Howdy Folks!

I'm also wondering if someone would like to volunteer to take over as the organizer for the raw food meet up? I'd be happy to set you up as organizer. There's great potential with these. There's always new people to come to potlucks and more people are saying they'd like to host a potluck. I need to step away as the organizer for this but I'd love to offer my place to host some potlucks. Please email me at linda@vt-fiddle.com if you'd like to take over as organizer. It doesn't take too much effort and the meet up site gives you all kinds of ways to promote that is free.

I've been making deliveries at the coop in Montpelier and again at LACE. They are stocked up with RAWsome Chilli, NOT Tuna, Ginger Crackers, Spice Cookies and Super Fudge. LACE has fudge made from hazelnuts and the Hunger Mountain Coop has my fudge made from cashews. I'm hoping to get different kinds of fudge in the stores soon. It's just a matter of time. I'm also surprised by the amount of local ingredients I'm still able to find and use! Local tomatoes at this late date? It's so awesome and yet so odd! Expect to see some RAWvioli in stores next week

This Friday, October 26th from 6-9 pm, I'm going to be hanging out with a pretty fun crowd at the Full Moon Tea Party. I've never attended this but it sounds like great fun. The Full Moon Tea Party is going to be held at the Unitarian Church in Montpelier. Sponsored again by Vermont Diaper Company and Love and Tea Company, the fabulous Oasis Middle Eastern Dance Troupe will be back to perform. The Tea Party is free to all and there will be a fundraising raffle for Mama Says and the Vermont Birth Network. I'll be sampling and selling my raw food there so please stop by my table for some RAWsome food. Hope to see you there!

Update on the yellow house and website: We're still working hard to get things in order and ready. The website (http://www.vt-fiddle.com) is up with raw food products and I hope to showcase other local stuff as well. Please feel free to send me emails or call me with your favorite local products so's I can check 'em out! Thanks!

upcoming raw food haps

see my complete calendar here

What else is new in this raw world?

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 is another interesting thing to read. It's not an article - it's a blog entry that created some very interesting comments. It asks the question will the raw food lifestyle will be the next macrobiotic diet - what it turned out to be was a reflection of the raw summit, a series of interviews that happened a month or two ago.

And just for fun, my dear old friend Holly sent me this. It's some young college dude who imagines what it would be like if we used internet slang as a way of talking in person or on the phone. OMG! ;-) Enjoy!

• 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

Another pumpkin recipe! This one comes to me from Fern - thanks Fern! She also told me that she used the leftovers to make sweet crackers. WAY TO GO! That's what I like to hear! I've modified the recipe to read better - I hope you don't mind, Fern!

Ingredients:

• one small pumpkin, peeled and de-seeded
• 5 apples, de-seeded
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 3 Tbsp agave nectar (can be substituted for maple syrup, which isn't raw but local and/or local raw honey. NOTE: agave is sweeter in taste to honey so adjust according to your taste.)
• 1/2 cup soaked hazelnuts (optional)

optional additions:

• a splash of lemon or vanilla extract

Preparation:

Grate the pumpkin and apples and put into a bowl. Add the other ingredients and mix. Fern's notes: Adding lemon juice could help against oxidizing, but these apples didn't seem to oxidize too quickly. By the time I was putting the leftovers in a jar, the ingredients had formed enough of their own juice to cover, and I was thinking any oxidizing that happened couldn't be any worse than that which turns cider brown. Also, I could totally see laying this into a bed of ground nuts for a bottom crust... or top with them for a raw apple pumpkin crisp!

Another important note from Fern: "My 14 yo daughter came along tasted and said, mmmm, and I told her it was pumpkin and apple, and she said 'I wish you hadn't told me! Now it tastes like pumpkin. Eww.' " - This is important for people making raw food for their children. 1.) Have the kids come up with the names of the dishes (example: if you call it pizza, they'll expect it to be dripping with oil and cheesy, raw pizza is not like that. This "rule" holds true to spouses as well. If your hubby hears mashed potatoes, he'll expect buttery, dairy potatoes and that's not what the raw mashed potatoes is like.) and 2.) Don't be too honest about what's inside it! If they like it, then be quiet! ;-) My daughter Emily (then 5 yo) was drinking green smoothies with kale and bananas and she stopped liking them once I said that kale was making the pretty green color. Now she likes the green smoothies with VitaMineral Green. So be it.

Enjoy RAWbundant health and vitality,

Linda