veganuary

Veganuary is Coming!

Veganuary is Coming!

Veganuary is Coming!

The launch of the registration for Veganuary 2024 opened on the 7th December 2023.
Are you going to join in?

Perhaps you have your Christmas dinner and are working your way through those turkey sandwiches? Meat, meat and more meat is one of my recollections of the festive period.

I used to get to the stage where I didn’t really want anymore and I was feeling quite unhealthy.
My thoughts turned to healthy vegetables and salads to get my body back in balance.

However, living in the UK, the range of vegetables around the winter period were mainly heavy root vegetables. Some I like and some I don’t. Although I know they are good for you, just ask my wife my reluctance to allow beetroot, cauliflower or cabbage anywhere near my mouth. (apart from coleslaw of course!).

The temporary enthusiasm for a more vegetarian diet quickly disappeared from my mind.

That was then and this is now.

If I was still living in the UK life would be a little different.

The choice of vegan, vegetarian and plant based restaurants to eat was not there when I left seven years ago.
Supermarkets now have a large rang of plant based meals on offer made by good producers such as Bosh.
There are cookbooks such as:
Anything You Can Cook, I Can Cook Vegan by Richard Makin
Plant-Based India by Dr Sheil Shukla
Whole Food Cooking Every Day by Amy Chaplin
East by Meera Sodha
The New Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone by Deborah Madison
Mildred’s Vegan Cookbook

Flavour by Yotam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage

If celebrity chefs are in the bandwagon then......

It was a little bit of a surprise that Gordon Ramsay was cooking vegan dishes. I guess he has to cater for everyone in his restaurant empire!

Here is Jamie Oliver with just some of the plant based recipes for some British classic dishes.

An easy change to a more weighted plant based diet in Sri Lanka.

When we started GlenMyu Estate we quickly realised that the good quality ingredients that we sourced were much more suited to a vegetarian or vegan menu.
My wide also loves to experiment with the produce we can source and try different types of dishes.

It’s easy to mainly eat a plant based diet as there are many dishes that are mainly made from a vegetarian base. 

I do still eat some fish and chicken however, if I have the option I will opt for mushrooms, tofu or our Sri Lankan sharing platter.

Veganuary is coming! It's easier at GlenMyu Estate!

So, it’s easy at GlenMyu Estate to join in with Veganuary.

The dishes are delicious and varied. being in the tropics, we have a wider variety of fruits, vegetables and spices available to make the dishes at this time on year.

Veganuary is coming. Dip your toes in!

If you are nervous about trying some plant based food then we would welcome you to book a stay at GlenMyu Estate and try some of the dishes that Ru and the team makes. 
You may find this a pleasant surprise!

Try our Vegan food when you stay at GlenMyu Estate.

A stay at GlenMyu Estate as you explore the Sri Lankan Hill Country and see sights like Horton Plains National Park is a unique experience.

We only have three bedrooms and you will need to book early during the peak holiday season.

The estate is usually within an hours drive of the major sightseeing locations such as Nine Arch Bridge, Ella Town, Upper Diyaluma Waterfall, Lipton’s Seat, Bambarakanda Waterfall and many more,

GlenMyu Estate is listed on Booking.com and Airbnb.
Contact us by the WhatsApp button on our website for direct booking rates.

Veganuary is Coming! Read More »

Register for Veganuary 2024

Registration for Veganuary 2024 is open.

Registration for Veganuary 2024 is open.

Exciting new!- Registration for Veganuary 2024 opened on the 5th December 2023!

You can click on the Veganuary website to register. 

It’s quick and easy so there are no obstacles for you to not dip your toes in!

What is Veganuary?

Veganuary is a non-profit organisation that encourages people worldwide to try vegan for January and beyond.

 

The idea was started ten years ago by a couple whilst sitting at their table in a house in Yorkshire, England.

You can watch the video which was recently released “It’ll never catch on”.

Millions of people have signed up to their one-month vegan pledge since 2014.

You can read more about the organisation at theier website.

Are you going to register for Veganuary 2024?

Lots of us like to make New Years Resolutions. I have made many over the years and have failed.

Registering for Veganuary doesn’t mean that you are going to change your food choices to vegan.

Throughout the year, Veganuary encourages and supports people and businesses alike to move to a plant-based diet. It is a  way of protecting the environment, preventing animal suffering, and improving the health of millions of people.

Even if you trying Veganuary in 2024 results in you eating more plant based meals during the year, that will be a success. 

So, why not register and give it a go? 

I don't think I'll like Vegan food.

Maybe you haven’t tried Vegan or plant based food before. There are so many options nowadays compared to when I was growing up. 

In the supermarkets there are a lot of ready meals available from companies like Bosh which are worth trying. They even have a TV channel where you can follow some of their recipes. 

The Veganuary website has lots of recipes to try.

Browsing the Veganuary website there are lots of tools so that you can try cooking some vegan food yourself at home. 

There is a Free Cookbook for you to download, recipes and there are Veganuary Ambassadors who hopefully will provide you with some encouragement and inspiration to try vegan dishes.

Christmas is coming - you can still try plant based food.

You may think that you can’t eat anything but a traditional Christmas Dinner over the festive period.

ASDA supermarket has released ASDA Vegan Christmas Options 2023: A Complete Guide which shows a plant based options for festive period.  TESCO, Marks & Spencers Sainsbury’s and ALDI have also released vegan options for the period.

Plant Based Restaurants.

There have been lots of Plant Based restaurants that have opened in recent years providing you with another way to try vegan food.

Also, more restaurants are providing one or two vegan options which means that you can still eat in a normal eatery. 

LA.Eater reported that singer “Billie Eilish and her producer brother Finneas, are backing a New Vegan Italian Restaurant in Silver Lake”.

In April 2023 , Formula One racing car driver Lewis Hamilton co-founder of Neat Burger opened its’ first US restaurant in New York City.

You can find a list of the best Vegan friendly restaurants in an article by Plant Based News.

 

Lots of options - so lets give it a go!

Clearly, there are lots of options for you to give plant based food a try, so we encourage you to give it a go. By registering for for Veganuary 2024 you can make your first step.

Stay at GlenMyu Estate and try our plant based food options.

A stay at GlenMyu Estate as you explore the Sri Lankan Hill Country and also try the plant based options we offer on our food menu. 

We only have three bedrooms and you will need to book early during the peak holiday season.

The estate is usually within an hours drive of the major sightseeing locations such as Nine Arch Bridge, Ella Town, Upper Diyaluma Waterfall, Lipton’s Seat, Bambarakanda Waterfall and many more,

GlenMyu Estate is listed on Booking.com and Airbnb.
Contact us by the WhatsApp button on our website for direct booking rates.

Registration for Veganuary 2024 is open. Read More »

Amma's Sri Lankan sharing platter.

Veganuary 2023

Veganuary 2023

In 2022, at GlenMyu Estate we launched our Vegan menu in support of Veganuary  and to reflect the changing requirements of our customers. We are revamping our Vegan menu in support of Veganuary 2023.

How was our Vegan menu launched in 2022 received?

Our guests really enjoyed the dishes that Ruwanthi has devised.

When our guests arrive we normally offer a small range of meal options and lots pick our Sri Lankan Paratha Sharing Platter. 

The platter varies depending on seasonal items available and normally consists of:

Freshly prepared parathas

Aubergine curry

Jackfruit curry

Kohlu curry

Passionfruit leaf salad

We had two ladies from Austria who said that they had not eaten as delicious food in Vienna.

A couple from Melbourne, Australia really enjoyed their Vegan meals as they had found that Vegan meals had mainly been just eating rice and curry around the Island.

And we have also been surprised on the number of guests who have either been Vegan or Vegetarian who have stayed at GlenMyu Estate in 2022. 

If you want to view our existing Vegan Menu please click the tab

We are not Vegan but…

At GlenMyu Estate we still offer meat, fish and vegetarian meals.

We feel we need to do this to reflect the requirements of our customers.

However, we are pleasantly surprised of the amount of people that have stayed with us that are vegetarian or vegan.

We will continuously adapt our Vegan and Vegetarian Menus with a plan to establish a reputation as a place to go for Vegan and Vegetarian food.

A change is coming

There are several factors which has led us to come to the conclusion that there will be more requirements for Vegan food in the future.

The events of early 2022 should result in the change in peoples habits being quicker to take place. 

We list some of the events that have led us in our thinking.

Inflation and rising costs

The economic crisis in Sri Lanka had led to change in habits for people on the island.

The lack of fuel available earlier in 2022 lead to goods not being able to be transported around the island.This led to us looking at substitutes for things like butter and milk leading us to more use of fresh coconuts.

Import restrictions and the depreciation of the Rupee led to a shortage of chicken feed which in turn reduced the number of eggs being produced. A forecast food shortage led to the Government encouraging people to grow more fruits and vegetable in their gardens, in pots on windowsill and other means to try to fill this expected gap.

Inflation has skyrocketed here.

CCPI based headline inflation recorded at 64.3% on year-on-year basis in August 2022.

It is a real challenge for people to cope as wages have not increased and this has led to many missing meals as it is unaffordable.

The Current Situation

A fuel quota system has been introduced so we are seeing supermarket shelves filled again and those stales are in reasonable supply.

The costs of some staples have been reduced however are significantly higher than last year. For example rice was around 110 rupees per kilo and now is 240 per kilo.

A fertiliser ban was revoked and is now imported and being donated by other countries. This should lead to an increased production of crops such as rice next season. 

The Country wants to go down the organic route and we think it will achieve this in the future however it must be phased in slowly.

An increase in Tourist numbers

We were pleased to see that in August 2022 most Foreign Office advice was lifted by many countries and it was considered okay for tourists to visit this paradise island again.

There have also been press about the number of airlines that will start flying to Sri Lanka again from early November.

The country really needs to generate more foreign income to try to get the economy back on track so we really appreciate tourists coming wherever they stay in Sri Lanka.

So, we at GlenMyu Estate, are looking forward to welcoming guests and them sampling the menus we have to offer.

Veganuary 2022 - The Numbers

According to the Veganuary website the good news is that.

629,000 signed up

228 Countries & Territories took part

1,540 new vegan products and menus launched

There is a free celebrity recipe booklet to download if you sign up with your e mail.

On the website there are also Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snacks and Sweet Treats recipes that you can try and experience homemade Vegan food for yourself.

Maybe sampling some of our Veganuary 2023 will start you on your Vegan journey.

Although we still eat meat, chicken and fish we have changed our own diets so that it is much more plant based. Our aim is to do our bit for the environment along with eating healthier.

As more of our guests opt for Vegetarian and Vegan dishes this reflects what we tend to eat also.

When I was growing up in the UK there was very little in the way of offering for Vegetarian and Vegan food. I’m delighted that there are so many tasty options nowadays and we hope that your experience at GlenMyu Estate will provide a reason to consider a change of lifestyle.

Experience our Vegan menu supporting Veganuary 2023 at GlenMyu Estate

You can contact Ruwanthi at GlenMyu Estate for bookings via the green WhatsApp button or write to Michael by E-mail michael@resortglenmyu.com

Here is a taste of what GlenMyu Estate is all about;

3 Kingsize Double Bedrooms with Spectacular Views

2 Spacious Lounges with views over the hills below the house

A Natural Spring-Fed Infinity Swimming Pool

5 Acres of land to explore

Delicious bespoke meals freshly prepared by the host

A selection of places to dine

A place to relax and be closer to nature

Within reach of the following tourist sites:

Diyaluma Waterfall and Upper Diyaluma Pools

Horton Plains National Park – Mini Worlds End, Worlds End and Bakers Falls

Adisham Bungalow

Lipton Seat

Dambetenna Tea Factory

Bambarakanda Waterfall

Thangamale Bird Sanctuary

Ella Town 

9 Arch Bridge

Little Adams Peak

Ravanna Waterfall

Please also visit our website for further details and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.

Veganuary 2023 Read More »

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