Raw in Arcata

I corralled 2 of my closest friends (Tanya and Caitanya - I love you guys!) into the car and headed up to Arcata for the holiday weekend to visit the glorious Artemisia Butterfly and her dazzling son, Bodhi Shine. I could not have asked the universe for kinder, more generous hosts. They opened up their home full of swinging chairs, hammocks and plants to us and treated us like family. Artemisia is partly-raw, so she let me use her Vitamix to whip up treats all weekend (I brought a bag stocked with nuts, maca and tons of produce so I could survive on deliciousness), and she even let me use some of her cacao nibs, vanilla and berries to add to everything. What a heavenly time we had in the kitchen all weekend!

Artemisia is a truly giving person who a mutual friend insisted I meet, and I am ever so glad I listened. We had so many great conversations about life, love, friends, health, music, art, nature and well, everything. She is a single mom raising her son to be completely open to life and all that it brings. It was amazing seeing how she teaches him to communicate, and act with love, and to be conscious of his actions at such a young age. I know who to turn to when I eventually am ready for kids, though that will be quite some time from now. :) She's a true inspiration, as is Bodhi, a beautiful result of love, patience, knowledge and fun.

While we were in town, we got to check out the local food co-op and soaked in the hot tubs one night at Cafe Mokka, which was beautiful to behold at night with everything enshrouded in the Pacific Mist. I highly recommend checking it out if you're ever in Arcata.

Besides visiting the people up here, the other main reason for my visit was the ginourmous redwood trees that always make me so happy and full of love. We spent hours hiking amongst them, climbing inside them, crawling up the sides of them, walking through them, and delighting at the large varieties of fungi everywhere. Me in the redwoods is like a little kid in the candy store. I want to hug them all, touch every piece of moss, lick dewdrops, and never leave. I am going to miss this Northern California coast that has been my home for these last 3 years. I know I am not leaving for that long, and am going to enjoy my journey for the rest of 2009, but I am already starting to feel a bit homesick for this place that has been part of such amazing life transformations and growth, and provided me with so much love, happiness and connection to the source. My life here has been so beautiful, and there is nothing I would change about it, yet I know I need to explore another continent for a little while. Travel is in my blood, and the call never goes silent, so it's best to carry my life on my back like a turtle and follow it for awhile until it leads me back "home" again.

Blackberry & Feijoa Smoothie

I try very hard to be a locavore and eat seasonally (with some exceptions like cacao, maca, coconuts, bananas and a few other things), and one of my favorite things about my raw food journey has been discovering more foods that I never even knew existed. Ever since I was little, I was always drawn towards unusual looking fruits and vegetables and wanted to try everything I saw. I would pick random flowers and take a bite to see if they taste good, or nibble on the edge of a plant while hiking. But this year, I took that to entirely new levels and actively sought out new kinds of fruits with a consuming passion I had apparently barely scratched the surface of. Instead of just trying them, I hunted for knowledge and tried to learn more about them then their names and flavors. I learned food origins, what kind of climates (Northern California has a gazillion micro-climates which means we can grow a diverse array of food) they grow best in, how to care for them, the duration of their growing seasons and a million other things you probably don't care to know. ;) There is an abundance of local, seasonal foods and trying to figure out what to do with all of them is so fun and exciting!

I already shopped at the farmers market almost every week, as well as at my favorite local co-op, Rainbow Grocery, but going raw has forced me to dig even deeper into that connection. It has made me want to reach out to more local farms and has helped put a face on the people who grow my food for me until I can buy some land to grow my own. It reminds me that we are all part of one system working together and that each delicate piece has its place and they all matter, which makes us and all our decisions so unbelievably powerful. Nothing is inconsequential.

So thanks to Swift Subtropicals for growing these gems just a few hours from my home, which allowed me to concoct this delicious smoothie this morning. Locally grown feijoas in December? Yes, please!

Blackberry & Feijoa Smoothie

2 cups walnut milk
4 Medjool dates
4 apricot kernels
1/2 pint blackberries
3 Feijoas (peeled)
1/2 a banana
2 Tablespoons cacao nibs
1/2 teaspoon raw honey
1 Madagascar vanilla pod

Put all ingredients in blender and blend well.

raw chocolate mousse...

Finally got around to using that Irish Moss in my cupboard and made some delicious Raw Chocolate Mousse from the Cafe Gratitude Cookbook, 'I Am Grateful.'. It was delectable and delightful. My temporary roommates are all now cacao-addicted. Here's the recipe:


1 oz. Irish Moss
1/2 cup water
4 cups almond milk (better if you make your own, though you can get some store bought)
1/2 cup date paste (you can make your own by blending pitted dates)
3/4 cup agave
pinch of salt
splash of vanilla
3/4 cup raw cacao powder
3 TB lecithin
1 cup coconut butter

Directions:

Blend soaked Irish moss and water extremely well.(One of the reasons why a Vita-mix or other high speed blender is ideal.)
Add all the other ingredients, except the lecithin and coconut butter.
Keep blending until the mixture is smooth.
Add lecithin and butter and blend another 30-40 seconds.
Pour the mousse into cups and decorate with flower or cacao nibs.

Raw chocolate in the mall?

Yup, it's true. I had to run into the Westfield Center on Market Street to pick up something today, and got a serious craving for chocolate when I walked past CocoaBella, but alas, their chocolates are not raw and have sugar and dairy in them. I decided to write them a little note when I got home to see if we can change that. If you'd like to join me in requesting that they start carrying raw chocolates, or are a raw chocolate maker who wants to try to distribute through them, please contact them here. I think if they hear from enough of us, they might begin to carry some.

All was not lost though - I found a decent solution for when I am stuck downtown where there are fewer raw friendly places and I need my cacao fix. I went to the Bristol Farms in the basement food court to see if there was anything raw in the chocolate section. Pickings were slim - the only kind they carried was Righteously Raw, so I bought the Chocolate Maca Bar. Organic Cacao Butter, Cacao Powder, Dates, Hunza Raisins, Mesquite Powder, Maca Root Powder, Agave Nectar, Coconut Oil, Vanilla Bean and Himalayan Pink Salt and nothing else. No additives, just pure ingredients. It definitely did the trick. Because of the Maca, it didn't have a super chocolatey or very sweet taste - it had this complexity to it that was a nice surprise, and the way the shell cracked in my mouth to reveal the flavor lurking underneath made for a nice oral experience. I had some samples of their other bars - Caramel and Goji - at the SF Greenfestival, and remembered the caramel one as being really good, but will have to try it again sometime to describe it more accurately.

I think I might need to have a chocolate taste-off on here one week to showcase all the best raw chocolate products out there as there are so many tasty options. If you're a raw chocolatier who would like your product to be included in a taste-off, contact me directly at criticalpath [at] gmail [dot] com to arrange for delivery of samples.

If you want to find Earth Source Organics Righteously Raw chocolate bars in your own area, you can check here.