Adventures at The Organic Market and Cafe at Stirling

Yesterday my Mum and I went for a drive into the Adelaide Hills to Stirling, which is a lovely town. We walked under the beautiful shady trees and window shopped before going to The Organic Market and Cafe for afternoon tea. This is one of our favourite shops. My Mum very kindly gave me a spending allowance of $100! We had lots of fun looking at all the beautiful foods and other products and indulging in some retail therapy.

But before I go on to what I bought, I'll tell you more about the shop. It is sort of divided into a fruit and vegetable shop, grocery shop, and cafe. At the fruit and vegetable and grocery counter, they also sell cakes and pastries, many of which are vegan. They do also sell meat, eggs, and dairy, which some people may not like but they are not a vegan or vegetarian shop, they are an organic shop so that is understandable. Being an organic shop, everything is of course, organic and made with organic ingredients. As well as food, the shop also sells toiletries and baby products (none of which I believe are tested on animals), cleaning products (again, I believe not tested on animals), supplements (*eye-roll*), and natural medicines and therapies. If you live in the Adelaide area I highly recommend you visit this shop!

So, what did I buy? Well, I decided to buy things that either I had never tried, or special treats that I would not usually buy for myself as I cannot justify the expense to our household budget. Here are some of the vegan foods that I bought:

1. Tartex Original. Tartex is kind of like pate, but not made out of livers (eww). I can't describe it's flavour but I can say that it is yummy. It is also available in other flavours.

2. Orgran Gluten Free Bread Mix. For perhaps the last week I have had an urge to bake bread. I've never made bread before and I don't even know what ingredients I'd need. Then I saw this bread mix and I thought, 'add water and oil? I can do that!'. As you can see from the packet, this bread is free from everything. I'm intrigued to see how it turns out.

3. Madhava Amber Agave Nectar. You may have noticed from my blog that I am interested in veganism. Indeed, I am interested in becoming vegan. I've been wanting to try agave nectar for some time. For those who are not familiar with vegan food, agave nectar is commonly used to replace honey. It can also be used as a low-calorie sugar alternative, as the back of the bottle says, "1.4x as sweeter than sugar - use less, save calories!". I tasted some and I don't know what I expected but what I tasted wasn't it. I found it had a slightly metallic taste but having said that it definitely wasn't unpleasant. I will be eating more.

4. Vege Bears Pastilles. I have had actual Vege Bears before and they are additively delicious, the pastilles are too. These won't last long!

5. Lentilicious Coconut Fusion quick cook lentil side dish. Call me vegetarian, but I love lentils. The prospect of a fast-foodish version of this lovely legume was too much to pass up. And it's coconut flavour. I'm thinking of having it with some steamed vegies.

6.The Redwood Co Gourmet Meat Free Fish Style Fingers. I had these for dinner last night and they were nice. They don't taste like fish, which I think is a good thing, but they have the flaky texture of fish. I bet children would love them. You only get 6 in a packet though.

7. Cheezly Soy Free Style Cheese. As I said before, I am very interested in becoming vegan. The thing that is stopping me is dairy. I love dairy and I have tried a couple of brands of vegan cheese and I have tried vegan yogurt and...I just hate them! I know it is selfish of me but I cannot bring myself to go vegan because the dairy is revolting and I can't live my life without cheese. I have read in the Internet though, that Cheezly is the best brand of vegan cheese. I decided to give it a go. I couldn't bring myself to try soy cheese though, after my past bad experiences, so I went for the soy free type. It probably tastes worse than the soy ones but I was afraid! I'm still afraid. It's still sitting in my fridge looking at me. I will try it. Tomorrow. Or maybe the day after...

8. Soyatoo! Soy Whip. Another dairy alternative, this is soy whipped cream. After previously discussed bad experiences with vegan dairy products, I was scared to try this too (but not as scared as I am about the cheese). Soyatoo! is another brand that the Internet tells me is very good. I put a bit on a spoon this morning. It sure looked great. I ate a little bit and...it was great! I love this stuff! It's so sweet and delicious! It's much better than ordinary whipped cream.

9. Life Free From Dairy Free Parmazano. I have been wanting to get my hands on this for some time as it seems that this is the only way to get rennet-free parmesan cheese that you don't have to grate. I am looking forward to trying it. It doesn't even need refrigerating.

10. St Claire's Organic Throat Soothers. My lovely mum knew that I had a sore throat and she bought me these. They don't look very appetizing but they sure are tasty!

Happy eating :)