from Introduction, Where the Blind Horse Sings by Kathy Stevens

These words are as true today as they were when I wrote them thirteen years ago. As Catskill Animal Sanctuary nears its twentieth anniversary, weve had our fair share of challenges... and yet, as an organization, we still insist on love. Our tagline, Love Spoken Here, embodies a philosophy that informs all that we do, from how we engage with each other to every public interaction, from how we welcome broken beings to this place of profound peace to how we say our final goodbyes to those same beloveds, often many years later. With love is how we do our work. We wouldnt have it any other way.

Lets be clear, however, that Catskill Animal Sanctuary also wants the world to go vegan, and vegan is not always a term thats synonymous with love. Nor do we want this change to happen someday. Nopewe want it right now. This vision of a world free from suffering is why over five thousand rescued farmed animals have called Catskill home since we opened our doors in 2001, but its also why we welcome thousands of visitors from around the globe each year. They come to learn about the impact of their diet on the animals, their health, and our ailing planet; but they come, primarily, to meet the animals. And friends, thats when the magic happens. Its in the disarming moments between a human heart and an animal heart that the marriage of love and urgency lives out its promise. Vegan really is synonymous with loveat least it surely is at Catskill Animal Sanctuary.

You see, when a first-time visitor sits quietly among the turkeys, immersed in the grace and forgiveness and wholeheartedness of these remarkable beings; or when Zeke the sheep walks up, his only agenda to connect, soul to soul, in the way that he does; or when a herd of cows accompanies us back to the gate after weve visited their pasture, theres often a profound shift inside that human heart. These moments and others like them disarm us. They invite us to understand that in the ways that truly matter, whether child or chicken, dog or duck, we really are very much the same. We are all delightfully individual. We all have rich, nuanced emotional lives that inform how we engage in the world. We all want our lives, and we want them filled with joy. Just because our culture discourages us from understanding this obvious truth doesnt make it untrue, and no human can share this truth as powerfully as the animals.

At Catskill Animal Sanctuary, we know full well the impact of these moments: we witness the tears that often accompany them or hear words like the ones from a recent visitor, who, overcome, took my forearms in his hands and, with tears streaming down his face, said simply, I get it now. Please tell me what to do.

Love and urgency: our special sauce, rooted in the belief that people are good.

For sure, a narrower mission would have been an easier choice. To rescue and provide a safe haven for animalsor, alternatively, to run a center for vegan programmingeither of these choices would have been simpler and more straightforward. But would they have been as effective? I dare say no. Absolutely not. The fact that 93 percent of our non-vegan visitors say they intend to reduce or eliminate animal products from their diet is proof that what were doingthat unique combination of love and urgency, of connecting people with animals and supporting them in their vegan journeyis working.

And of course, the animals are just one of several compelling reasons for humanity to embrace vegan living. Weve known for many years that animal agriculturethe raising or catching of trillions of animals (including sea animals) annually to feed humansis the single leading cause of todays most urgent environmental challenges: global warming, water pollution, ocean dead zones the size of entire states, topsoil erosion, species extinction, and sea level rise, with oceans already encroaching on many coastal regions. It takes exponentially more land, water, and air to feed a meat- and dairy-eater than to feed a vegan, and with the human population projected to reach ten billion by mid-century, and Earth incapable of expanding to accommodate that growth, were on an insane and self-destructive collision course that can only be halted if one by one