Above: Apple chips!

So, my summer of raw is just about at an end. Forgive my lack of communication the last couple of weeks, I was on vacation and when I vacation I basically just shut down all modern day technologies and go hide in the woods with no cell service. I will be sure to post a few more raw recipes, but I think I’ve been with this long enough to talk about the experience.

Firstly I would say: this is really hard to stick to. Unless you have some reason that you absolutely need to have nothing but raw foods, I would try something with a bit more flexibility. I’m someone who spends a good deal of time prepping my foods each week, and probably commit more time to that task than most in an effort to eat healthfully and deliciously at the same time, and it was a lot, even for me. You basically need to be continually prepping things.

That said, there were a LOT of things I loved about trying to eat primarily raw. (I say this because I never ended up eating exclusively raw). Once I figured out to stop trying to replicate “real” things, it was pretty glorious. And I’ll definitely continue to eat this way as often as possible. Summer makes it easier; the abundance of fruits and vegetables make it easy to just throw some things into a bowl together and call it a meal, or a salad. If I lived in California or someplace like that I might consider making this a primary lifestyle choice…but maybe not, too. Because regardless of heat or good veggies, I feel my body changing each season, and craving different things in different seasons. And for me, the most surefire way to fail at something is to ignore what my body is asking for. My body always knows more than me.

If you want to eat raw, my suggestions are:

• make sure you have all the proper equipment
• Prep a bunch of granola and other snacky things to have whenever you need
• Always have lots of ripe fruit, veggies and nuts around to grab as needed
• DON’T try to make things like raw bread, crackers, pretzels, etc. This will be expensive, time consuming, and ultimately (just an opinion) taste revolting.
• Don’t try to prep too much almond milk or other nut milk, they go bad fairly quickly so you’re better off making just a couple of cups at a time and then just making more. You will spend a lot of time making nut milks and other nut products, unless you plan on not having a very flavorful palette.
• Good produce makes everything easier

These are probably pretty good tips just in general, anyway. (I say this for me to remember, not you!) So fear not! I will still be posting many raw things.

And I have a new project, starting soon, probably within the week. This one has a medical reason behind it, but there is definitely a project in there and it’s probably a good idea for anyone to eat this way, not just for medical problems. More on that, on the way.

Really I can’t imagine a project that involves food, that I wouldn’t be excited about.