Janelle Ruby shows us how to prepare her famous "Dang Mango Quesadillas" in this week's "In The Kitchen"
Why Vegetarian Life?
Vegetarian Life is a new site dedicated to bringing you the best in vegetarian, vegan, and organic news, recipes and recommendations. Vegetarian Life is brought to you by Patrick Frink and Frink Fertilizers, an organic fertilizer manufacturing company in Ritzville, WA. A longtime vegetarian and organic gardener, Mr. Frink created this site to help keep vegetarians, vegans and organic consumers ‘in the know’ about current events, products and innovations that proponents of these healthy lifestyles might not otherwise see.
We hope Vegetarian Life becomes the one-stop source for your vegetarian, organic or vegan lifestyle.
The Veggie Life Blog
06.07.08
A Letter From Our Founder
Dear Vegetarian Life Reader,
Hello, and welcome to the first entry of our new blog! My name is Patrick Frink, and I am the owner and president of Frink Fertilizers, located in Ritzville, WA. Frink Fertilizers is a family owned and operated business, specializing in organic and green fertilizers for home gardens and commercial farms.
Raised on a cattle ranch/alfalfa farm in rural Borger, Texas, I converted to vegetarianism in my 20’s, and have never looked back. After years working for a large fertilizer chemical company in WA, I finally branched out on my own in the 1990’s to create Frink Fertilizers. Frink Fertilizers was born under the philosophy that an organic garden starts at the soil. When attempting to plant my own organic garden, I was struck with the realization that there were no real organic fertilization solutions available on the commercial or consumer markets. Combining my lifelong fertilization and gardening knowledge, I realized I could not only find a solution to this problem, but I could be part of that solution. Thus was born Frink Fertilizers.
Today, as an organic gardener, I get a lot of questions from friends, family and customers wondering why they too should switch to an organic lifestyle. Many don’t know what the benefits of organic products are, while some simply don’t know where to begin, or what changes to make when starting off gradually. I created this site to help answer some of those questions. To help me, I have assembled a team of some of the most knowledgeable organic and vegetarian experts I could find. Each week we’ll be updating this page with news, anecdotes and behind the scenes tales from the halls of Vegetarian Life. We’ll also be updating the rest of the site with recipes, reviews, news, and health updates.
We really hope you enjoy reading Vegetarian Life. As always, we’re here to help you. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, feel free to comment or email us at any time, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
In good health,
Patrick Frink
Hello, All!
My name is Elizabeth Michaud, and I am the news expert for Vegetarian Life. Each week someone new will be updating the Vegetarian Life blog to keep you current on what projects we’re working on, and what’s going on behind the scenes a Vegetarian Life.
This week, I wanted to write to tell you about the wonderful new content going up all over the site, especially in our multimedia sections, like the podcast (brought to you by yours truly) and the cooking show, brought to you by our resident chef, Rock ‘n’ Roll Janelle. We hope you have as much fun watching and listening to these as we did making them!
As always, if you have any questions/comments/concerns, feel free to drop us a note and we’ll do whatever we can to help!
Take Care,
Elizabeth
04.08.08
When I first began to take an interest in vegetarianism, I admit I was a bit nervous that there would be a lack of good food for me to eat; I was afraid I’d go hungry and ultimately turn back to meat. And, to be honest, the initial few weeks were difficult. My whole family would sit down to big steak dinners complete with all the trimmings. Every night’s meal consisted of at least one meat dish, if not several. I’d sit and watch my brothers and sister scarf down hamburgers and succulent baked hams day after day. Though it wasn’t easy, I always held my ground. And eventually I started to feel more awake in the mornings, I had more energy in sports, and my grades improved. My resilience was finally paying off.
Throughout my life, I’ve spoken to many people who have been surprised to learn that I’m a vegetarian. Mostly, they wonder how I survive. And just like I was, they’re amazed to learn how much food and options are available to a vegetarian diet. But if you’ve chosen not to eat meat, you do have to remember to keep certain things in perspective. You have to allow for the fact that at times, you might be bored. However, today more than ever, vegetarianism is flexible and fun. For me, it’s all about getting creative. When I was first starting out as a vegetarian, I was forced to come up with my own recipes and concoctions, for lack of better guidance. The dishes featured in this section come from some of my favorite vegetarian recipes, and some even resulted from my own personal experimentation. These are some of the meals and snacks that kept me on track during times of temptation. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.