Late June is mulberry season in Canada. These juicy black berries grow in great abundance on trees in Toronto and many other cities.

Saskatoon berries are also available at this time of year. You can find these purple berries in parks growing on bushes or slender trees.

Foraging for wild fruit is one of the best ways to eat local. It not only helps you get fresh, exotic and unsprayed fruit at no cost but also reduces the energy and resources necessary to grow, transport and store farmed food.

Use fresh flour, nuts and seeds   
Whole flours, nuts and seeds should be fresh for the best flavour and nutrition. The oils in these foods can go off after being exposed to oxygen for a while. Buy from a reliable store, and smell and taste before using. If keeping them for a while, store in the freezer. See our Tips on buying and storing fresh whole foods page.

Use whole grain flour
If the recipe calls for white flour, try substituting half of it for wholewheat. Soft spelt flour can be used in place of white pastry flour. For flavour try adding some buckwheat or corn meal.

Reduce the sugar and use natural sweeteners
Most dessert recipes are very sweet. Try using less sugar. Also experiment with using natural sweetners such as maple syrup, rice syrup, or powered cane juice. Reduce the recipe's wet ingredients if using a wet sweetener in place of the sugar. (For a review of the different types of sweeteners and the controversy surrounding most of them, see From Sugar to Agave – How Sweet It Is?)

For chocolate recipes, try unsweetened cocoa or carob in place of sweet cocoa. Try semi-sweet dark chocolate chips or carob chips instead of the sweet ones.

Don't let the baking powder get wet too soon  
Once combined with wet ingredients, baking powder starts its magic of making bubbles resulting in light and fluffy pancakes, muffins and cakes. But there is a limit to how long it works. After you combine the wet ingredients with the dry, form your baked goods and get them in the oven without delay.

Make sure your baking powder is fresh
To test: place a teaspoon in some warm water. It should foam and bubble quite actively if it is fresh. It is best stored in the freezer.

One less mixing bowl
Many recipes call for two bowls to mix the wet and dry ingredients separately. To save having to clean an extra bowl, mix the dry ingredients on one side of the bowl and then mix the wet ingredients on the other side.

Use oil instead of butter or margarine
If a recipe calls for melting butter or margarine, it will save you time and trouble to use a light cooking oil instead. It is also healthier.

Reduce the fat content
Experiment with using less oil than the recipe calls for. Substitute something wet for the missing oil such as water, soy milk or applesauce. Instead of using an oil-based icing, try a low-fat frosting recipe, or use a glaze or nuts (see next tip).

Use a glaze or nuts in place of a rich icing
When baking a cake, try making a simple glaze out of a few spoons of sugar and the juice and rind from a lemon, lime or orange. Or sprinkle nuts and fruit on top of the batter instead of stirring them in. The nuts toast as they bake, releasing a nice flavour.

Substitute eggs with ground flax
Use 1 Tbsp ground flax seeds and 3 Tbsp water in place of an egg in baking recipes. See our egg page for more healthy substitution ideas.

Yesterday, the Toronto Star reported that University of Toronto has been selected as the most vegetarian-friendly place of higher education in Canada! They beat out nine other Canadian schools in Peta2's second annual contest. The number one in the U.S. is Northwestern University in Chicago.

Peta2 is the youth wing of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Recently, they stopped by U of T's New College residence dressed in pig suits to hand out the award, lunch and cake. Vegetarian and vegan meal options on campus include: Rosemary Grilled Vegetable Ragout, New Orleans-Style Blackened Tofu, brown rice pilaf, baba ghanouj, roast sweet potatoes, and more.

At a university with more than 63,000 undergrads, it can be a lot of work to meet the needs of the large vegetarian population. Peta2 reports that student group UTCARE (UofT Coalition for Animal Rights and the Environment) has been instrumental at improving food choices.

Cassie Young lives with her husband in British Columbia and ran a blog, Veggie Meal Plans. "I'm a home cook who enjoys preparing uncomplicated meals that are delicious, healthy and satisfying!"

Recently they decided to take the Veggie Challenge. Not only did they successfully complete the Challenge by going vegan for a week, but Cassie posted a recipe and photo of every dinner she made. She says, "I've learned a lot this past week from the emails and from your great web site! We both did well, had no problem with it, and feel great about our choice. We've decided to continue on!  My participation in the Challenge has also inspired a few of my friends to give it a try, which makes me very happy."

Update: Unfortunately their website Veggie Meal Plans is no longer active and these recipes are not available.

Photo: Rice Bowl with Miso-Chili Tofu, Spicy Turnip Salad and Cabbage. Copyright © 2007 Cassie Young

A few weeks ago vegan author, Kathy Freston posted two extremely well written articles on the Huffington Post. "Vegetarian is the New Prius" and "A Few More 'Inconvenient Truths" . The Prius one makes a persuasive case that meat production is harming the environment and contibuting to global warming. The Truths article addresses common objections to going vegetarian or vegan. They both generated a lot of attention. The Prius article was re-posted on AlterNet where it received 422 comments!
   For her latest article, One Bite at a Time: A Beginner's Guide to Conscious Eating, Freston offers suggestions for die-hard meat-eaters who want make the transition to a vegetarian (or mostly vegetarian) diet. "Let's face it: If you've been eating meat all your life, this sort of a change can be daunting even just to think about, let alone act on,"  she writes.
   Her suggestions include: Give up the little animals first; If you can't give up one particular animal product, give up all the other ones; Don't sweat the small stuff.

If you are new to vegetarian cuisine check out our:

• tips and suggestions on what to eat
• making basic vegetarian meals
• shortcuts to vegetarian cooking
• Links to weekly meal plans

Raw and living food diets include fruits, vegetables, sprouts, nuts, seeds, grains, and sea vegetables. Food is eaten whole or processed by juicing or dehydrating, but never at temperatures over 116 degrees F. This preserves their enzymes and nutrient values. Most raw foodists soak/sprout nuts, seeds and grains before consuming them.

Whole foods need to be eaten fresh for the best flavour and nutrition. Natural foods contain no chemical preservatives, so their shelf life is shorter than for refined products.

It is also important to develop good shopping and storage habits to reduce needless waste. According to a recent study, almost half of all food is wasted in North America!

Eggs are an optional part of a vegetarian diet. Eggs are a rich source of protein, vitamin B12, and other nutrients. Some specialty eggs contain omega 3 fatty acids (a good vegan source is flax).

Many vegetarians object to the way birds are subjected to horrendous conditions on factory farms. Packed four to a cage, female laying hens are so overcrowded and stressed that they will aggressively peck each other. The industry responds by amputating their beaks without anesthesia shortly after birth. Feces drop on them from the stacks of cages above; they suffer from severe feather-loss, and brittle bones from calcium loss.

Organic free-range eggs are a solution for some people. But all egg production methods result in the male chicks being killed at birth because they can't lay eggs. They are usually gassed, crushed or suffocated.

Others choose not to use eggs in their diet due to health concerns. Eggs are loaded with cholesterol – about 210 milligrams (70% of the U.S. daily value) for an average-sized egg. Eggs  contain about 4.5g of fat, of which 1.6g is saturated. Calorie-wise eggs are 75 percent fat, 20% protein and 5% carbohydrate. [Source: CalorieKing.com ] Note: eggs are often eaten with high-fat foods such as cheese (in omelets), or fried with bacon and sausage, boosting the meal's fat content further. Because egg shells are fragile and porous and because conditions on egg farms are crowded, eggs are the perfect host to salmonella bacteria – a leading cause of food poisoning.

Two summers ago, I spent several weeks doing some medical research in a small town in Costa Rica called Tres Rios. As a vegan, I was initially somewhat disconcerted to discover that the Ticos had, for the most part, no concept of vegetarianism. However, a "casado" consisting of beans, rice, salad and fried plantain with a slab of beef or chicken on top, was universally available. Once I managed to convince the concerned locals that I really did not want the beef or chicken and that I honestly was happy without an egg or a piece of cheese instead, I was able to survive quite comfortably on the local cuisine.

The following tips can save you hours in the kitchen. Save time during preparation and shopping – learn which convenience foods to have on hand, and how to put your freezer to good use. Learn quick cooking methods such as steaming, using fast grains and pastas, making extra, not over chopping, and more.

Here are some suggestions for preparing a delicious and satisfying vegetarian meal.