Global Galavanting and Grains...

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-HAH :)
We’re on the South Island of New Zealand now...we arrived here last night, after a looooooong journey down from the North Island through gorgeous lush green scenery contrasted against shocking desert landscapes and abundant fruit belts, then a sweet night sailing across the Cook Strait under a phenomenal moon and star-scape...and now we’re officially landed in our next residence for the coming weeks. WOW. I think this is, quite simply, the most gorgeous, idyllic place I’ve ever stayed (see pic to the right)...it is a stone/wood cottage on 150 acres of land made by a local artist, set into green hills, overlooking the ocean in a fabulous mountain-lined bay below...just...stunning :) We are SO blessed. There is even a HAMMOCK in the living room, sheep roam the land, there’s a veggie patch, an organic fruit orchard of our own to forage in, a swing in the garden, a beautiful, very vocal Bengal cat, three fireplaces, other organic food producers all down the road and...oooo, so much to explore :) We just arrived a few hours ago...I AM EXCITED :)
The universe danced such a beautiful dance to deliver us here – we didn’t know where to stay, checked a few sites online, emailed the first place we saw that looked interesting and well, here we are – the owner ‘happened’ to be going away at the exact same time we wanted a place...and so we’ve arrived to take care of the place in her absence…and as I was writing this, another woman just came into the room and offered to take us horse riding with her in the local area – something we were JUST talking about in the car on the way here... :) SAY YES TO MANIFEST :))))))) I LOVE IT :)

Ok, prepare for a triple-whammy of food logs today again – life on the road has been monkeying with blogging regularity of late ;)

on February the 25th I had:

2 quarts water
3 mandarins
20oz celery/cucumber/parsley/radish/cabbage/carrot juice
little bowl of sunflower pate (soaked sunflower seeds/sundried tomatoes, blended with garlic), mixed with sprouts, diced tomatoes and seaweed, wrapped in lettuce leaves and nori sheets
1 quart water
10oz celery/cucumber/parsley/radish/cabbage/carrot juice
handful of hand-picked, vibrant blackberries, with 4 little gorgeous wild apples – foraging is FUN ;))))))
bowl of fruit salad with chia gel: papaya/cherries/blueberries
1 quart water

So, we seem to be on a Q and A roll here in blog world at the moment, so I’m going to keep flowing with it... ;) In fact, one reader - Chris - sent in a whole list of Qs to be A-ed, so let’s delve into those now...

“Angela, Do you have a home somewhere? Do you ever settle down? Are you constantly on the go with speaking engagements? It seems like a great way to live. . . but I was just curious where you two go when this is over? and Where to after New Zeeland?”

I do not currently have a fixed home address anywhere...wherever I rest my backpack, that’s my home – and right now, it’s DIVINE :) I’m a bit of a nomad and have been on the road for most of the last decade, stopping here and there for a few months at a time...yes, it’s definitely fun and I am very grateful for the opportunities this lifestyle opens to me...I used to be a long-term volunteer before I started up RawReform – I travelled all over the world doing large volunteering projects, like teaching English in Sri Lanka, working with people with autism and Down’s Syndrome in Iceland, helping out on organic farms here in New Zealand and recycling projects in the Netherlands and so on. (The old picture to the right is of me in Scotland back in 2002, doing some voluntary work experience with a friend in a wheelchair - learning to get around on wheels that way was certainly interesting ;) Once RawReform started up, I shifted my focus into that...which led me across the waters to Uncle Sam, or more specifically, Mr Monarch ;) At that point, I do believe the dear fellow had only once set foot out of the US...then we got together and he’s rarely slept under one roof for more than a few weeks at a time ever since and been all over the globe ;) LOL... To be honest though, my biggest wish right now is simply to get onto a piece of land, put up a yurt and start growing our own food...we’re waiting for my visa for the US though and it’s a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooong process...once we have that, we can go back and get on with the bigger picture – for now, we get to play out in the rest of this glorious planet ;) After NZ, the plan is that we’re heading back up to Melbourne in Australia to do another talk there around the end of April, before hopping on up to Thailand for some exotic durian-shaped fun :) YUMMY :)

on February the 26th I had:

2 quarts water
2 little mandarins
20oz celery/zucchini/cabbage/carrot juice
bowl of cherries and blueberries
1 tbsp green powder
little bowl of sunflower pate (soaked sunflower seeds/sundried tomatoes, blended with garlic), mixed with sprouts, diced tomatoes and seaweed, wrapped in lettuce leaves and nori sheets
1 quart water
a little selection of amazing dried fruits: figs, cherries, blueberries, papaya, followed by ½ tbsp green powder
3 cups water

...and some more Qs from Chris...

“Do you ever eat grains? Like brown rice? I know you can soak oats and eat them without cooking.. I am wondering if other grains can be just soaked and eaten raw.. ? They'd go great with some pesto.”

Hmmmm, I don’t really eat grains – mainly due to ‘can’t-be-bothered’-ness; things like sprouted wild rice or quinoa can be yummy – they just take a loooong time to sprout and tend to like a lot of care during that process, in my experience – it just doesn’t really match a life on the road ;) As for oats...it tends to be hard to find them TRULY raw, besides which, they contain gluten...I do like buckwheat and use that from time to time in grawnolas etc...some people also make GREAT cakes, cookies and so on by grinding buckwheat into a flour and mixing it with other things... Some raw foodies of course don’t think grains are really ‘designed’ for human consumption at all...which makes logical sense to me...really, what are you going to eat in a field of barley...? They also tend to be very mucus-forming...hmmmm...just because we CAN eat something doesn’t necessarily mean it’s optimal for us...gluten-free grains can be great transition foods though, for people to move AWAY from things like bread, wheat pasta etc...

On Feb the 27th I had:

1.5 quarts water
20oz celery/cucumber/cabbage/radish/kale juice
big amount of fresh melons – watermelon/canteloupe/honeydew (see pic for evidence of melon fest ;)
1 tbsp green powder
1 tbsp bee pollen
1 quart water
bowl of sunflower seed pate mushed with mixed sprouts, diced tomatoes and seaweed, served with lettuce wraps and nori sheets
chunk of raw chocolate – yeeeeeeeee-HAH :) (long time since I met with the cracao monster)
3 cups peppermint tea
1 quart water

...and the last Q for the day from our dear friend Chris...

“What do you sub for the pamesan/romano cheese in pesto? I know the basic recipe is basil, garlic, olive oil, pine nuts and pamesan/or romano cheese pulverized in a food processor. Chris”

Hmmm, well, I’d just throw in pine nuts, olive oil, garlic, basil and perhaps a little raw salt and be done with it ;) ENJOY :)

One love,
Angelaaaaaaaaaallalaalaalalaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. xxx