PLANT-BASED PEOPLES
Words by Jessica Peace
G&T grab a chat with ‘Vevolution’ founders and plant-based peoples Damien and Judy...
WHAT IS ‘VEVOLUTION’?
Vevolution is a plant-based events and media company that we started in 2016. We loved TED Talks and felt that the plant-powered movement needed a platform...
We wanted to blend our love of education with creativity and passion for plant based living.
We made a commitment to film our talks and make them freely available online. So far we have filmed over 40 talks and aim to have around 100 filmed by the end of 2018. [www.vevolution.co/videos]
IN ONE OF THE MADDEST, MOST EXPENSIVE CITIES IN THE WORLD, IT’S HARD TO DO THE THINGS WE FEEL WE ‘SHOULD’ BE DOING LIKE GROWING OUR OWN, BUYING ORGANIC, GOING VEGAN OR ‘PLANT-BASED’… GOT ANY ADVICE FOR US?
In London you’re lucky if you actually have a garden. Which we both find really sad. For us subscribing to organic veg box schemes has been the easiest way to get fresh, local and organic vegetables. There are some great ones out there like Growing Communities, Organic Lea, Crop Drop or Riverford.
We think when you are going plant-based you need to listen your body. If you feel tempted to spoon in a mouthful of peanut butter you probably need more fats - be kind to yourself and do it :-)
PLANTS IN YOUR LIFE?
We’ve got a little bathroom garden happening at the moment, mostly consisting of leafy plants and succulents. Damien loves to go looking for wild garlic - there is loads in Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington if you know the right places to look.
PETAL, PALM OR POTATO?
We’re split here, Judy loves succulents as our bathroom will testify - Damien gets really excited by growing food and is never happier than when outside tending to whatever he is growing at the time.
We tend to have more plants than flowers as the plants become part of our micro family - we love tending to them and seeing them grow. But when we have a garden we will definitely plant some lovely flowers.
PLANT OF THE MOMENT?
We are totally loving our kentia palm, it’s so sturdy and we are enjoying see it grow into a big house plant. We also love our Croton tropical plant - Judy found a ladies head pot - it looks like her hair is the gorgeous multi-coloured leaves!
FAVE FLORAL SPACE
In Lloyds Park in Walthamstow they have a wonderful wildflower garden at the back of the William Morris gallery (read our guide here). There is no better place to go and sit with a good book during the summer and be surrounded by abundance of colour and gorgeous smells.
Judy’s favourite childhood place is Kew Gardens (read our guide here) - she has some lovely memories from there.
FINISH THE SENTENCE: ‘PLANTS ARE…’
Plants are the air we breath, eternal and they give us hope.
‘VEVOLUTION 2017’ WAS A HUGE SUCCESS, TELL US WHAT YOU HAVE COMING UP THIS YEAR?
We are currently running a monthly event series in Shoreditch London called ‘Vevolution Topics’. The first one of these in February focused on food innovation and the feeling amongst the speakers and audience members was that slowly but surely people are coming more open to the idea of eating more plants.
We’ve just announced that Vevolution is going to make its international debut in LA by hosting a stage at the SEED Food and Wine Week this May - This really is important to us as we want to be part of a global movement for societal change.
Aside from that we’ve got a business event in collaboration with Bright Zine in the works and will be returning with an even bigger Vevolution 2018 Festival in November.
The Vevolution podcast will be released in the coming months.
Next Vevolution Topics event: 13th March 2018
Check out their instagram here