Petaluma group gets ‘veg curious’

Once a month, a group of curious eaters gather in Petaluma to mingle and socialize, listen to speakers talk about nutrition, watch cooking demonstrations and share recipes. There’s food to taste and drinks to enjoy, but two things are notably absent: meat and dairy.

Instead, these people have gathered around their interest and passion for vegetable-centric food. They call themselves “Veg-Curious” and their mission is to “explore plant-based lifestyles for the mind, body and planet.”

The group was started less than a year ago by the nonprofit Aqus Community Foundation, and with an average of 25 people in attendance, it rapidly outgrew the meeting space in the busy Aqus Cafe and relocated to the Petaluma Seed Bank. It’s evolved from those interested in eating more plant-based foods to an inclusive gathering that’s meant to “express a new label” that encompasses curiosity and empowerment, as Diane Gentile, co-founder of the Aqus Community Foundation and the group, explained. Gentile, who was a vegetarian for years, became a vegan essentially overnight after watching “Cowspiracy,” a documentary that explores the impact of animal-based agriculture.

“It felt like a right to exercise my choices and exert my power,” Gentile said. “It’s like speaking the truth for me instead of sort of cheating.”

Gentile and her husband, John Crowley of Aqus Cafe, eat a variety of foods that avoid animal products - salads, potatoes and meatballs made with oats and walnuts - and they’ve also started to make their own staples, like vegan mayonnaise, instead of buying the sometimes more expensive items.

Gentile said her compassion for animals, her desire to protect and restore the environment and to improve her health are the reasons she decided to cut out meat and diary. But, despite her enthusiasm, she’s adamant that the Veg-Curious group is not just for people who agree with her, nor is it about attacking people who eat meat.

“What’s the good of preaching to the choir? Too many people do that,” said Gentile, who added that she does not try to sway people or convince them to change their eating habits. “Our goal is to just be a source of information - I don’t think anybody has the right to tell anyone else what to do.”

The other founding members of the group, Maggie Hohle, a freelance writer and a member of the city’s Recreation Music and Parks Commission, and Ray Cooper, who started the vegan food brand “Vegabond,” share Gentile’s passion and desire for the group to be inclusive.

“There are no angry vegans there,” said Hohle, who brought vegan ribs that her meat-eating husband loves to the first meeting of Veg-Curious. “We’re trying to make a safe space for people who are curious - everyone’s in a different place and everyone needs compassion in their lives.”

Hohle became a vegan about three years ago after writing about Miyoko’s Kitchen, an artisan vegan cheese producer in Marin. She wondered why anyone would want dairy-free cheese made from nuts, but she soon realized that changing her diet would have a larger impact on saving the environment than all the other things she was doing. Plus, the vegan cheese was actually tasty - and deliciousness is key for Hohle.

“You have to create a space where everyone is having really delicious food and nobody misses anything or feels deprived,” she said.

The Veg-Curious organizers invite speakers mostly drawn from a local pool of experts, like Anthony Lim of Kaiser, who leads a popular plant-based nutrition group and will be speaking at the May 25 meeting, to help teach people that not only can vegans still eat delicious desserts (Gentile swears black bean brownies taste better than they sound), but also that a vegan diet isn’t necessarily less nutritious.

“There’s a misconception that we have to eat red meat to be healthy,” Gentile said. “But there is plenty of protein in plants to keep us healthy - it’s just a matter of eating right.”

Rice and beans, for example, provide complex proteins and foods like nutritional yeast - which Gentile relies on to spice up her mac ’n cheese or sprinkle over vegetables - can add essential vitamins to a diet without dairy or meat.

But for other people, like Ray Cooper, who became a vegan in 2008 when he read about a chicken that was rescued from a dumpster at a huge poultry facility, it’s primarily about compassion for animals.

“What really hit me was that people actually cared enough to go out and dig through filth just on the chance that one of the animals might be saved,” he said. “I never knew anyone like that before.”

And while they acknowledge that animal rights, healthy eating and protecting the environment are high on the list of priorities for people in Sonoma County, Hohle and Gentile say even more could be done to educate people in the area, including expanding options at local eateries and getting people excited about the possibilities of things they’ve never before considered - like whipped cream made from chickpeas and flax seed instead of eggs.

But, ultimately, the curiosity that they would like to foster in the community is rooted in the larger picture.

“We have such power in all the choices we make every day,” Gentile said. “There are so many ways to exert your influence and live your values, but this one is just so easy because once you draw the line, it’s a no brainer.”

For more information about the Aqus Community Foundation and the Veg-Curious group, visit www.aquscommunity.net or email info@aquscommunity.com.

(Contact Ariana Reguzzoni at argus@arguscourier.com)