Tea and Sympatico

When I was at Glastonbury festival this year, I met two lovely vegans from the North East called Nathan and Daniel. They were playing on the Leftfield stage with their band ONSIND and Nathan was sporting a "I love Vegan Junk Food" sticker on his guitar. With the band due to play in Manchester's Northern Quarter in a few weeks time, I caught up with Nathan for a special Vegan Mofo interview. Tell us a little about the history of ONSIND and the sort of things you guys write about? Onsind is a punk duo from Pity Me, Durham! We've been really good friends most of our lives, and have been in this band together for about seven years. In that time we've toured all over the UK, Germany and USA, and have released three albums, as well as several EPs and other releases. We write about all kinds of things, but I think everything we do is imbued with politics, in the sense that we are a DIY, vegan band and so even when we're singing about personal stuff like depre...

Dominic Berry is a poet who has just completed a run at the Edinburgh Festival with his show "The Dragon who hated poetry". He's also well known as a vegan poet, not just a poet who happens to be a vegan but someone who writes poetry about issues connected to veganism. Dominic lives and works in Manchester's Northern Quarter so he was a perfect choice for this years Mofo theme! How long have you been vegan and what brought you to make that decision? I was a real jonny-come-lately to being vegan. In 2008 I 'came out' proud as vegan to the world (that was a not-so-subtle self reference to my 'hit' poem, 'I'm Coming Out as Vegan'. Us poets gotta plug our 'hits' whenever we can. I say 'hit' with inverted commas cos I'm not sure poets really have 'hits', but if they do, that is mine. If I was Lulu then that would be my 'To Sir With Love'. Or my 'Independence', depending on your age and dep...

The Northern Quarter (theme of my blog for this year's Mofo) is home to some of Manchester's best live music venues such as Band on the Wall, Night and Day, The Castle, The Roadhouse, Matt and Phreds and 2022NQ. Someone who has played at all of the above venues is Quiet Loner aka singer songwriter Matt Hill.  Regular readers of the blog will know Matt is also my partner and a few of my blogs this year have featured some of the festivals and gigs Matt has played at . This summer we had an amazing experience when he was invited by Billy Bragg to perform on the Leftfield stage at Glastonbury Festival where he appeared in a songwriters circle alongside Billy,  Amanda Palmer and Sean MacGowan. So you're a vegan? I've been a veggie for almost 25 years, but I'm only recently back in the fold as an 'outed' vegan. Although it'd been a long time since I ate dairy, I didn't really want to tell anyone I was a vegan. I still feel a bit like it's n...

Today we're talking to Manchester based artist Helen Davies. I've known Helen for a few years and never cease to be amazed by the things she creates - from knitted pictures of dogs to wedding cake topper  monster versions of brides and grooms to knitted versions of Adam and Joe, Helen is an amazing talent. You're a visual artist. Can you tell us a bit about your arts background and what sort of things you're currently working on? I originally did a degree in Fine Art at Huddersfield, but afterwards I got really into textile crafts and in particular needlecrafts. I make crochet monsters based on real people, which you can see (and order!) at Helen Makes . I’m also currently working as part of Warp and Weft with my friend Jenny, making crochet masks of Mancunian women of achievement, to be exhibited at the Manchester Town Hall at some point in the future. Some works-in-progress are currently being exhibited at PS Mirabel .  What's your vegan stor...

If you've eaten vegan cake in Manchester City Centre in the last few years then chances are you'll have eaten cake baked by Lisa Goddard of bakery Lily and Dilly . We caught up with Lisa to find out what set her on the vegan baking path! So, Lily and Dilly? What made you set up as an independent bakery and where does the name come from? Having worked as a stop frame animator for 12 years, I was getting rather fed up with short term contracts, so the last time I was made redundant, I decided not to chase work round the country, and if that meant a career change, then so be it. A friend of mine had just set up The Cocoa Emporium as an independent Chocolatier, so I gave her a hand whilst navigating through the benefits system, mostly to get me out of bed on a morning! Doing baking for her farmers market was fun, as it was one of my main hobbies, so when she asked if I fancied getting a little shop  with her, it seemed a nice chance to start something new. We got the shop...

Hooray, at last it's here! The long awaited cookbook from Ms Cupcake, Brixton Baker Supreme and one of my cookery heroes is available to buy . I was very lucky and got sent a preview copy last month and I've been baking away from it. There's been cinnammon cookies and the most amazing peanut butter, chocolate crispy squares and some even more fancy stuff. Below are the Bakewell Tart cupcakes I made for a dear friends birthday. I had lots of friends birthdays in April and this Turkish Delight Cake went along to a party. I'd definitely make all the recipes again and am really looking forward to trying more. There's quite a few blogger reviews around the internet so to see more recipes, images from the book and to hear more about the baking techniques involved I recommend also checking out what Hasta la Vegan , Dearly Beloved Bakery,   Paperbag Blog and  Vegan In Brighton have to say. I was delighted to get the chance to do a little interview with Ms Cupcake h...