Sweet simplicity :my new blue salt pig

For a while now whilst preparing food, I've found myself fumbling around in my kitchen reaching into cupboards, rummaging around for the salt, often with greasy fingers. It would take me so long to locate it and frankly, the time spent unscrewing the jar was slowing me down!
It ocurred to me to buy a salt pig. I find the name whimsical and the shape of these items is pleasingly round. I have a raw kitchen equipment lust list,this item was clearly at the lower end of the price range, I decided to invest.
The most beautiful example I found were on Etsy, (where else?), hand thrown and hand glazed stoneware from a US seller.
I did the ethical thing and had a poke around Ebay and pretty soon I found a used blue salt pig,complete with teeeny spoon,I had to have it and ended up bidding £4.70 which I'm sure would have been fairly close to the new price.
Newly installed in my kitchen, my salt(pink himalayan)is always close to hand.

Food find! Teeny olives

I do love olives,very much. When I am out and about food shopping I am always on the lookout for new varieties. In Sainsbury yesterday I picked up a pot of Couchillo olives with pinenuts in a basil dressing. The olives themselves are teeny tiny, the size of a peanut. They have been pitted and marinated with pinenuts in an extra virgin olive oil, garlic and basil dressing. They are mellow tasting, not bitter at all. It would be easy to tip them straight into the food processor and create an instant, no fuss tapenade. However Joseph and I have discovered that there is infinite amusement to be had by skewering them with cocktail sticks and popping them one at a time.
Full product details available on the Sainsbury website http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/home.htm

Glastonbury event: Forest Gardens and Magical Edible Landscapes

My friend, housemate, fellow Aquarian, raw foodist and all round beautiful being Joseph will be delivering the following presentation in town tomorrow evening. Joseph is a nature lover and student of permaculture and I am hoping to gain the knowledge and inspiration to begin some small scale cultivation.

Why do the monks, the holy ladies and gentleman, the yogis go to the forest? Perhaps for the peace, the tranquillity, the simplicity, being surrounded by an abundance of good vibrations, nature settles peace on the soul, and we feel good, at ease. Not all of us want to give it up and dwell in the depths of the forest, if we could find any! The beauty is, we can co-create a sanctuary, a sacred space, a space of love, within and without, on a mountainside, a window-sill, in a backyard or on a balcony. Such is a forest garden. Such is a magical edible landscape.

Glastonbury Positive Living Group meets every Wednesday evening at Glastonbury Town Hall. There is no need to book. Just come along whenever there is a talk of interest. Lovely, friendly, relaxed atmosphere. Everyone welcome. Refreshments included.

Doors open 7.00pm
Topic of the evening 7.30pm
Social and (more) refreshments 9.00pm 'ish'
Doors close 10.00pm
Admission £5/£4 concs.

For full details of all upcoming talks please visit www.shiny-happy-people.co.uk or telephone Liz on 01458 833128.

From solid to liquid

I realise that my diet is becoming increasingly... liquid It is now common for me to have a juice at breakfast and lunchtime and one green and one sweet(fruit) smoothie later on, with maybe one 'meal' at midday, such as a raw pasta salad. I can see how I have reached this point, several factors have lead me here.

Firstly, along with many others experiencing winter in the northern hemisphere, my energy levels are lower at this time of year. Vitality and immununity levels are prone to dip and we are more vulnerabe to the effects of stress. I often find myself without the physical and mental energy to chop, peel and combine raw food in endlessly fascinating ways!

Secondly, working as a yoga teacher and massage therapist this is a busy time of year; I tend to pick up new clients as the New Year = healthy body phenomenom kicks into gear. And there is cover work available as yoga teachers head back to India to refresh themselves and their practice. So time has become a factor, what can be faster than shoving a handful of greens in a blender with a banana and handful of grapes and flicking the switch? It's the ultimate fast food.

In addition, I have been absorbing a lot of raw wisdom from the wonderful teachers out there. And understanding that I want to take a lot more greens in, I want to kick my dried fruit habit; which means eating fresh whole fruit, and in this regard I find it more interesting to bung it in the blender, adding superfoods and hemp protein powder and enjoying the outcome.

Equipment envy and what to do about it

I just tweeted about this matter, it didn't satisfy my urge to self-express. I am covering yoga at Shekinashram and popped into the kitchen after class. I was immediately drawn to and mesmerised by the Blendtec Express, in action on the worktop. They were blending up some goo for lunch, "Ooh what a lovely blender," I cooed as the girl in charge hustled me out from under her feet. My rapture for the Blendtec was merging with post-yogic bliss.
The question is what to do about equipment envy. As raw foodists, our approach may be high tech, low tech or something in between. I met a guy at a drumming camp who made his hemp milk using a pestle & mortar whilst my housemate spent £1000 on a Norwalk juicer. Chances are we have all seen a piece of kit that we want, that would be better than what we currently own.
I think that equanimity is the answer here, in other words I must choose to come into alignment with the yogic principle of santosa, or contentment. I am happy with what I have. My blender(Powermill)is sturdy, hard working and churns out great sauces & smoothies. I have identified an item that makes me feel good when I think about it, but I cannot allow that feeling to spiral into desire, which is often painful and causes suffering. Maybe someday a Blendtec will grace my kitchen and I look forward to that possibility becoming reality. Until then, maybe it's time to offer some karma yoga to the ashram, I'll get my hands on one faster that way...

Rainbow Raw event in Glastonbury this weekend

Rainbow Healing Vision Gathering is taking place this weekend, 10th &
11th January at St Edmund's Community Hall, Windmill Hill, Glastonbury.

Come along 2pm - 10pm Sat, 12pm - 10pm Sun and join in with talking
circles, circle dancing, singing, percussion jamming, pilgrimage to
the Tor, yoga and children playing!

Saturday evening: Full Moon candelit drumming circle.
Sunday: vision council & art workshop for Beltane Rainbow Gathering.

Bring cushions, musical instruments and raw food to share. Children
welcome. Alcohol, drugs and negativity free!
Magic hat entry, suggested donation £3 per day/ £5 weekend.

For details contact Sally, 07793 032036/ 01458 830761

What I am eating

I got an email a few days ago from a yoga client who eats high raw. We often chat about the raw diet. She wrote, "I am really intrigued as to know what sort of raw food you are eating."
It's a good question. There seems to be a great variety amongst raw foodists: perhaps one is into superfoods, another juice feasting, you may be a forager or gourmet.
I would say that my diet has changed a great deal and continues to change. I have been 100% raw for 3 (lunar) months and there is so much to explore. I do prefer to eat regular meals, in a traditional manner.
Right now I take a grapefruit ginger juice for breakfast along with whatever fruit tempts me: today a papaya, some strawberries and a couple of kiwis. Lunch is salad, boosted with seaweed and soaked seeds and courgette spaghetti made in my new Spirali. I'm into making a rich tomato sauce-dressing that I can keep for a couple of days in the fridge. I usually snack on fruit and dried fruit during the afternoon, I am trying to keep a lid on my dried fruit habit and wonder if I ate more at breakfast I would feel less the urge to snack. It could equally be habit. Evenings I eat a kind of raw oriental veg meal, much like a stir-fry, dressed in ginger, nama shoyu and sesame seeds. I often have a green juice also, or a smoothie. I try to eat early ie around 6pm so that I go to sleep with an empty stomach so I can really benefit from sleep and let the body truly rest and repair.

Raw pecan pie mini bites: they taste too good!

I was bored, a little restless and rummaging around in my kitchen cupboards.Right now have a dried fruit mini-mountain. Dates and pecans, hmm what can I make with that? As a raw foodist the answer is a simple one: stick it in the blender, give it a whizz and see what happens. I also added some coconut chips and cinnamon. The mixture blended easily but came out a little dry. On a second attempt I would pre-soak, possibly in fresh orange juice and maybe add a little zest for sweet zinginess. In this instance I added a little flax oil for pliability and formed patties by cupping the mixture in my palms. Decorating with pecan halves seemed appropriate. I have to say that they taste too good; which means I will be sharing amongst my housemates to prevent a scoff-athon.

Raw apple pie

Joseph had invited me to make banana bread with him as he had a huge pile of bargain ripe bananas. I too had banana abundance resulting from my pre-Christmas panic buying. Joe had pre-soaked golden flaxseed with dates and spices. This mixture was blended until smooth. Then he he added coconut chips that had been passed through a manual blender. I folded the mixture, it felt quite stiff, which was then poured onto a pie dish and smoothed over with a palette knife and dehydrated.

I blended some dates with fresh apple juice and ginger and added cinnamon to taste. The mixture was spread over the base. Then I sliced apples quite thinly and tossed in lemon juice before covering the surface. To finish I dusted some ground mixed seeds on top. Lush!

Supermarket sweep

I just got back from the supermarket. I had a bumper spree: unexpectedly coming across lots of raw goodies in the post-holiday sell off of seasonal goods. I picked up large bags of shelled walnuts and pecans. Organic dates stuffed with almonds, trays of beautifully presented dried fruit all at 75% off. So now I have a stash of the good stuff squirrelled away to keep me going through the winter months lol.