A vegetarian Thanksgiving can be a glamorous affair. Socialite Mrs. Maude Russell Lorraine Freshel, a.k.a. 'Emarel', demonstrated this in 1913, say Karen and Michael Iacobbo, authors of Vegetarian America: A History (Praeger 2004).

Journalists and researchers, the Iacobbos say:
"Freshel and her animal rights and vegetarian organization, The Millennium Guild, held the gourmet feast at the posh Copley-Plaza hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. The entree: piping hot stuffed heart of palm. Also on the menu: Golden Rule roast, vegetable consomme, and no-meat mincemeat pie.

The dinner created a buzz in the press. Charming, beautiful hostess Freshel prepared the vegetarian menu. The nation's beloved poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox sent'Morning Prayer,'a poem about compassion for animals, especially for the dinner. Guests included famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor W.O. Crosby, a life-long vegetarian who brought his six foot six son, also a meat-abstainer from birth.

Membership in The Millennium Guild, sort of an elite People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals-like organization, was by invitation and only for those who vowed to boycott meat, fur, and use of animals.

Forward-thinking Freshel was also a crusader against vivisection (animal experimentation). Her allies in the animal rights cause included Count Leo Tolstoy, Cosima Wagner (widow of the composer), and 'New Thought' leader Rev. Ralph Waldo Trine.

The leading lady of vegetarianism was joined in her activism by husband Curtis Freshel, a business tycoon who imported Bakon Yeast, a smoky-flavoring added to vegetarian recipes.

Contrary to the old stereotype of self-depriving vegetarians, Curtis Freshel hobnobbed with the Wright Brothers of airplane fame, and the Freshels' mansion, located in Greater Boston, was celebrated for Tudor elegance and Mrs. Freshel’s exquisite interior décor.

The grand home was the setting for sophisticated society parties, and vegetarian cooking classes, discussions of health and about ethics by physicians and philosophers, and the screening of one of the first motion pictures: a documentary shot in a slaughterhouse."

More on Freshel and the Millennium Guild

In the following recipes, we suggest that instead or eggs or milk use commercial egg replacer, oil or stock.

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