Alaska vegans or vegetarian parents?

[Morissa Lou Williams]

Hi! Are there any vegan parents reading this in Alaska? I'd love to hear from you, and other vegan parents in similar situations. I'm a vegetarian mom in a "mixed" marriage raising a vegetarian child in Southeast Alaska. My boy is four years old. I'd prefer to be a vegan and raise my child as a vegan but face social and family pressures here as extreme as the climate. Any suggestions, support or ideas that any vegan readers have would be gratefully received. Also, I am a non-drinker, and would be interested in hearing vegan perspectives on alcohol. Thank you folks!

[Jenica]

Since I live in a somewhat more supportive environment (emphasis being on the somewhat), just north of Seattle, I haven't got much to say to combatting social pressures.

However, I have a few things to say regarding alcohol. Well, I have a ton to say about it but I won't make a post here like I did about baking bread. :p

I find it very difficult to locally obtain guaranteed organic vegan wine or beer of any quality, and since I'm not much on hard liquor, this severely limits my drinking options. Many times when I was younger I just drank anyway and tried not to think about what it *might* have been processed with, but I am much pickier now, since I feel stronger within myself and more able to regulate my alcoholic tendencies.

Eventually I hope not to drink but once or twice a year if that, since it triggers some psychological cycles that are not conducive to my personal evolution. In the meantime I count myself among the half or so of vegans I know who partake occasionally and with the same concern with which we choose our food.

"Work is the curse of the drinking class."
-- Oscar Wilde

[Morissa Lou Williams]

Dear Jenica,

Thank you for your reply! Your reply really interested me. (By the way, I also loved your bread posting and learned a lot!) I'd heard there might be some animal products in some alcoholic beverages but wasn't sure. Also, I appreciate your approach, taking the same care that you do with food. It sounds like we're in similar climates. Here's to sunshine!