Rebecca Anstett's Raw Food World and Lifestyle » community

Little City Farm

rebecca — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 20:36:13 +0000

This weekend past, I attended an event at Little City Farm. A friend invited me to a workshop on starting seedlings, and given my new “Yes” pledge, I responded likewise. It’s not that I am uninterested in plants – quite the contrary, given my studies in herbalism. However, the idea of sitting in a crowded room on a Saturday afternoon was less than immediately appealing and I suspect I would have rather been outdoors, playing with their chickens (yes, they have chickens in their backyard, puttering freely in the city of Kitchener).

However, like many things I would have jumped the “No” gun to in the past, this one turned out to be fantastic. Their home, an urban homestead/eco bed and breakfast, is beautiful, and I am feeling quite enthused about many of their upcoming events and workshops. In particular, I am now inspired to begin growing my own culinary and medicinal herbs. With my education/background, I ~~should~~ could have been doing this for years, but was stopped by ~~laziness~~, priorities, time management, etc. etc. Now, as I sit here writing this, I see my shelf of herbals, under the window, and I feel as though they are smacking me across the face – USE US!!!!

And now, after feeling a sense of communion with beautiful living things, I’m going to attempt another juicing experiment:

Sweet and Sour

- 2 Swiss chard leaves
- 4 stalks of celery
- 2 pears

In the Raw: My Green Yoga

rebecca — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:04:23 +0000

Everything these days is green – it’s definitely the catch phrase of this decade – green, eco, earth-friendly, people-friendly. I am often challenged to treat my body with the respect and integrity that it deserves, both with my diet and my lifestyle choices. Having the support of like-minded individuals would be a wonderful thing, and making a community event of it would be even better. Yesterday, My Green Yoga was born. Once or twice a month, I’m planning to host an evening of yoga, raw foods/juices, and perhaps an inspirational movie.

I haven’t delved too much into the details of the project yet, but I am considering the following:

A community events calendar
Juicing recipes
An Amazon shop of my favourite yoga books and music
Links to other yogis
Links to other green/eco-friendly resources

In the Raw: Rawtluck

rebecca — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:26:10 +0000

Contributions

We had a wonderful “raw”tluck on Friday evening. Although everything was delicious and beautiful, my favourite by far were the almonds with fennel. (Recipe provided by a friend):

Raw Almonds with Fennel

- 2 cups whole, raw almonds
- raw agave syrup
- salt (preferably sea salt)
- fennel seed

Cover the almonds with water and soak them in the refrigerator overnight. Drain.

Spread the almonds on a silpat-lined cookie sheet and put in a 110 degree oven (if you have such a thing; otherwise, a dehydrator)

Put them in the oven and leave them there for an hour or so, or until they’re dry.

Heap the almonds in the middle of the cookie sheet and squirt some agave syrup on them. Using your hands, toss the almonds in the agave syrup. You want enough agave syrup to coat them, but not so much that it pools on the sheet.

Spread the almonds out on the cookie sheet. Now lick all your fingers before washing them. Yum!

Put them in the oven and leave them there for a couple hours, or until the agave has thickened and started to dry on the surface of the almonds.

Crush some fennel seed with some salt. (I probably used a teaspoon of fennel seed and 1/2 tsp. of salt.)

Heap the almonds in the middle of the cookie sheet and squirt some more agave syrup on them. Dump on the fennel mixture. Using your hands, toss the almonds in the agave syrup, fennel and salt. You want enough agave syrup to coat them, but not so much that it pools on the sheet. Spread the almonds out on the cookie sheet. Now lick all your fingers again before washing them. Yum!

Put them back in the oven for a couple of hours. Taste them — if they’re as sweet as you’d like, let them cool to room temperature and serve. Or put them in a sealed container for a couple days.

In the Raw: Holiday Cheer

rebecca — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:30:09 +0000

This holiday season was different than seasons past. It was fabulously different – challenging, inspirational, filled with love and cheer, thought-provoking. For the first holiday season of my life, I didn’t eat turkey and only missed it in the slightest. Granted, I certainly gorged on many of my (non-meat) favourites (although it resulted in something of a stomach ache for my relatively healthy state of being). I took a bit of a break from the tech world, turned off my brain, and enjoyed some earthy and enlightening activities. Now, I’m ready to get back into the swing of things – to eat an apple, write some code, and do a bit more yoga. I’ve had enough eggnog to last me until the next holiday season, and I’m looking forward to consuming a large amount of vegetables once again. Raw food, php, yoga, and inspiring books – this is the stuff that the next week of blissful holidays will contain!

Potluck: Our Contributions

rebecca — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 20:22:59 +0000

Last night, John and I hosted our first raw potluck. A few new faces, a few new friends. I am encouraged!

“Raw”violi

Raw Chocolate “Timbits”