The Free Raw Food Starter Guide is now available online. There are 60+ recipes, raw transformation stories, articles and more. To access it simply log in and visit the free ebook now.
We buy our durian from Asian Grocery Store in Sunnybank... we're in Canada right now on holiday, so I don't have the exact name. It's on Main Street, in the opposite corner to the big mall (the first one you pass after coming down from Kessels Road - it's called Kessels when I get on it in Mount Gravatt and the name changes often). The Asian grocery store in the mall there also often stocks durian. Expect to pay $2.99 per kilo for frozen durian.
I think that Chinatown in Brisbane would be worth checking out too. We'll be doing that early October when we get back. I never thought to before, but Chinatown in Toronto Canada is packed with interesting tropical fruit (tamarind, mangosteen, young coconuts, 5 types of mango, sweet sop, and funky types of fruit I've never before seen).
I can’t find the website for the tropical fruit tasting place in the Daintree right now, but if you go visit there add is everywhere. There's also a tropical fruit icecream place - we passed on the ice cream and convinced them to sell us fruit instead!
If you're up in the Daintree make sure you visit the Tropical Fruit farm that offers tours near Cape Tribulation. They do a taste testing of 10 tropical fruits, then walk you through their garden. It's marvelous! They are two ex school teachers that came on a holiday and never left with hundreds of different trees growing in a jungle that was once cow pasture.
If you're down near the Gold Coast there is Tropical Fruit World, who also offers tours (haven't done yet) and has a small store that sells fruit in the front. We've found yellow sapote, sour sop and a few other unique fruits there. I think it's all dependant on what time of year you visit. Ice cream bean comes into season in December... I'm looking forward to trying that.
We've had the best luck in Australia finding interesting and new tropical fruit at specialty places like the two I mentioned above, and also in CHINATOWN!!! Durian and Jackfruit seem to be readily available in Brisbane in Chinese Foodmarts. Young coconuts can be purchased by the case in the Rocklea Markets in Brisbane, and even Coles is stocking more interesting fruit lately (NZ fruits - I forget the name, Mangosteen, Young coconuts and more).
A few you'll definitely want to track down are (that are quite available right now in Australia): * Mangosteen (imports just opened up from Thailand - expect to see this one more) * Yellow Sapote (tastes almost like sweet smooth pumpkin) * Durian (usually found frozen) * Jackfruit (make sure it's a sweet edible one - some are for cooking only and resemble rubbery cabbage) * Sour Sop (luscious sweet lemonade fruit - a type of custard apple) * Black Sapote (chocolate pudding fruit - delicious blended with avocado, carob and something to sweeten the pudding) * Sweet sop (another type of custard apple)
Interest in delicious raw foods is definitely building in Australia... the next step is organizing monthly raw dinners in all major cities!!! Now that will be progress!!! Meetings in Coolangatta start next month!! Gold Coast meetings are already running!
The sad thing is that only a month or so after I received the letter above Brisbane reopened talks about adding fluoride to public water supply. The pressure from other parts of Australia is mounting, as is public outrage at being denied fluoride and the 'protection' this offers their teeth. If only people would properly research this before making their decision.
The Toronto International Vegetarian Festival is in Toronto right now!!! There are at least 4 raw booths, and the Naughty Vegan is giving talks each day. He's written a fabulous book on Ice Cream with 50% being raw vegan called Vice Cream. Fantastic!! If you're in the area make sure you check it out!
It's great to start small and work up to more concentrated versions too. We find citrus amazing with wheatgrass, it literally masks the smell completely, and citrus and greens is a great combination to improve iron absorption (something women need to think about more then men)! It's also great to focus on the health benefits of wheatgrass, and appreciate it for the nourishment and cleansing it will give your body. That will help reprogram your brain to see it as something you enjoy! I haven't found diluting with water works for me... it just means you have to drink MORE!
Look at ads in magazines for oral contraceptives and you'll still see many using clearing of acne as a major reason to go on them. In fact one company I read about recently has launched a brand of hormones for skin only, not focusing on birth control at all!! I was on birth control pills for a period around university, the primary reason for 'control' of my periods (they were not regular) and skin improvement. I only stayed on them about 5 months because they made me cry all the time. My doctor said that I needed to stay with it, that I'd get over this phase, but I listened to my body and decided that natural was best. Later when I improved my diet my periods totally normalized. I had treated the underlying cause (diet and nutrition) not the symptom (lack of periods).
I've had the same reaction, with skin sometimes getting worse around my periods. I think our skin often produces more oil at those times, and overall it's definitely a time of cleansing the body. I know I also get cravings. Recently I read that craving for sweet fatty foods is often a false symptom of the body's need for minerals. Chocolate is high in magnesium, something women seem to need more of around their periods. Fortunately eating high mineral foods like dark leafy greens can often reduce or even eliminate these cravings.
Toronto has the BEST tropical fruits of any city I have yet to see! Just go to Spadina and Dundas and walk north on the west side of the street. You'll find K&K's tropical fruits, with sour sop, fresh and frozen durian, mangosteen, young coconuts, tamarind, papaya, and many others. Continue walking north for even more `option`s, including fresh sugar cane juice! WOW!!! And I thought Australia had a great selection!!! TORONTO ROCKS!!!
The stage you want to watch for is the jointing stage. This is the stage just BEFORE the blade of grass splits into two leaves. This is the stage with the highest nutritional value and best taste. When this phase starts you'll see a small swelling a cm or two from the bottom, as the grass prepares itself to start the second leaf.
The height of the grass can vary depending on the growing conditions, so jointing is the best thing to watch for.
If you miss this phase, as long as the grass is lush and green you've got a powerful batch of wheatgrass on your hands. Enjoy!!
We sometimes drink wheatgrass straight, and frequently mix it with fresh citrus juice. Another treat is a wheatgrass pina colado - mix with coconut water and pineapple juice for a powerful and tasty blend!
I regularly drink a few ounces of fresh wheatgrass juice blended with other juices. I have heard that straight is best, however if I can enjoy it more frequently blended then I figure that's even better.
Our favourite right now is blended with 50% fresh squeezed citrus juices (oranges and a lime straight off the tree). I shake the tree gently each morning and harvest the oranges that fall off! What a wonderful way to live! Australia is grand. This is at a time when limes are almost $10 per kilo (there is a shortage), so we're especially loving our lime tree.
Almost any kind of frozen fruit put through a single or twin gear juicer is delicious. I had the chance to try pineapple a few days ago (in a street market) and it was delicious. So is mango!
Our trip up to Northern Queensland was magic. The amount of tropical fruit growing there is intense. We went to a tropical fruit tasting, and got to try Jackfruit, Yellow Sapote, Rolinia, and Sour Sop for the first time.
Jackfruit is soft and slippery, and absolutely delicious. You open the fruit, and the only raw edible part is a little casing around each seed that's a bright orange colour. The rest can be used like cabbage in stir fry's (we're not likely to do that, so will probably not buy jackfruit).
Yellow Sapote has the taste and texture of a rich and creamy cooked pumpkin. Really. It was quite incredible, and if I even get my hands on more I'll definitely try making a raw pumpkin pie with it. It's would be the best ever! It was even slightly savoury, with such an unusual texture.
Sour Sop needs a name change. Piers and I went to a ice cream stand that did tropical fruit ice creams, and asked if we could buy some fruit instead of the ice-cream. Ice-cream was $4; we got a fruit 10x the size of ice-cream for $1.50. Figure that out if you can!! It's like custard apple, with so much juice it will run all over the place if you're not careful, and tastes like tangy lemonade! I think it should be called Lemonade Fruit.
Rolinia was the most unusual. This fruit is almost never exported or moved around a country because it's so fragile that the slightest bump will ruin it. It's another relative of the custard apple, and has the texture of lemon meringue pie. Really. It's soft and creamy and incredibly smooth. Tastes a little like apples. Delicious.
We're considering moving north (from Brisbane Australia). Cairns (about 1600 km north) is like Hawaii. Palm trees, coconuts, tropical fruits everywhere. A dream come true!
Everyone complained that food was expensive where we were travelling. Again... I'm seeing a pattern. I think we ate for less than $15 a day. We bought fruit at all road side stalls, and veggies where we could. Our most common mal was a half red capsicum (pepper) stuffed with baby english spinach, then topped with avocado and red onion. It was tasty and very easy to eat in the car. Bananas were also very common, so we ate more than a few kilos of them (at times it was all we had available). I've never been so glad to have a sack of bananas in the car!!
Other people travelling the same area were having to spend $20 on meals in restaurants... and probably didn't enjoy their food nearly as much as we loved ours!! There is something so magic about eating with your hands too... especially under the moonlight on the beach!
Our favourite (and weirdest looking fruit salad) was tasty and very ugly. I think it would be a wonderful salad for kids to make. They could call it bugs and mud or something.
* 1 custard apple, peeled and segmented (it will naturally break in certain areas into small pieces) * 1 Black Sapote (otherwise known as chocolate fruit), peeled and mashed * 1 large passionfruit, sliced in half and seeds added to mixture
The black sapote mixed in looks like MUD! Tastes a little like chocolate. The passionfruit gave it zing and the custard apple gave it a delicate sweetness that couldn't be matched. We ate it out of a 2 litre water bottle Piers cut in half down the centre (we had nothing but a knife) on the beach at a world heritage national park). Absolute magic!!
Hi Ellie! Thanks so much for dropping by. Congratulations on your raw experiences of the last week. Each day is a new adventure and brings new experiences. Just keep enjoying the different foods available and take it one step at a time.
When people first switch to a new way of eating it can take your body a few weeks to adjust. That's why many try something new, and decide it doesn't work (a common complaint is gas for a person who starts eating fruit again after years of minimal consumption). The good thing is as your body adjusts you get more energy and feel better with the new food intake. They've done studies with dogs to illustrate this, and found that dogs fed a primary protein diet had no enzymes in their saliva to digest carbs/sugars. However two weeks after switching to a diet that included carbs the dogs started to produce enzymes in their saliva specifically designed to digest carbs. The wonders of the body! It's capable of so many things!
Another factor that can impact people is the cleansing reaction that happens when people first start eating a predominately raw diet. After years of being polluted with non foods, our bodies welcome a diet of water rich healthy foods. This extra energy and vital life is used to do a little house cleaning, and this can sometimes cause minor discomfort. How long this lasts, and how severe it is depends on your past, and how quickly you make the transition to raw foods. It's always good to listen carefully to your body, and consult your health care provider if you have any concerns. Many naturopaths are familiar with raw foods, and are able to guide people through these kinds of transitions.
Please keep in touch! We'd love to hear more about your experiences with raw foods and support you in any way we can!
Thanks for posting! We'd like to award you with post of the week! Just email us at sheryl@raw-pleasure.com.au and we'll send you the instructions to get your book!
Stay tuned... we're still working on more answers for you, and will post them as they come in.
I just read this on one cold pressed coconut oil website: "Thus it is not subjected to the high temperatures of most other oil extraction systems. It is usually between 45°C (110°F) and 60°C (130°F) immediately before pressing. This is "cold" by oil standards."
If 130 degrees is 'cold' by oil standards, then any cold pressed oil may be overheated by raw standards. It might be a good idea for people that use cold pressed oils to contact manufacturers and find out what the maximum temperature it's heated to. All cold pressed oil means is that they don't apply external heat during the extraction process. However the compaction and friction do still generate enough heat to cook things in many cases!
There are interesting new things to learn everyday! Isn't it wonderful!
Fresh fruits, vegetables and sprouts are safe to consider raw; especially if they are organic. Raw almonds are usually raw; raw cashews however are rarely, unless you buy the special 'really raw' cashews that many raw wholesalers sell. I can vouch that they taste completely different.
If you're working at 100% you really need to consider most other things suspect until you talk to someone who knows. Someone had posted they had talked to the person who runs the product section of their local whole foods, and that person knew about raw foods, and could identify which of the olives were officially raw and which weren't. My husband and I actually call companies and verify if things are really raw (we did this recently for agave nectar (most aren't) and tahini (some are)).
If you're not aiming for 100% then you could choose to allow a certain percent of unverified foods. It's up to you really to decide where you draw the line. And it's okay to keep it simple!
These delicious, small, red berries come from the base of the Himalayas. They are certified organic and are packed full of nutrients. [Click Here to Learn More...]
$27.95
(inc GST)
Average customer rating Total votes: 0
Content written by third parties on this site solely represent their own opinions and not necessarily those of Raw Pleasure Pty Ltd. If you are not willing to take personal responsibility for your own health, and feel you need medical/dental advice, then visit a doctor/dentist. The contents of this site of an educational nature only and are not medical / dental advice. Nothing here is intended to diagnose, treat, prevent or cure any medical condition.
Forum 
Show Posts
Total votes: 0