What a great weekend we had! After breakfast on Saturday, we piled into our (biodiesel) pickup, hooked it to the (borrowed) loaded trailer, and headed down to the Key West Botanical Gardens on Stock Island for the Green Living Fair. It was organized chaos when we got there, GLEE (Green Living and Energy Education) volunteers and organizers were buzzing everywhere like bees. They helped guide us to our assigned spots, and we began to set up. It took us just over 1 hour to set up our booth (let me tell you this... the design of exhibit tents can be VASTLY improved, if anyone out there is looking for a niche business). Even before we completed our set up, we had people browsing through our exhibit as well as the others.
At the Expo, we sold organic vegan boxed lunches, organic vegan baked goods, books with proceeds for charity, exhibited free animal rights literature, had a display of information for Save a Turtle of the Florida Keys, displayed information about our own sustainable inn, and offered my eco-art for sale (to benefit The Turtle Hospital in Marathon). We also offered for sale electric "Go-Pets" which are similar in theme to a Segway. We acquired these Go-Pets through an unusual set of circumstances. They were demos, and we simply hoped to sell them to persons who really could use and appreciate them (we did, at least with 2 of them!)
I was really feeling good. The sun was shining (although it was a little breezy and cool for my own personal taste), were exhibiting in a drop dead gorgeous setting, and I knew food would be available that we could eat (not just what we were serving) which is always exciting for me. I was thinking things pretty much could not get any better when all of a sudden I heard steel drums begin to play. I looked across the garden patio towards the stage and saw Toko Irie playing and singing his heart out. Toko is a wonderfully talented musician, whose family is also very musically gifted. He's been to Deer Run for a private party held here (dancing in the sand, under the stars, surrounded by family & friends, with Toko Irie playing was one of the best times ever!) Both myself and the other Happy Vegan make efforts to see Toko play in Key West whenever we can.
All this is going on when I realize our friends from The Porch have set up on the other patio, near the stage. The Porch is a recently opened beer & wine bar located in Key West. They offer an amazing selection of beer & wine, much of it organic. They even have an incredible root beer on tap which I've been told is their top seller (I'm not surprised, I've had it, and its fantastic). Mr. Happy Vegan was kind enough to head over to their display and bring back beverages for both of us. We sat, sold our food and answered people's questions about how we do things at Deer Run, plus what we (and others) can do to help people, planet & animals. After a while, I headed over to the booth just next to us, run by the good folks from Help Yourself of Key West. Help Yourself is a wonderful organic, take-out style restaurant with too many vegan options to count. Love them! I began scarfing down a huge container of their hummus with vegetables as I mosied back to my display, and then washed it all down with some fantastic organic wine.
One of the things I was happiest about was the amount of people who took our animal rights literature. The thing is, I am not someone who is going to get "in your face" about my lifestyle. Sure, I have a lot of opinions on things, who doesn't. I realize, however, it is counter-productive, and impossible, to force my own choices on someone else,and will not win over any fans. Instead, I offer information to people when they ask, and we offer literature which people may take with their own free will. I also noticed that too many (non-vegan!) people to count who bought my vegan boxed lunches came back after enjoying them to compliment the food, and then picked up some literature. Good food is just one of the ways I personally like to educate people about being vegan. This seemed to work very well on Saturday.
The Expo also had a silent auction (we donated that giant hand painted rain barrel which raised a nice sum of money for GLEE). There were exhibitors offering local sea salt (I'll talk about that in the future, its fabulous), eco-friendly cleaning products, organic gardening information, "green" design and contracting, rain barrel kits, composters, as well as too many other booths to list here. There were also free seminars all day long on topics like composting, rain barrels, green cleaning, raw food diets, and more.
On Sunday, we went as attendees to the Expo at the Sugarloaf School which showcased "green homes." There were "green" designers, "green" contractors, vegetarian food choices, massage therapy on site, and so much more. The Good Food Conspiracy had a beautiful exhibit with free samples of a wide variety of items, vegan baked goods (guess who baked them, yum yum), and a huge display of information and products. It was beautiful. I think, however, my favorite part of Sunday's Expo was seeing the children and what they were doing. There were children there (I believe it was a local Girl Scout troop) who were educating people on "green" cleaning, and offering people samples of green cleaning products they would make on the spot. They had literature, and were excellent ambassadors for the topic. There were also teens on site who were promoting a quit smoking network, some of whom were in costume walking through the Expo as the grim reaper chasing a cigarette... very effective. There were free seminars throughout the day on many topics, one especially I really wished I had time to attend, about hemp (which is NOT marijuana) and all the ways it can be used (it is illegal in this country to grow hemp, again which is NOT marijuana because of very outdated, inappropriate and ignorant laws on the books, fueled most likely by continued ignorance, never a good thing).
I know how hard we worked to put our own display together, which means I have a fraction of an idea how hard the organizers worked to bring 4 of these Expos together (Key Largo, Marathon, Lower Keys, and Key West). We at Deer Run are very grateful to the people from GLEE who were major sponsors of this inaugural Eco-Week event. Anyone associated with GLEE works very hard to spread the message of conservation, and protecting our environment. I'm so proud of all the other exhibitors who came out to all the Expos over the past week, its not easy. We all have full time businesses to run, families to care for, and the many challenges that life itself brings day to day. We are thrilled to have had the opportunity to be part of the Expo at the Botanical Gardens, and have already decided ways to be even better exhibitors next year.
We hope to see you next year at the Expos, and hope we all work together in the meantime to educate ourselves and find ways to live in harmony with all the gifts here on our Mother Earth.
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