Cardiff gets its first vegan market

A pioneering woman is taking matters into her own hands and has set up a vegan market in Cardiff with delicious foods on offer such as vegan ice-cream, pizza and cheese…

Sue Thomas, 65, has been a vegan for around seven years now after she was brought up on meat and dairy, but decided to switch to vegan around seven years ago. She feels so much healthier since making the change, that she wants to spread this message to others and has decided to hold her own vegan market on Sunday in Roath,

Yesterday marked the launch of the very first vegan market, with up to 30 stalls attending the event. From pizza, cakes, cheese, juices, milkshakes, ice cream, brownies, macaroni and cheese and Indian food, to vegan Mexican food, fish and chips, visitors to the market certainly didn’t leave with rumbling tummies! And sushi will hopefully be returning to the menu at a later date too.

Sue believes the movement is a growing market and is even setting up an event in Narberth for later in the year. She said she was brought up on meat and dairy but decided to switch to vegan around seven years ago and feels much healthier for it.

Speaking about her switch to veganism, Sue said: “I’ve got more energy and all the rest of it. It’s just the future. I just think animals are so abused in every single way. I decided why don’t you have a farmers’ market, only a vegan market?”

She prides the events on having a large choice for visitors and hopes people will go along to see what exactly is on offer.

“We’re getting a growing market. Anything that people can eat we can do. People think we eat lettuce leaves – I eat everything everyone else eats in a different form.”

Avant-Garde Vegan doughnuts

Firms holding stalls at the market include Sicily to Seattle, a Chepstow-based firm specialising in Sicilian street food with a few American favourites thrown in, and Avant-Garde Vegan.

Sue added: “The cooks are out of this world. We’re talking about works of art, really. If I said come along to my fayre and I didn’t tell you it was vegan you wouldn’t know. That’s the beauty of it. It’s just giving people a healthy idea.”

This story first appeared on Wales Online.