I dont remember references to the groups of jains, buddhists, and vedics that are/were actually vegan. I mostly learned about those by listening to buddhist monks. In mahayana countries, like china, buddhists being vegetarian is quite common as is lactose intolerance (and thus not much history of dairy) and some groups also dont eat eggs. In theravada countries its admittedly rare for anyone to be vegetarian because of the ubiquity of fish and growing availability of other meats and monastics are supposed to eat what is offered to them and some will relate horror stories of living for months on nothing but a bowl of stale sticky rice with a boiled tree frog or fermented rat meat on top each day :lol: but the rules say they are forbidden from eating any meat if they know or suspect the animal was killed for them. More than once, although its against the rules, I've heard theravada monks that come to the west encourage their followers to be vegan or express their own preference for that diet (and since they eat only whats given, vegan followers means vegan monks and nuns). So in some western theravada circles theres a growing preference for vegetarianism/veganism but, yeah, it doesnt reflect the culture as a whole yet.
As for vedics and jains, does being vegan really sound that extreme for people who live their life butt naked smeared in ashes and 'cutting' their hair by ripping it out?
Most groups of both are lacto-veg, but there are vegan groups too, and even jain denominations who only eat parts of plants that removing wont kill the plant. ie. no carrots or potatoes, etc.
For native americans I did remember a specific short article thats a nice introduction
[Here]
As for me, ironically, ethics wasnt my driving factor. I'm a western theravadin so the books promote vegetarianism but it was only after I saw enough people cheeseburger themselves to death, go blind, go impotent, and have deformed children due to radically bad diet that I straightened my shit out. I garden because its exercise and exercise is good, and because it tremendously reduces food cost. I can feed myself for $2 a day if I want to and even indulging in luxry items I keep it to $3 per day.
My main garden is 2400 sq ft, but that includes a bone dry 360 sq ft area where I put my cacti in non-freezing weather. I also have a little 250 sq ft squash patch and a bird cherry and a black walnut tree.
I work all that area, basically, with just a hoe, a shovel, and a garden fork. My neighbors think I'm some extremist but it only takes 20 minutes a day if I do it every day.
I havent got into cold frames and rather than greenhouses I erect hoop tunnels. Basically grow patches of stuff that can freeze solid and still be alive like kale, siberian kale, turnip greens, mustard greens, etc and erect 8' hoops with black irrigation piping, and put a 3 or 4 mil row cover over it. Those plants freeze a fair bit below freezing and if they are not damaged while frozen they'll still be alive when they thaw (tho my coldest nights of the year can kill kale stalks).
Stuff like rutabagas, beets, gobo, sunroots, etc. can just have some dirt piled on them and be dug up as needed. When I got new neighbors I got a laugh one morning, it was january and it had been above freezing for a whole week. My new neighbor was standing at the fence totally baffled staring at a 20' long row of giant rutabagas sprouting fresh greens. Its just a matter of learning what crazy shit you can get away with in your environment.
[Link] To a far better tutorial for the hoop cover winter greens growing.
And, of course, stuff can be packed away for storage. Carrots, potatoes, etc, etc. can be stored in a root cellar or barrel caches or whatever, grains and beans can be stored in the larder (coldest non-freezing room in your house). Squashes also go in the root cellar or larder- butternut squash and hubbard squash can store in a cool room for 6 months. And squash can be dried, I dont bother with winter squash but I dry tons of zucchini for winter and spring stews, chilli, and curry.
And lacto-fermenting can extend shelf life by months (up to a year if your better than me or love salt). There are even nice surprises in lacto-fermenting, like I did a bunch of green cherry tomatoes with oregano and grape leaves, tasted funky for 2 months and then holy shit- it was like low fat olives! I had nearly free organic low fat "olives" for the next sis months.
I've never even bothered to learn canning yet because I always have food in the garden and very slowly fermenting in the fridge.
Its actually quite fun.
