Lazy girl blogging

Thanks to Jenny for the blog title. I am, undoubtedly, a lazy girl blogger, i.e. someone who talks about their latest ‘favourites’ rather than weaving the words about their own life. Sometimes, it’s just all about the influences ... these are some of my current favourites.

The team behind My Little Earth and the Little Earth Cafe have a new guise, Brown Sugar. The drinks on their blog are proving endlessly inspiring to me.

I have just finished reading Animal, Vegetable, Mineral (again). It’s really touched a nerve. From the off, I’ve always considered tropical fruit a treat rather than a staple (although I have a coconut weakness which I’ve slowly corrected this year). I hate the phrase ‘falling off the wagon’ when it comes to raw, simply because, for me, it’s always been about so much more than the percentages, and indeed the food, but saying that, my greatest struggle has always been over the winter months and the dilemma about imported foods/superfoods. This year has increasingly seen a shift in my local food consumption (although there are still tweakings to be made). We’ve always grown our own produce, but it’s stepped up a gear or three this year. Being creative with food produced within a 5 mile, 10 mile, 50 mile radius is really where I’m at (with the occasional raw pudding frenzy which is anything but - that’s what I mean by tweakings). If you’re at all interested in this then Animal, Vegetable, Mineral is a good place to start. In terms of instant transformation (if you’re a *bee*gan rather than vegan) why not replace dates/agave/maple with honey from a 10-mile radius? Baby steps ...

The Raw Model’s push to grow his own produce and Matthew Kenney’s focus on the seasonal continue this theme. In particular, check out the Raw Model’s pictures of Kenney’s new restaurant 105 degrees. Perhaps not truly seasonal but YUM! Nigel Slater’s latest, the very wonderful Tender, wholly focussed upon the seasonal is also proving endlessly inspirational and was designed by my wonderful friend Mrs Wolfson (not that I’m biased or anything).

Continuing the theme of it’s more than the food ... the latest edition of Get Fresh. It’s worth buying for the article by Roz Graham alone. Please, Fresh Network, bring her back into the magazine’s fold on a permanent basis. Also, fabulous to see Holly’s thoughts on diet and brain chemistry featured. Can’t wait for her forthcoming book!

Finally, the November issue of Runner’s World has a great feature on Percy Cerutty (pictured, hugging the runner Herb Elliott), a coach who believed in a high-raw diet and trained Olympic gold athletes in the ‘50s and ‘60s. It's inspired me to pull on my trainers. Not so lazy after all...

Photo © Time Inc.

Local, raw ice-cream!

I’ve finally had some ice-cream – my first of the summer, a little late but better than never I guess. I’m happy to report it’s a local affair too after being stupendously impressed by reading this.

The recipe? Nut milk from cobnuts (essentially cultivated hazelnuts), the juice from damsons (stone, pulverize in the Vita-mix and then strain through a sieve) and some local honey. Churn the mixture around in an ice-cream machine. For a creamier affair you can add some powdered lecithin (but of course that’s neither raw nor local) ...

My other ice-cream of the moment is fig (pictured). Rinse, snip the tops off, pulverize in the Vita-mix (include the skin, no need to strain this time) and like the above affair add honey and nut milk (the thicker and richer the better) and watch it c-h-u-r-n into iced heaven via the magic machine.

Solar Oven

I didn’t make it to the Festival of Life yesterday. I think the above picture shows the solar oven vantage point from my garden instead...

There’s nothing like an Indian Summer. Whilst you’re soaking up the rays (using good sense and moderation of course!) consider the power of the one and only Solar Oven: ‘Sunshine speeds up the circulation, helps the lymphatic system and actually stimulates the heart. And the brain becomes more alert. The rays of the sun build Vitamin D in the skin, which must be present if calcium and phosphorous are to be utilized in the circulation of the blood’. All you have to do is lie there ...

From Ann Wigmore’s Be Your Own Doctor.

Colour therapy #1

I spent yesterday afternoon de-stalking elderberries (catch ‘em before the birds do ...) and gazing, meditating really, on their fantastic glossy colour. Ann Wigmore in Be Your Own Doctor writes so well about colour(s). ‘... I have seen colour have a marked effect upon the mentality not only of the wearer, but also upon those with whom the wearer comes in contact ... This is the age of colour in clothes and surroundings. The trend will help to lift humanity to the better things of life ... Purple gives relief from ... over-emotional disorders. Due to its hypnotic effect, one finds restful and relaxed sleep ... Indigo and violet are considered to be more spiritual than other colours ... When we eat any kind of food, we are actually eating colour from the sun. The chemicals and minerals are there because of the action of the colour in the sun’s rays. Of course, the minerals have to be in the soil and air or the colours could not make the plant grow. The guiding principle in diet should be to eat the finer kinds of foods as much as possible, in preference to the coarser foods, and to seek those foods that contain most of the cosmic solar energy’.

A word of warning: Elderberries are NOT berries to eat raw, as they contain traces of cyanide which cooking dispels. In sensitive people (and children), even the ripest, cooked berries could be a problem, so proceed with due care and caution.

Tenuous link (a purple background!) but doesn't it look like a yummy menu ...?

Oh, and for the record I did sleep very well last night ...

Temporary Lapse ...

Forgive me. I profess to be about organics, crafting, home-spun and the ilk and then something comes along and hits me between the eyes. It happened with the Stella McCartney a/w collection for Adidas last year and it’s happened again for a/w 2009. Please allow for my temporary annual lapse...

All photographs © Stella McCartney for Adidas 2009.

Damsons

Damsons: the most painterly of fruit.

Snippets of joy from all over the place:

Beautiful hippie wedding.

New(ish) blog that promotes growing your own raw food. Farmers’ markets are fantastic but growing (and picking!) your own is the way to truly understand nature’s cycle(s).

Recipe inspiration. I’ve made no raw ice-cream this summer. I just haven’t felt the inclination. Not much cacao love either ... This changed my mind though. A frozen key lime pie dipped in chocolate ...

A raw version? There’s a recipe for the former in I Am Grateful (pp. 140-1) and I think we all know how to make raw chocolate don’t we?!

Blackberry pie

As promised a fortnight or so ago: a seasonal recipe for blackberry pie. I hadn’t forgotten my promise, it’s just that as soon as I make this pie it vanishes, hence taking a photograph proved problematic (as you can see a chunk has already been carved out)...

This is essentially a ‘root-around’ the cupboard recipe. You can use almonds, pistachios or macadamia nuts in the base depending on preference. Equally, the mesquite, cacao and carob combination can be altered to taste, and sultanas and raisins can be used instead of currants. The filling is culled from the Cafe Gratitude coconut cream pie recipe, substituting blackberry juice for coconut milk. To make the blackberry juice pulverise 1lb of blackberries in the Vitamix and then use a sieve to obtain the juice.

Base: ¾ C cashews, ½ C currants, ¾ C buckwheaties (i.e. soaked, sprouted and dehydrated buckwheat), 2T coconut oil, 1T mesquite, 1T cacao powder, 2T carob and a good squeezing of lemon.

Process in a food processor (rather than a Vitamix) until slightly sticking together (I find it best to process everything except the coconut oil and then add that last). Press down firmly into a 7-inch pan (lightly greased with coconut butter).

Filling: 1½ C blackberry juice, ¾ C of coconut meat, 4 medjool dates (take out the stones!), the scrapings of a vanilla pod, 3T lecithin and ½ C of coconut butter.

Process everything in the Vitamix apart from the last two ingredients. Once everything is pretty much smooth add the lecithin and coconut butter and blend again. Pour the filling on top of the base and put in the fridge to set. Decorate with blackberries or whatever else in the way of fresh fruit is to hand.