7 Day Juice Feast

Treasures fresh picked from our garden

Hello lovely angels of the Universe! I am guiding a small group through a 7 day Juice Feast; the journey begins this Wednesday July 29th and welcomes back fresh, water-rich raw food on Wednesday August 5th. I am announcing this, in case you feel driven to join in some capacity. The group energy is very helpful! If you are not interested in all juice, perhaps dedicating the week to all raw foods, no processed starches or specifying something you would like to focus on releasing from your habitual patterns, whether it be tortilla chips or being judgmental of others. Please share what you are letting go of for the week (by leaving a comment), as we empower and inspire each other to our highest potential!!

"Live your succulent wild life! Choosing succulence is a delicate act of revolution. It means waking up! Embracing your true self, studying your patterns and letting out your most alive self. We all have one. " -Sark

Outta the Hype and Into the Wilderness...Healthy Camping

My hubby and I were recently able to getaway for 5 nights in the wilderness (don't ask where...hee-hee!). We car-camped, in perhaps one of the most remote car camping spots around. I love sleeping at night in a tent ( to protect us from the mosquitoes) rather than in a home that has an electrical force field, even when most everything is turned off. The sound of the river strummed us to sleep and days were spent hiking to a waterfall, reading Anastasia and doing Yoga by some other falls, floating the river and hiking where my hubby could fish. It was such a treat, just as the pace of Summer was approaching light speed. I always have my wild edibles book in my pack and am a kid in a candy shop as I walk through the abundant forest. If you choose to pick wild edibles, please be respectful of the plant. Always pick a small amount of what is present and I always ask the plant if I may pick it before I do...sometimes they say no and that feels good too. Here are 2 of the wild edibles we enjoyed...

Stonecrop

Shooting Star



Besides the wild treats, it was fun to prepare and pack healthy foods to camp with.
We brought:
4 quarts of prepared, then frozen green smoothie
1 quart sunflower seed/brazil nut mylk (made concentrate by adding less water when blending and then adding more water to our morning cereal bowl while at camp)
soaked and dehydrated buckwheat and goji berries for cereal
big bag of leafy greens from the garden
ingredients for salsa and guacamole
fresh, frozen pesto made from the organic heirloom basil we are growing
2 zucchini for "pasta" noodles
zucchini hummus
dehydrated crackers
bananas, apples
lemon and cayenne for our morning quart of water
homemade raw trail mix

and probably some other yummy things I'm not recalling right now. It felt really good to keep it clean when away from home :) Do you have any camping/hiking food tricks to share? HAPPY SUMMER!!!

Home Grown Event at Stillwater Landing

The event last weekend was fun! The Stillwater Landing is absolutely gorgeous! It's like our own little private Montana Gorge venue. Carlos Nakai (amazing native American flutist) and other artists are performing there Thursday July 2nd. Last weekend, Mother's Power (a local company owned by Jeff Arsell) had a trailer with wind and solar power that completely powered the stage with open mic. Eastern Montana has gnarley wind and in his presentation he stated that Montana has the capability to be the 5th highest wind producer in the world if we harnessed this beautiful energy we are gifted with. They have a project going on NW of Browning on. I would love to incorporate alternative energy sources with him for our home :)



The local raw food posse was there as well. Shoot the Moon was serving up fresh juices, raw pizza, fresh local salad, raw soup and lots of raw treats such as Spirulina pie! Here is Shoot the Moon with Kailie, Emily and Wes and some of their gorgeous goodies made with Love!!




Michelle Berry of Berry Good Living was there too and made some amazing creations for the dinner like raw enchiladas with spinach tortillas, pumpkin seed pate filling, olive tapenade and chocolate mousse pie!! Unfortunately, we weren't clear until we arrived that we had to RSVP ahead of time to join in and donate for dinner, so we didn't get to savor any of her goodies this time. She recently began her own blog called www.berryblissful.blogspot.com -check it out!

The lovely Hutterites were there as well making homemade ice cream with this funky old John Deere motor. I was mesmerized by this awesome old school contraption until it started spewing nasty fumes which were less cool. XOXO!

Local Awareness is Spreading!!

Indeed, Awareness is spreading in so many conscious avenues and I am grateful to see it firsthand in our community! On Tuesday after work, I walked down the street to our local Farmer's Market. It used to be on the black asphalt parking lot in front of McDonald's. Thank goodness some folks got it together and moved it to the end of our lovely downtown street, in the park. Big kudos to whoever worked to make that happen! It has become a major community gathering from May to perhaps October (the months we're not covered in snow) with live music, many modalities of body/energywork, hula hoops, crafts, local farms and now, a Raw Food Booth called Shoot the Moon. It was their 1st market on Tuesday and they created 2 types of yummy live pizza, green granola, chapati and some desserts. I was so happy to see them there and actually recognized their faces from the IONS (Institute of Noetic Sciences) meeting last week. IONS sponsored Jeanette Cheney and Alee Delsack from the Wellness Center as they spoke about juice fasting and raw foods. Jeanette is a graduate of the Hippocrates Health Institute Health Educator Program and has led more than 2,000 folks now through the 7 day juice fast program! This is very significant, especially considering the size of our community. Alee has begun a raw food prep/education series which began last Monday and runs every Monday night from 5:30-7pm through August 10th. You can contact her at 406-260-3266 for more details. Next week's class focuses on Alkaline eating and demonstrates how to make a warm miso sea veggie soup.

Several weeks ago, Beatrice Arroe, who also leads Raw Food Classes, sponsored (with others) a Tibetan nun named Ani Tsering to share her voice in meditation and prayer with us at the O'Shaughessy Center. To my surprise, there was a Raw Food buffet (where they usually sell Costco cookies) with amazing creations available by donation. Michelle Berry is starting a business called Berry Good Living with rumors to perhaps have some raw food available when the Green Tea House opens next to Wasabi!!

AND...this weekend at Stillwater Landing is an event called Home Grown which is being promoted by Citizens for a Better Flathead. There is outdoor music on the lake from 4-6 pm, dinner from 6-7:30pm and more music inside the airplane hangar from 7:30-9:30pm. I'm not sure when the speakers will present, but there is a focus on energy and if I understood correctly, growing algae for both energy and food. The Shoot the Moon posse will be there offering up raw treats and maybe green smoothies in the morning for campers! I will keep you updated! Home Grown is happening this Saturday, June 20th, 15 miles north of Whitefish at mile marker 143 on lower Stillwater Lake. Leave a comment if I might see you there! xo!

Raw Oatmeal and Raw Nut/Seed Mylk

Yum! This is a tasty treat to mix it up and have something different than green juice, green smoothie or a piece of fruit for breakfast. I wasn't sure how this would feel in my body, as I don't like a ton of grain, but if felt really good and my hubby loved it as well. Soak oat groats in clean water overnight (1/2 cup per serving). In the morning, drain and rinse the oat groats well. Put them in the food processor or blender with just enough water to get the consistency you like. You can also a date and some sea salt before blending. To the bowl, I added some local, dried plums, goji berries, frozen huckleberries and cinnamon.
For the nut/seed mylk, soak the nuts or seeds of your choice overnight. I usually use sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds. If you forgot to soak something, you don't need to soak hemp seeds and they are delicious too! In the morning, drain and rinse your soaked nuts/seeds and add about 3-4 cups of water for every cup of nuts/seeds. Blend well. Many people strain their mylk with a nut mylk bag, but I just leave the extra fiber in there. I also like to add a little vanilla stevia and a dash of Himalayan Pink Crystal Salt before blending (fresh vanilla bean and a dash of honey is awesome too!).
Why does she keep spelling mylk like that?! The raw food community tends to write mylk and cheeze like this to separate the spelling from it's better known dairy version.
Nut/seed mylk is the very easiest way to digest nuts/seeds. The 2nd easiest is nut/seed butter and the last is raw, sprouted nuts/seeds themselves. Enjoy and let me know if you try this recipe! Cheers!

Horse Manure and Fruit Trees!!

Friday after work, we made it to Columbia Falls Nursery and bought a bunch of fruit trees...yahoo! We got 1 Toka plum, 1 Pipestone plum, 1 La Crescent plum, 1 Sungold apricot, 1 Moongold apricot, 1 Luscious pear, 1 Summercrisp pear and 1 Lapin cherry!! Then, we dug up 8 holes and our hot Friday night date was shoveling horse manure into the back of the truck to feed our new trees! We actually loved it! We are lucky enough to have a horse ranch for neighbors and an unlimited supply of free horse manure :)

On Saturday, we made it to the fencing supply and got enough fencing to encircle each tree so the deer don't munch them down. We now have a total of 15 fruit trees on the property and we are so happy to continue to transform our home into more and more of Heaven on Earth!


Happy Raw Spirit Festival weekend to everyone! I was definitely there in spirit as we continue to manifest our dreams! XOXO!!

Golden Fields Of Dandelions!

Dandelion is considered a noxious weed, but I savor it's beautiful glory! It takes me breath away each day and I savor each moment it brightens my eyes particularly because it is so short-lived. The dandelions close up at night, so it's true glory is during the blazing sun and before long, the petals will transform into puffballs carrying wishes through the fields!!




This is our garden and hoop house-we are growing LOTS of our own food this year!! I have been enjoying slightly bitter dandelion green smoothies-a deeply healing liver tonic...Nature provides us with Spring cleaning! We are also enjoying the year's 1st asparagus-Yum! I have actually been lightly sauteeing the asparagus because I remember hearing that asparagus is one of those vegetables that is toxic when eaten raw. I just did some researching on the internet and everything I have found so far says it is completely safe to eat raw. Tonight, I am going to marinate some via this recipe I found on www.naturalzing.com and will let you know how it goes...

Marinated Asparagus

1 bunch organic asparagus
Marinade:
1/4 c Nama Shoyu
1 T organic onion
1 organic lemon, juiced
2 T organic balsamic vinegar (or Braggs unpasteurized apple cider vinegar)

1. Cut 1" off the bottom of the stems and save for your compose heap, then cut the stalks in half.
2. Mix marinade and pour over asparagus.
3. Marinate overnight and serve at room temperature.
(serves 4)

Asparagus is high in folic acid and a good source of potassium, fiber, B6, vit A, C and thiamin. It contains a pre-biotic called inulin that helps form probiotics in our colon, is high in rutin which is known to strenghten blood vessels and according to the National Cnacer Institute, it is one of the highest tested foods containing glutathione, one of the body's strongest cancer fighters!! Enjoy this gift of Spring!!