Food and Wellness Expo

I didn't even look up! What a packed event and so fun. I really want to thank Colleen, my sample buddy. She helped keep the sample trays filled and had a beautiful smile on her face the whole time. Here's a picture that her mom Pat took which shows a bit of the crowd - it's a good one to show perspective but boy do I look like a giant! Here it is:

I sampled out 3 kinds of raw fudge, spice cookies, NOT Tuna and hazelnut milk. It was cute seeing some "repeat customers!"  One person (this wasn't so cute) took 4 cups full of samples. I didn't catch this until she was leaving. But I guess she liked the food... a little nervie though... it's free samples after all and not free lunch! :-) Anyway, it was a fantastic experience and I wrote about the day on my blog. It's not yet linked to the rest of the site, but you can see it nonetheless: http://lindasblog.vt-fiddle.com/ - I'm excited to finally begin the blog. I had posted up a 30-day raw experience on another website and it was really great although there wasn't any place for comments or anything - I just really felt like the posting alone was making my thoughts and actions real. Plus with a blog, if you are interested, *you* can check it out whenever and I'm not inundating your inbox with emails. I love to write about raw food and so please feel free to check it out and comment if you feel so inclined. Thanks!

upcoming raw food haps

see my complete calendar here

What else is new in this raw world?

Wednesday, October 17th from 6-7 pm is the Pumpkin Pudding raw food workshop at Hunger Mountain Coop. The sign up sheet is there, so go in and sign up or give them a call at Member Services to get your name on the board. Looking forward to seeing you there! It's always great fun and good eats!

I have RAWsome raw food for sale at the Coop in Montpelier and at L.A.C.E. - future stores to be listed soon I hope! Look in the grab and go sections and the bakery sections. By the way, the grab and go sections are where you see find things like ready-made sandwiches and stuff like that - food that you can literally grab and go about your business.

The Mystery Box is a fun thing and I'm totally excited for this. I've always loved creating care packages for people and someone asked me if I would make up a box of goodies for her. It was the bestest, most funnest thing and she wrote back with great feedback: "Hi Linda:  I got my yummies on Thurs--had to taste test everything--PERFECT!!  I love the sprout bag and your labels!!! Thank You very much." I'm offering this to anyone who is interested. It could be a wonderful treat to give to yourself or you can send a gift to others. Expect some raw sweetie treats as well as other things! You can decide between a $25, $50 or $75 mystery box. More info expected to be up on the website soon.

Raw Food in Bulk. Need a pound of NOT Tuna? How about a pound of Ginger Crackers? Or do you need things like raw cacao powder/nibs or raw carob powder? I'm happy to help serve as a source for those things. You can pick them up in Worcester, I can ship them to you or we can meet at a nice halfway point somewhere.

Also I offer the raw food challenges. These are lots of fun and you learn quite a lot about raw food (experiential learning is always the best.) I recommend at least doing 21 days since it's said that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. There's more info about it on my website but know that they are customized for you so you can ease into raw food in whatever way works best for you.

Still updating our website. Like my life, my websites are always a "work in progress." We've been updating the market, the community and the about us page. We have many products for sale and services to offer. We have products from Healthforce Nutrionals now like VitaMineral Green, Spirulina and Lecithin. We have agave, bragg's in big sizes and a super nice olive oil for sale. We have Excalibur dehydrators, VitaMix blenders, Joyce Chen Spiral slicers and our very own nut milk and sprouting bags. And coming soon: Fiddle Heads R.F.D. Please take a peak at the changes and updates! Let us know what you think. Please add your reviews to things that you have purchased from us including the classes or challenges you've taken! It would be greatly appreciated to have your input. I have testimonials that I need to get up there... All in good time - again, a work-in-progress.

Some interesting things to read about this week:

This was sent to me and is an interesting read - it's about a study on the effects of a raw food vegan diet on patients with rheumatoid arthritis

This is another interesting article on Fox News sent to me from my friend RAWlen (Arlen) - Thanks RAWlen! It's about the benefits of the raw diet and who'd'a thunk it would reach fox news. Brilliant! 

• For all of my raw food classes (including Alissa's) I offer a free NUT MILK/SPROUTING BAG to Hunger Mountain Coop members. So mention that when you register for classes and I'll hook you up.

• I also have Alissa's Living on Live Food book here for sale and it is also for sale at Hunger Mountain Coop. 

raw food recipe of the week

Pumpkin Pesto Pasta
www.goneraw.com
Serves 4-6

October is Pumpkin month as far as I'm concerned! 'Tis the reason for the pumpkin pudding workshop this Wednesday and just for kicks and grins, here is a savory recipe for pumpkins. Feel free to substitute with butternut squash if you'd like. People always go, "raw pumpkin?? YUCK." Well, I'm here to say it's pretty tasty actually...

Ingredients

• 1/2 Pie Pumpkin, peeled & julienned in long pasta like strips (Linda's note: can be done with a mandolin or if thick enough, a spiral slicer)
• Himalayan sea salt (Linda's note: can be substituted with Celtic sea salt - the coarse grey kind)
• 1 cup raw pumpkin seeds
• 1 cup olive oil (Linda's note: you might want to add 1/2 cup and see how it goes - this is a lot of oil)
• 1/2 cup hempseed oil (Linda's note: you might want to add 1/4 cup and see how it goes - this is a lot of oil)
• 1 bunch fresh parsley
• 6 fresh sage leaves
• fresh cut corn (Linda's note: 1/2 cup would do it - handful)
• dried cranberries  (Linda's note: 1/4 cup would do it - small handful)
• dried currants (Linda's note: 1/4 cup would do it - small handful)

Preparation

Cut pumpkin flesh into thin strips for pasta and sprinkle with sea salt to soften the flesh. Let the pumpkin sit while you prepare the pesto. Chop pumpkin seeds in a food processor or blender, add oils to blend and then place herbs to puree until well blended. Rinse/drain pumpkin pasta and toss with pesto. Garnish with fresh cut corn, dried cranberries and currants. Yum!

Enjoy RAWbundant health and vitality,
Linda