Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: vegetarian /allergies etc

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

At RoseWind, we made up a sheet for each person to fill out that elicited 
preferences (meat-veg-vegan spectrum; organic local vs not) as well as 
outright allergies and strong preferences (ie not spicy hot). I put all 
the sheets in a looseleaf notebook alphabetically by first name, but also 
made a master sheet, which is what cooks mainly consult, as the first 
page in the notebook. 

The allergy list is organized by ingredient types. NUTS- Sue very 
allergic to almonds, Jim avoids walnuts, etc. And so on for fruits, 
vegetables, starches, and so forth. That way you can see whether you need 
to label some foods as containing such ingredients, or provide an 
alternative if that person is signed up to eat the meal. 

The meal sign up list describes the menu, though not always in great 
detail. It might ask those who sign up to note if they want meat/meatless 
spaghetti sauce or such. Some people are on such restricted diets that 
they just bring their own meal, and sit and eat with us. 

One thing we found helpful for sign-ups for cooked meals is that we 
printed a list with everyone's names on it. Circle if you are coming, 
cross out if you aren't. That way if cooks want to drum up business (more 
shopping budget, fewer last minute changes to the list) they know they 
can call and check with people who have NEITHER circled nor crossed off.

We also have gotten in the habit of labelling food, both at potlucks and 
team-cooked meals. 

Probably half our members are vegetarian, but most of the meat eaters are 
happy with vegetarian-dairy food, and some of our "vegetarians" eat 
salmon, a northwest favorite. 

Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing
Port Townsend Washington (Victorian seaport, music, art, nature)
http://www.rosewind.org
http://www.ptguide.com
http://www.ptforpeace.info (very active peace movement here- see our 
photo)

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