Being a vegan is difficult. Reading labels has become a common occurrence whenever I go shopping. A company label can state their product is not tested on animals, but are any of the ingredients used in their product tested on animals? What about their parent company? Do they perform animal testing on other lines? Or do they claim to be cruelty-free, but perform animal tests on products to be marketed in China?
There are animal ingredients tucked into many products. I was looking for a vegan margarine for baking and found that a company lists fish oil as one of its ingredients. It is astounding how often animal ingredients are tucked into products.
Is organic produce sold at the local Farmers’ Market vegan? Maybe not. I asked a couple of farmers and they told me that they use fish emulsion fertilizer.
What is a vegan to do? You just do the best that you can. I have also come to count on the leaping bunny and the certified vegan logos. And websites like Leaping Bunny.
I found this great illustration of cruelty-free logos at The Little Foxes site.

What was the purpose of this post? I was in the local Target looking for a bar of dark chocolate. I happened on this dark chocolate and mint bar.

I love mint, but often anything with mint has egg whites. I didn’t see egg whites on the ingredients list, so I bought it.
When I visited the Equal Exchange Co-Op website, I found that the chocolate bar is vegan! Simple pleasure and also is fair trade.

The Endangered Species, Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt & Almonds bar is also vegan.
One additional fact, combined the two bars were only $5.49. It is not unusual for a vegan chocolate bar to be at least $4-$5 each, sometimes loads more.
My “Real” First Comment
Thursday, March 15th, 2012I received my first real comment on one of my blog posts from Dinah at Discardia.
Yesterday I spent the better part of the day cleaning my studio space because of the moth scare. I decided to clear out the truly unneccesary “potential” art materials. Throughout the day I kept asking myself, “What would Dinah do?” At the end of the day, there was her comment.
Serendipitous.
Uncertainty about my choices faded; I felt validated.
I did have a weak moment, one in which I felt a bit overwhelmed with the task at hand. To calm my mind I typically do one of two things–read or bake. I opted for baking chocolate chocolate-chip cupcakes with chocolate frosting.
Vegan of course.
The recipes are based on Jennifer McCann’s book, Vegan Lunch Box–Triple Chocolate Cupcakes and Chocolate Vegan Buttercream.
After a cupcake I went back to my studio refreshed and ready for the task. I needed to stop addressing the cleaning and clearing in a random, willy nilly way. I needed to be methodical.
I started with the first set of shelves where loads of small open containers of bits are stored. Interesting that the boxes of jars that I was keeping for someday came in handy.
Yeah, I am pretty sure that I am not going to make snow globes.
And lids will keep out unwanted critters.
Nathanael “Big Baby” and “Queen” Nora appreciated your comments too.
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