Community Vegan Carrot Cake

I like to walk the talk that I talk, so it is for that reason that I get up early every Saturday morning and head to the Salt Lake City Farmers Market.  I will be the first to tell you that last summer, my first summer spent living in Utah, I was quite dubious and skeptical about the Farmers Market.  Moving here from Santa Cruz, the vegetable bowl of America, where I had a farmers market four days a week, where I was truly spoiled with my access to fresh organic vegetables 365 days a year, I just couldn’t even allow myself to hope that I would find vegetables I would even want to make friends with, let alone take home at a farmers market in the middle of the high desert in Utah.  Sage and tumbleweeds, certainly.  Juicy tomatoes, lemon cucumbers and arugula?  Not so much.

I was wrong. I was very wrong.

I also want to say, right here and right now, that the farmers of Utah have taught me so very much about love in the year that I have lived here and shared the bounty of their farms.  A love for humanity and a respect for farming that I just plain took for granted in those twenty years of living in the land of plenty.

I’m unsure if it is a Utah thing, or if it is something deep within me that truly changed when I left Santa Cruz, or perhaps it is a combination of the two, but the farmers here, the farmers of the Salt Lake City farmers market who come early every Saturday (and now on Tuesday afternoons too!) are very friendly.  I have adopted them and they have adopted me.  They know my stories and I know theirs.  I know all about their farms.  I know all about their families.  I know all about the various soils at their farms and why the farm in Logan grows better radishes than the farm in Provo.  They know all about my various beets and carrots and why my own attempt at basil and mint failed this year.  I know which farmer sells the best basil, which one has the best garlic, who will be here this week, but not next because his son is getting married.  These farmers, in turn, have blessed me with smiles, with boxes and boxes of beautiful, fresh, organic vegetables and, best of all, with community.

Yes, community.

It still astounds me each week that I always come home from the market with such a vast array and variety of beautiful vegetables.  Most of which were a gift.  That is the truly astounding thing to me.  My farmers (I do call them my farmers because I feel like I’ve adopted them, too!) insist each week on sharing the bounty of their harvests with me, on giving me far more than I’ve purchased, on throwing in a few extras that I just have to try.  I, in turn, feel compelled to absolutely use all their blessings and so I’ve been busy this summer, especially, creating new recipes and then sharing the bounty with the homeless men and women who actually live in Pioneer Park where the farmers market is held each week.

I know that may strike some of you as an odd thing to do.  To spend my time cooking a large vegan organic meal and then splitting it evenly among recyclable containers and carting it to a park and passing it out to the men and women who might otherwise not ever eat a home-cooked vegan organic meal.  The farmers, though, when I tell them that this is what I’m doing, seem to smile a little more broadly and give me even more vegetables.  I realize I could be far more organized about all of this, that I could encourage the farmers to give their extra bounty to the homeless shelter that is just across the road from where the market is held each week, that I could organize and help with the cooking of meals at the shelter.

Somehow, though, doing it in this small, personal way just feels better.  I volunteer at the shelter in other ways, already.  This, for me, is just one more way I can give back to others. To my community.

The carrots were in abundance this week.  Everywhere.  My garden exploded with them, but obviously so did the gardens of my farmers.  Including the very special farmers who are learning how to grow and cultivate organic vegetables for the community and their fellow prisoners at our Utah State Prison.  Those men are some of the most amazingly loving farmers a naked girl from Santa Cruz could ever hope to befriend.  I love that our State Prison is growing organic food and feeding their own inmates as well as our community.  It is a program that is really working.  I spend extra time each week with those farmers sharing a smile, a laugh, and “god bumps” as one of them is so fond of telling me.

I’ve made carrot cake for the masses this week.  Not exactly a nutrtional meal, per se, but I’m going to take slices for breakfast tomorrow morning.  It’s vegan, it’s organic and it is really, really delicious.  I encourage you to make some and share it with your friends, with your neighbors, with the homeless men and women who inhabit your parks, with your community.  Do it. It will make your heart smile.

COMMUNITY VEGAN CARROT CAKE

Ingredients (use vegan and organic versions):

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 – 3 teaspoons all spice
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup black strap molasses
• many teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup canola oil
• 2 cups finely grated carrots
• 1 cup crushed pineapple including juice
• 1 cup shredded coconut
• 2/3 cup chopped walnuts

VEGAN CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

• 1 8 oz package of vegan cream cheese
• 1/3 cup earth balance
• 1 teaspoon (or more) vanilla
• 2 cups vegan confectioners sugar

METHOD

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, all spice, and salt.  Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix the molasses with the canola oil.  Drizzle in the vanilla.  I use smell to know just how much vanilla.  I also use molasses because I can use less than other forms of sugar and still get the “sweetness” I desire.  But if you want a sweeter, more traditional cake use brown sugar instead and use about 1 cup.

Fold in the dry ingredients.  The mixture will be a tad dry and a bit crumbly.  Don’t worry.  Mix in the pineapple and its juice.  Then add the carrots, coconut and nuts.  Blend everything together.

I prefer a thick cake, so I used a 9 x 9 pan.  But you could easily use a 13 x 9 pan.  Grease and flour your pan (DO NOT USE PAM!) and pour the batter into the prepared pan.  Bake for 30 – 35 minutes if you’re in Utah (at another altitude our baking time may vary!).  Let the cake cool completely before frosting.

Making the Frosting!

Using an electric mixer, beat the cream cheese and the earth balance.  Add the vanilla and then gradually add the sugar.  Spread on the cake.

Share with those you love, those who touch your heart, those who need some goodness.  Share.