mmm, looks yummy. Unfortunately I can't try any time soon as I have no agave or cacao, but one day I will 

Oh yum, that sounds heavenly! Will have to try.

I'm so sorry for your loss and it is wonderful that you have this online support network. I just wanted to say that I too am heavily involved in the Animals Asia Foundation and sponsor Freedom the moonbear - it is wonderful that you chose to donate money to such a onderful cause.

It seems ridiculous that healthy, living, organic foods are so expensive and junk food so cheap and readily accessible but unfortunately this is the case.

I never tried a vanilla bean but Ive been meaning too... I think your rave review might be the motivation I need!

I love sprouting and am growing lots of lovely sprouts - I think green lentils are my favourites, although garbanzos (chickpeas) are great too. When sprouting buckwheat to make cereal ( I have read so much about buckwheat cereals that I have to try ) how long should the little 'tails' be before you dehydrate?
And does spelt actually sprout? I soaked for 8 hours and have been waiting patiently for any signs of growth but after two days have very soft spelt but no tails. According to the sprouting info in Juliano's book it should sprout within two days - any tips?
Thanks in advance!

How's this for a coincidence... I just found this recipe for Kumquat Cheesecake! Don't know if it's the one you're thinking of Sheryl, but it looks delish!

Kumquat and nutmeg cheezecake

This cake is a dream! I made it for my friends birthday. One other friend made me write down the recipe for him to take home and make, and I even made another one a day later. It's soooo gooood!

3 cups of almonds, dry
2 tablespoons of raw carob powder
1 cup of pecans, dry
2 cups of dates, soaked and stoned
Juice of 1 orange
1 teaspoon of nutmeg
1 vanilla pod
5 bananas, chopped thinly and frozen for at least 12 hours
4 kumquats
1 large mango

Using a loose based round cake tin, cover the base in cling film, and fit to the tin. Cover the sides in silver foil.

Add the almonds, pecans (reserve 8 for decoration), dates, an inch of the vanilla, a sprinkling of nutmeg, the carob powder and the juice of the orange to a food processor. Process gently to start with, and continue until you get a dough-like consistency, but still chunky. If it's not doughy enough add small quantities of water until you achieve the desired result. Place in the cake tin, and flatten down.

Clean your food processor and add the chopped frozen banana. Halve the kumquats and remove the middles, add the skins to the processor. Slit the vanilla pod and scrape the seeds into the processor. Slice the cheeks off the mango, and skin them, add those to the food processor. Add most of the rest of the nutmeg. Add a couple of chopped dates if you like, too. Process for several minutes, until the whole mixture turns to white fluff. Don't be tempted to process this for less time, but do stop for a minute if your machine gets hot. It needs to go white and fluffly. Scrape it down every now and then so everything gets processed. Add this to the cake tin, on top of the nut base. Smooth it all down so there's no trapped air, and is level on top. Add the left over pecans in a nice pattern and sprinkle the rest of the nutmeg.

Return it all to the freezer for at least an hour. Once ready to serve, turn out the cake by pushing the loose base out and up. Take the foil off and place on a serving plate.

(from http://www.shazzie.com/raw/recipes/).

I have a question though - what size kumquats do you think she is referring to here? Ours are awfully small and I can't imagine that four of them would have much flavour... any suggestions?

Can I ask how long the eggplant slices take to get "soft and pliable?" And then how long to get crispy? Just an approximation would be good- these sound sooo yummy!

Oh, well ours have started falling off the tree and some have looked ripe for a while so I will try dehydrating some and see how they turn out. Thanks for the assistance!

Sorry, I'm confused - what's naked chocolate? Also, when you slice and dehydrate do you leave the skin on? It would be awfully hard to peel them since they're so small. Thanks!

I actually thought Manna's range wasn't too bad - if Healthy Valley is much better it must be awesome! I will definately pop in - do I need to book or can I just come at any time to see you? The hair mineral analysis sounds interesting!

We have two citrus trees in our (well, our rented) backyard - one is lemon but I was at a complete loss as to what the other one is ... until now! It is a cumquat tree! I have never even seen a cumquat before and now they're growing in my own backyard! Does anyone have any ideas for recipes I could use these sweet little fruits in?

I can't stand the cold and feel it badly, so I'm loving Perth weather and pitying those back in SA. But I'm not worried about losing the heat of my food with going raw, for two main reasons.
1. I eat very slowly (aids digestion, increases enjoyment ) so by the time I finish my meal it's normally pretty cool anyway
2. I can just put a jumper on and sit by the heater (or in the sun if it's lunchtime and the sky is smiling) while I eat.

Hey Jen, it was a big move but my parents moved too, along with (most of) my menagerie so it wasn't too bad. I'm loving uni life so much - much better than highschool. Especially now, since I'm on a five week mid-year break 
I go to Manna at least once a week, twice this week with my emergency trip yesterday - I love it there. I really love the atmosphere in Freo, it is so free and non-judgemental. I'm a self confessed hippie (my grandma tells me I belong in the 60s) so I think it's great.
As for overcoming my muffin addiction... I don't think it will be too bad. Normally I bake muffins every Friday but I've already resolved that I won't tomorrow, I'll have something raw instead. I've got one muffin left in the fridge from last week, I'm going to have that today and enjoy it! I'm thinking of some sweet breads/essene breads as a good replacement for the muffins. I can spread my recipe-creating wings and deivse some kind of raw muffin!

Now, I'd love to ask you some questions about naturopathy - obviously as a newcomer to Perth I don't have a family GP and I've been thinking about seeing a naturopath instead. I visit the chiropracter regularly and my nnew chiro wants me to see a doctor for blodd tests just to check vitamin/mineral levels etc - I normally have one annually (ever since going vegan) but haven't this year. Do naturopaths support blood tests? Thanks in advance for any details.
Thanks for checking out the blog, by the way. Did you see the yummy (raw) strawberry romanoff pics from a few days ago? That stuff is heaven.

Back on topic now, I rang Sunbeam this morning and was told that the dehydrator commonly operates at 65C!! I asked whether it was likely to be cooler down the bottom than directly under the fan but the (very rude) customer service lady said it probably wasn't. Having used it overnight to make some (YUMMY) veggie burger -type things I firmly believe that this is just a standard line because they think that it is a bad thing for the temp to vary - it is clearly cooler at the bottom. Obviously it's not perfect but as I said yesterday, it's still better than cooking.

Oh i forgot to mention, I also threw some sprouted chickpeas into the avocado mixture.

Hi, I'm new to raw but I love creating recipes and so here is my first one... just had to share. It's all a bit rough but then I think all recipes should be flexible - what one person enjoys may need 'tweaking' before someone else likes it. Here we go:

Ingredients:
1/2 a small avocado (quite ripe)
about 1/4 tsp finely minced garlic
1-2 tbsp finely minced onion (any colour you like)
2 tbsp corn cut from the cob (or more)
about 1 tbsp finely chopped tomato
1/4 tsp fresh oregano
a tiny bit of fresh rosemary
coriander if you like it
1 leaf of any cabbage or lettuce you like eg purple cabbage or romaine lettuce. I uesd a chinese cabbage leaf which was nice but they have little hairs on them so it felt a bit weird.

In a bowl, mash the avocado with a fork and then mix in all the other ingredients except the leaf. Spread the mixture on your leaf, roll up and devour messily. Yum Yum!

If you're interested, I have a food blog at this adress: http://veganmuffinprincess.blogspot.com/
and you can see a picture of this yummy roll!