Yoga and Raw Inspiration

I had to giggle when I read about Raw Rob on the Funky Raw website via Steve Charter’s advert for his forthcoming permaculture course because it chimed so accurately with how I feel about the numerous raw blogs that are less about experience than sales figures ...

‘Funky Raw Rob did his 2 week raw permaculture course Ecoforest in September 2002 – it was where he first experienced the raw life, and look what’s happened to him since then! He’s taken on Funky Raw from Ecoforest co-founder Tish, creating a much loved network that presents a different face of the raw/mainly raw movement, not catered for by the commercial ‘glammed up’ world of rampant raw egos ... I know they all mean well and are lovely people really ;)’.

Apart from the ever-amazing raw recipe blog that is Golubka and the pictorial blasts of raw energy via Kate Magic Wood, I don’t really follow any other raw (or raw-ish) blogs regularly. The lovely Neeta, Suki, Poppy and Shel would appear to have given up the blogging ghost, or post almost as often as I do ;), and I love them for living their lives away from the computer screen, but I’d yet (until now) stumbled across any replacements which truly resonated with me and the way I live my life (as simply and quietly as possible). The same can be said of the majority of yoga blogs ...

Thankfully, this past summer, just when I needed a direct hit of inspiration, a slew (well, three or four) websites and blogs were discovered which hit the spot marked ‘inspiration’. I can’t believe I didn’t know about Theresa’s (of Kitchen Buddy) blog until now, which reminds me in spirit of Momo’s lovely blog, another of my favourites, just a straightforwardly simple (but beautifully so) account of daily activities, with a healthy, organic and eco emphasis. Jules Febre’s blog is about so much more than yoga, as is the closer-to-home website of Jane Kersel who writes vividly about what yoga means to her (and who has inspired me to check out the work of Hal and Sidra Stone). Add to this merry crew, the thoughtful and reflective blog by Elizabeth Rossa, the director of Shriyoga (pictured), see for example, this entry. I love the ethos and simplicity of Rossa’s NYC yoga studio run out of two home lofts (owned by students who didn’t want to give up their yoga when Shriyoga vacated their previous studio in the neighbourhood). You just show up and put your money in the box – no sales drive, no yoga hype – just practicing in a beautiful space. I think that’s what I seek (and have found) in these new-to-me blogs. As Theresa has written ‘vegan living takes time, education and practice’ and to read and connect with other people’s experiences is an inspiring part of that ever-evolving process of ‘showing up’ and leading as mindful and healthy a life as possible ...

Studio photograph © Shriyoga in New York City.

Everyday Raw Desserts

Following on from my previous post (ahem, lecture) ...

As the temperature rises so does my raw percentage (in the most light-hearted of ways), so I thought some pictures from my most recent raw purchase might just fit the bill.

As is no doubt patently clear, I remain far more interested in eating locally than rawfully and Kenney’s recipes always seem to fit the bill for ‘local’ adaptations. For example, if you don’t want to use lemons I’ve found the juice of a sour cooking apple to work a treat (or start growing your own lemon tree). Similarly, and as I mentioned in my last post, try honey or stevia (grown from seed) mixed with rapeseed oil to make a liquid sweetener consistency similar to agave (as called for in various recipes).

Everyday Raw Desserts, following in the Kenney tradition, contains pictures which will have you drooling ... and no wheat, animal fats, refined sugar, etc. I love it!

Localism

I read a depressing Facebook exchange on local food recently – some ‘raw foodies’ seemingly worried about how local food could provide fat and sweetness to those in the UK (funny how those two elements caused the most concern!). To address those two points swiftly:

- I am still able to purchase almonds from my local farmers’ market so that’s the nut that predominates in this house at the moment (having worked our way through the chestnuts, walnuts and hazelnuts gathered before winter).

- I am experimenting with local honey or stevia (planted from seed) mixed with rapeseed oil to make a liquid sweetener consistency similar to agave (as called for in various raw recipes) and I am still ravishing the most gorgeous pears (again from the farmers’ market) kept in storage since the autumn...

The exchange reminded me of an article I’d read late last year. It made me so angry that I am just going to echo one of the commentators, ‘What a ridiculous article!’ and leave it at that, with a tiny addendum that the named ‘aubergines, chillies, fresh ginger, sweet potatoes and turmeric’ can all be grown here in England. Yes, even the turmeric!

If, as the same commentator implied, the author had done just a modicum of research she could have highlighted, for example, the work of the wonderful NamaYasai who are based in Lewes but sell in various places in East Sussex, Kent and Surrey, plus London via the train, ‘Whilst the rail fare is roughly the same as fuel + congestion charge, it saves us some time and keeps our carbon footprint down’.

It’s so easy to look away, so easy to just divert our conscious thinking from the facts in front of us on our plates. When I ate meat I didn’t want to think about what the animal I was eating had experienced to get to my plate, so I didn’t, and similarly, I think the same thing applies to imported food. That said, it’s as easy to up the local quotidian as it is to look away. It is truly amazing the ‘exotics’ you can grow in England (even without a greenhouse). These are just some of the guides you might be interested in.

In our house we try to limit our imported food purchases to as little as possible. We make full use of spices – the way I see it, they’re tiny, thus light to import and last a long time if you buy things whole rather than pre-ground (spices always taste best if you grind them yourself anyway). Spices are magical! I also have some imported cacao powder and mesquite in my cupboards but the more you eat fresh local greens the less sweet things you crave anyway (although gazing at raw dessert pictures is still a pleasurable hobby!) and they have been there for at least a couple of years now, if not longer ...

Pictures are © via these wonderful books (don't you wish all food could be labelled re. its transportation whether by boat/lorry/plane/train?) which are both fascinating reads if you feel inclined to read further on the subject.

Blackberry Maca Balls

Blackberry maca balls - yum. Deeply grateful that I took the time to freeze some excess fruit back in the autumn ...

Elderflower Cordial

I’m not big on words this week, pictures are hitting the spot instead: very much enjoying these two visual blogs...

I’ve also been slurping elderflower cordial by the gallon. Elderflowers are everywhere at the mo’...

It’s common to use sugar/honey/citric acid when making elderflower drinks. I’m a fan of the honey version but felt like something lighter this year.

This worked well:

8 elderflower heads (some are large and some are small, so use your discretion)
Juice of half a lime
10 dried figs
Jug of water

Put everything into the jug and leave for a couple of days. Strain (eat the figs!) and store in the fridge. I drink this neat (due to the lack of sugar/honey it’s not really a cordial) but you can also dilute it for a subtler effect.

More Dash Than Cash

A friend sweetly presented me with a copy of this book which she’d picked up in a second-hand bookshop ... and it kick-started my recent musing on clothes. The book isn’t new to me: it was my virtual bible through my teenage years. Re-reading it has bought back many happy memories of clothes-hunting ... and I still live by the book’s rules today: quality rather than quantity, hunt everywhere for inspiration (and clothes), sew ‘em yourself if you can, and don’t forget the body that houses the clothes.

The images (and writing) are wonderful (it’s a Vogue book after all) but it’s the section at the end that has made me chuckle the most. It’s a light-hearted look at clothing tribes. No-one wants to be pigeon-holed but you’ll soon recognise yourself overlapping in the form of a fashion Venn diagram ... I am no ‘Executive Dresser’ nor ‘Vamp’ but ‘Land Girl’, ‘Country Girl’, ‘Peasant Girl’ and ‘Jumble Girl’ raised some wry smiles ...

Here are some extracts:

THE LAND GIRL: ‘... To avoid the passé surplus look, the Land Girl has to know how much surplus is too much, and where to stop. The essential ingredient to her look is large doses of wit and the unexpected. Neutral, camouflage colours look dead without an interruption of pure white and delicate pastels, which become the vital back-up to the style ... She is permanently on the look-out for a flying suit in mint condition, and Girl Guide or Boy Scout uniforms that fit ...’

THE COUNTRY GIRL: ‘... In summer she swaps warm, practical clothes for a more pastoral Kate Greenaway look. She loves fresh, sprigged cottons in bright and faded Liberty-style prints: tiered skirts edged with pintucks or broderie anglaise, flower-printed shirts with Peter-Pan collars, puff sleeves and narrow cuffs, drawstring smocks that hang over thin, cotton trousers. She protects her favourite clothes with a long, flowery apron – essential for gardening, picking fruit, making jam and baking bread. When it rains she changes from espradrilles into gumboots, throws on the nearest raincoat and cotton headsquare, and lets the rain fall on her face’.

THE JUMBLE GIRL: ‘Her Granny style springs from a tiny budget and a feeling for nostalgia. Everything, except her underwear, is second-hand. Some things qualify as antiques, others are recent cast-offs, picked up for a few pence in a jumble sale. This astute waif haunts every kind of old clothes source: charity shops, market stalls, auctions and bazaars ... with a well-trained eye to see the potential in things that others regard as old rags...’

THE PEASANT GIRL: ‘... The Peasant Girl is something of an all-round-crank [!!!], treating her food, fashion and health with a single-minded reverence. She is a vegetarian gourmet, ready to spend hours concocting exotic, whole-food banquets, medicinal herb teas or natural-recipe skin-care products. Her greatest joy is finding a source of antique, ethnic treasures: a grandmother’s trunk of frail, exotic, embroidered blouses, a sumptuous Chinese dressing gown, even pieces of foreign cloth that can be adapted into a belt, a scarf, or incorporated into another garment. Fortunately the Peasant Girl can sew reasonably well ... When dressing up ... she wears her most exotic, brightest clothes, releases her preplaited (vegetable-dyed) hair into a crinkly, voluminous halo, accentuates her eyes with black and green kohl pencils, and splashes on her special-occasion patchouli oil.’

Oh, and a quick aside: do check out Ginny Branch Stelling’s post on ‘Campfire Girls ‘. I squealed when I saw the health chart! I need one to keep a regular check of my dry-skin brushing, juice-slurping and disco dancing days!

Light Eating for Survival #2

Unless you’re a ‘comments’ reader extraordinaire (I’m not), you might have missed that the lovely Marcia Acciardo, author of one of my favourite raw books, Light Eating for Survival, remarked on one of my early blog posts recently. I took the chance to cheekily ask for any words of wisdom she cared to share for those newer than her on the raw(ish) path. Herewith her fabulous response:

Let’s see...

Enjoy your life to the fullest and those who share it with you.

Find work that feels good and provides you with financial independence.

Healthy, natural foods are very important, and have served me well over the years. I am no longer a food purist, I still eat very well - whole, fresh, natural, local whenever possible foods, and yes lots of raw fruits and vegetables daily.

I love to walk, hike, swim, and work out to stay in shape and have been very healthy compared to others my age.

Trust yourself, and know that each of us are unique, and what might be good for one person, may not be right for another.

Be happy, be positive, and always look on the bright side of life. It’s so much better that way!

Best Wishes,

Marcia

Thank you Marcia, such fantastic ‘guidance for life’! My personal addendum would be to grow as much of your own food as possible (the picture above is from some dreamy Cambridge allotments I stumbled upon earlier this week), or at least buy food produced within a certain radius ... supremely important for both yourself and the planet. Thank you again Marcia, and if you haven’t yet got a copy of Light Eating For Survival I highly recommend that you hunt one down ...

Spring Zing

Just a peek at first: ‘Wines’ and ‘Beers’.

Well, I’m not in need of that. ‘Orders’ ‘Promptly’ [‘Delivered’?]. Yes please! Raw food is the ultimate prompt delivery. Wouldn’t this ungentrified corner make an amazing raw hot spot?

With the upping of the temperature so my zest for all things healthy has zinged (zung?) back to life.

DIY #1: Coconut Oil

How Coconut-Oil Is Made from Clean Program on Vimeo.

Lovin’ the synchronicity. Thank you WLIR. In my ‘seasonal’ adventure I am missing coconuts. Badly. If you are allowed a ‘foreign’ treat or two amidst seasonal fare, then I think that coconuts will have to make an appearance in my world.

That said, I was pondering about raw, virgin, organic coconut oil/butter recently. I’m not sure about prices elsewhere in the world, but in the UK it’s not cheap, by a long stretch.

The first few steps in the enclosed video are eminently do-able. My hand-powered coconut machine makes scraping and breaking down the meat a doddle, my dehydrator dries the mush out superbly ... my only stumbling block is the final pressing stage. However, I have an inventive, ‘hands-on’, mechanically-minded brother. Excuse me whilst I make a call...

Welcome to ...

A day of unceasing rain in London yesterday. The only bright spot was my first visit to Unpackaged, an organic grocery where goods are (you guessed it) unpackaged. I hardly want to admit to it (with all my ramblings about buying local and chortling over this) but I bought a few handfuls of organic goji berries. What can I say? It’s been tough surviving on fruit rations of pears and apples in the bleak months of Jan/Feb. I hope the fact that I bought my own packaging mitigates my purchase somewhat...

Ten things you (perhaps don’t) need to know

1) I mourn the fact that good-quality vintage clothes are becoming harder and harder to find. Ebay has less and less, for more and more. Comparing the quality between, for example, 70s M&S and 00s M&S makes me want to weep.
2) I don’t like shopping but I love beautiful things, especially old buildings. I groan when I read about supposedly ‘improved’ old houses (which generally means that their souls have been ripped out).
3) I don’t wear perfume, but I’m a sucker for good-smelling oils and potions. Unguents make my day, every single day.
4) Scaravelli yoga is my drug of choice and probably one of my most important discoveries of the past decade. The late Vanda Scaravelli’s book on yoga is like no other.
5) Old-fashioned photo booths transform you into a pre-war goddess. I’m a fan.
6) I like to type in the pitch dark. Just my screen and I. It feels cozy.
7) Food. Sometimes I’m good, sometimes I’m bad (and I know it’s daft to refer to food as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ but it’s a habit I’m unlikely to break). Seasonality has proved the most stable way to keep my choices on track. I will write more about this when I sum up what 2009 has meant to me.
8) Gazing at pictures of raw food never fails to lift my mood. I dream of the day when former derelict tea shops all over Britain, turn into establishments offering glistening, gleaming, sparkling raw treats.
9) I love diaries, biographies and autobiographies. Good places to start are here, here and here.
10) I lived in Brighton during the 90s. I’d move back there in a snap if the opportunity arose. It’s a city that makes me feel good about myself, always. You can’t ask for more than that.

This somewhat random list has been generated due to the bestowing of an award by the lovely Neeta. I am, apparently, a piece of ‘honest scrap’. The rules to receiving this award are as follows:

1) Post the award on your blog. Present this award to 7 others whose blogs you find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged you.
2) Tell those 7 people they’ve been awarded HONEST SCRAP, inform them of these guidelines, and ask that they link back to you.
3) Share ‘Ten Honest Things’ about yourself.

My nominations include several ‘dormant’ bloggers in the hope that they spring back to life in 2010! Others are newly revived blogs, or just plain new and inspiring:

In Beauty May I Walk
Poppy’s Juice Feast
Otchipotchi
Kurashi Arekore
Raw Mama
Coxeter’s Fayre
Linda in the Raw

Quinces

My dedication to local eating continues apace. I have one particular exception this month: imported quinces. Once the English quinces have been devoured, I scour the market stalls for imported ones. If, as has been suggested, you need one or two 'foreign' treats in the battery of home-grown products, then quinces are up there (on a pedestal) for me.

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.

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.

Summer Bounty

Recipes soon ...

Jewels of the Currant World #2

This frozen batch of last year’s redcurrants was consumed by moi today to celebrate my first blogging anniversary (admittedly a little late, but my first post was on these very redcurrants). There are also fresh gooseberries, strawberries and rhubarb galore at the moment, and the other various berries and currants (raspberries, blueberries, blackcurrants and whitecurrants) are starting to form fruit ...

Easter Present

Easter Present is literally that, a present to you. The weekend papers on Saturday featured an article on the New York vegan bakery Babycakes, who will be publishing a cookbook come early May. The recipes strike me as easy to adapt to a raw food world, and you all know by now how seduced I can be by pretty vegan cookbooks ...

Blossoming

It’s not quite the first day of spring, but it feels like it. From the winter weekends of doing ‘not much’ I am now officially out and about. Last weekend was spent in Lewes (they have a very sweet farmers’ market on the first Saturday of each month), and the weekend just gone was spent in London. Blossom and flowers are everywhere – a welcome hit of olfactory as well as visual delight. My focus is wholeheartedly less on the food I’m consuming and more on the food I’m planting. Fellow biodynamic ‘by the moon’ planters will understand that March is a busy time!

Web Messages

I am feeling wholly inspired by several web posts - both old and new. Kerri Smith’s fabulous Venn Diagram of the 06/03/09 on the comfort zone vs things that make life worthwhile and interesting, Jenne’s brilliant post on Wendell Berry and the handmade, and finally, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall on the importance of supporting fairtrade ...

On the raw front, I have shifted from morning juice to something more substantial, what I call my ‘brain feast’ brekkie – loosely based on Raw Rob’s various concoctions. The difference in stabilizing my day has been incredible ...

Kelp Noodles - Raw?

So, here’s my question. I bought some kelp shreds (pictured) and also some kelp noodles in London’s Chinatown recently. I love the texture of sea spaghetti so wanted to try out the kelp noodle craze that seems to be going on in the raw community. However, whilst the kelp shreds (like sea spaghetti) do seem to resemble sea material as it appears in nature (albeit shredded and dried), retaining both colour and taste, kelp ‘noodles’ just don’t. I’m not obsessive or even trying to pick an argument, as I realise that some of the dried fruit and also some of the nuts and other seaweeds I consume are unlikely to be officially ‘raw’ and I’m ok with that, but kelp noodles just don’t seem to resemble anything like natural kelp. Is it just me, or does anyone else think the same?

UPDATE
Clearly I’m not the only one pondering this (see this link) and this too, so it’s really down to individuals to make their own minds up about how much ‘processing’ they want their food to undergo. The Sea Tangle Noodle Company as well as posting some info, sells packs of 12 for $33 plus shipping (i.e. $2.75 a pack). The kelp shreds from Chinatown cost, if I remember rightly, £1.50 per pack.