David Wolfe event in Glastonbury Tuesday 28th October

Perhaps the ultimate Raw entrepreneur, David Wolfe, will be speaking in Glastonbury tomorrow evening, Tuesday 28th October between 6.30pm - 8.30pm. It looks to be a low key event and I am looking forward to being in David's presence and feeling the full force of his aura/life force lol.

I hope I will get to hear David's perspective Glastonbury and Avalon, in terms of energies, healing and community.

To book for this event call : 01458 830763

Glastonbury Raw Potluck @ Bridie's Yard

Last Sat (25th Oct) I went along to a Raw Potluck evening at Bridies' Yard. If you have not heard of Bridies, it is an organic food co-operative and community centre. So an ideal venue.

The event was organised and hosted by Andrew Davis and Angela Miller of the Raw Food School . It was great to meet them, although I have met Angela before briefly in Glastonbury. Andrew is energetic, passionate and full of vision and I respect and admire the couple for the work they are doing and the high standard of professionalism of their business. Andrew was speaking with great enthusiasm about the future of Raw Foodism in Glastonbury, and the possibility of other Raw entrepreneurs doing business in town. How wonderful!

There was plenty of delicious food, ( which I will photograph next time!). Moreover it was very satisfying to connect up with local Raw Fooders, some of whom had travelled from Bristol to attend.

Rawkathon 2008

Have just listened to Gabriel Cousens interview as part of Kevin Gianni's Rawkathon. I felt humbled by his perspective on the raw diet, he sees it as a spiritual tool to enable a closer connection to the divine and ultimately a means of healing the planet. I was pleased to have my perspective refreshed, as so much of the commentary on raw foods focusses on the nutritional and health benefits. How wonderful to be able to share in the wisdom of a raw food pioneer and elder, a true guru. Having viewed the schedule I am looking forward to hearing Douglas Graham speak tomorrow and Viktoras Kulvinskas later in the week.

Getting juicy

Following my recent foray in to the land of choc truffles, with subsequent cacao comedown I have been juicing with increased vigour & motivation today, I prepared double my usual amount, thus reserving a portion for when I return from yoga class later, indeed I shall look forward to it, hmmm, juice meditation anyone?

Chocc'd out, feel a little queeezy...

Have been enjoying my raw choc creations, a bit too much. Have been combining some very rich ingredients, quite fatty and now... I wish I hadn't.

Of course the RawFood way is an especially healthful way of approaching diet & nutrition. I seem to have imported some old habits with me, such as over-indulgence of treats. Hmmm. Still a girl can allow herself a little slack where chocolate is concerned, it is preferable to experiencing the symptoms of raging PMS.

Also this is an opportunity for emotional healing. We can intervene on cycles of self-blame and criticism, right now before those voices can make themselves heard, by pre-empting negative thoughts with loving kindness, self-acceptance, forgiveness. After all tomorrow is another day and I feel like the need for a clean out, plenty of green juice and having prepared fruit on hand in case of snack attacks.
Peace out.

Raw apple cake, nettle tea, choco-banana-bliss truffles

The guys next door have an apple based diet at the moment as they are harvesting an orchard. Sally has an ingenious use for the pulp which remains from juicing, she adds cinnamon, avocado and sultanas to create a raw apple cake, which is totally delish, very much like apple strudel.
It seems to work as breakfast and a raw pudding. I am inspired by their natural frugality and use of ingredients, whatever is available, so nettle tea becomes the drink of choice.

So our new relationship as co-tenants has a strong food theme, lol. My contribution was some choco-banana-bliss truffles, so a contrast there in term of the sourcing of the ingredients. However, they were much appreciated and went down well.

I find that with raw puddings, desserts and treats it's so easy, you can't get it wrong it seems. Unlike conventional baking where there is the baking time and temperature which is a critical factor, with raw it's all in the prep. So a matter of taking one's ingredients and combining to achieve one's preferred taste and texture, then there is the fun, the play of presentation, in this case rolling gooey balls into powdered chocolate, wonderful.

Here's the recipe & method:
Pulverise cacao nibs into powder using blender.
Same with goji berries and mixed seeds.
Melt raw honey in a small plastic bowl by letting it sit in a larger bowl of hot water.
Mash bananas with a fork, the riper the better.
Combine to your taste and texture preference, I like to add a little cinnamon powder.
Chill mixture in fridge for 30 mins.
Roll in cacao powder, keep chilled and consume quickly!

Luvverly new housemates, apple, ginger, hemp juice

Have a luvverly couple of housemates just moved in. They have been harvesting the apple crop locally for the last couple of months and have an abundance of apples, as you might well imagine. I was presented with a cup of foamy sweet juice a little while ago. It tasted blissful, just the right amount of ginger, balanced by the sweetiness of the apple with hempiness coming through. They are using a hand cranked machine so there was a nice texture. Yum yum and very moreish...

Juicing broccoli?

I've really got into juicing, its so much fun and satisying not to mention totally delicious. I am pleased with my juicer, I went for a Compact juicer. I have a teeny tiny kitchen and it does indeed have a small footprint. I like the colour, tres important! I had read some favourable reviews and it seemed like a good price, (£139 including delivery).

It runs quietly and confidently and can handle hard veg such as carrots quite easily, the pulp produced is reasonably dry, It dissembles easily and is quickly cleaned and re-assembled.

My favourite juices thus far are: watercress & orange, orange and beetroot. I tried to be a bit more hardcore ie produce a greener, more serious juice. So I forced some broccoli in there with some spinach and lemon, yes, hardcore. It's not really me, seems that I am all about the juice and sweetness tee hee!

The time to blog is now

I felt strongly that I wanted to blog now, because a couple of days ago I had a major turning point with the Raw diet, I gave up cooked food. Prior to that I was eating soup with steamed veggies in the evenings and I was happy with that. So I had my regular meal and and it just felt wrong, sitting in my stomach. I felt physically very uncomfortable and the feeling persisted almost to the point of nausea. I knew that this was it, the end of cooked. So my transition from cooked to raw lasted 4 months.

Playing with our food!

One of the fun elements of this lifestyle is that possibility of playing with our food. Anything that keeps the inner child happy is fine by me. Every salad is a composition, to be arranged thoughtfully, perhaps as a mandala or a free form colour explosion. So how could this diet ever be boring?