Do you live in a non-veg friendly area?

[MrsKey]

We're contemplating a relocation and the area we're moving to is northern Alabama. From my experience on a recent trip there restaurants are not veg friendly. There's nary a Whole Foods or Wild Oats in the whole state. And while where I currently live you can get tofu and organic veggies even at the SuperWal-Mart store ... it just isn't happening in norther AL.

So I was wondering how others who live in non-veg friendly areas do it. Does it make veg life harder?

Thanks,

[xmysticprincessx]

northern alabama doesnt have a super wal mart??? i thought everywhere had a super wal mart! we have one 20 minutes away, then they opened one last summer a few miles from me. there's plans to build another a few miles from me in another direction. i think there's plans to build at least one other in our area!
get a big freezer and big shelves and stock up on all the vegan stuff when you take the road trip to the health food store or when its on sale. even out in the boonies (literally, the boonies), the one grocery store there sells silk soymilk and morningstar veggie burgers. so you should be ok.

[vegma]

Mrs. Key, I don't consider my area to be veg-friendly, however I do have 2 NFS's in my area - one is a little over 30 minutes away and one is a little less than an hour away. I could easily be vegan without either one, but I would have trouble being organic without them. You might check into a buying club. If there's not already one there, maybe you could start one. Here's one with a link to Alabama:

http://www.unitedbuyingclubs.com/RESOURCES/FABC/FABC_Home.htm

[Wendy]

We live in a smallishmed sized town and in Texas steak house type eating places are everywhere. Super Walmart has a few vegan things (never seen cheese or yogurt but I buy our Soy Milk there) and there is one very small Health food store that just opened up. I dont think its Vegan friendly. Im sure there are others here that are Vegan but who.....i dunno

[MrsKey]

Thanks everyone!

I think that getting some vegetarian or vegan convenience foods might be a bit harder ... but I am also thinking that I can live without them. I'll just have to <gasp> :p rely on fresh produce and whole foods and mail order for some of the harder to find things. :D

[askantik]

Originally posted by MrsKey
We're contemplating a relocation and the area we're moving to is northern Alabama.


Yay!! What town in AL? I live in Northeastern Mississippi. There are 3 or 4 health food stores here that are pretty vegan friendly. Also, 90 miles north is Memphis. I like to go there once a month or so and visit Wild Oats and The Vitamin Shoppe. Tupelo (where I live) is a fairly large town as far as Mississippi is concerned, and only about 100 miles from Muscle Shoals, AL and 140 miles from Birmingham, AL.

Good luck :)

[MrsKey]

We're moving to the Huntsville, AL area (about 70 miles N of Birmingham).

There is, apparently, one pretty good HFS in Huntsville that is owned by some Seventh Day Adventists. And I have noticed a fair number of SDA churches there ... which means that there are people who eat a vegetarian diet there.

I have a great cooler/refigerator that plugs into the car power outlets ... so I guess I'll just have to plan some special trips to get some of the more "unusual" stuff that I want. And there's always mail order.

I've just gotten a little spoiled where I live now.

Thanks for the encouragement!