This past weekend my fiancé Chase and I attended Catskill Animal Sanctuarys annual Festival of Living Vegan in the small country side town of Saugerties, New York. I know I can speak for the both of us when I say we were so enthusiastic for this trip as we are both ethical vegans living in a community that is predominately made up of carnivores, so the anticipation of being surrounded by like minded individuals who share our same beliefs and goals was purely indescribable. Up until this weekend, we have been feeling rather lonely in our community, yet we are so thankful for this past experience and all the ones to follow. It was such a relief to meet others similar to us. We made so many connections from both our human and animal friends! I am incredibly thankful for this experience and shed gratitude as I reflect on the memories. I would like to give a special thank you to Kathy Stevens, a good friend of ours and founder of Catskill Animal Farm for inviting us and showing us such compassion.

We parked about 10 minutes away in a corporate parking lot, and toke a shuttle bus to the farm. It was packed with people all ages, from young to old. Upon arrival we stopped by Kathy’s house for a warm welcome. Her house is quaint and cozy with a beautiful flower garden surrounding the outside. Inside it was filled with animal paintings and books.

Next, we checked ourselves in at the welcome booth, and headed to the cooking demo performed by vegan Chief Linda at the sanctuary. Check out her blog, called Compassion Cuisine, which is an extension of the animal sanctuary. There are a ton of great vegan recipes! Linda demonstrated to a crowd how to make vegan mac and cheese, something Chase and I haven’t experimented with yet. The recipe can be viewed on her webpage via this link. We were fond of her technique, using nutritional yeast, cauliflower, and butternut squash as the main ingredients in the recipe! A great way for vegans to get their B12. She was kind and patient at answering our many questions. We got great insight on vegan cheese. We are particularly interested in trying Treeline vegan cheese thanks to her advice and sampling!

Another great idea we got from her demonstration was how to make your own vegan “bacon”. She cut a bunch of shiitake mushrooms, sprinkled salt and drizzled a little oil, baked them at a high temperature until *almost* burnt (very very crispy), then letting them dry out for 20 minutes, and well-ah! Vegan “bacon”. The recipe can be viewed via this link.

After the cooking demonstrated and the sampling of the yummy mac and cheese, our tummys decided it was time for lunch! All the food vendors at the Festival of Living Vegan were awesome, so we decided to try a bit from each vendor! Vegan food in Fairfield County is rare so we made sure to run an extra mile that morning in preparation for the food stuffing we’d be doing! First stop was Yeah Dawg Vegan, a pop up hot dog cart! The hotdog itself is soy free, which made Chase and I happy as we try to limit our intake due to estrogen and carcinogenic qualities. I had to try every topping as you can see from my picture below! It was AMAZING and life changing! Better than any “hot dog” I have ever had! I am drooling just thinking about it!

We also stopped by the Like No Udder vegan ice cream food truck. Karen, the founder, is an acquittance of ours. As we chased her around the city of Providence (her prime location) this past summer, we chatted about our story of living vegan in exchange for hers. We reminded her of our past interactions. She was happy to have us back, and even more thrilled that we travel afar for her offerings. Karen is marvelous. I am beyond thankful for her pursuing her business idea as it is something rare, diverse, and cruelty free! Clearly I couldn’t wait to take my first few licks!

We couldn’t resist trying the caribbean empanada from The Squeeze who is usually stationed in NYC. It was a diverse serving (something we rarely eat at home). They have delicious juices as well. We look forward to revisiting them on our next trip to Manhattan!

After stuffing our faces with the incredible vegan food at the Festival of Living Vegan, it was time to burn it off and meet our animal friends. Kathy Stevens, being the loving woman that she is, took us to meet a special Chicken named Emit. Emit was formally in a meth lab. Kathy Stevens has saved his life, among the other 250 animals on her glorious farm. She spoke such kind words while holding Emit. I know she loves what she does. Chickens are extremely social animals with big personalities. Emit was happy to be in her arms, as she described her arms as safe and loving. Emit was calm. She handed Emit off to Chase, the connectedness between the three of them was magical!

Along with our chicken friends, we meet a few pigs (I never knew they grew this big), bulls (I never knew they grew that big either, weighing 2,000 pounds), sheep, donkeys, pony’s, and goats! One of the bulls decided to socially interact with me, by wrapping his enormous tongue around my hand as I gently rubbed his cheek to say hello (or it was the scent of leftover hot dog remaining on my hand), either way, it became an emotional experience. I was overjoyed that he acknowledge me. I quietly shed tears of joy as he looked me in the eyes. Living vegan as grew my love for animals. I know this bull sensed my love and good energy. To my bull friend at Catskill Animal Sanctuary, I shall not forget you and I will return. I am so happy you are safe and in a friendly environment.

We meet a horse who was blind. His eyes had to be removed. My heart sunk. More tears fled from my eyes, yet, I was reassured by a volunteer at the sanctuary that he is happy, free roaming, and extremely intelligent. There are other blind horses at the farm. They all help each other. Wow, animals are amazing!

We purchased some tee-shirts from Compassion Company, which we learned is stationed out of New Haven, and Motive Company, another great vegan apparel brand! Such great designs with purpose!

Our way back to the car consisted of us chowing down on this beautifully crafted pumpkin butternut squash pie from Gone Pie! It was delicate and tasteful- just what we needed to fulfill our fall cravings!

Our day at the Festival of Living Vegan at Catskill Animal Sanctuary was an extraordinary, one of a kind day! Catskill Animal Sanctuary offers tours on the weekends, along with many other events! We can’t wait to return. Gratitude to Mother Earth for leading the way.

Namaste