Exceprt from Bedina's War - As Needed Chapter Two

The Slave’s Smile

Acacia put down the marble mortar and pestle as the door opened.

The First-Defender walked in and was quickly followed by four other

soldiers. Without a word from the First, the soldiers began opening

and shutting drawers, lifting lids, drawing back cabinet curtains.

“As per Civil Law number 5792.4 clause Beta Zed, every shop and

business is to avail itself to regular searches.” The Defender spoke to the

old man snoozing by the fireplace. The slave moved silently between

the Defender and the old man and sat on the floor beside her master.

The soldiers weren’t thorough, but there was no contraband to find,

and with the Defender in attendance, nothing could be stolen. Casually,

as if to pass the time, Hamm asked, “What kind of shop is this?”

Acacia stood, her back to her master, facing the man who had

saved her life less than a week ago. “An apothecary shop.”

He looked puzzled.

“I don’t know how to say it in Alliang. A shop of healing herbs and

elixirs.”

“Medical?” he snarled.

“No.” She bowed her head and wiggled her toes. Silver rings

encircled three toes on each foot. An anklet sparkled and drew his gaze

higher, to the embroidered hem of her robe. “My master is a Wisdom.

He studies the art of healing. It has nothing to do with Medical

Harvesters.”

“Hmm.” He wished she would look at him.

“Naught.” A grizzled soldier beat her chest with her right fist while

addressing her First.

“Go ni’shop. I b’soon.” He kept his eyes on the slave and demanded,

“Translate.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Go on to the next shop. I’ll be there shortly.” She stopped wiggling

her toes and began fluttering her fingers at her side.

“Where were you born, Slave?”

She softened her voice in response to his harshness. “On the table.”

“Table? What planet is Table?”

“The table was on my home world.”

“I don’t like repeating questions.”

She was staring at his boots as she lifted first one heel of her bare

feet and then the other.

“I was born on a table between my mother’s legs.” She glanced at

him and smiled.

He repaid her smile with a snarl. She dropped her eyes to the floor

again.

“I can find out where you are from. There are records of everyone

and everything that come into this region.”

She shrugged slightly as if in agreement.

“I’ve never seen anyone like you.”

“We are individuals, each one. Alone in the universe, but one with

the Song.”

The Defender stepped back as if the scripture she quoted had

physically slapped him.

“How long have your teeth hurt?” She tilted her head.

“My teeth?” He ground them.

“Yes, First-Defender. Your teeth. They hurt. I can see it in your face

and in the way you square your shoulders.”

His nostrils flared and his cheeks turned red. “A slave who practices

medicine.”

“Slavery is a state of being, not a limitation of the mind.”

“You certainly know your scriptures, Slave.”

“So that honor may be served, my name is not Slave. It is Acacia.”

“Honor is given, received, and returned. My name is Hamm.” He

inclined his head as she bowed.

The old man snorted in his sleep.

“Three weeks.” Hamm turned to leave. “My teeth have ached for

three weeks.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

With Hamm nearing the door, Acacia left her master’s side and

crossed to a cabinet filled with bottles. “Mix one part of this liquid with

two parts of water. Gargle with it two times a day.” She poured brown

liquid from a jug into a glass bottle and corked it.

Hamm hesitated, and then took the bottle from her. “How much?”

“One part to two parts water.”

“No.” Hamm shook his head and took out a payment chip.

“Your presence prevented the usual amount of loss from your

soldiers. A fair trade.”

The Defender ground his teeth again, but put away his credit

chip. “A safe journey, First-Defender Hamm.” She bowed as he left.

ttttt

Hamm peeled off his goggles and beat the fine dust from his cloak

as he stepped onto the apothecary’s porch. He made the mistake of

licking his lips, and the grit from this morning’s windstorm set his

teeth on edge. The door slid open at his touch and he eagerly breathed

in the shops’ aroma. His nostrils were assaulted by garlic and pepper,

and enthralled by vanilla and green tea. Scents swirled around him and

he wished he knew the names of each one.

Several customers chatted amicably while waiting. The old man

glanced at Hamm, but continued pouring water into a small simmering

cauldron. Hamm nodded at the old man and purposefully began

examining the eaves of the store. Vines, leaves, roots, twigs, strange

fruit hung in bundles from each support beam. He couldn’t begin to

put a name on any of them.

“Dom-che. Quay niniy.”

“Ty.” Acacia entered from the shop’s rear in response to the old

man’s words.

“The first ingredient I will need is Serenoa repens, Acacia.”

“Yes, Wisdom.” Acacia reached into a cabinet and drew out a

basket. She took out several small reddish-brown wrinkled seeds, each

one half the size of her thumb.

The Wisdom examined each one individually, and then began to

juggle them. Acacia drew a short knife from her sleeves. As he juggled

the seeds, she snatched one back and sliced it down the middle and

plopped the halves into the cauldron. They continued until there were

no seeds left.

The customers murmured appreciatively.

“Next, I will need Echinacea.”

Acacia looked up into the rafters of the shop. She wove her way

through the customers and pointed, beaming proudly, at a something

dangling above their heads. From the ground to almost three meters

above her, she leapt and unhooked a floret and gracefully returned

to the floor with only a slight bend at her knees. The floret had deep

purple flowers surrounding a cone. She danced her way back behind

the counter, waving the aromatic dried herb as she moved. She handed

it to the Wisdom with a bow. He tsked and yanked the flowers and cone

away from the rhizome. The purple flowers cascaded around them as

the Wisdom quickly hammered the root into a pulp. Majestically, he

scooped the mash off the counter and tossed it into the cauldron.

“Assistant, we will need Urtica dioica.”

“Oh Wisdom, must I? I still have an itch, and the blisters!”

He picked up a wooden spoon and frowned at her.

She shrieked and ran toward the window. She plucked one hairy

leaf from a plant growing there. “Ow!”

“More than that, Assistant.”

“Oh, Wisdom,” she pouted beautifully. “Ow!” She plucked another

and turned to look imploringly at him.

He shook his head. “More.”

Acacia howled dramatically with each of the six leaves she picked

from the bush.

“Enough.” He watched as she dropped them into the cauldron. She

showed him her blistered fingers, imploringly. He tsked. “If you will

pluck them from the top of the stem, the nettles will not sting you.

Foolish child.” His hands reached beneath his counter and pulled out

a jar of light green salve. She grinned in relief as he rubbed her fingers

with the ointment. “Better?”

“Oh, yes, Wisdom! Your fern salve works to cure any blister, bruise,

or cut.”

The customers murmured speculatively now.

 

Excerpt from

Bedina’s War

© Evelyn Rainey

Comfort Publishing

ISBN 9781936695881

DRIED CORN

(Now, this was interesting. I’m not sure why the cook went to the trouble of this, when I just assumed corn became dried once it was popped off the cob and kept until needed. But it’s interesting, should the need ever arise – here’s how!)

Fresh corn

Butter/margarine

Salt and sugar to taste

Boil corn on the cob until milk will not run when kernel is broken. Drain and cool. Cut grains off cob; spread on cloth and dry in sun for one day. Store in cloth bags until needed. Soak 1 pint dried corn in 1 quart water overnight. Simmer in same water for 2 hours, adding more boiling water if needed. Add butter, salt and sugar to taste before serving.

(Mrs. John Bauer, Interlachen, FL © Southern Living 1968)

Gluten-free and Vegetarian/Vegan Recipes

To meet my needs of being “gluten-free”, there are no ingredients that have wheat in them. Since one out of one-hundred people now have problems with the way the United States processes their foods, there are plenty of brands which are marked GF Gluten-free. However, read all the way around the label and determine if there might be traces of wheat or if the product was processed in a plant or on machinery that also handles wheat. (These statements are usually NOT found near the list of ingredients.) If this is the case and you are gluten-sensitive or have a wheat-toxicity, don’t use it!

I also deleted recipes which called for hidden gluten – like shrimp, frozen mangoes and parsnips.

Vegetarian foods allow the use of milk, honey, eggs, and other non-kill animal products; vegans do not. I have endeavored to post only recipes with vegan-appropriate ingredients. If I really liked something, though, that was vegetarian rather than vegan, I will note it.

Whenever possible, use non-GMO products (non-genetically modified).  If you think gmo’s are ok for you, you haven’t read any science fiction books, let alone Charles Darwin.

These recipes are not an attempt to substitute wheat or animal ingredients with something else. These recipes are “naturally” or originally gluten-free and vegetarian/vegan.

Excerpt from Bedina's War - Lazy Eight Ladies Chapter Two

A Wedding Ring

Orchidea City was buried beneath the forest floor. Great gaping

holes peered between gigantic roots. The doorways led to taverns,

inns, businesses, and private homes. A few bungalows were visible

beyond the city’s center. Further away, tree houses filled the branches

of sycamores and banyans. Sally thought it was strange to see such

dissimilar trees sharing the same ecosystem. It was even stranger

to realize that most of the dwellings were uninhabited. The site of

abandoned tree houses saddened her. As a Spa’Lab child, tree houses

were the most enchanting concept she could imagine. The difference

between sleeping in a hammock attached to metal walls and sleeping in

a hammock tied to living, breathing, growing trees was the difference

between mundane and magic. Of course, the probable reason why

there were so many abandoned houses was part of the reason she had

come to Orchidea, and that thought saddened her further.

Adelaide stopped in the middle of these underground dwellings

and sank to her belly as the women crawled off.

“Thank you, Geoffrey. How much do I owe you?” Sally reached

into her pack.

“I’d be a gentleman if I told you Mr. Haskell’s done paid it in full,

but the scoundrel in me wants to charge you a kiss.” He grinned. “One

from each of you.”

“Seems to me Adelaide did all the work. She’s the one should get

the kiss.” Sally grinned back and slapped his palm. “Thank you.”

“Inn’s through that hole. See you around, if you change your mind.”

He touched Gaia’s cheek, then jumped back onto his croc and rode away.

“Sally,” Livia touched her arm. “I don’t have any money. Sejanus

was supposed to meet me here. What should I do?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Let’s go to the inn and get cleaned up. You don’t want Sejanus to

see you like this.” Sally pulled her arm through hers. “My treat.”

“Oh, I couldn’t take charity. I’ll work it off …”

“The Field of Honor has no room for charity given or received. That’s

an old NewPhee scripture.”

“What’s it mean?”

“It means I’m not offering you charity.”

Livia stopped and her face reddened. “I don’t understand.”

Sally stopped, too. “Livia, I trust that you will not slit my throat

during the night, or sell me to the nearest Harvester.”

“I couldn’t do that.” Livia scowled. “If I sold you to a Harvester,

you’d turn into a Walking Dead.”

Sally tilted her head, glaring at the Earther’s rudeness, and fingered

the cube-shaped sterling pendant hanging at her neck. The fact that

Spa’Labs had altered themselves so that they could not be harvested or

sold as slaves was not a topic discussed in polite society. The fact that

the Songbox, as the pendant was called, healed this alteration was a

sp’lab kept secret. It wasn’t discussed at all.

“Or so I’ve heard.” Livia blushed.

“Is that the only reason you wouldn’t do that?” She crossed her

arms.

“Of course not. I couldn’t.” She swallowed. “I wouldn’t sell you.”

“Why not?”

“Because it wouldn’t be right.” She bowed her head and whispered,

“You’ve been nice to me.”

“I’ve yelled at you and made you cry.”

Livia grinned. “My mother used to do the same things.”

Sally grinned too. “I’m lonely, Livia. I miss my family. I’m used to

being surrounded by my children and grandchildren and staff. I’m not

offering you charity. I’m offering you friendship. I would be honored

to be your friend.”

Livia beamed in surprise.

The door had to be pushed open manually. It led into a darkened

tunnel which declined steeply. Tiny track lighting ran at ankle-height

and above their heads. The tunnel smelled of moldy cabbage and

 

 

 

 

 

 

peppermint. Sally used her walking stick and Livia held her elbow with

cold fingers.

The dimness didn’t change, but the air freshened and the tunnel

leveled into a round room. A beautiful oval wooden table filled the

center of the room, and its highly polished surface reflected the ceiling

lights. The sound of a stringed instrument, played poorly, came from a

doorway to the women’s left.

“Hello?” Livia called.

The music hesitated and then began again.

“Hello!” she called louder. “We’ve come for a room.”

A frizzy-haired and bearded head stuck out of the opening.

Livia and Sally smiled.

The head disappeared. The women waited.

After a while, Sally opened her mouth to call out again when a

huge man waddled out of the opening. His hair had been slicked down

since she had first seen him, but hadn’t been combed in years. Sticks

and leaves stuck in his beard. The scent of cedar and sweat permeated

the air around him. He came closer, scowling fiercely.

“Geoffrey told us this was an inn.” Livia took a step backwards and

moved behind Sally.

The man squinted between them, silently appraising their

appearance. Sally stood still and stared patiently at his bare dirty feet.

The man took a deep breath. “Women.”

Sally looked up at him. “Yes, we’re women.”

“No.” He turned away. “No rooms. No rooms for women.”

“You would turn away a child?” She pulled Livia from her safe

place behind her. “Her name is Gaia.”

The innkeeper kept his face averted, but glanced at the baby.

“We’ve been on shuttles for months now. And we’re very tired. We

need a shelter for the child. Haskell sent Geoffrey and Adelaide to pick

us up at the port and Geoffrey said this was a safe place.”

The innkeeper’s eyes rolled and he breathed in gasps. “Mr. Haskell?”

“Yes. Haskell Benjamin,” Sally nodded.

“And Adelaide?” He turned toward the women, his eyes fastened

on Gaia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Yes,” she confirmed.

He snorted and nodded fiercely. “Through there. Choose any room

you want.”

They turned to look at an opening to their right.

“Thank you,” Sally turned back, but he was gone.

Livia bathed Gaia first, then Livia bathed while Sally unpacked.

Then it was Sally’s turn. There are certain times in one’s life when

bathing becomes a spiritual experience. Sally remembered her first

bath ever. She was eight years old and had left OrionLab to visit some

friends on Talmedia III. Then there was the first time she and Jacob

bathed together. And now, the first bath on Orchidea. Each time, the

water felt thick — not hard, but thick — like oil. Soft, caressing. So

clean. These were the times Sally truly believed in silkies and halfwaited

to see herself turn into a seal and swim forever in this water.

They decided to save money and eat what they had, sleep the rest

of the day, and begin tomorrow fresh. Gaia woke them every now and

then, but she never cried.

Excerpt from

Bedina’s War

© Evelyn Rainey

Comfort Publishing

ISBN 9781936695881

HERBED CARROTS WITH GREEN GRAPES

1 ½ pounds carrots

½ tsp salt

1 tsp basil

½ cup butter/margarine

1 small clove garlic, crushed

½ tsp thyme

¼ tsp celery salt

1 cup seedless grapes

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1/8 tsp salt

Few grains of pepper

Wash and pare carrots; cut into 3x1/4 inch strips. Put carrots into saucepan; add salt, basil and enough boiling water to steam. Cook covered for 12 to 15 minutes or until carrots are crisp-tender. Melt butter; add garlic, thyme and celery salt. Set aside. Remove carrots from heat; add grapes. Let stand covered for 1 to 2 minutes; drain off liquid. Stir lemon juice into seasoned butter; pour over carrots. Season with salt & pepper; toss mixture gently. Serve immediately. Yield: 6-8 servings.

(Mrs. Robert A. Riffenburg, Warfield, VA © Southern Living 1968)

Gluten-free and Vegetarian/Vegan Recipes

To meet my needs of being “gluten-free”, there are no ingredients that have wheat in them. Since one out of one-hundred people now have problems with the way the United States processes their foods, there are plenty of brands which are marked GF Gluten-free. However, read all the way around the label and determine if there might be traces of wheat or if the product was processed in a plant or on machinery that also handles wheat. (These statements are usually NOT found near the list of ingredients.) If this is the case and you are gluten-sensitive or have a wheat-toxicity, don’t use it!

I also deleted recipes which called for hidden gluten – like shrimp, frozen mangoes and parsnips.

Vegetarian foods allow the use of milk, honey, eggs, and other non-kill animal products; vegans do not. I have endeavored to post only recipes with vegan-appropriate ingredients. If I really liked something, though, that was vegetarian rather than vegan, I will note it.

Whenever possible, use non-GMO products (non-genetically modified).  If you think gmo’s are ok for you, you haven’t read any science fiction books, let alone Charles Darwin.

These recipes are not an attempt to substitute wheat or animal ingredients with something else. These recipes are “naturally” or originally gluten-free and vegetarian/vegan.

Excerpt from Bedina's War - Tinker's Damn Chapter Two

The Spa’Lab Walking Dead

First-Chief Engineer Quartz Julian surveyed the bay. “Don’t open

anything unless you check it for booby traps!” he growled at his crew.

“Hey Chief, maybe we should scratch away some of her paint —

see if it’s gold underneath!”

“Yarrow, keep your mind on survival, not salvage.” Julian shook his

head. Turn his back long enough and Yarrow and his crew would have

the planking unscrewed, searching for hidden treasure. Salvagers were

straight out of romantic legends to these salts. More like bloody pirates,

Julian thought.

“Chief, over here.” Second-Chief Elliot Joaquin Sebastiana waved

at him and drew a mask over her face. She stood a head shorter and

weighed a good deal more than Julian. She had a pear shaped body,

with ample hips. She was strong and logical and his equal when it came

to engineering skills. She was also Julian’s friend.

He drew on his own mask and peered into the darkened alcove

behind Sebastiana. “What is that stench?”

“The door was marked Trash and the bay door was timed to open

in another three movietimes. Everything in here would have been

spaced.”

Julian cocked his head and stooped to enter the small alcove. He

switched on his light stick. Six people squatted in the debris. They were

the size of children from his home planet, Orchidea. They had their

arms crossed over their bent knees. Their naked skin was smeared with

filth. Their eyes blinked instinctively in the light, but they registered no

other response.

“They all have red hair and blue eyes, Chief,” Sebastiana whispered

in a hushed awe.

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

“Looks that way.” Julian knelt in front of a woman about his age.

She did not flinch when he brought the light close to her face. She

hummed vacantly.

“What’s wrong with them?”

“You mean besides sitting in their own filth for two days?” Julian

stomped out of the alcove and returned with a hose. He turned a nozzle

and water gushed out. He drenched the six bodies, but they barely

responded. Rather than trying to protect themselves from the biting

spray, they opened their mouths and swallowed in gulps.

When the stench had been washed away sufficiently to remove his

mask, he turned off the flow. “Sebastiana, go get the medic. Tell her to

bring six togas. And Sebastiana, keep this quiet. The last thing I need is

for my crew to get spooked about having Spa’Labs aboard.”

“My grand-fa was a Spa’Lab, Chief.” Sebastiana swallowed and

squared her shoulders.

“Then you know some of the rumors aren’t true.” Julian planted his

fists on his slender hips and glared into the dripping trash bay.

“They’re tranked, aren’t they? They’re Spa’Lab Walking Dead.”

“If you’re planning to gab the day away, I’ll put you on report and

find someone who will follow orders,” Julian said evenly.

ttttt

Lonicera was walking. She was walking and walking and walking.

She felt the ship humming against the soles of her feet. The ship was

healthy. She was a stubborn ship, too. Lonicera could feel this through

and through, from the hum of her engines and the vibration of her

hull spaces and the sway of her bulkheads and the way she breasted the

fabric of space as she sailed. Lonicera walked the ship’s corridors and

hummed along with her engines.

ttttt

“This is beyond what I can heal, Captain.” The Tinker’s Damn’s

Chief Medical Officer Poplaris Lan-Chi Claire shook her head.

“Is it permanent?”

“Do you mean will they ever recover?”

The captain pursed his lips at his wife. He hated when she restated

his questions without answering him.

 


 

She noticed his expression and sighed, softening somewhat. “I

haven’t read anything to suggest they will. But I haven’t read much

about this condition. All I really know about this is based on rumors

and legends. You know the old saying, Sp’lab-kept secrets. I don’t

know if they are the way they are due to an allergic reaction to the

Harusophynite or if they really were genetically altered, like the legends

say. It may just be a self-induced trance.”

“But how do we wake them out of it?”

“Do we need to? They seem content. They can feed and take care of

themselves. They are just in their own private worlds.”

Captain Poplaris Enoch sighed. “I’ll try to find a Spa’Lab somewhere

in the fleet that can help. Until then —“

“Until then — narn’t! You’ve heard the same stories that I have.

Creeping eruption, Enoch! Your granmom told us both about the

Sp’lab Walking Dead around the campfire the first round-up we went

on. You won’t find a Spa’Lab that will talk about them or take care

of them or even acknowledge they exist. They are dead to any other

Spa’Lab.” Claire shivered. “Get them out of my sick bay! I have real

wounded that need the hammocks. We are at war.”

“What am I supposed to do with them, Claire? Throw them out

into the corridors with the rest of the refugees?”

“It’s better than being spaced. They are taking up six hammocks

that I need for salts with physical injuries. The Spa’Labs will survive or

they won’t. The Tinker’s Damn is a battleship, not a nursery.”

Enoch growled in frustration. His Tinker’s Damn used to be a

trading ship, traveling the Commonwealth, bartering for treasures,

meeting new peoples, taking on or putting off salts to maintain the

hundred or so crew the Tinker’s Damn needed to sail. Now, hardly a

battleship, she ferried fighter pilots to skirmishes and tried to keep her

hull intact. Well, you can’t get oolongs from cracked eggs as his granmom

used to say. They were at war. He walked to the comdesk and depressed

a key. “First-Chief Engineer!”

“Julian here, sir.”

“I need you in sick bay.”

“Are you ill?” Concern flowed through Julian’s warm tenor voice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“No, I just need your help with our special guests.”

Excerpt from

Bedina’s War

© Evelyn Rainey

Comfort Publishing

ISBN 9781936695881

CARROT CASSEROLE

1 1-pound bag carrots, cleaned, cut up

½ cup celery, chopped

½ cup chopped onions

1 green pepper, chopped

1 Tbsp parsley, fresh or dried

¼ cup butter/margarine

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

1 tsp sugar

1 can tomato soup * check ingredients for Vegans

Boil carrots until tender; drain. Fry celery, onions, pepper and parsley in butter. Add to carrots with salt, pepper and sugar; put in casserole, cover with tomato soup. Bake for 45 minutes at 250 degrees. Yield: 6 servings.

(Rosalyn Boxley, Virginia Beach, VA © Southern Living 1968)

Gluten-free and Vegetarian/Vegan Recipes

To meet my needs of being “gluten-free”, there are no ingredients that have wheat in them. Since one out of one-hundred people now have problems with the way the United States processes their foods, there are plenty of brands which are marked GF Gluten-free. However, read all the way around the label and determine if there might be traces of wheat or if the product was processed in a plant or on machinery that also handles wheat. (These statements are usually NOT found near the list of ingredients.) If this is the case and you are gluten-sensitive or have a wheat-toxicity, don’t use it!

I also deleted recipes which called for hidden gluten – like shrimp, frozen mangoes and parsnips.

Vegetarian foods allow the use of milk, honey, eggs, and other non-kill animal products; vegans do not. I have endeavored to post only recipes with vegan-appropriate ingredients. If I really liked something, though, that was vegetarian rather than vegan, I will note it.

Whenever possible, use non-GMO products (non-genetically modified).  If you think gmo’s are ok for you, you haven’t read any science fiction books, let alone Charles Darwin.

These recipes are not an attempt to substitute wheat or animal ingredients with something else. These recipes are “naturally” or originally gluten-free and vegetarian/vegan.

Excerpt from Minna Pegeen Chapter Two

Excerpt from

Minna Pegeen

© Evelyn Rainey

Comfort Publishing

ISBN 9781935361381

FRESH SAUERKRAUT SALAD

(My mother makes this, although she doesn't add the carrots. It really is incredibly good!)

2 cups fresh sauerkraut, snipped and drained (not sure what they mean by ‘snipped’)

½ cup sugar

¼ cup chopped onion

½ cup chopped carrot

½ cup chopped green pepper

½ cup chopped celery

Combine sauerkraut and sugar. Let stand for 30 minutes. Add remaining ingredients; refrigerate overnight. This salad will keep and will make its own dressing. Yield: 8 servings.

(Mrs. Ted McDonald, Newport News, VA © Southern Living 1968)

Gluten-free and Vegetarian/Vegan Recipes

To meet my needs of being “gluten-free”, there are no ingredients that have wheat in them. Since one out of one-hundred people now have problems with the way the United States processes their foods, there are plenty of brands which are marked GF Gluten-free. However, read all the way around the label and determine if there might be traces of wheat or if the product was processed in a plant or on machinery that also handles wheat. (These statements are usually NOT found near the list of ingredients.) If this is the case and you are gluten-sensitive or have a wheat-toxicity, don’t use it!

I also deleted recipes which called for hidden gluten – like shrimp, frozen mangoes and parsnips.

Vegetarian foods allow the use of milk, honey, eggs, and other non-kill animal products; vegans do not. I have endeavored to post only recipes with vegan-appropriate ingredients. If I really liked something, though, that was vegetarian rather than vegan, I will note it.

Whenever possible, use non-GMO products (non-genetically modified).  If you think gmo’s are ok for you, you haven’t read any science fiction books, let alone Charles Darwin.

These recipes are not an attempt to substitute wheat or animal ingredients with something else. These recipes are “naturally” or originally gluten-free and vegetarian/vegan.