Vegan sausages – taste testing
I did a taste testing some time ago February 2014 which was for a variety of veggie sausages (veggie and vegan) with a friend. I have been aware of the Italian sausages from
Tofurkey for a while, and so decided to trial them for my B & B. There are many ways to cook these but I fried them gently. However, you can boil or grill them as well.The main ingredient is tofu. I get them from Holland & Barrett. The brand comes from the USA.
Vegi deli is the next product, and I am looking at their Lincolnshire Sausages. I tried Vegideli before – the sage and marjoram – but this time I tried their Lincolnshire sausages Main ingredients -wheat gluten and soya protein. Vegideli are a UK company.
Because I do Sausage Sandwiches for my B & B guests, I tasted these sausage as sandwiches.

Here are the two types of sausages cooking. Too be honest, now that I am looking at them a couple of weeks after the testing, I can’t tell which is which product!
I added sautéed onion, red pepper and mushrooms to the sandwiches and the result is a nice moist, tasty sandwich; these are on granary bread.
Mike and I then. Here’s me doing the tasting
The result was that the Tofurkey won hands down. It’s an expensive product – but the taste is so flavoursome and intense; chiefly chilli and tomato – a lovely combination. The main ingredient is tofu which really is so good for us (high in protein & calcium) and amazingly, although an American product, it had no GMOs ( genetically modified organism)
Sorry, Vegideli sausages again not able to compete except perhaps on price – you get double the number of sausages in the Vegideli pack as in the Tofurkey.
Pity about the Tofurkey name its a bit silly really, but their sausages were great!
Being a Snow warden
I am really looking forward to the snow, because I am now a volunteer snow warden. I have had delivered my salt, my hi-viz vest, my shovel and gloves. I have been given instructions about warming up first , not getting too cold, where to put the snow and how to spread my salt – very thinly apparently!
I broke my ankle 8 years ago and I go very gingerly on snow and ice these days, so I thought that by clearing the snow and ice from the pavements outside our house I will benefit, not only people walking into town but myself as well!

Just need the snow!
Newport Wildlife
We are very fortunate to have a canal running through Newport, and every time we walk along it we see a variety of wildlife. These are some of our photos from 2016
The robin (top left) was on the path last week. He was very brave, standing on a small twig only about a yard from us. We have swans nesting every year ( top right) and this is this years brood, and a heron ( bottom) whom we suspect catches baby ducks as well as fish. Oh dear!
Well that’s it for now.
Just waiting for the snow so that I can demonstrate my snow shovelling skills. Watch this space, there may be more pictures in my February letter.
Linda