Go Raw, Not Crazy

My New Kangen Website for GREAT Water!!

2011-11-02T21:19:00.000-07:00

I've been drinking water from a Kangen machine for over a year now. When I try something, I like to make sure that I REALLY give it a test drive before I recommend it. Well, I am so convinced of the wonderful qualities of this water that I bought my own machine about a month or so ago. And I'm even MORE convinced of the fabulous qualities of it now that I have my own machine, that I've got a whole website for it. You can see it here. Sign up for the free newsletters and ebook if you'd like to, and let me know if you'd like to try a free 21-day trial of it. I love it so much, that I want to share it with anyone who wants some.

I'm getting a few testimonials together from folks who love it, too, and I'll be building a website for the testimonials, too. As soon as it is up, I'll publish the URL. To your health!

e-Books

2011-10-26T12:02:00.000-07:00

To order your e-copies of these books, click on the links or the photos of the books below. You will be directed to PayPal for your purchase, and after payment, directed to a site where you can download your copy. Enjoy!

Go Raw, Not Crazy ~ 35 Tips to Help You Achieve Your Raw Goals

Classic Holiday Recipes In the Raw

Site Temporarily Down / Juice Fast

2011-10-24T21:57:00.000-07:00

Howdy All,

We are in the process of moving Go Raw, Not Crazy to a new server, so while the site is being rebuilt and moved, I will be conducting most of the business through my facebook page and this blog during the move.

As well, I'm participating in a juice fast with Rebeka Gentian for the next 5 days. Join us! Rebeka will interview me this coming Wednesday, and the details of the fast and the interview will be found here. More to come, soon. Stay tuned!

Well, THIS is Strange!

2011-02-21T21:24:00.000-08:00

And more than a little annoying! For those of you looking for my fresh blog post from today, it's simply gone. I read it to myself live, it was saved and everything, but now it's gone. Grrrrr ... more than strange, this is downright annoying!

Sorry that there is no post now. I will rewrite it tomorrow and send out a link on twitter and facebook as usual to let you know when it's up again. Maybe it will magically reappear (as it disappeared).

See you soon!

Time for Seedlings and a Winter Fast

2011-02-19T00:57:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been an exciting few weeks around here, what with the e-book launch and facebook contest! It took a lot out of me, but in a good way! :o) I am now ready to move on to some other end-of-winter/prep-for-spring kinds of activities.

We've got a small piece of land that we live on in a mobile home park, but we don't let that stop us from growing as much food as we can. In the past 2 years, we've tried growing carrots, beets, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers and strawberries, and none of them worked very well. Our blueberries, black currants, cherries, apples and peaches have all worked well though, so we're looking forward to another year of those. :o) Mostly, though, I'm looking forward to growing greens til they're coming out my ears!

Kales of all kinds, collard greens, Swiss and rainbow chards have all grown phenomenally for us, so this year, we're taking the bull by the horns and growing as much of them as we can. I got some seeds that other day and now that the e-book project is safely tucked away, I'm REALLY looking forward to getting some wee greenie tots started.

As well, I've been wanting to do a serious juice fast for some time, and last night I finally decided that it was time to do it. I haven't gotten the last weight off yet, and I haven't been serious about at-home colon hydrotherapy (enemas and colonics), either. My friend Tamara has a Colema board and colonic set-up that she's going to loan me, and all I have to do is get my own personal tubing.

Jason is on-board to do a fast/feast with me, so it will be nice to have a partner doing it with me. Today I just did water from the Kangen machine and lemonade from the Master Cleanse (lemon juice, water, maple syrup and cayenne pepper). I had a few hunger pangs here and there, but since I don't want much to eat until about 4 p.m. these days anyway, and have been drinking lots of juice in the morning, this is the easiest transition I've ever had to a fast.

So I just wanted to pop in and let you all know what I was up to. I'll report on my progress with the feast/fast tomorrow (or soon thereafter). Wanna be fasting buddies? Come along for the ride. It'll be fun! :o)

Contest Winners!

2011-02-14T12:37:00.000-08:00

A great big congratulations goes out to the winners of our facebook page contest! It was hard to pick the winners, because everyone's entries were compelling. Drumroll, please ... and the winners are:

Cathie Brown
Dawn Smith-Miller
Maria Gudelis

I hope that you enjoy your e-books, and thank you to all who entered the contest. Stay tuned ... more contests are coming soon!

Win a Copy of My Newest Ebook!

2011-02-08T00:42:00.000-08:00

Hello again all. How is your new year going? Valentine's Day is nearly upon us, and to show how much I appreciate all of you and your your support of this blog, I've decided to give away 3 copies of my latest e-book, the long-awaited Go Raw, Not Crazy ~ 35 Tips for Achieving Your Raw Goals (While Maintaining Your Sanity) How can you win? Simple!

Just visit my facebook page for Go Raw, Not Crazy here, "like" the page, and click on the Contests tab. There, you will find instructions for where to type in the reason that you want to win the ebook. But you must go to the facebook page (please don't enter your reason in the comments here, as that will not qualify you as entered in the contest). BEST of luck to all, and the winners will be announced on Valentine's Day. The contest closes its doors on 2/14/11 at noon Pacific Time, so scoot on over to the page now and enter.

Classic Holiday Recipes E-Book Now Available (and a FREE Holiday Recipe for You!)

2010-12-01T17:28:00.000-08:00

Well hello again! :o) Christmas is nearly upon us, and I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to it. I absolutely adore this time of year! It's been a superbly busy season, but fortunately, I'm happy to report that I am keeping an eye on my waistline and the raw food consumption. I'm also happy to report that while we allowed our house to be significantly less than raw for the last year when we took a roommate (after having had a raw household for a full year), we have decided and announced that after Christmas, regardless of who is living with us, it will be a raw home again! Woo-hoo!!! We are beyond excited! That old Vita-Mix of ours is whirring wildly these days, and I'm LOVING it!

On another front, "35 Tips to Help You Reach Your Raw Goals (While Maintaining Your Sanity)" is nearly done ... in fact, it's all over except for the formatting of it (for e-book form). It's been a long road for me to get this book done, and those of you who bought it in the presale will find a wee something extra in your stocking this year. ;o) Thanks EVER so much for all your patience while I got it done.

As well, my latest e-book, Classic Holiday Recipes, is now up and available for sale on the e-books page of Go Raw, Not Crazy. It's only $4.95, and has 6 amazing raw recipes that I created for holiday gatherings (or just to please yourself!) The recipes are for:

Chocolate-Peppermint Truffles
Pesto-Stuffed Mushrooms
Cranberry-Orange Relish
Old~Fashioned Spiced Eggnog
Stuffed Celery
Minced Meat Pie

Mmmmmm ... I've made all of the recipes in the book already this season, and can't wait to have more cranberry-orange relish with dinner tonight! What fun holiday recipes have you made in the raw this year? Feel free to post about them in the comments below. In the meantime, here's a free recipe that you can enjoy right now.

Raw Candied Pecans

2 cups raw pecans (or walnuts)

1/4 cup agave nectar (more or less to taste)

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. mesquite pod meal

2 tsp. palm sugar or coconut palm sugar

Mix all ingredients except palm sugar in a bowl with a spoon until fully coated. Toss the sugar into the mix until just coated. Eat immediately, or spread out on dehydrator trays, and dehydrate at 115 degrees F in your Excalibur for 6 hours. Make sure to check after about 4 hours to see if the nuts need to be broken apart (so that they all dry evenly). Store in an airtight container. These last indefinitely, but you may need to perk them up with a quick round of an hour or so in the dehydrator if they become slightly moist. But these are so good, they'll be gone before you can say Merry Christmas!

Been Awhile ... Lung Issues Resolved (and Book on the Way!)

2010-11-10T20:35:00.000-08:00

"So where the heck has she BEEN the last few months???" many of you have been asking. "Wasn't her e-book due out at the end of July?" Well those are excellent questions with excellent answers.

In June, I started planning for another visit from Tim VanOrden. He came to Bellingham to speak at the end of July, and it was an amazing talk, as usual. (What else would we expect from Tim?) However, in the 2 weeks prior to his visit, I was having a lot of breathing issues, and by the time he got here, I had a mild case of laryngitis and had a difficult time hosting the talk. Why, you ask? Well, we live butted right up against an enormous, commercial raspberry farm, and from May to August they spray the bushes incessantly. They spray them with something to bring them out of hibernation, then thrice weekly for 3 months they spray them until they are literally dripping with poison, then at long last, the last spray is to put them into hibernation for the year again. I didn't do so well with all that spray, and my lungs were quite compromised as a result. Add to that the fact that there were forest fires on the other side of the mountain near where we live that made most everyone cough for a few weeks, and I was down for the count.

In a nutshell, I was reduced to playing FarmVille on facebook, and just posting funny videos, for the most part. My energy was just sapped, and I had so much trouble breathing!

Several months of hacking later, I discovered a wonderful little capsule of ayurvedic herbs called Padma, and when the spraying stopped and the earliest fall rains came to clear the air, the Padma worked diligently to clear me up in six days.

So that's the long story. The short story is that I got sick, couldn't get well because the spraying and smoke wouldn't stop, and so I had to take a break from working on Go Raw, Not Crazy for a few months. But I'm back, stronger than ever, getting ready to start another juice fast, and I'm back to work on the site and my books! :o)

The launch of my newest e-book, Go Raw, Not Crazy ~ 35 Tips to Help You Reach Your Raw Goals (While Maintaining Your Sanity) is imminent! You can order it now during the presale.

A new page has been added to the site called Resources, where you can get kitchen tools, books, DVD's, and visit other raw food blogs that I recommend. Everything on the page is something that I own, have seen or read, so I recommend each item highly!

Well, just wanted to check in with all of you. My goal is to write in my blog once a week from here on out (minimum), so watch for new blog posts soon! :o) Missed you all, and thanks for all your kind words of support and your concern while I was away. Be chatting with you, soon! :o)

Luck and Life, Abortion, Admissions and Truth ~ I Love You!

2010-05-06T04:51:00.000-07:00

I started a post on facebook tonight that felt so much deeper than 420 characters could hold, and I find myself at my blog at 2:38 a.m., typing about things to raw foodists that I never thought I'd write about.

The whole thing started when I watched a video on my friend Jorge's page and reposted it. Watch it, so that the rest of my post makes sense. Open it in a new tab or just remember to hit "back", because I dunno how to set the dern thing to open in a new window. Here's the YouTube link

I had an abortion in 2007. And I DID see the ultrasound first. Don't know why it feels important to state that, but it does. I saw her little heartbeat, and I heard it, too. Judge what you will about what I did, I know that any judgments you have are only a projection onto me of a part of yourself that you don't like, and I don't accept said judgments, so there. YOU have to keep them and process them.

Do I regret having had the abortion?

No.

Was I pregnant with a baby I wanted?

No.

Was I with a man I loved?

Yes.

And I love him still.

He's my life partner, and he held my hand while we both cried as she was leaving my body.

Every October I think of what it might be like to have a 1 year old, a 2 year old, and this year, a 3-year old little girl that looks like me and has his wild, curly hair, soft eyebrows and lovely hands & feet. Of course I think about that. But I don't regret having had the abortion when god knows what 2012 will bring, the economy is so bad I don't know what to think, my country is engaged in 2 wars and every year they tell us a new killer virus is going to take us all out. I'm not ready to bring someone into this world, and I don't know that I ever will be. I'd feel irresponsible toward her if I brought her into this mess.

She came to me in a dream before I aborted her and said, "Please don't feel bad about doing this. I only came into this existence to feel what it was like to be conceived in Love. I've never been conceived in anything but violence, and I just wanted to know what this felt like. I won't develop past 3-5 months gestation, so take me out now before this pregnancy gets harder. I can't survive this. But thank you so much for letting me have this experience with the 2 of you!"

I was already bleeding, in massive pain, couldn't eat and had passed something that looked like it could've been her twin. There was no saving the baby. But I didn't want to bring her into this world even if she'd been 100% healthy.

What about the women who aren't raped, who don't use abortion as birth control, who love their life mates, might even be married, use birth control and just don't want kids? What about those of us who know how very much we love our own time and selves and have something to give to the world? Why are women seen so much as just things that are designed to nurture only small people or mates? I want to nurture people by showing them the love of raw food and the freedom of polyamory. I want to raise adults into a more enlightened and free adulthood through nutrition and love. Isn't helping adults wake up just as admirable as raising a child?

I think it is.

So I got to thinking about the video listed above and then went browsing through my facebook posts. Had no particular reason for doing so, just did it. I found a picture of Markus Rothkranz, a favorite raw teacher of mine, and clicked on his picture without even knowing why I was doing it. His status said, "Even the tiniest thought is a seed that can change the world."

That really got me to thinking about the world I live in, the world I was promised, and the world I could've brought my unborn daughter into. And instead of thinking about all the things I was told I'd get (back in the 80's when I was growing up) and feeling disappointment at not having gotten a one of them, I found myself feeling wave after wave of gratitude washing over me for all that is in my life. Because even though I didn't and still don't want to give birth to a child of my own, and worked pretty damn hard to keep myself from EVER getting pregnant, I still live with and help raise an 8-year-old boy whose mother died when he was 4, just a few short weeks before his 5th birthday.

So I got a kid anyway. Got what I wanted very most not to have. But that kid loves me. Despite my orneriness, my stand-offishness and my resistance, he is my biggest cheerleader, helps me stay raw, makes up recipes, loves that I'm with his dad, is beyond patient with me, and can't really imagine life without me. He even asked me to move in with him and his dad after his mom died, and kept trying to set me up with his Pop. (Little did he know, we were already together.) And despite my trying not to be in his life, here I am. How the hell did THAT happen???

Most days, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, it's even enjoyable sometimes. Kid makes me laugh my ass off sometimes. Like the time when he was six, trying to read out loud about kids who lose their teeth and what different cultures believe and do when baby tooth loss occurs. Instead of saying, "In X country, the tooth is associated with good luck", he read it, "the tooth is ass-coated". I mean, you HAVE to laugh at that!

Another thing that has come up for me of late is that old loves are resurfacing and I have unprocessed things to work out in myself. Those of you who have known me for a long time (more than 15 years) or who are very close friends or family members will know that I still love a person who I haven't known since we were teenagers. You just don't forget your first love, even if it was unrequited and the situation just wasn't right for two people to be together.

I ran across a picture of him last night on-line that was taken when he was 15 or 16, and I almost jumped out of my skin, just I like I was 15 or 16 again! He looked as beautiful as I remembered, even with the grimace on his face. And I found the photo in the most unexpected of places: on a friend of a friend of a friend's facebook page!

This boy left his hand print on my heart.

And I miss him still. I wish we could be friends. I'd like to be able to email him from time-to-time, see what his children look like, know how he feels about life. But silly rules about monogamy keep me away. I don't want to "wreck his marriage" by existing.

Because I'm in a polyamorous relationship with my fiance, Jason, who encourages me to explore ALL emotion, I find myself revisiting this person in my mind. I'm afraid to say his name in a blog, even just by first name, for fear of making waves. Most people who have known me since high school think that this subject is irrelevant, immaterial, worn out or just plain stupid. Why cry over someone you're not "destined to be with"?

Why? I'll tell you why.

Because when someone does something indelible, something incredible, something wonderful to your heart and your life, you don't spend the rest of it trying to forget the impact they had. You take those wonderful memories to your grave. You love them forever, because that is what you're SUPPOSED to do! So he married someone else and had kids with her. Does that erase how kind he was to me when I was an awkward, insecure, silly teenage girl? Of course it doesn't. It augments it! Another person gets to have his loveliness, too! That, in and of itself, is a great thing. And with her, he's made 4 of the prettiest kids I've ever seen (well, pictures of). I didn't want kids. So if I'd gotten my wish in high school, and if it had gone somewhere, he'd be without his gorgeous offspring now. Instead, he's made reasonable facsimiles of himself, with his wife's immeasurable help, and his lovely genes will continue on. How great is THAT?!? I'm genuinely happy that the wonderfulness (if that's a word) has continued.

His actions toward me in a high school helped me to believe that I am beautiful, because at a time when all of his friends were incredibly mean, degrading and hateful toward me, he was kind, respectful and sweet, and he ALWAYS had me cracking up!

His very existence helped to make me beautiful. None of us, I believe, would look the way we do, if not for the kindness or love someone wonderful showed us at some point in our lives. And now he can teach his kids to be his kind of wonderful, and they can go spread that throughout their little corners of the world. That makes my heart soar, not sore!!

I could write a list a mile long of all the people who have wronged me, been cruel, defiant, mean, distrustful, spiteful, hateful and rude. I could do that. And I could bemoan my existence, complain about all that's been taken from me and all that I've lost out on.

But I'd rather make a list 10 miles long of people who have carved out little piece of my heart and taken it with them (with my consent) as a token of our time spent together on this planet. I miss and love this one person so much that sometimes it hurts. But Mother Teresa said, "I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love." So instead of hurting, I just choose to love him more.

I didn't ever kiss this boy. I didn't even date him. I barely got to touch him, and even that was only to slug him for annoying me. HA! But never being with him, and our choosing mates other than each other doesn't detract from how much I loved him, how much I love him still, and how much I will carry a little piece of him in my heart until it stops beating. And it's ok that I love him. Loving him doesn't mean I love my fiance any less. This is the kind of feeling that you take with you into your next life so that your souls can meet up and play again on the next carnival ride.So I find that, more often than not, rather than being sad about an abortion, upset about having to raise a kid that isn't mine, or not getting the love I thought I should get as a teenager, I'm instead finding grace, beauty and gratitude everywhere I turn.

I have a Love who wants to marry me, who I really want to marry back, who lets me love everyone I want (and even some I don't want to), who never tries to talk me out of my emotion, who never belittles my past, and who says things like, "I need you to love him, because I know that you need to. I'm never gonna try to talk you out of that. I would be so honored to meet him one day. Loving him is part of what makes you who you are, so if you love him, then I love him, too."

I mean, come ON! Who TALKS like that???

My dearest Jason does.

He's not a football center, like the boy from high school, but he helps me find my center. And I truly have not settled. I am very glad that I have ended up with Jason. He IS my center, and he's shown me how to live a truly free and loving and compelling life! And he lets my heart go where it goes.

Tonight, I find myself reveling in all that IS my life, rather than all it isn't: I have Love of a child, of a mate, of a friend, all in one house. I have amazing memories. A dear friend in rehab recovers her life. I get to make food choices for my body and have the luxury of fertile ground to grow those choices in!

Seeds ... what Markus was talking about ... such beautiful things. Seeds of thought, seeds of nutrition, seeds of Love, seeds of true freedom of the heart, seeds of possibility. Damn, I am a LUCKY girl!

Life ain't near what I was promised growin' up in the 80s, or anything resembling what I wanted back then. And sometimes I miss some of what I wanted 26 years ago SO much! But then again, in different ways, things turned out so much better than I hoped anyway. So I will keep my fondest memories, forget and toss the ones that hurt, and remember that life is what I make of it.

To everyone reading this I say, "Never stop loving people." It's the fuel that feeds our souls. And don't ever talk anyone out of loving someone else. That only contributes to new, sad memories that people have to try to forget. Hold onto the memories of love, no matter how old, and don't make excuses or apologies for them. They are the fuel that feeds your soul, and love, no matter how "inappropriate" it appears by societies standards, will never, ever, EVER be a bad or ugly thing. ๑۩๑ ❤ ๑۩๑

The Start of My Spokane Vacation

2010-04-10T12:42:00.000-07:00

Most people don't think of Spokane, WA as a vacation spot. But I do. Well, for the next 2 weeks I do, anyway. I'm hanging out with my friend, Kaleah, who also eats raw, and we're going to work out the particulars for a raw on-line program we've been toying with. She's self-employed, so we're gonna have lots of time to play in the kitchen and the garden, in addition to our "work".

My drive over to Spokane was supposed to take about 6 hours. It took almost 12. Yikes!

The first part of the trip was great! It was a slow start, as I had to fill up on gas, get power steering fluid and put it in the car, and stop by my friend, Ellen's, house to pick up some books and a game I loaned her. But by 11:30 or noon I was fully on the road (although I left home at 10:30).

Something interesting that I noticed was that even though I brought raw crackers, cheese, nori sticks, bananas, avocados, Minneola oranges and fresh-squeezed orange juice (and a full stomach, btw), I was DYING to stop and get something cooked, salty and greeeeeasy! It was a good reminder that whenever I go and do something that I haven't done since going raw, there are still old programs running. I haven't eaten fast food in months, and when I really thought about it, I realized that it was just a Pavlovian response, an old habit, and I wasn't even hungry. But I learned a long time ago to associate a fun time, vacation, road trips and adventure with unhealthy food. And I didn't even realize that I'd learned that association. So that was a good thing to realize (and conquer).

When I got to the 405, I decided to take a short side trip to Redmond to visit Raw Vegan Source, an AMAZING little store that has over 600 raw items (and nothin' else)! What a freakin' treat! I got 50 raw nori sheets, 2.5 lbs. of coconut flour, 1,000 spirulina tablets, a bag of Gone Nuts with cacao-covered almonds & raisins, and 1 or 2 other things I can't remember now. Good prices on stuff, I gotta say! Oh! I got some He Shou Wu, that's what I got. So anyhow, my lovely Nuvi got me there and back out onto the freeway, and over Snoqualmie Pass I went.

Or did I?

At the summit, just FEET from exit 47 (very near the summit), we all were stopped because of a blizzard! I could hardly believe it!!! In April of all times! After just having had the warmest January on record for the Pacific Northwest, I was beyond shocked. We were there for almost an hour and a half, and when the snow finally cleared enough to go again, visibility was still low and we had to go 35-45 mph all the way down the other side. I went 25 or even 20 in some places. Lots of frozen and packed snow on the roads, and we were ahead of the snowplows. I was told that by Cle Elum (clee-EL-um) everything should've been clear, but it didn't stop snowing HARD until Ellensburg. All tolled, I was driving slowly (and nervously) for almost 4 hours. Ick!

When I was done getting out of all that snow, my eyes were SO tired, my arms and shoulders were extremely sore (even though I tried repeatedly to relax while driving), I was exhausted, and my nerves were shot. And I still had over 200 miles to drive. I called Jason for support and told him all I wanted to do was stop and get fast food for comfort. But I remembered my health goals and ate some raw nori sticks instead (which were actually more enjoyable). Again, I was confronted with old patterns and old habits. It's really amazing how often in my life I've turned to truly unhealthy "food" as a comfort, and all it did was wreak havoc on my body and mind. I think being really high raw (like 98 or 99%) for 2 weeks prior really helped me keep a clear head and helped me to realize that if I ate that stuff, I'd just be even more sore and tired by the time I got to my destination.

I ended up arriving at Kaleah's house at around 10 p.m. safe & sound. We stayed up until 1:40 a.m. catching up (we don't see each other much, even though she made the trek across the mountains to help with and attend Tim VanOrden's event last month) and chatting. The next morning, I was allowed to sleep in until noon or 12:30, and was greeted with a salad, orange juice and walnut ball brunch, which was beyond delightful! The walnut balls were made of dates, walnuts, lemon juice and cinnamon, and tasted like a Christmas cookie. AMAZING! Then Kaleah gave us some chocolate she'd made that she keeps in the freezer. It had cacao powder, coconut oil, shredded coconut, agave or honey (not sure which) and goji berries in it. It was snappy like a candy bar and the coconut made it a bit like a crunch bar. Unbelievably delicous!

Today we're going to set up plant beds with her husband, John, transplant kale babies, get a protective glass barrier made for them to protect them from the cold, and then head into town to get me a new phone (and maybe one of those juicers like Anthony Anderson has). I'll post more as fun stuff comes up, as I'm sure it will. :o)

WOW, What an Event!!!

2010-03-22T17:29:00.000-07:00

Once in awhile, you hear someone speak who is so motivational, so right on, and so EXACTLY in line with what you're going through & what you need to hear that you feel your life take a dramatic turn for the better, just for having heard them speak. Attending Tim VanOrden's talk on Diet and Peak Performance was just such a time for me. If you weren't in Bellingham on Sunday night for Tim's talk, I can sum it up in 2 words: UNBELIEVABLY AMAZING! AWE-INSPIRING! MOTIVATIONAL & INSPIRATIONAL! Ok, that's more than 2 words. But it was SO informative and he blew the lid off what I thought I knew about raw, nutrition, the human body and what to expect when going raw. I REALLY liked Tim's down-to-earth attitude, spontaneity, honesty and forthrightness. He was every bit the amazing speaker, educator and entertainer we've all come to know and love on the Running Raw videos.

We learned about how to take personal responsibility for our lives, our diets and our bodies, what and when to eat to get peak performance in athletics, and how SO many body systems work. And it was explained in such fun, easy-to-understand language that kids as young as 8 were both spellbound and cracking up.

Sponsors gave away 17 prizes from gym memberships to CD's to raw chocolate cakes to far infrared sauna sessions and chiropractic adjustments. Plus everyone enjoyed the raw food I made quite a lot, which is always good. I always love successful catering! We started out by serving everyone a small green smoothie before Tim spoke ~ best to keep people's tummies full so they can pay attention. The smoothie consisted of nectarines, peaches, blueberries, pineapple, kale, water and bananas, and the kids were coming back and asking for 2nds and 3rds. (Some adults were, too.) Then Tim gave his amazing talk, we drew numbers for the prizes, and everyone had appetizers. On the menu was:

Sun-Dried Tomato Flax Crackers with Sharp Macadamia "Cheese" rosettes on them
Cacao and Cacao-Orange Truffles
Sweet & Tangy Broccoli Salad.

Fortunately we had enough food for everyone (I hate to run out), and people signed up to join the new raw support group I'm starting in Bellingham. And afterward, people got a chance to buy Running Raw DVD's and T-shirts from Tim. Also, Kaleah's new CD was available for sale. (She's a raw foodist who sings like an angel.)

Tim stayed late to answer all the questions every single person had, despite the fact that he'd been traveling, going on only a few hours' sleep a night for weeks, AND had just run up the Columbia Tower in Seattle that morning. He placed 4th in that race, by the way, out of over 6,000 people! Not bad for being on tour, under-slept and overworked.

I gotta tell you: when I asked Tim to come to Bellingham last year, I thought it would be a good, educational, fun experience -- which is why I invited him. But I did not expect such a genuine, kind, helpful and humble guy with SO much amazing information. His energy and presentation FAR exceeded my expectations! If you are ever within 500 miles of an event he's speaking at, make the time to go to it. He is beyond worth it!

I got so involved in the "running the event" end of things, by the way, that I freakin' forgot to take pictures! How's that for special? So sorry about that. BUT ... Tim has already agreed to come back and present in Bellingham again soon (which is good, because people are already asking for him again), and I know it'll be great then too.

And I don't know about you, but I'm inspired. I'm inspired to change my diet, change my life and change the planet!

Tim VanOrden of Running Raw Coming to Bellingham, WA on March 21st!

2010-03-19T10:57:00.000-07:00

I am SO proud to have sponsored and organized the coming event in Bellingham, WA:

Diet and Peak Performance with Tim VanOrden
March 21, 2010 at 6:30 p.m.

Tim VanOrden of The Running Raw Project will give a 90-minute talk on how eating raw food can help any athlete at any level get better results. The talk will be given at Lairmont Manor in Bellingham, WA. Raw refreshments will be served, there will be a drawing for prizes, and there will be a Q and A period afterward. Running Raw DVD's and t-shirts will be available for sale at the event.

TICKETS ARE $15, AVAILABLE AT Go Raw, Not Crazy
Also available at the door
Kids 16 & under get in free!

Tim's Bio:

The world is taking notice of Tim VanOrden, elite athlete and creator of the Running Raw Project. Tim is a raw vegan athlete who has an international reputation for excelling in some of the world's most grueling sports. He's recently been crowned the New England Master's Mountain Running Champion and his recent performances in Stair Climb Racing (US Bank Tower, Sears Tower, Empire State Building), have been featured in GQ Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, VegNews, and the London Guardian. In January of 2009Tim was featured on the Food Network show "My Life in Food".

Over the past 5 years, Tim has transformed himself from a sedentary couch potato, suffering from severe depression, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and asthma into one of the world's fittest men over forty. He did this by adopting a simple raw vegan diet. Tim is opening the eyes of athletes around the world to the possibility that a simple, raw, plant based diet can provide performance and health beyond that which has been previously experienced.

Class Overview:

• The Elements of Peak Performance
• Human Nutritional Needs
• Human Fuel Systems & Strategies

•Carbohydrates, Fats & Proteins Explained
• Dietary Misconceptions

• Toxicity in Common Foods
• The Stress, Recovery Equation

Tim will also answer:

How much of a role does diet play in human performance?
How does one navigate the constant barrage of contradictory dietary information?
How does one make better dietary choices?
Can one eat for health, longevity and improved performance at the same time?

The most difficult aspect of choosing any diet is that of convincing yourself that it is indeed the right choice. Change is stress, even when the change is positive. The vast m

ajority of Americans blindly eat the Standard American Diet without ever questioning its role in one's health. Yet obesity, heart disease, diabetes and cancer are on the rise and considered epidemic. Meanwhile, scientific journals are constantly touting the benefits of whole, raw fruits and vegetables. In this lecture we will lay the groundwork for improved levels of performance and health.

Christmas Bounty! Holy COW!!!

2010-01-02T09:43:00.001-08:00

Thank you to all who contributed to the veritable mountain of Christmas Cheer. I haven't had a Christmas this amazing since I got my cello in 2005. So here are the unbelievable gifts that my family and friends got for me for Christmas. I still am in shock!

an Excalibur 9-tray dehydrator (thanks, Mom & Dad!)

a food slicer (like the deli meat kind, but it's AMAZING for use with veggies when you want to quickly slice something for dehydration, salads, etc.) (Thanks, Dave!)

a Food Saver vacuum sealer - best on the market, IMHO (Thanks to Dave for this, too! I'll slice, dehydrate and store lots of yummy stuff for you! Hey, you're advancing from just green smoothies and chocolate now. I'll turn you into a raw foodist, yet!) ;o)

a 25-piece glass bowl set with lids. I can use these for salads, leftovers, food prep, making un-cooking videos for GRNC, etc. SO glad to have moved up from plastic to tempered glass. No more guck in my food because there's no guck to leach from glass like there is with plastic. (Thanks, Jason)

Ecstatic Beings, by Shazzie and Kate Magic. Probably the best book I've ever read. (Thanks to Jason for this, too!) And thanks to Shazzie and Kate for being such great cake mates that you could write this hilarious, wonderful, fun and profound book!

Evie's Kitchen, another book by Shazzie about how to raise a kid on raw food. (And thank you yet again, Jason for such generosity and consideration.) Well, it's actually about you going/being raw and detoxed before you even conceive, then goes through breast feeding, then moving a child to solid-but-raw foods. Then it just keeps going, giving all KINDS of amazing tips and info about how to raise a healthy, ecstatic, raw kid, all the way through to adulthood. I don't want to give birth to a child of my own, but it's very helpful info since there's already a child in my life, through Jason. Special thanks to Shazzie for taking the time to write this. All our paths will be exponentially easier for your having written this book. And an EXTRA special thanks to Evie Popple Cake, for being such a brilliant, radiant little Ecstatic Being, and for allowing your Mummy to get all public about you and your eating habits.

Like I said, a veritable mountain of gifts. Thank you so much to all who gave these to me. They will make my raw food consumption, and that of those who live in my home, a whole lot easier, complete, and healthy! :oD

Year In Review, Happy Anniversary, and Engagement

2010-01-02T09:00:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a whirlwind of a year it has been. January 1st, 2010 was the 1 year anniversary of my family having a raw household! Now, did we slip up and have a cooked bit of food here and there? Well, all you have to do is look at our clothes, bodies and/or scale to know that the answer to that question is, "yes". Or you could just ask me. I'll tell you the truth. We ate cooked food. But we followed the premise set forth by Go Raw, Not Crazy of doing our best to stay as raw as possible without driving ourselves (or those around us) nuts! And we kept our kitchen raw, eating cooked food only when we were out of the house, with the exception of Thanksgiving and Christmas, when we were entertaining. We did still serve raw food though, and I was able to be 70% raw on Thanksgiving and about 55% raw on Christmas, so no leucocytosis set in. We're going to a late Christmas party tonight, and with the new year comes new vigor and resolve to stay raw. I'm taking peppermint and lemon raw cacao truffles as the white elephant gift, and as a fabulous potluck dish, too. Hmmmmm ... I'd best get to work, eh?

So let's review the big stuff for the year:

On January 1st ~ our house went raw, and we resolved to buy and bring home only raw food for home consumption. Raw lunches for the little one continued, as they have since kindergarten.

January 20 ~ Obama was inaugurated! What a fabulous day! (Too bad the guy's hands seem to be so tied by all the freakin' money in DC! I still believe that he means well and wants to help, but as I age, I find that I believe more and more that the entire system must fail globally in order for real change to occur.) I will always hold out hope that Obama and all of us can enact real change in the world in which we live.

February ~ Don't remember the date, but I lost my job at Lairmont Manor -- one of the best things that ever happened to me! Really gave me the push that I needed to start Go Raw, Not Crazy.

February 14th ~ We moved into our first home. It's a starter, for sure, but it will be paid off in only 11 years. Well, in 10, now!

March ~ Can't think of anything of consequence that happened, except that we were starting to slip into some bad habits of eating too much cooked food and making the excuse that it wasn't being eaten in the house.

April 16th ~ I decided to try to eat nothing but raw cacao for 30 days after reading all the fabulous pros and hideous cons of the stuff. Wrote a blog about it called 30 Days of Chocolate ~ One Woman’s Experiment With Weight Loss, Raw Food and Happiness. A VERY successful 30 days, although I didn't eat exclusively cacao.

May ~ Finished my raw cacao/chocolate stint, and moved on to starting a garden.

June ~ Got the garden installed, the fruit trees happily transplanted, and Red Russian Kale going (3rd time's a charm). Started building Go Raw, Not Crazy.

July ~ Can't think of anything of note that happened that month, except that I stayed raw for a holiday. Not hard to do in the summer though, when one of the main dishes for the holiday is watermelon. Made a delectable watermelon "cake" for the family that was promptly devoured! Lots of kale to eat and freeze. Set up Twitter and Facebook accounts for Go Raw, Not Crazy.

August ~ Serious harvesting of kale, tomatoes and cherries.

September ~ Jahn turned 8 and we threw a raw birthday party for him! Big step for him to ask for a raw party.

October ~ We had a raw Halloween for Jahn, and he dressed up as Indiana Jones. He even stayed raw when the other kids were mowing through mounds of gunk right in front of him at school. VERY proud of him!

November ~ I was the lucky winner of the Inspired Raw website redesign contest! Caryn Ginsberg selected Go Raw, Not Crazy for a revamp, and the site has never looked better. This gal knows her stuff! She took my ideas and theme and made them blossom. If you have a raw website and need some direction, this woman can really help you!

December ~ Got engaged! This, after "coming out" to our respective families about being polyamorous. That was a bit scary, but everyone has been very supportive. Jason and I have always known that we would be life-long anchor mates and have been proposing to each other for about 2 years now in a very informal way ("Ya wanna get married?" "Ok! Sure!") He bought me a beautiful ring that's on its way. Can't wait to see it for real! Should be here in a week or two. We picked it out together. :o)After my birthday, when the whole family was together for a joint birthday party (celebrating my 40th late, and my sister-in-law Jamie's 30th early), Jason gave me a ring with an orange cubic zirconia in it as a "placeholder" until my spessartite one arrives. Put in on my finger in front of the whole family and everything. Don't think there was a dry eye in the house, unless you count the 5- and 8-year old boys who were chasing each other about Grandma and Grandpa's house, oblivious to the goings on. ;o) Too funny! We're shooting for an October wedding, but don't know if that will happen. Depends on that whole money thang. I'll keep you updated. I'm just so glad that I'm with a man who is so full of Love, kindness & generosity, and who is also all for eating raw food! I'm a lucky, lucky girl.

***Also ordered Markus Rothkranz' new DVD set, Free Food and Medicine. Can't wait for that to arrive either!

***Got the most amazing gifts for Christmas, when I really didn't expect even one of them. We had such a tight year, what with the economy and all, I didn't see how anyone would be able to get anyone anything. But the Universe provided all kinds of sneaky, fun ways for the people who so generously love me to materialize the most precious things that will help me and my family stay raw. Photos are in my next post.

So that was 2009. What a wild ride! Can't wait to see what 2010 brings my way. Here's hoping that you and yours have the most marvelous, raw, happy, healthy, love-filled, ecstatic year ever!

After-Thanksgiving Post (and Harvest Pictures!)

2009-11-30T01:09:00.000-08:00

So how was your Thanksgiving? Did you stay raw? Attempt a certain percentage? I took a raw mincemeat pie, stuffed celery, cranberry/orange relish and olives to my sister's house, and ate about 65% raw. Not too bad, considering I had 2 Thanksgiving functions to attend, and I thought I'd be tempted to eat more cooked things, but they just don't appeal to me the way they used to. We are gearing up for a totally raw Christmas, and I'm about to break out the chocolate molds, the frozen berries, and the cookie cutters! We intend to have all our favorite Christmas treats this year, just raw style.

So onto the Harvest Photos that were promised. First, here are 2 views of my GI-NORMOUS Sungold Cherry Tomato plant. This thing grew to be about 7' x 5'. Yes, I said FEET!

Sungold Tomato plant taking over the flippin' YARD! You literally almost couldn't get to the cukes against the fence! And yes, I wrote that correctly ... PLANT! Singular. Craziness. I've never grown anything before, much less an enormous tomato plant. Beginners luck? I think it's actually the Grow Greens Thalassa Mix that did it.

Notice the yellow bowl sitting in the front of the picture. That's a good sized cereal bowl. The teensy yellow dots all over the plant were new flowers. I probably could've had another 1,000 tomatoes if I'd gotten another 2 months of good heat. But no one can expect that in the Pacific NW. I'm just glad for what we got. :o) Below are about half of the Sungolds I picked. We turned them into a puree in our Vita-Mix, and then dehydrated the puree, then put it back into the Vita-Mix to powder it. This is WONDERFUL in the winter to use with herbs and water to make a delicious tomato soup! Just pop it in the Vita-Mix (yet again), and blend all ingredients on high until warm (about 110 degrees), then pour into a warmed cup and serve. Wonderfully warming on a chilly winter day! And tastes just like a tomato base for any vegetable soup.

Above: Half the Sungold harvest.

Clockwise from top: large heirloom tomatoes, honeydew melons, first pick of the apples, Sungold tomatoes, medium sized tomatoes (something like a roma, but smaller), and hazelnuts in the center. We got all our tomato plants from our friends, Laurie and Ryan this year, with the exception of our Sungold plant, so I don't know what we grew. I just know they were good, and because I had to pick them so green, we had tomatoes for over a month!

This is what I found just before I began to harvest: a Golden Delicious apple hanging about 6" off the ground, half eaten, but still on the tree. Teensie little sharp teeth marks all over it. I've only seen cats near our house, and some of the neighbor's cats live under there, but this could've been a racoon, too (although I've never seen any out this far - they tend to like the woods better than the flat farmland).

This is a peek through the fence looking back into the yard. My little apples just looked so pretty in this shot, I wanted to share it.

Look at THIS red beauty! Don't know the variety, we suspect possibly a Jonathan, but it's a beauty. And they were SO sweet!

A lovely branch hanging over the back of the fence.

More free spirits jumping the fence.

A closer look at some red apples.

One last close-up of the Golden Delicious lovlies.

The branch, just heavy with apples.

Family portrait. ;o)

Kale after a rainstorm in September.

More Red Russian kale.

Lettuce, just before it started to bolt.

Red Rubin basil, after it flowered and went to seed. I've saved tons of seeds for next year and intend to grow a small field of the stuff. It makes a tremendous raw pesto.

The last of the cukes on harvest day. Several were no bigger than gherkins.

A honeydew hiding in the leaves and vines.

Some large, green tomatoes just before harvest.

So I picked everything (except the apples) in about 6 hours, and it was excruciatingly cold. But I'm glad I grew the stuff, I'm glad I've still got dandelions and clover growing wild, I've got more kale than I know what to do with, we eat kale chips all the time and stay in our greens between that and green smoothies, and the apples are almost gone, now. We got more Golden Delicious from a lady down the street who had a bumper crop this year. Not kidding when I say it looked like there were several thousand on the tree! Lucky us. We got so lucky with "free" food this year. Hopefully next year, in addition to all that I've listed here for this year, we'll get more pears and plums from neighbors, and maybe our frost peach, honeycrisp apple trees, sweet and pie cherry trees, blueberry bushes and strawberry plants will do as well as the Sungolds did this year.

So I'm starting to feel like Crazy Aunt Lori who went to Florida and is now making you sit too long watching the slides of my vacation. So I will wish you a good night, and get my tookus to bed. Tomorrow I put the finishing touches on my upcoming e-book, The Great Raw Cacao Debate, scheduled for release on December 11th. To get it for free, just sign up for it on any page of my website. Thanks for reading, and we'll see each other in the blog ethers soon.

Harvest, H1N1, Birthday Party, 2012 ... Oh the Fun!

2009-11-17T21:46:00.000-08:00

Well, well, well! It HAS been a long time, hasn't it? 2 1/2 months of nothin' but FUN, and that's why I've been away. Ok, I'm being sarcastic. While there have certainly been some very fun moments, life has been interesting, to say the least.

Our wee one was sick on & off for 2 months, beginning the 2nd week of school, and that was on high raw! We think he just had a big detox, plus a child who sits next to him at school had the swine flu. We don't know if Jahn got the specific H1N1 virus, but he usually is sick for 24 hours (if he even gets sick) and 72 hours if he's REALLY sick. At one point, 2 in 3 kids at his school were out, and there wasn't a dry nose at the bus stop. Eek! But alas, everyone seems to either be on the mend or mended. No deaths. Whew!!! I've never seen so many sick kids as this school year, and so early too.

Another thing that kept me busy was the end-of-summer harvest. It jumped me rather suddenly, as we had an early and unexpected freeze. Good thing I listened to the weather forecast. I spent a day in September harvesting cherry tomatoes in 37 degree weather. Yes, I said 37 in September. It was absolutely crazy! Then that night it got down to 32 degrees. This, after having nearly 100 degree heat just a month prior. Bizarre. I also harvested what turned out to be honeydew melons (the blossoms looked just like cukes, so we were surprised to find melons growing happily in our Pacific Northwest garden box), as well as my red basil, large heirloom tomatoes, and the last gallon of wild blackberries. A month later, we got pears and hazelnuts from the neighbors, and now we're full into apple season. The little beauties we grew (well, that nature gave us and we tended) made me so proud I actually cried on harvest day in October. I'll be posting pics of everything I harvested, complete with captions, later this week so stay tuned.

Jahn turned 8 in September, too, and we had a little party for him with a few friends and family members. Transformers was the theme, and I made him a Raw-lmond Joy raw candy-cake, raw snickerdoodles and raw lemon cookies for his party. We also served fresh-squeezed apple/pear juice. I thought it was cool that he requested an all-raw party. We almost made kale chips, but decided against them at the last minute. A fun time was had by all, and he made a little kitchen out of the Legos he got. Put all of us (plus David Wolfe) into it, and had us making stuff in the Vita Mix. And all out of Legos. Too funny.

And speaking of kale (or not), to look at my little patch o' greenery, you'd never know it was November. It's just thrivin' away out there in the sub-freezing, wet, windy conditions. Tim Van Orden was right ... "This stuff is TOUGH!" It really is a great green to grow because it is so frickin' hardy. Also, we're finding that we like dandelion and clover greens in our green smoothies these days. I thought the winter dandelion leaves would be too bitter, but they are quite nice, blending especially well with the fresh apple juice. I've been adding 1/2 water and 1/2 apple juice for the liquid in our green smoothies, and it's REALLY tasty! We're so lucky to have a local company, Bellwood Acres, who uses UV "pasteurization" practices, which actually means the juice is not heated. It's just exposed to UV light to kill e-coli, etc. So that means we get raw apple cider that we don't have to juice, and it is out of this world!

To wrap up, last night we went to see 2012. Again, I say eek! Really makes you prioritize when you see something like that. Makes you wonder, too. Are all these cultures and predictions right? Seeing it last night made me think, and I've come up with the idea of having a Question of the Week ... something that will make this blog more interactive for you. I'll also be posting it on my twitter and facebook pages. So here's this week's question:

What do you make a priority in your life? (And what do you wish you made more of a priority? How can you bump it up?) My answers: Kissing and listening to my Love. And more of a priority? Family time. To bump it up, I play games like Boggle with them and/or have a family meal together at the table that we all help prepare (instead of watching TV or playing on the computer). Share what you've been making your priority and what you want to bump up. I'd love to hear.

Until later this week ...

Snickerdoodles At Last! (and a free icing recipe)

2009-08-24T23:42:00.000-07:00

Oh ye many patient readers: I thank you all for your patience while I perfected the snickerdoodle recipe. It is is now up on Go Raw, Not Crazy, and I apologize for your long wait. So go to it, you cookie fiends! Cinnamon yummy goodness awaits you.

As a special bonus to my faithful blog readers (and if you are a frosting zealot like I am), here's a lovely topping for your cookies that doesn't appear on the website,. ;o) Mix half a cup of coconut oil, 1/2 a teaspoon of cinnamon (or a few drops of cinnamon oil) and 2-4 teaspoons of raw agave nectar, then spread that on top of your snickerdoodles. CREAMY, CINNAMONY HEAVEN!

So what took so long for me to post this? I know many have asked, and you lurkers are wondering, too, I can feel it. ;o) Well, at first, I got some raw honey for this project that was just too floral, and it didn't make for good cookies. So I had to play around with a few different honeys, and finally found that orange blossom seems to be the best one. The long time in coming seems to have been worth it though, because these cookies went over so well with the 7-year-old in the house, that he's requested we make them for his upcoming birthday party! Not too shabby.

Last, props again to Michael Henderson, who inspired this recipe. Without him, these delightful cookies might never have come to be.

It's Too Hot to Sleep

2009-07-29T10:24:00.000-07:00

Yikes! We are having a heatwave that is shattering all NW Washington records by a longshot. It's supposed to get up to 100 degrees today. 100! Usually it's around 8o or so this time of year. I didn't get but about 3 hours of sleep last night because we had to leave the windows open to cool off the house, and many bugs got in. It was at least 94 degrees yesterday, and when I got home at around 8 p.m., the house was at 103 degrees, and that was after the majority of the sun stopped shining on it, and the fans had been on all day pulling the coolest air in.

Like I said, YIKES!

Thank the Universe we know someone with air conditioning. I'm just about to get up and pick some fresh kale for smoothies. I'm thinking kale/banana/blueberry sounds good. Maybe I'll throw a peach or 2 in as well. We have 2 strawberry-banana pops left in the freezer, so one o' those'll likely be breakfast. Mmmmmm ....

Well, I'm off. Gonna try to find a nice spot to do some raw cacao research. Naked Chocolate came in the mail 2 days ago, and I've not gotten a big chance to read it yet. Only part way through the first bit. I checked it out at the library 2 years ago, but didn't have the full appreciation of Shazzie's and David Wolfe's work then. Now that I'm not in transition and am fully raw, I see the book with new eyes and appreciation. TOO amazing! Thanks for your hard work, you two. Just amazing, I tell ya!

Ok, I'm off in search of shade and cooler, greener, less biting-bug-filled pastures ... and trying to be content and grateful for the heat and what it can bring at the same time. If you have any ideas for how to keep the bitey-buggies off in a raw, natural way, lemme know. The itching is nearly unbearable! Over 50 bites on both legs combined, and only below the knees.

I say to you YIKES!!!

A Fruity Surprise

2009-07-26T16:39:00.000-07:00

Zowie, three posts in one day? Well, alas, it cannot be helped. This afternoon, while I was posting away about my kale, Jason, the absolute Love of my life, brought me the following:

Isn't this just gorgeous? Fresh sliced peaches, blueberries, and blackberries as big as strawberries! I am usually the main food prep person in the house (as Jay spends so much time on the back end of things making sure videos and tech-ie stuff works for the business), so I was quite pleasantly surprised to be served up such a lavish meal. And delighted! (Thanks, Lovey)

As I was about to dive head-first into the thing, he announced that he had topping for it! We've been dabbling a lot in raw coconut spread, maca and agave these days, as they seem to go so well together. Jason had simply mixed coconut spread and raw agave together and then drizzled it atop the bright fruit, thusly:

Doesn't he have the most creative, gorgeous hands? I mean ... ummmm ... uhhh ... doesn't this caramely topping look just delectable? Yeah, that's what I meant to say.

Here is what the salad looked like when completed. And the peaches tasted JUST like peach pie with that topping on them. Unbelievable! I will be coming back for more of this Scrumptious Summer Salad very, very soon! Thanks again, Baby.

Kale-o-Rama

2009-07-26T14:40:00.000-07:00

So it has been Kale City around these parts for the last month and a half. A friend of ours, Laurie, gave me a ton of baby Red Russian Kale starts back in early June -- told me that if I would help her weed them out, I could have them! WEED, I say! It took me 3 tries to get a healthy patch going (the first 2 rounds got eaten and beaten roundly and soundly by the local slug populace -- looked more like I was growing nets than greens). But I guess 3rd time's a charm.

Each time I transplanted new kale babes, I fertilized the soil more and more and more, in the hopes of giving the plants something to eat once they were in. I think the soil was so depleted that the poor little guys just couldn't make it. The photo above is a closeup of a portion of the kale I've planted all along the left side of our house. I'm saving it up in Seal-a-Meal bags in the freezer, and am harvesting about 2 huge armfuls every two weeks. It's just amazing! My goal was to grow 1/3 of our greens for green smoothies, and I've surpassed that by a long shot! In case you didn't know, kale and spinach freeze quite nicely, especially in vacuum-sealed bags like I've been doing. And then you can just bust off a chunk of leaves and reseal the bag and pop it back in the freezer whenever it's smoothie time. The key is to make the smoothies while the kale is still frozen. Don't let it thaw, or it can become a bit of an icky thing to touch.

I've probably already got enough kale in the freezer to last us for 2 or 3 months of smoothies, and once the kale harvesting season ends (which I understand can last well into the winter), I'm hoping to have enough to last us until it comes up again next year.

I'm ADORING having all this organic bounty; about $150 worth if it was store-bought and organic. The way I figure it, I will likely save my family over $800 in greens purchases this year alone -- and that's just for the smoothies! Wait until I start getting lettuce coming up for salads! So far, I've harvested kale on 6/25/09, 7/18/09 and today, 7/26/09.

Below, you can see what the patch looked like before I harvested a ton-o-kale.

Now here is what it looked like after. WOW!

Poor little bald kale patch. But it just comes back like gangbusters every time I harvest, so I don't think I've hurt its feelings too badly. We had thunder, lightening, and a WONDERFUL ozone-scent-filled summer downpour yesterday afternoon and throughout a good portion of the night. I admit that I was getting behind on my garden watering, so the tomatoes, basil, blueberries, strawberries, sweet cicily, kale, cucumbers, zucchini and fruit trees are in hog heaven today. No matter how much I water them with a hose, they are never as happy as when they get nature's water -- rain they could soak up yesterday and warm sunshine most of the day today. You may be able to see the raindrops on the closeup shots of the kale. To the right is a shot of today's harvest. I put the clippers I use to cut the kale from its stems on top of the pile to demonstrate the size of the enormo-pile I picked. Believe it or not, there is a black 12"x12" platter underneath all of that kale! (In the background, flowering oregano, sweet cicily, and strawberries sit in planters.)

After haulin' in all that kale, all I had to do was shake it off to get the excess water off of it. Fortunately, there was so much rain yesterday that there was no need to wash it (actually, there rarely is any need to wash any of my home grown produce). I use something called Thalassa Mix from a place called Grow Greens and it has something like 92 nutrients in it. All my life I've thought that I had a "brown thumb", but now I think that thought I killed the plants with some kind of bad juju, when it was really just me not knowing that I should fertilize the holy living heck out of the soil before I started. I'm not affiliated with this company Grow Greens in any way, but I gotta tell you, whether you are growing something in the ground or hydroponically, this Thalassa Mix is THE way to go. Transplanted babies don't go into shock, harvests are 3 times more bountiful (in my experience), and the plants are so strong that they naturally keep pests off themselves.

Above is the mondo-pile put into a mondo-bag, ready for sealing and freezing.

And here it is after, with all the air sucked out of it.

It truly does amaze me how much air comes out and how much kale one can store in one's freezer. Just look at the picture below. I'm not even using 1/5 of my freezer space for 2-3 months of the healthiest, most local smoothie greens I can get my paws on! Excellent! Last, I just wanted to show how much waste there isn't when growing one's own organic food. Because my garden gets all it needs via the best fertilizer money can buy (in my humble opinion), I don't ever have to spray or douse anything with anything. I will put a little chopped-up hair trail around the base of the kale to keep the snails from crossing and participating in The All-You-Can-Eat Snail Kale Buffet, but that's the extent of my pest control. And with mulching, there's no need for herbicides, because only what I want to sprout up does. (Plus, I eat most of the dandelions, if they get into the garden.) So if you're wondering how many leaves I threw away, how much waste there was, what rotted "on the vine" or what my ratio of harvested to lost kale was, here's your answer:

Yes. That would be one single, sprouted, raw almond on the left side of the photograph. Out of all that kale, THIS is all I had to put into my compost! Not bad for one day's work! :o)

Glitch With Snickerdoodles

2009-07-26T14:38:00.001-07:00

So I got all ready to make these snickerdoodles, and realized I didn't have any raw honey, any cashews, or access to any raw, sprouted almonds. HA! Well, at least I had the cinnamon. When the first of the month comes around, I'll be getting an order of all the yummy stuff I need, so I will post the recipe soon. Thanks for your patience.

Snickerdoodles

2009-07-09T19:14:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine, Michael Henderson, made the most AMAZING nut/honey/cinnamon mixture that tastes JUST like homemade snickerdoodles!! The dear has given me the basic ingredients, and once I go home (I'm out) and can mix and match the ingredients, I'm going to share the recipe for free with all of you. Mmmmmm ... cookies just like mom used to make. But healthy, and with none of the gluten. :o) Look for the recipe to be up on the Go Raw, Not Crazy (on the Recipes page) by week's end.

And We're LIVE!

2009-07-08T20:55:00.000-07:00

Very exciting day! We are at long last LIVE! There is LOTS to do still, but Jason has been so wonderful in setting up my template page and basic pages, doing my style sheets and working the html a bit here and there, so all I've had to do is flesh out the pages. The About page is up, as is the Recipes page -- I only have 3 free raw recipes up so far, but more are coming soon -- just gotta create more o' those purdy recipe cards. I'm excited to get my email list started, and to start giving away my first copies of my free ebook! Cheers! :o)