Gone Vegan

Mary Lake isn’t ashamed to admit that she daydreams about food—a lot. She’s constantly working to create new vegan recipes and shares them with people across the country through her vegan food blog, Mitten Machen.

Being a vegan means not eating any animal products or by-products—no meat, eggs, or dairy. It also means not wearing leather. Some vegans go so far as to avoid eating honey because an animal—the bumblebee—has to make it. Instead, vegans eat fruits and vegetables, beans, whole grains, and tofu to get the calcium and protein their bodies need to stay healthy.

The vegan lifestyle might sound difficult, but it comes easily to Lake. “It’s not hard for me because I love fruits and vegetables. It’s harder if you’re picky about produce,” she says as she checks on the black bean stew simmering on the stovetop. While friends of vegans can sometimes worry about their getting enough protein, “a lot of people overestimate the amount of protein you eat,” she says. Lake doesn’t even take supplements since she is careful to eat a balanced diet daily. She believes the best route to a balanced diet as a vegan is to stay flexible. “I’m willing to experiment with grains and vegetables. You have to be willing to try new things.”

A vegan meal isn’t drastically different from any other meal; the main difference is that the vegetable is the main course. In this case, it’s also the bowl itself: Lake spoons her black bean stew into the carved-out center of a halved acorn squash that she has roasted to perfection. She’s made a side dish of white rice, and fishes a jar of hot sauce out of the fridge as she talks about her journey.

Lake originally became a vegetarian at 14 years old to support animal rights, and then turned vegan during her days at Old Orchard Beach High School. Over the years, she’s flip-flopped between being a vegan and a vegetarian who eats dairy. When she attended Tufts University outside of Boston, she says it was harder to be vegan because she didn’t have a car and didn’t have access to any fresh produce in the dining hall. Two years ago she was inspired to make the transition back to a vegan diet after reading Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

“I was learning about what was actually in my food,” she says with a slight grimace. “I like knowing what I’m eating.”

To ensure that she gets the freshest fruits, vegetables, and grains, Lake goes to the local farmers markets in Orono and Bangor every week. She is also involved with Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), a program that allows participants to own a share of a local farm. As a CSA member, Lake receives a bag of fresh produce each week from Parkers Produce, a local farm from Winterport, and she uses the fruits and veggies to concoct new and tasteful meals. “I have a short attention span for food,” she says as she sets the cooked squash on white serving plates. “So I’m always coming up with new recipes.”

Her blog, Mitten Machen, has over 35 of her original recipes, varying from blueberry wheat muffins to fresh arugula pesto to coco-mint chocolate chip ice cream. She started blogging to record what she ate, and as people started following her work she realized that the community was interested in vegan cooking. Lately, Lake has noticed that some of the restaurants in downtown Bangor, where she and her husband live, are becoming more vegan-friendly.

“Paddy Murphy’s and the Sea Dog have hummus, which is made from chick peas, on their menu. It’s as if these restaurants are trying to think of different things to feed these crazy vegans,” she says with a laugh.

Seemingly crazy or not, Lake hopes that others, including vegetarians, will try the vegan lifestyle for themselves. “I feel so much better when I’m not eating cheese and eggs,” she says. “Before, I wasn’t aware of how heavy those foods were until I stopped eating them, and with time, my appetite for cheese and eggs disappeared altogether. Now I’m not feeling greasy and gross afterwards.”

As she begins to clean her pots and pans, Lake admits that even though her body prefers fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, there’s one vegetable she can’t stomach. “We like all vegetables here,” she says. “Except beets.”