South Wales

[GreenGirl333]

Hi!

I'm coming to Swansea, WALES this summer to visit my boyfriend (who's vegan as well).

In the meantime, I'd like to know of certain stores that provide vegan foods and fresh produce(most especially if they are organic as well).

Right now, I'm specifically trying to find out of any brands of VEGAN bread that meet this following criteria:

-VEGAN (obviously)

-NOT prepared on the same equipment with non-vegan products

-NO SUGAR added (anything derived from sugar cane; eg: cane juice, sucrose, sucralose, molasses)

-NO added chemicals

-Naturally rich with any sort of whole grains (containing at least 3 gm dietary fiber per serving)



PLEASE LET ME KNOW ASAP!

:confused:

[Pob]

Sainsbury and Hovis both do vegan labelled breads. High in fibre, multigrain and organic varieties.

I think they both have sugar in - I think that would be hard to avoid in factory made doughs (makes them rise quicker). The sugar will be vegan (probably from beet), though.

Both companies are not the most ethical choice, though. Sainsbury boss supports medical vivisection, Hovis' owners are somewhat dodgy I believe.

All Hovis breads are vegan bar one with honey in - so cross contamination should not be an issue.

[GreenGirl333]

Thank you for letting me know, Rob. Not to be annoying by asking this, but would you mind finding out for me if/if not both kinds have sugar added, and if they do finding out where it's derived from?

Do you know if Hovis and/or Sainsbury breads are available in Swansea? And would you say Hovis is more reliable as far as honesty about the sanitation/preparation of the bread? In other words, they don't cross-contaminate?

If you could find out about added sugar (if any), any cross-contamination, and any of the other things I've asked, I would appreciate that tremendously. :)

I'll start investigating myself and see what I can find, and if you can update me with anything, I would appreciate it. And once again, I hope I'm not asking too much.

Thanks again!

[Pob]

Ingredients from the Hovis Organic Wholemeal loaf:
Organic Wholemeal Flour, Water, Yeast, Organic Vegetable Fat, Organic Soya Flour, Sea Salt, Organic White Wine Vinegar, Organic Wheat Protein, Organic Sugar, Flour Treatment Agent: Ascorbic Acid.

Ingredients from the Hovis Country Granary:
Wholemeal Flour, Water, Grain and Seed Mix (Malted Wheat Flakes(3%), Toasted Wheat Flakes(2%), Toasted Rye Flakes(2%), Millet, Linseed, Poppy Seeds, Sunflower Seeds, Barley Flakes), Wheat Protein, Yeast, Salt, Vinegar, Sugar, Malt Flour, Vegetable Fat, Emulsifier: E472(e), E471, E481; Barley Fibre, Flour Treatment Agent: E300.

They don't use eggs or milk, and there is no mention of possible contamination on the packets. The packets are marked as vegan, too. It doesn't say where the sugar is from - but it won't be bone-char filtered, either way.

They do a few different organic loaves and rolls, but they aren't all listed on their site. Should be available in most supermarkets and probably convenience stores, too.


Only wish I knew another supplier of bread that is organic, vegan, and widely available :(
I need to make my own more regularly, I think.

[GreenGirl333]

Thank you for the information, Rob! I did find this website of this store in the Cardiff area (which is about an hour from Swansea). It's called "Jo's Organic Stores" www.josorganicstores.co.uk . Have you been there? If so, please let me know. It carries "organic" fruit and veg. :) And some of the other products look like they could easily be vegan as well! :)

Thank you so much again!

[Mr Flibble]

-NOT prepared on the same equipment with non-vegan products

You'll be hard pushed to find a commercial supplier who can truthfully claim this. What is defined by equipment? Does it include ovens? Must the equipment have never been used for non vegan products? What about the raw materials and their origins (such as the milling and bagging of flour)? Blatent cross contamination is one thing, but properly sterilised equipment is a compromise most of us have to live with. Commercial baking equipment is very expensive and the demand for vegan produce is for the most part not yet large enough to warrant seperate facilities for fresh products.


-NO added chemicals

What defines a chemical? Water is a chemical - H20. Is citric acid (flour improver) a chemical?

The best option is to buy a bread machine and make it yourself. There's several threads on the forum about machines and recipes for them.

[catalina]

I second Mr F. To meet all your requirements, it might be easier to just make your own.

[harpy]

Even without a bread machine, making one's own bread is not that much trouble, and this is from someone who never spends more time in the kitchen than is unavoidable :D

...but if you don't want to you could contact this supplier of politically correct bread ;) http://www.artisanbread.ltd.uk/ - they might be a good bet and I think if they don't have a local stockist they may also do mail order.

[Stig]

Hey GreenGirl, I'm from Swansea, I usually just eat hovis, theres a big tescos on oystermouth rd which sells it. As for local market breads and small store produce, there really isn't much, actually there really isnt much in swansea for vegans at all, apart from Govindas and The Retreat, I might pop in there on the way home :)...

[Stig]

Hey are there any vegans here from Swansea, or nearby?

[Geoff]

I used to live in Pontlliw! :)

[GreenGirl333]

Thank you, Mr. Flibble, Catalina, Harpy, and Stig! :) I appreciate your feedback.

Harpy--I will also check out that website. Thank you so much for that!

Stig--Being from Swansea do you know of the Brynderwen community (aka: vegan ecovillage) in Mumbles? They do have a website. Also do you know of the vegan landlord, Michael Sosner? He only rents to vegans and vegetarians. :) I e-mailed the retreat and heard back from a guy named Nigel. Sadly the vegan foods are prepared on the same equipment as the non-vegan foods. I'm not intending to be rude, but I can't tolerate that because it goes against my personal beliefs. Did you see the website that I found for "Jo's Organic Stores" (that I believe is in Cardiff). Have you been there?

Thank you again, all of you. I want to continue my scouting about Wales prior to my arrival this upcoming month. Any additional feedback is welcome and encouraged! :)

[GreenGirl333]

Oh my gosh!!! Thank you so much, Harpy!!! The Artisan bread sounds even better than the bread I eat here (Ezekiel bread; www.food-for-life.com )! Essene sounds particularly appealing to me! I MUST tell my boyfriend about this! :)

[Stig]

thats awesome, I think I have family near there, or did..

[Stig]

I am so shocked about the retreat, thats awful, I'm so glad you found that one out, and I'm sorry for recommending somewhere that has such a bad policy. I don't know the people, but heres a link to the vegan gathering in mumbles http://www.veganviews.org.uk/vsg/ I've never been before but I'd love to go this year :), again I'm so sorry about the information, I guess thats another one to boycott ...

[Stig]

I'm going to look up Jo's Organic Stores now, there is a place in the arcade off Queen Street in Cardiff, it has a selection of vegan food on the menu, I'm going up next week hopefully, so I can check it out and ask them.

[Stig]

Penarth

[Stig]

oops I didn't mean to just post ''Penarth'', haha. I just checked out Jo's Organic Store, it sounds awesome, Penarth is a short train journey from Cardiff centre,

[GreenGirl333]

Thanks again, Stig!

How far is Penarth from Swansea?

[Stig]

It's a 50 min train ride to Cardiff, the trains are so frequent back and for its unreal, I asked a friend who went recently to Penarth and she said it took her around 20 mins from Cardiff to Penarth.

[GreenGirl333]

Stig--

Is Penarth closer to Swansea or even further from Swansea?

Have you been to and/or heard of Pulse Wholefoods? It's in Cardiff and apparently Artisan Bread (and other vegan foods) distribute there. I'm still trying to contact Pulse Wholefoods to ask if they can deliver to Swansea--and at the same time I'm talking to my boyfriend about making some trips to Cardiff to stop by Pulse Wholefoods.

Here are the websites:

Pulse Wholefoods: www.pulsewholefoods.co.uk
e-mail: pulse@pulsewholefoods.co.uk

Artisan Bread: www.artisanbread.ltd.uk

[Agatha]

i'm moving to Newport in the next couple of weeks. I'm still looking for somewhere to live if anyone wants a lodger. i come with an old black cat :)

or if anyone can offer advice on nice places to eat out, friendly pubs, healthfood shops etc i would be very grateful

ta!

[gertvegan]

or if anyone can offer advice on nice places to eat out, friendly pubs, healthfood shops etc i would be very gratefulwww.eatoutveganwales.org/Newport.htm ;)

[Agatha]

thank you!