2019 D.C. Veg Fest
Zygote Nation was there! … At the 2019 D.C. Veg Fest on Aug. 11, 2019, at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C.
The festival had a new home this year: Nationals Park, the beautiful stadium of the Washington Nationals professional baseball franchise. Previously, the veg fest took place at a nearby outdoor public park.
Photo by Michael Sirak
It was a gloriously sunny day in the nation’s capital and a large crowd turned out. Most of the vendors were situated in the ballpark’s indoor ground-level corridor. As much as I love the ballpark, and as neat as it was to look out onto the ball field, I found the interior space too confining.
That said, the crowd was good-tempered despite the logjams trying to walk around, and I did come across several new-to-me items.
Here is my list of the festival’s notable vendors and products:
Ojas
Photo by Michael Sirak
Ojas of Salisbury, Maryland, sells vegan snack bars and bites with ingredients based on Ayurvedic principles of health and wellness. The bars are baked; the bites are raw. I really liked these products as they have a nice clean, fresh taste and are filling. Ayurveda is a holistic approach to healing that traces its roots to India thousands of years ago. The bars’ and bites’ ingredients, some of which are organic, are built around a base of dates and oats and help to increase “ojas,” which in Ayurveda is “an essential energy for body and mind … responsible for health, strength, vitality, long life, immunity, [and] mental and emotional wellbeing,” states the company’s website. The 1.8-ounce bars come in four varieties, each with its own spice blend and respective mix of Ayurvedic ingredients (listed in parenthesis): Cocoa (cocoa, hemp oil, sea salt); Cardamom (cardamom, hemp oil); Cinnamon (cinnamon, ginger, hemp oil); and Clove (clove, hemp oil, turmeric). Normally, I do not enjoy foods with clove, as I find that the clove tends to dominate the taste. However, I found Ojas’s clove bar to have a pleasant, nicely subdued clove taste. There are also four types of bites: Cafe (cocoa, chia seeds, hemp oil), which also contains coffee; Golden Milk (turmeric, coconut, ginger); Mighty Nut (almonds, walnuts); and Seed Power (chia, hemp, flax, and pumpkin seeds). The bites come in 2.1-ounce bags; each bag contains six thick, round bites, which have a diameter larger than a US quarter coin. Both the bars and bites are free of dairy, soy, protein powders, artificial flavors and sweeteners, chemicals, and preservatives, according to the company. They also are easy to digest and “naturally gluten-free,” since the only grain they contain is oats, states the website.
Photo by Michael Sirak
Photo by Michael Sirak
Photo by Michael Sirak
Brewing Good Coffee Company of Savage, Maryland, offers single-origin coffee (e.g., Ethiopia, Mexico, Peru) and coffee blends (e.g., Bright Eyed & Bushy Tailed medium roast, Into the Light light roast, Rebellion dark roast). These products carry various quality and stewardship certifications (e.g., fair trade, organic, bird-friendly) that vary depending on the specific blend and place of origin. For example, my bag of Take Flight (shown above)—a medium-roast blend of beans from Peru, Guatemala, and Honduras, with tasting notes of graham cracker and vanilla—is fair trade-certified as well as organic and bird-friendly. The Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center established the latter certification; it guarantees that the coffee is organic and shade-grown and that the forests of origin provide a healthy haven for migrating birds. I like that the company’s website provides background information on the coffee varieties, such as aforementioned certifications, and the roast profile (e.g., medium roast, dark), tasting notes (e.g., red apple, spiced chocolate), processing methods (e.g., washed, wet hulled and sun dried), elevation at which the beans grow, and bean varieties/cultivars. That’s a nice touch. I also appreciate that I can select not only whole beans or ground beans when I order, but also can specify the type of grind I want (i.e., drip, expresso, French press, Keurig, pour over, cold brew). Brewing Good Coffee Company also has a line of loose teas (e.g., Cinnamon Chai, Earl Grey, Red Rooibos). It donates 10 percent of its proceeds to non-profit organizations that protect animals, according to the website.
Honorable Mention
Plantie
I was looking forward to trying a smoothie from Plantie of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, northwest of Philadelphia. The company uses only organic ingredients in its raw, plant-based smoothies, according to its website. Plantie currently offers seven smoothie varieties: Bliss (watermelon, strawberry, apple, beet), Glow (carrot, orange, apple, mango, water), Joy (cranberry, apple, pear, beet, cinnamon, nutmeg, water), Rise (banana, peanut butter, cacao, flax seed, coconut milk, water), Shine (strawberry, banana, pineapple, orange, carrot, beet, water), Spice (pumpkin, carrot, apple, banana, dates, spices), and Zen (banana, pineapple, orange, spinach, water). Of them, I was most eager to taste Rise. However, by the time I reached the Plantie table, it had sold out of smoothies. I look forward to coming across Plantie at a future event and grabbing a smoothie in time.
Deja Vu All Over Again
Two businesses also were present that Zygote Nation already has covered:
Tamim Teas, which sells medicinal mushroom teas. For more, please read my 2018 Boston Vegetarian Food Festival coverage.
-and-
Yeah Dawg, which markets non-soy-based vegan hot dogs. For more, please see my 2018 Atlantic City Vegan Food Festival write-up.
Photo by Michael Sirak
