Jacky’s Depot Ice Cream Parlor in Maumee has closed for the season but each year after closing, they make Pumpkin Ice Cream Pies for Thanksgiving. This year they will be offering a vegan version as well!
 
All their ice cream is made in-house, and this year they added a line of vegan ice cream. The recipe is coconut-based and is made with all-natural ingredients and as many certified-organic ingredients as possible, according to the company.
 
The pumpkin ice cream pies come in a 9-inch vegan graham cracker crust and cost $15 each. They will be available for pick up the Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving from 5 to 7 p.m. Jacky’s Depot will place reminder calls or texts to all customers who order a pie.
 
Call 419-893-0216 to place an order or contact Jacky’s Depot through their web site (http://www.jackysdepot.com/wp/) or their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/JackysDepotMaumee/). You just need to specify the type of pie (vegan or regular) when ordering. Jacky’s Depot’s homemade pumpkin ice cream and vegan pumpkin ice cream are gluten-free, however, the pie crust does contain wheat.
 
Jacky’s Depot plans to have at least two vegan flavors in their dip case at all times next year – or more if the demand is there. If you have any flavor requests or general suggestions, please let them know!
 
We are excited to order a Vegan Pumpkin Ice Cream Pie from Jacky’s Depot to share with our family at Thanksgiving this year!

Local Roots is a juice and smoothie bar that also has nice breakfast options for vegans.

They have a set of toasts that are quite tasty. We tried the Avocado toast and the Pumpkin Spice toast. The avocado toast was one piece of bread that was richly covered with slices of fresh avocado. There are lots of places that have avocado toast and each one differs in subtle or not-so-subtle ways. Local Roots was one of our favorites in that it was richly covered with everything bagel spices as well as a touch of cayenne. The avocado toast needs to be modified to be vegan, in that the standard version includes butter. You can substitute coconut oil for the butter but we just did without (and didn't miss it).  The Pumpkin Spice toast included a pumpkin cinnamon maple spread covered with toasted pumpkin seeds. It was sweeter than the avocado toast and so they complemented each other well. For vegans, ask for the gluten-free bread as the other breads have honey in them. We thought the gluten-free bread was tasty and chewy.

We had their chocolate banana chia overnight oats, which included rolled oats, banana, almond milk, cacao, maple syrup, chia seeds, Himalayan salt and cacao nibs. This was very delicious and sweet but not overly so. We could eat that every morning!  

We ended our breakfast with a homemade bottle of almond milk. They make their almond milk there and it was simple and refreshing.

There were several other types of overnight oats and toasts and we look forward to trying them. In addition, they have lots of smoothies, all which can be made vegan. They have bowls as well, including a Classic Acai Bowl as well as oatmeal in which you can choose the toppings.  Also, they have cold-press juices waiting for you to taste. On a separate visit, we tried the Clean Green juice and one of the fruit smoothies and both were great!

We enjoyed what we've tried here so far and look forward to returning!

Thanks to a reader, we got a tip that there is a vegan juice bar and restaurant with great food in Fremont, so we took a trip down there and were really glad that we did!

This is a cute place that focuses on fresh raw juice, superfood smoothies, bowls, salads and sandwiches. Everything is vegan except for a few items include bee pollen and honey. We ordered an NRG juice (carrot, orange, lemon and ginger) as well as chocolate avocado toast (also includes blueberries and strawberries on top), jackfruit street tacos and a mock BLT.  

Everything was delicious! The jackfruit tacos were nicely seasoned and had fresh vegetables and cilantro on them, plus they had some nice sauces to try on top. The mock BLT was a favorite of ours. The imitation bacon was made in-house and had a texture similar to tempeh, with a nice smokiness. The chocolate and avocado together on toast was a nice touch, and the juice was fresh and delicious.

There are many, many other items on their menu that we want to try including dairy-free cream bowls, several interesting salads and a homemade black bean burger. Juice Garden is open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and now has a drive-through window as well as their dine-in option. 

We talked briefly with the owner, who moved from California to Ohio and turned to a plant-based diet for health reasons. She is now making her healthy lifestyle available to others via her restaurant. We hope she is so successful that she opens a location in Toledo!