How long have you been vegan?
I think I was vegan from birth. As long as I can remember, at dinner time I got yelled at for not eating my meat. I doused what I had to eat with A-1 sauce (big in the '60s) so it was unrecognizable, and I flushed what I could down the toilet and fed the rest to our cat, Angel. It was a process that took years going from meat eater to vegetarian to vegan. I let go of one thing at a time. I went vegan about 16 years ago.

Why?
I love the aspect of helping to end animal suffering by choosing compassion three times a day at breakfast, lunch and dinner.

What’s the best thing about a plant based diet?
I’ve chosen a career where I work to inspire people who still eat animals to cut down and hopefully cut out all of the animal products in their diets by feeding them ready to eat, prepared, organic, vegan meals delivered right to their doors. I started Healthy Gourmet To-Go in 1993 for that very reason, and am happy to say many a client has gone vegan without even realizing it because they’re so busy eating our food every week and some have connected to the compassion piece and have stopped because of that. Whatever their reasons, I’m just grateful that one person at a time, I’m doing what I can to make a difference for the animals! Over a decade ago Dr. Dean Ornish proved that a vegan diet can prevent and/or reverse heart disease! It can also prevent most cancers, especially when you think about how long humans’ intestines are (almost 30 feet long) and how it takes days for our food to be digested and leave our bodies. Then you look at obligate carnivores and see that their intestines are only about three feet long: meat in, meat out. Otherwise, it’s in there putrefying and causing disease. Then of course the hot topic lately is the realization by the masses finally that factory farming is doing more to increase global warming than all the cars on the planet.

Why is raw food so good for us?
I always feel totally energized; my skin texture improves as does my digestion and thinking. It’s a great way to lose weight and its fun in the warmer weather because you never ever have to turn on the stove, microwave or oven. The live enzymes in all the soaked, sprouted and rehydrated nuts, seeds, legumes and grains are wonderful.

What are some of your favorite regional farms to frequent?
Huguenot Street Farm, which is not only organic it is VEGANIC (www.flyingbeet.com) and TaliaferroFarms, which is organic (www.Taliaferrofarms.org). Both are in New Paltz. Huguenot Street Farm explains that “There is no certification standard for Veganic Agriculture at the present time, but the basic concept couldn’t be simpler. Really, we are just ‘cutting out the middle man’—in this case is the cow, chicken, horse, pig or whatever. What is their manure made from anyway but plant materials? There is no ‘magic’ that goes on inside the animal that makes their manure better for the soil or plants than if we used the base material. In FACT, it is quite the opposite if you are using factory-farmed wastes!”

Is there an ingredient in early spring that you are fond of cooking with that heralds spring and then summer’s bounty?
I guess fresh asparagus really get to me the most. They are so cute and determined the way they grow straight up out of the earth, like little primal independent soldiers signifying the season of growth has begun. I remember my mom would use her glass Pyrex coffee pot to vertically cook asparagus for our dinner. She’d cut an inch or two off the tough bottom and then stand them upright in the pot. I always wondered why she didn’t just steam or boil them horizontally like everything else! Little did I realize till years later that she got to cook the tough ends more than the delicate tips that way. I’ve always loved her cooking…probably why I became a chef!