How Blogger Dropped Meat ‘Cold-Turkey’ and Went Vegan: Laura Wright of The First Mess

All photos: Courtesy of The First Mess

Gardening is more than a casual hobby for Laura Wright, the vegetable aficionado behind natural food blog The First Mess. As a child, when she wasn’t running around her father’s fresh produce market in the small town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Wright could be found in her backyard’s vast kitchen garden, devouring raspberries as fast as she could pick them.

In high school, Wright began experimenting with vegetarianism—”I felt better when I wasn’t eating meat,” she told us simply—and by 24, in 2009, was a full-blown vegan. The diet shift proved to be her keys to the kitchen, and later, her blog.

“I found I was much more interested in cooking when I turned vegan, because I had to fend to myself more,” Wright said. “I felt amazing, and it was making me more creative in terms of food.” Wright had attended college in Toronto, earning a bachelor’s degree in environmental ethics from the University of Toronto, but her newfound interest in cooking demanded something different. She stayed on in the city, snagging a diploma in nutritional culinary management from George Brown College.

But at heart, Wright is a country girl. After a hectic eight years in urban Toronto, she couldn’t resist the rural allure of her native southern Ontario. In 2012, she settled in quaint Thorold, Ontario, just one town over from her childhood home. “It was just too hard to think about continuing on with life with no garden, so I came back,” Wright said.

Once home, Wright put her know-how to good use by starting The First Mess, a magnificently photographed site that last year Saveur editors named “best special diets blog.” These days, she boasts an impressive 47,500 followers on Instagram, and with good reason: Her recipes, from deconstructed vegan enchiladas to raw banana bread milkshakes, are downright gorgeous.

Here’s everything else to know about Laura Wright:

Wright’s chocolate passionfruit cupcakes.

1. Vegetables run in her family.
"My dad has a local produce market, and he took it over from his dad. It’s been around in the area for over 40 years now — it was a farm stand, and now it’s a full-fledged store front. Because of that, I grew up with seasonal eating; it was a built-in idea. At home, my dad is a huge hobby gardener. He had a big vegetable garden in his backyard that had a huge raspberry patch. When my brother and I were young, our first job was picking raspberries to sell to the store. Every half pint we could get $2, but we kept eating them.”

2. Baking stresses her out.
"Baking is always something that gets me confused and angry. I know some people find baking really soothing, but I get so stressed out. I mean, when you can use eggs, you pretty much have an answer. But I’m vegan, so I don’t use them, and I try not to use a lot of sugar. Trying to replace them with plant-based things or more natural options is hard.”

How Wright does simple pasta: topped with garlic and cauliflower.

3. She gave up non-vegan foods cold turkey.
"I was 24, and I went right into it. I had been vegetarian for a while, so it didn’t seem so crazy. One day I woke up — it was after [Canadian] Thanksgiving—and I looked at my plate and it was full of beautiful vegetables. I thought, "I could eat like this all the time.’”

4. The name “The First Mess” is inspired by a famous food writer.
Wright explains on her blog: “‘The First Mess’ is taken from M.F.K. Fisher’s An Alphabet for Gourmets, where she refers to the arrival of the first run (or mess) of peas in early spring as ‘the day with stars on it.’ Her sincere appreciation and thoughtful writings on food are a marvel to read, time, and again.”

5.  She puts serious thought into her Instagram account.
"One time, Women’s Health magazine posted something about healthy Instagram accounts to follow, and that gave me a healthy blast of followers. I think it’s like anything: If you put in the energy into it, people will respond to it. And out of all of my social media accounts, that’s the one I put the most into. Twitter or Facebook? I don’t care, I’ll say whatever. But Instagram is the only account, I think, that I could be accused of overthinking.”

A dreamy mustard-spiked vegetable chowder for chilly days.

6. She makes a mean stew.
"I’ll never say I’ve mastered anything, because I’ll always find another way I could make something. The things I feel I have a real handle on, though, are soups and stews. I make this one kind of Moroccan sweet potato and vegetable stew that I really like: It’s a lot of everyday ingredients, but it has this beautiful cinnamon aroma, and there are these chopped dates that dissolve in the broth. These ingredients make it feel special, like you have super kitchen abilities. But it’s really easy to make.”

7. Her cooking style is always in flux.
"It’s plant-based and rooted in the seasons, for sure, but [it’s also affected by] what’s happening in my life. If I have a busy week and I need something simple, that’s what’s on the blog. I never have one particular style. It’s always evolving."

Other food bloggers who should be on your radar:

Russ Crandall of The Domestic Man, whose stroke at 25 inspired a life (and diet) change

Alejandra Ramos of Always Order Dessert, who takes inspiration from all corners of the globe

Christine Arel of healthy food blog No Gojis, No Glory, who has lived all over the globe