Posted on 11/22/2006 2:10:33 PM PST by proud_yank
Vegetarian alternatives to traditional holiday favorites are becoming increasingly popular and profitable
by Rebecca Reisner
With Thanksgiving upon us, the folks who make the vegetarian poultry alternative known as "Tofurky" have good reason to flap their wings. Having survived sitcom jokes and glacially slow initial sales, Turtle Island Foods is celebrating the sale of its 1 millionth Tofurky roast since the product was hatched in 1995.
"At first, retailers didn't believe anyone was crazy enough to make a whole Tofurky roast for Thanksgiving," recalls Seth Tibbott, founder of Turtle Island Foods, located in Hood River, Ore. "The first one served eight and cost $32. Stores would sell one per season at first, then five the next year."
Today, the company, which also makes Tofurky versions of such meat staples as sausages and cold cuts, is turning a robust profit and expects $10 million in sales in 2006, despite dramatically lowering the cost of Tofurkys over the years (see BusinessWeek.com, 11/21/06, "My First Tofurky").
Analog Meat Market
And Turtle Island Foods isn't the only happy player at the table. For businesses manufacturing vegan and vegetarian versions of dairy- and meat-based products, the outlook is pretty much all good. "Traditional supermarkets like Safeway (SWY) are stocking more of these foods," says Joe Agnese, a supermarket analyst with Standard & Poors Equity Research. "Whole Foods (WFMI) will open more stores. They give a shot to local providers as well as big producers."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
Here...Have some Thanksgiving dinner laughs, on me... I'm bringing the turkey. Wanna bring some wine?
I am a carnivore. Give me Prime Rib!
One could ask a similar question about lesbians.
I don't know what's more disturbing, that it looks like your dog's stool, or that you sliced it and arranged it for presentation.
(.. stuffed ham )
Sounds great..need the recipe..please!!!
I get to serve a lot of sh!t sandwiches where I work ;-)
This vegetarian can't figure it out either. Ew! I'd rather eat real meat than any of these tortured tofu faux meat offerings but there's really no need because I thoroughly enjoy all the food that comes with any meal. Except the meat.
If a vegetarian likes and wants meat he should lose the self-sacrificing, preachy sanctimony, abandon the gimmick and eat meat. Period. They're the one's who make the rest of us so unpopular.
Yeah but can they get the texture right? It may smell like meat, look like meat and maybe even taste similar to meat but if the texture is wrong, forget it! I've never tasted tofu that I'm aware of but I've always thought it would be either kind of slippery or else it'd be spongey.
Heck, I didn't like any meat up until I became old enough to drive and hang out with friends at the local burger joint. Up until then I thought almost all meat was tough, tasteless and almost burned. I didn't realize my Mom cooked it that way on purpose because that's how my Dad liked it.
In the house I grew up in we had 2 brass umbrella urns in the entryway. When Mom would make a roast I'd eat a couple of bites and asked to be excused to visit the bathroom. (Can you see where this is going?) As I'd pass through the entryway I'd carefully spit out the largish wad of roast into one of the urns.
Years later when my Uncle helped my Dad move after Mom had died, they had the urns turned into lamps. My Uncle mentioned the person who did the lamps asked if my Uncle had any clue what in the heck was that petrified stuff in the bottom of the urns. Evidently the guy had kind of a difficult time getting the old petrified meat out.
When my Dad died I took the lamps and still have/use them in my living room to this day. Ah, the memories!
My husband would actually like Turducken. The problem with the one pictured is that it hasn't yet been placed on a lovely china platter with garnish. Well, that and the name.
Looks like what you get when you worm a horse.
That looks good. We had turducken for Thanksgiving dinner a few years back. Other than the cost of it, it was fantastic!
I agree. There is some seriously delicious vegetarian foods. Heck grilled roasted veggies are delicious. Indian food, mediterranean foods like falafal, hummus, baba ghanoush. Why pretend you are eating a hot dog? Just toss some olive oil and herbs on some veggies, grill em, have a nice starch based dish, make a spicy dip, enjoy, and leave me alone with my turkey.
Turduken covered in BACON?!?? Oh my gosh, I'm kind of drooling over here!
:-) Woo hoo! I am taking the pumpkin pies for our family feast, which is definitely not vegan.
The house smells wonderful!
Actually, I was thinking about finding a Tofurkey to bring over :-)
I'll grab some wine & beer.
Thats too funny!
BTW, the pic of Helen Thomas on your page is one of the worst I've seen yet!!
LOL! Thats the second reference this stuff has gotten to worms!!
Admit it - you can't help but smile when you say "Tofurky". It's like the perfect stupid word. Toe-FUR-kee! ^_^
Never had one and I know they are not cheap! Building one yourself looks like a ton of work, one of these days I'll have to buy one and try it.
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