Veg Food Fair Fun and a Road Trip to Stratford (Biebs, Sweets and Swans Included)

For the first time since I’ve been back from New York I was genuinely excited about being in the city. (More on my trip later in the week…) I knew that I was going to be surrounded by sunshine, delicious food and special people all weekend and that seemed to make up for the fact that Toronto has been feeling strangely foreign these days.

This was my third year at the fair and I was looking forward to once again hanging out with my sweet nutritionista friend Meghan Telpner and the awesome folks at Sweets from the Earth. (You can read about the 2009 and 2010 fairs too).

On Friday night and all day Sunday, I donned a pink apron and chatted to peeps about gluten free treats, irish moss, Meghan’s amazing life loving totes and our upcoming trip to St. Lucia while enjoying treats from Bunner’s and APieCalypseNow! and relishing in what felt like vegan Christmas / one big vegan tweetup. Desserts were definitely covered, but once again there wasn’t a ton of awesome “real” food at the fair. I had something from a raw vendor that shall remain nameless on Friday which left me seriously underwhelmed and hungry.  I had a blast in the sunshine with lots of friends, new and old!

Sandwiched between two sweet days at the Fair, I enjoyed a road trip with Jessie (aka my little sister) to Stratford to see Camelot!

Way back in the spring I was invited to be a part of the Stratford Tweeter club, which gave me access to free tickets to various shows playing at the festival. Being the musical theatre geek I am, I jumped at the chance and with everything that went on this summer, Saturday was the first time we could escape the city.

A little research showed me that Stratford had one official vegetarian restaurant called Alpha Beet Soup. After our 2 hour drive to Stratford, we arrived to learn it had closed at 4pm. Being two very hungry veg girls, we scrambled to make alternate plans and found ourselves sharing salad, a tofu/veg curry and wine at Down the Street. My foodie pics didn’t turn out well due to the lighting, but the food was yummy and we were fuelled and ready to check in with King Arthur, Guenevere and the knights of the round table in Camelot.

Not before I took innumerable pictures of swans… I was yearbook editor in high school, and whenever we went to Stratford, our photographers would waste ROLLS of film on the swans. I would always be so irritated going through the photos of swans in every single pose imaginable. Apparently this weekend I turned into one of those people… Jessie finally confiscated my camera…

and off we went to the theatre.

The show was fantastic. I was forced to sing the Simple Joys of Maidenhood in my first year of theatre school, and was familiar with the story, but had never seen the show onstage. It was wonderful. The set, costumes and lighting were beautiful. I loved the relationship of Arthur and Guenevere. The story played out like a Disney movie for adults and the music was fantastic. Guenevere is absolutely a dream role and so is a role at the Stratford festival. We left feeling happy and giddy and silly.

Which meant a trip to Shoppers Drug Mart before we drove back to Toronto was a great idea

It was a fantastic way to end the evening and definitely fuelled our spirits for the trip back into the city. So lucky to have Jess in my life (I think I’m actually going to write a blog post about her soon…) I’m so thankful for such a fun weekend surrounded by wonderful people and so many great memories.

Did you visit the Vegetarian Food Fair? What was the highlight for you? Have you seen anything at Stratford this season?