I think it depends on your concept of vegan. Many say it's produced by an animal, so it's not vegan. A lot of vegans use maple syrup, but that can be expensive if you live in Australia, like me. Disclaimer, I'm not vegan, but I'm working on reducing meat and dairy intake, so I often turn to vegan recipes. We also try to avoid refined sugar, so raw honey is used a lot in our house.

It's good to see you're posting again after what I see is quite a long break. I hope we'll being reading/hearing more from you. I've given you a mention in the [homesteaders - Living Naturally newsletter](https://steemit.com/homesteading/@homesteaderscoop/homesteaders-living-naturally-newsletter-20th-march-2019) and hope more people will pop by to say hello.

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<table><tr><td><a href="https://steemit.com/carnival/@steemitboard/carnival-challenge-here-are-the-winners"><img src="https://steemitimages.com/64x128/http://i.cubeupload.com/rltzHT.png"></a></td><td><a href="https://steemit.com/carnival/@steemitboard/carnival-challenge-here-are-the-winners">Carnival Challenge - Here are the winners</a></td></tr></table>

###### [Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness](https://v2.steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=steemitboard&approve=1) to get one more award and increased upvotes!

Hello Steve! Welcome, we're glad you're here! So glad, in fact that we've delegated you 30 Steem Power to encourage and enable you to interact. 

Wren at @mountainjewel recently made an [amazing post](https://steempeak.com/naturalmedicine/@mountainjewel/dobeesselfmedicateonplantmedicine-zhhjai5dx2) about bees self medicating on medicinal herbs. They would also impart that medicine to their honey I imagine, so it may be worthwhile to plant a heckuva herb garden! 

Welcome to steem :) We're very glad you're here, and I hope you can dig yourself in and get pretty well established here! You'll find there's a good group of folks here with homesteading and sustainability on their mind. Not the least of which are @sagescrub (creator of @homesteaderscoop), @riverflows (creator of @naturalmedicine), @pennsif (creator of @altlife, the alternative lifestyle show for homesteaders), and @freedomtowrite and @freedompoint (creators of @ghscollective). Those are the ones driving the sustainability bus on steem. Lots of others like @porters, @walkerland, @mountainjewel, @sustainablelivin (@mariannewest's profile for her Sustainable Living Podcast), @squishysquid, @goat-girlz, @senorcoconut, @vanessamidwife, @ppmsilver, @allyinspirit, @makinstuff, @simplymike, @craigcryptoking, @buckaroo, @papa-pepper, @wildhomesteading, and many many more are the ones in the community making it such a great group to be with. They're all well worth a follow. For a more complete list, @pennsif has compiled a directory of active steemian homesteaders that can be accessed [HERE](https://steemit.com/@altlife/homesteaders-and-preppers-on-steem-10-march-2019) and is a great way to network and find Homesteaders near you if they're on here.

Most communities on steem currently meet on discord, so that's a really handy app for steemians looking to get into the swing of things. It offers a simple, user-friendly messaging place where we can all talk and keep up off chain. There are hopeful developments coming for on-chain options, but those are probably a few forks away. You'll learn about hard forks as you grow on the chain a bit. Til then, our three main groups are [Homesteaders Co-op](https://discord.gg/PZfEXUM), [Natural Medicine](https://discord.gg/BV5bVXV), and [Global Homesteading Collective](https://discord.gg/tPhykkV). The [Homesteaders Co-op website](https://homesteaderscoop.com) is a marketplace built by @sagescrub where we are able to buy and sell sustainably produced goods using STEEM, SBD, and USD as well as gift and barter economics. It's the first marketplace of it's kind, and we're all quite excited about it.

A great tool for steem interaction is @ginabot. A splendid notification service that works through discord to let you know about steem interactions on chain. She'll let you know when you're mentioned, when people send you money, when certain folks make a post, or when posts are made with your favorite tags. Very very helpful, and I think most steemians use Gina.

One thing you'll find is that there are a lot of interfaces with the steem blockchain. There's steemit.com, busy.org, steempeak.com, partiko.app, d.tube, and many others that all boast different features and benefits. In any steem link, you can change out those sites and get the same post in different formats depending on your preferred interface. I prefer SteeemPeak and Partiko, but it's a fun learning experience to try a few for yourself, as the Steemit interface is a very basic interface that leaves much to be desired. Thats an intentional situation though, as Steemit Inc (Stinc) has bigger things to worry about.

I hope this little introduction can help you a bit. Things like this weren't being done much during the hectic time when I joined steem. As changes have been made to the chain and how it works, this kind of thing has become very important to help people stay engaged on the platform. With the price of steem being down (you'll find nobody cares terribly much about that), things have calmed down and many of the spammers and uninterested parties have gone inactive. As have many other good people, but (in general) the people you encounter here are the ones that truly desire to be here and see promise in the platform. We're here for the long haul, and we hope you find value here as well. :)

Welcome,

Nate and the whole sustainability community of steem.

Ooh, and don't forget to use all five tags! It'll help get more publicity by helping more people see your posts. As you learn, you'll find the more popular tags *that are applicable to you.* My personal favorite is #dailychicken. #homesteading, #permaculture, and #ghsc are also popular tags. :) 

Welcome to Steem 😀

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Welcome to the steem blockchain! I enjoyed your post - raising bees is on my list for my homestead. Good luck with beekeeping and keep sharing on here! :)

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