Eating Raw

I have been quite ill for a number of weeks now but have finally turned a corner. I have had lovely friends concerned that I have not been able to feed myself properly being alone and all. Listening to my body though I didn't need to be loading it up on fuel that it had to divert extra energy towards digesting and eliminating. A lot of my body's energy was going into eliminating on a different front.

I felt like very simple food. One night a steamed zucchini, another night boiled egg on toast, another night just a piece of meat. Very simple single digestive enzyme action.

My physical energy output was very low having some couch days so my caloric intake desire was low too.

There are some advantages to being on your own; you can listen and be still with your body and go with it's needs. 

My forage in the garden last night for dinner told me I was feeling better as I got excited about my food, and who wouldn't when you have coloured chard? It excites any salad and gives me a mental feel good just seeing it all cut up. If you cook it you loose that wonderful colour.

Raw is something I found has become quite alien to a lot of people whom I ran into at the growers' market. I could see the slight hesitation from people whenever I said "try a piece". I'm talking about beans, peas, chard, mixed greens. Edible flowers were a real confrontation for many. That's not how I remember it when I was a kid, there was a lot of raw food eating as dinner was prepared. Do you think it is because people buy so much of their fresh produce frozen now? Is it because beans now go from the freezer to a pot? Once upon a time they were topped and tailed fresh and admittedly then cooked, but there was still some raw sampling going on at the sink.

Is this how our kids have lost touch with their food in pure form? Not enough preparing and exposing them to food from scratch? I notice that my friends who grow vegetables have children who embrace food really well and don't tend to have "fussy eaters". That's why I think it is so important to grow something. You don't have to have the whole self sustaining thing going on, just one or two things. At the very least every garden should try for tomatoes, beans and a lemon tree.

(Rat Tail Radish Flowers)