Kiwi Life and the Master Cleanser...

Ok, there have been quite a few requests lately for more info on New Zealand - particularly where to get raw goodies here ;)
Well, we’re in Auckland for a few weeks at the moment...and as I said before, we had a challenge to locate organics to buy at all in the beginning, in the area we’re in, despite the fact that I KNOW there are many hundreds of organic farms country-wide here. It made no sense to me and we were very relieved when we started to find some goodies ;) Here’s what we’ve discovered so far...

Health Food Stores:

Ceres – This company seems to actually be a HUGE distributor of organic foods in NZ – we’re just fortunate to be located somewhat near their retail outlet in Ellerslie – see http://ceres.co.nz/ - they have fresh organic produce, plus a bulk section with dried fruits, nuts, seeds etc...

Huckleberry Farms – this company seems to have 2 big retail outlets in Auckland. The one we visited had lots of produce, a bulk section and even a juice/smoothie bar :) Apparently there is also a farmer’s market in the street across from them on weekends... See HERE for more info.

Others:

Auckland City’s Farmers’ Market – Saturday mornings, 8.30am-12.30pm, at the Britomart Precinct. A few organic growers/spray-free – not masses of choice – still, nice to buy direct from the growers ;) See http://www.cityfarmersmarket.co.nz/ for more info. It’s my understanding that there are a few other farmers’ markets at the weekends around this city too – I don’t know where any of them are though...Auckland seems vaaaaaaaast in terms of the land area it covers and we’re only just starting to get our heads round the public transport here ;)

Other than that, we’ve found that many of the supermarkets have a few organic fresh items – currently, mainly cherries (YAY), blueberries, kiwis and...dates...not much else...
As for raw food companies...well, our lovely friends Mark and Veronique here in Auckland run ‘Vital Essence’ - http://www.vitalessence.co.nz/ though they’re not doing a full raw catering business anymore.

Ooooo, one other really useful and interesting site I’ve found here is ‘Organic Explorer’ – see http://www.organicexplorer.co.nz - they have info on ALL kinds of organic contacts, resources, outlets etc in NZ...

I’m really excited to get beyond the city soon and explore more of this LUSH country...as I mentioned before, I was here years ago and worked my way round the whole country, on organic farms with WWOOF (http://www.wwoof.org), hence I KNOW they are out there ;)
If anyone reading this has more useful info to add about where to locate raw foods/services in Auckland or New Zealand in general, please do send them in and I’ll piece them together for another post – there’s definitely lots of reader interest ;)

on February the 10th I had:

1.5 quarts water
20oz spinach/carrot/zucchini juice
bowl of fruit salad with chia gel: banana/kiwi/golden kiwi/black plum
2 cups water
small handful of seaweeds – wakame and karengo
1.5 quarts water
2 handfuls of cherries
12oz spinach/carrot/zucchini juice
bowl of ‘figgy pudding’ – fresh figs and oranges blended together, with chopped up pieces of banana in it – yummmmmm ;)
3 cups water

Ooooo, Monika from the Raw Network of Washington (RawNOW) emailed through a link to all the items for the silent auction at their big raw fundraising event in Seattle this week, which I mentioned a few days back...the auction list’s pretty PHENOMENAL, so I thought I’d add the link here for all to ogle at ;) Monika also says that any items that AREN’T sold on the night will be put into an online auction – ooo lalalalalalaaaa – so, if you’re not able to attend the actual event, maybe keep an eye on their site afterwards, if there’s smthg you were interested in ;) Here’s the link to see the list:
http://rawwashington.org/events/auctiondonors.htm

Ooo and while we’re on the subject of raw events this week, a quick reminder that the Monarch and myself shall be sharing juicy raw tidbits and tips in Auckland next Sunday, the 16th...full event details HERE: http://www.rawspirit.org/events.php

on February the 11th I had:

1.5 quarts water
24oz celery/cucumber/parsley/spinach/lettuce/apple juice
big bowl of fruit salad with chia gel: banana/kiwi/golden kiwi/black plum/mango
2 cups water
1 peach
16oz celery/cucumber/parsley/spinach/lettuce/apple juice
3 cups water
big bowl of fruit salad with chia gel: banana/kiwi/black plum/mango/apple/cherry
3 cups water

There are some questions I get asked over and over again – one of them (somewhat bizarrely in my opinion, as I’ve never done it ;) is ‘What do you think of the Master Cleanser?’
Well, here’s an answer...

Hmmmmmm...to be honest, I don't feel great about the idea of the Master Cleanser (MC - also sometimes known as the 'Lemonade Diet', or 'Stanley Burroughs Master Cleanser'). For a start, it recommends to use maple syrup or molasses to cleanse, neither of which are usually raw. Even if one replaces those with agave syrup or raw honey, the glycemic content is very high. What MOSTLY concerns me abt the MC however is that it seems to be very low in nutrients - it is basically just sugars and spice.
Now, for some people it is a useful tool because they're coming from a background of SUCH toxicity and eating a lot of 'junk' foods, so merely the fact that they're NOT eating those kind of things and are giving the body a break from digesting solids is going to bring them MUCH healing, HOWEVER, I would SO much rather see someone do a cleanse on vegetable juices than the master cleanser recipe, as then they are also experiencing the benefits of putting down those other foods and getting a break from solids, PLUS getting in MASSES of nutrients from the veggie juices at the same time - seems like a much better deal to me ;) The Master Cleanser is much easier to prepare of course than veggie juices, which appeals to some people, plus tends to work out cheaper.
Another concern I have about the MC is that I often see people use it as a kind of 'escape hatch' from less-than-optimal eating patterns - i.e. - they will eat a messy intake for weeks on end, then go into master cleansing, then yo-yo out of the other side of that, straight into less-than-optimal eating again - it just doesn't seem very balanced to me - I'd rather see people eat a balanced, healthy, high-raw intake regularly, using veggie juicing to cleanse periodically...
Many people enjoy the MC though and seem to get happy results from it...so...the choice is yours, but I would certainly recommend you check out Juice Feasting in preference to living on spicy sugar-water for a week or more ;) You can see my booklet all about Juice Feasting HERE. If you want to read more abt the Master Cleanser, Stanley Burroughs' book is HERE and I believe curezone.com has a lot of good info on it ;)

One love,
Angela. xxx