Short Notes from Vegetarian Summerfest

I've written a whole blog posting about my trip to Vegetarian Summerfest in Johnstown, PA but it's locked away on my computer which can't talk to this one so I will just recap highlights here:

My talks on Superfoods and Sea Vegetables went better than I had anticipated. I received validation from Dr. Michael Greger when he did he speech about the year's nutrition news in review, as he mentioned both of my topics.

My pressure cooking demonstration was well attended and I hope that I can get more people to see the benefits of pressure cooking.

I got to meet Brenda Davis, R.D. who is an incredible vegan dietitian from BC, Canada who just participated in leading an amazing study in the Marshall Islands, helping the Islanders reverse diabetes, which is killing them off.

I flew with Jeff Novick, MS, RD, who is a funny guy who speaks about following a no-fat added diet, as he works at the Pritikin Center in Florida. And I got to have lunch with Jeff, which I guess makes me one of the brave few.

Howard Lyman, The Mad Cowboy, was as wry and funny as ever as he urged people to share the message about following a vegan diet. That is the main mesage at the conference, as well as being kind to animals and eating your greens.

It would have been hard to leave without having heard the same "eat your greens message many different ways". Without any kind of game plan, we all had just about the same message to help with all the major diseases of this age -- eat a plant-based diet.

And that I did -- at least 3 times a day, plus cooking demos. We had to walk a distance to meals which almost justified eating a lot, and I mean a lot.

Dan Piraro of Bizarro fame was there again this year, and he is amazing witty and funny. His wife Ashley is like a blonde, glowing light, being so beautiful, obviously inside and out, which I noticed with others, too. It must be the lack of animals in their bodies, or something.

Chef Ben Stone http://www.veganchefben.com/ lent me a knife which I didn't totally keep track of and it made me worry which I don't like to do.

I had many chats with Latham Thomas, of Panela Productions, a wonderful raw food chef and educator. We discovered that we are definitely some kind of "sistas" for the cause.