Raw Rabble

Raw Family Needing Help

You may have already heard, but in case you haven't, I felt I had to post this because if we all do a little bit, we can really make a difference to this family in the US.

This is an extract from Angela Stokes' Blog.

Are you familiar with the world of ‘RawBabyAlex’ and mum Melissa Gilbert? If not, Melissa has been documenting her raw food baby’s progress online for quite some time and it makes fascinating reading – especially for anyone interested in raising kids raw. Melissa has actually compiled two wonderful e-books of all the different recipes that Alex has loved as he’s been growing up, from baby foods to toddler treats. (He is such a healthy big boy now that his blog has actually been moved along to ‘Raw ToddlerAlex’ ;) Melissa also keeps her own lovely blog at RawMom.blogspot.com, as well as writing regularly for the info-packed raw magazine Pear.
Unfortunately, this amazing little raw family are having some pretty challenging times at present...in February they were burgled and all their possessions were taken. They moved house and even state, only to discover that they cannot find work in their new location and that very soon they will likely be homeless. They are in a time of crisis. On her most recent blog, Melissa writes that she visited the local food bank to try to get something to eat. They had no raw foods, except 5 bunches of celery, which they gave her. When she got home however, she realised they were almost totally rotten and unusable. Melissa is an incredible mother and gives tirelessly and with so much love to the raw community through her writings. I would feel so sad to see this amazing young family living out in the scorching Arizona desert in a tent with seemingly nowhere left to turn. They really could use some support right now - this is an opportunity to help out an incredible raw family. Instead of just asking people to donate money to help them with their situation however, I’d love to recommend that you invest in Melissa’s 2 fabulous ebooks – ‘Sunsational Raw Baby Food’ and ‘Sun-Sational Smoothies’. They are just $10 each, available from her site HERE. Imagine the difference $20 could make to a family that is in dire straits right now...and YOU get smthg wonderful too – two recipe books packed with tried-and-tested recipes ;) I sincerely hope the raw food community will reach out and support this loving family unit in their time of need...please feel free to re-post this message and pass it along to others in the raw food community too...and enjoy the recipes ;)
(P.S. If you DO feel moved to simply send a donation to the family, their Paypal email address is loverawlife@gmail.com) Thanks.

Young Raw Food Chef on You Tube.

Here's the latest Raw Food star of You Tube doing her stuff.

This is Isadora. Ain't she great?

Wild Food

One of the things I really enjoy is taking my children out for a walk in the countryside. Sheffield is actually a very green place and we are blessed with a number of beautiful green areas and commons across the city. Plus the Derbyshire Dales is on our doorstep. Lucky for us there is a lovely common just a ten minute walk from our house.

Now that spring is here there is another great reason to be out - wild food. There is something magical about eating food straight from nature. The kids think so too. Trying sorrel, young hawthorn leaves, hawthorn flowers or bramble shoots as you walk past is so much more fascinating than that bag of supermarket lettuce in the fridge. Plus later on there will be the fruit too. Brambles and bilberries are in abundance, plus there are hawthorn berries and some small apples trees.

I  have a friend, Stephen Watts (Max Salad), who is very knowledgeable about wild food and he does wild food walks in the area on a regular basis. This is a great opportunity to learn about what plants are edible. It is amazing how many are.

Stephen also runs a project in Sheffield called Abundance. There are many fruit trees around the city. Much of their fruit goes to waste, as either the trees are in public places and no one bothers to pick it, or people don't want or can't harvest the fruit in their own gardens. Stephen organises for this abundant food supply to be collected by volunteers and it is given away to those who do want or need it. I just think this is an amazing idea.

So anyway, this morning I went out early on my own (Hubby is off work this week.) with a bag, gloves and scissors and picked a bag of nettles and dandelions. There were some funny looks from the dog walkers who were out at the time. Funny thing but all the dogs I met sniffed enthusiastically at my carrier bag. Maybe they know something their owners don't! One lady looked at me with my rubber gloves and scissors and asked if I was picking up other people's rubbish. I ended up chatting with her about juicing nettles and how you could eat dandelions and "Sticky Willy" too. She seemed fascinated. (Or maybe she thought she had stumbled on a nutter and was humouring me!)

The nettles went straight in our breakfast green smoothie. Here's what went in with them.

3 large ripe pears
1 banana
1 cup tightly packed with young nettle leaves
1 cup spinach
2 cups water

Can't Kids Be Funny About Food?

Making cooked grains for the children has meant we are getting together around the table for a family meal again in the evenings, which is nice. We'd got to a stage where the kids snacked in the day on raw food and weren't that interested in proper meal times. As I have been making rice, quinoa or potatoes in the evenings it now means they rush to the table with enthusiasm for their cooked food fix.

Raw food wise I try and get them to have some raw food with their cooked, but they are so fixated on the cooked they aren't interested. I've been concentrating on them eating raw at other times of the day instead. It really is fascinating how keen they are on filling their bellies with cooked food. It really does make me believe that cooked food is addictive. What I want to try and avoid is them seeing raw food as somehow less desirable. I've made a lot of desserts lately. They do say that desserts are the best way to get people interested in raw food, don't they?

Going back a few months I felt we were doing well, with the children getting into various raw foods. Now I feel we are kind of going around in circles a bit. They seem to have limited themselves more and more. Kids do that with food though, don't they. I remember Joe when he was four. He ate all sorts of things, then he started to concentrate on just a few foods and didn't want the rest. It's funny, but this is just the way kids are, whether they are raw or not isn't it? It's a relief to remember that. My main issue now is not to get too concerned and end up passing my uneasy feelings onto the children. I'm a normal parent after all!