My brother, the vegan

Mark, what made you decide to try to be a vegan?

"I was introduced to it by my cousin Jared and his wife Eva. I stayed at their house in Berkeley California for three days and Eva cooked these delicious vegan meals. Kind of challenged my assumptions about being vegetarian or vegan. I thought it was a form of deprivation. After eating the food Eva made I thought, wow, this is kind of interesting. I'd like to eat like this more often."

And how long ago was that?

"About four and a half months ago. Back in early March."

And you've been experimenting with being vegan since then? Or would you call yourself vegan now?

"I have been vegan since then except for last week, I had some fish [note from Bill: Mark is referring to salmon I grilled at my house]; but other than that, I've been vegan since early March."

So how does that work? You leave Berkeley and get back to your home in Colorado and all of a sudden your refrigerator is full of things that you can eat or what you do?

"I was understocked. My refrigerator was already left empty, pretty much. I just restocked mostly with new stuff."

Did you have to find a different grocery store, did you have to go to different places that you wouldn't normally go to?

"Yes, I started going to Whole Foods and a place we have in Colorado called Natural Grocers, a.k.a. Vitamin Cottage."

What's your favorite food now?

"Hard to say. I love soups, pretty much any kind of soup. I like miso soup, lentil soup. But I like food in general."

How did you get along this weekend at the wedding?

"It was really easy. Where we stayed, it's a place that has their own farm and they had all fresh vegetables. The majority of what was served at the reception dinner and the wedding dinner was fresh vegetables. It was amazing."

Your new eating means you have to make lunches for yourself, right? HP doesn't have a cafeteria that has a bunch of vegan options, I assume.

"Yes. You can get a basic salad but I prefer to bring my own lunch now."