A Short History of Szechuan Cuisine

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In each case, the differences between food service companies that fail to offer vegan choices and those that do are meaningful. A vegan generally is so for reasons that go beyond personal diet: it's about how animals are treated, how they are raised, and the amount of the earth's resources required to raise livestock. A vegan considers the prodigious use of agricultural land Food For Freedom required to raise cattle, pigs and chicken as hugely outsized relative to that required to grow vegetables. And with increasing information on the over-use of hormones and antibiotics in feedlot conditions (where cows, pigs and chickens live, particularly in the weeks immediately preceding slaughter), the vegan is concerned with the amount of those factors entering their body and the waste stream that follows. By patronizing the company with vegan taco catering carts, the diner knows they are working with an enterprise that shares their values.

Drying is a simple method of preserving fruit and vegetables. Dried fruit can be a healthy alternative to sweets. Drying fruit is an interesting way to store part of a summer or autumn harvest. It makes a change from making jam or pickles with your glut. These sweet, nutritious preserves can be made at home quite easily, stored and added as snacks to packed lunches for school or work. They can last from a few weeks to a few months. They must be totally dehydrated to ensure that no mould can develop. Crops with a high water content like apples, plums, grapes or tomatoes should be oven-dried but those with a low water content can just be dried indoors. This air-drying method is slower than using an oven but is particularly suited to herbs, chillies and peas and beans that have been removed from their pods. The room needs to be warm and well-ventilated. It could be a spare room or garage. A kitchen will have too much moisture in the air because of the steam from cooking.

The crops can be laid on a wire rack, separated out and left for a few weeks or if possible, like in the case of chillies, strung onto string and hung up in order to save space. It is important that air can circulate around each individual vegetable. Don't rub your eyes after handling chillies; and wash you hands well. Some herbs can be dried more easily than others. Bay leaves and sprigs of sage or marjoram are good candidates to be hung in bunches but soft-leaved herbs such as basil and parsley would be better chopped up and packed into ice cube trays to be frozen. These individual portions can be added to stews or home-made soups through the winter and they retain their taste better than if they had been dried. Otherwise, try drying herbs in a microwave with the setting on high for two minutes. Employing one of these methods ensures that there will be no waste; all your crops can be stored before the first frosts come to claim them.
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