I didn’t know what to expect at the Veggie Fest 2009. Advertised as “Good Food, Healthy Living,” the fourth annual Chicagoland event was sponsored by Science of Spirituality, a non-profit organization located in Naperville, Illinois whose members are deeply committed to a spiritual way of life based on meditation, service to others, and personal transformation.

2009 Veggie Fest, sponsored by Science of Spirituality Mission in Naperville, Illinois

With temperatures in the low 90′s and humidity hovering near 100%, it was not an auspicious beginning.  In the sweltering heat I wandered through rows of booths, sampling eco-friedly products and picking up literature from massage therapists and other alternative health practitioners. Within minutes I was hot, damp, and uncomfortable. Then I spotted the meditation tent. The man at the door smiled and invited me in, adding, “Surprise! It’s air conditioned.” Beautiful, blissful air conditioning. Read the rest of this entry »

There are things I love about Key West. The weather is awesome – my skin absolutely glows in the tropics. It is a small, eminently walkable island (only seven miles around). Key West is one of the safest places I have ever visited; I can walk home alone at any hour of the night without worry. Vegetarian food is abundant; in fact one of the best vegetarian restaurants I have ever been to – The Cafe – is located in Key West. The beaches are lovely and within walking distance. A strong arts culture ensures there is always some event going on, whether it be a gallery showing, an arts film, or a display of sculpture in the public parks.

The beach at Fort Zachary Taylor is my favorite - a lovely sheltered cove, pure white sand, and no tourists

But for all this, Key West unsettles me. After being here a few days I start to feel uncomfortable in my skin. I know that it is a real place with real people who live here year round; the problem is that the real people are overshadowed by the Read the rest of this entry »

Brrrrrr. I repeat. Brrrrrrrrrrrrr. I’m at my Dad’s house, freezing my butt off. Overnight it dropped to 9 degrees. The cold temperatures, coupled with a stiff wind off the river, made it difficult to keep the house heated to much more than 70 degrees last night. I slept under a mountain of blankets. The high today is expected to be 21 and the low 19, but at least the wind has died down, so it’s warmer inside the house today.

Since I’m a vegetarian and Dad’s a carnivore, the only thing in his refrigerator I can eat is processed cheese food slices and white bread, thus we’re leaving momentarily to do some grocery shopping. I am less than delighted to be going out in this weather, what with my persistent sinus infection and stuffed up head, but to make it even worse snow is on the way, with an accumulation of up to three inches expected. Several days ago I drove through a snowstorm in the mountains of Kentucky and yesterday I had to deal with freezing rain during the drive between Cincinnati and Illinois. I think driving through three inches of snow would probably Read the rest of this entry »

Now that I’m finally back in Sarasota, I treated myself to lunch at Simon’s Coffee House. It’s a bit of a drive but worth it because they have the most delicious vegetarian sandwiches, salads, wraps and paninis, not to mention an array of wheat-free desserts that are delicious! After lunch I was walking to my car when I noticed a sign in the front window of the store next to the restaurant that advertised “Detox Wraps.”

I’d heard about these wraps. Customers are covered with some detoxification material like diatomaceous clay and sealed in plastic wrap or strips of linen, and then left to relax for an hour while the toxins are sucked out through their skin. Since I had long wanted to try one of these wraps, I decided to check it out. The front of the store held a display of very nice (and expensive) handmade African drums. I rather like drums, so I browsed, testing the drums to hear their different tones. At one point I looked toward the rear of the store. “Pipes In Back Room,” the sign directed. I want back to beating the drums. The young man behind the counter, covered in tattoos and sporting shoulder length dreads, finally asked if I needed help. Read the rest of this entry »

I readily admit that my family has always referred to me as “THE KOOK.” You see, I’m the only one who moved away from Beloved Illinois. I’m the only one who never had children. I’m the only vegetarian in our family. I’m the only one who thinks nothing of slapping a backpack on and flying off to some remote part of the world where I don’t understand the language don’t know a soul – usually without an advance reservation. And I’m the only one who passionately believes in alternative things like acupuncture, kinesiology and all forms of energy work, like Reiki (I am, in fact, a Reiki Master – but that’s another story).

As you may have gathered, Illinois is NOT my favorite place but, because my family is there and I love them dearly, I make the trek back to the Midwest every Christmas. This is always accompanied by a trip to the grocery store immediately upon arriving because none of them have anything in the house I can eat. My family’s idea of nutritious food is Iceberg lettuce – which, in addition to having no nutritional value whatsoever, tastes like cardboard. It’s not all their fault, though. Even the Read the rest of this entry »

Local residents and tourists gather at Sarasota's weekly downtown Farmer Market

I got up early this morning and walked five blocks to the Farmer’s Market. This market is held every Saturday and is about four blocks long. Almost all of the produce offered is locally grown and the lion’s share is organic. It’s located next to Whole Foods Market, so if I don’t find what I want on the street, I can just stop by WFM on the way home.

My major find today was a stand selling Heirloom tomatoes. An heirloom is generally considered to be a variety that has been passed down through several generations of a family. The definition of the use of the word heirloom to describe plants is highly debated. For instance, one school says that the seeds must be over 100 years old, others 50 years, and others pick an arbitrary date of 1945 which marks the end of World War II and roughly the beginning of widespread hybrid use by growers and seed companies or industrial agriculture. It was after the end of World War II that hybrid seeds began to proliferate in the commercial seed trade. Read the rest of this entry »