RAWWWWKATHON!!!

Hello Everyone!

While Katrina and I were at Cherie Soria's Living Light Expo in Ft. Bragg, California last month, I had the pleasure of sitting down to talk with Kevin Gianni about the latest work that I am doing on The Spectrum of Diet, which is my work on looking at nutrition as a line of human development. The long and short of it is, it takes time to move up the Spectrum of Diet from processed food to Raw/Live Foods, and Juice Feasting is a Life Practice that can help us move up the Spectrum more efficiently.

Kevin got the whole 1 hour talk on video, and is broadcasting it free, along with 1 hour interviews with other leaders in the plant-based/raw/live community

For those of you who don't know Kevin, he is the co-creator of the Raw Summit, and has been busy putting together something that's never been done before.

For those who aren't familiar with the Raw Summit, it was an online teleseminar event that brought thousands of people together to learn more about raw and living foods.

What Kevin is up to now is even bigger and better...

He's spent the last month putting together an event called "The Rawkathon."

This is a collection of candid, one-on-one interviews with 15 of the top raw and living food experts on the planet and it will be broadcast for you to watch or listen to in a few short weeks.

The interviews--from what he's said--are like no stage presentation or "how-to" DVD you've seen before.

Not only do these interviews cover how to stay raw, how to stay motivated, and the best ways to do so--Kevin has also said that they capture the true essense of each expert. Almost like you were there in the room with them as the interview was being conducted.

So when you're a part of the event, you get to hear 15 amazing interviews that really have never been created before or likely never again.

As with all of Kevin's events, to get involved, it's 100% fr@e, and this totally jives with our approach of making Raw/Live Food Nutrition and transformation not only available, but accessible to everyone.

It costs nothing for you to watch or listen to these interviews.

Kevin has made it easy to register now and you'll be sent information on how you can be a part of raw food history...

The Rawkathon (2008)


Right now the project is set to release on October 19th and only is broadcast for one week, so I have let you know about this event early so you are ready.

There is an opportunity to get all the interviews in a digital or hardcopy package at a special price with special bonuses, that won't be up after the event starts.

So please go ahead and register now...

The Rawkathon (2008)


With peaceful steps,

David and Katrina Rainoshek, JuiceFeasting.com

Full Time Festival Continues!

Helloooo!!

Well, here we are, long been home from the fantastical, amazing love fest of raw spirits down in Arizona where we literally wandered around in fairy dust and bliss the whole time.

Such amazing things are happening on this beautiful blue planet right now, I can hardly catch my breath, my head spins, my heart races! Are you in?

I know it is quite easy at this time to be tuned into the opposite side of the spectrum, and while it is important to take all things into account, the more that we do choose to tune into the love the bigger indeed it swells, personally and globally.

Like Neo and Smith in the Matrix, as good becomes stronger, so does evil, (remember as Neo became more powerful, so too did Smith, in a force of seemingly endless Smiths!) we have to choose what we believe in and make a full time job of it! It may sound like a platitude, but look around and see just how REAL it is! The full time festival continues!

One of those magical, Neo-like forces, is beloved Angela Stokes, recently taking the world by storm with her charm via the networks at CNN. Remember, the worse it gets, the better it gets, and it seems that in response to 20/20's discouraging piece on "orthorexia" (a non-term if you ask me) the universe has provided us with CNN's piece on Angela.

I was very lucky to spend some time with this woman right after Raw Spirit Festival (in the continuing festival of never-ending moments) and I can tell you my faith in love and magic was taken to the next level.
Angela is a beautiful example of the magical transformation that we are all capable of if we believe in ourselves and in love enough. When we choose to embrace growth, love and beauty, we experience a re-birth in to a new and more meaningful life, where emotional, spiritual, and mental transformations are just as poignant as the physical ones. They in fact go hand in hand in the trinity of body/mind/spirit. Angela is a TRUE POTENTIALIST and she lovingly, by example, is teaching us what is possible with our own growth and transformation.

I know that I used to find myself fascinated with people's before and after photos, and would reference them frequently as inspiration! I realize now that the even more dramatic and meaningful changes are those that we can't photograph, those that we ourselves forget about as we begin to feel comfortable in our own skins, and to enjoy our lives. Did I really used to wake up every morning feeling agitated with the words "I hate my life" in the front of my brain? It feels like another life time now.

In a nut shell, what I am writing about today is PERSISTENCE!! KEEP GOING!! Even if you are already at a place where you wake up with a smile on your lips and words of grace in your mind, stay the course!! We are living in a time where the edges of good and evil are being expanded exponentially, so keep on pushing out on your limits of love baby!

Oh, and I'm sure most of you have seen this already, but if not, please check it out! Angela's CNN interview: (which was filmed in my Papi's garden! A garden built on "juicin' energy")



And here is the text version of the story!

How about a few of our RSF photos to end the post?





For a true photographic experience of Raw Spirit Festival, check out the Flickr account of the extraordinarily lovely Suki Zoe, and for a great run down via the written word check out the blog of the ever prolific and goodies Heidi and Justin.

Hope to see you soon at the festival!

With much love,

Katrina

LOVE.NOW

Take a few happy minutes to watch this beautiful music and message.....enjoy love now!!

Our Summer in Pictures

Hello Dear Friends!!

Summer has been so wonderful that each time I try to sit down to write here, something such as a walk in the sunshine, a date with a blackberry bush, a swim in the lake, or a picnic by the ocean seems much more inviting!! That is summer for you!

We are happily moved into our new house in the woods, and I am loving having a full kitchen of my own once again as you will see in some of the pictures below. My brothers like to make fun of me for taking so many pictures of the food that I make, and it got me wondering "yes, I do wonder why it is that raw foodists love taking and showing off pictures of their raw food?"

I know that I am not alone in this habit taking pictures of my raw food as though it was my first child, the web is full of raw food pictures! Is it because raw food is so sumptuous and beautiful? So vibrant and delectable? Well yes, it is those things and many more (raw food is colorful, juicy, pretty, glowing, mouth watering, natural, yummy, yummy, and YUMMY!), but I also realized that pictures of food, all kinds of food, are EVERYWHERE!!

It is no wonder that as raw foodists we feel the need to balance out the plethora of cooked food pictures that we see in magazines, on TV, pasted on giant billboards, popping up on the web, on our airplane trays, in the grocery isles, and restaurant windows, with some pictures of the truly nourishing foods that we make at home! Pictures of pizza, lasagna, chicken, burgers, fries, and candy stimulate our appetites for these foods, and likewise pictures of red apples, gorgeous salads, juicy peaches, and green avocados stimulate our appetites to eat raw foods!

So I say go ahead! Let's flood the airwaves with pictures of beautiful, appetizing raw foods! I know it makes me excited to eat this way when I can find inspiring pictures of yummy looking foods. Storm and Jinjee and family have a fantastic project on the go called Take A Fruit Break, and you can even download beautiful free posters that will be sure to get your mouth watering for some tasty raw foods!

So, with that, we hope you enjoy these pictures from our summer 2008!

Ayrie with fresh salad greens from his backyard forest garden. I can't tell who is glowing more, my dad or the greens! An orange breakfast in an orange room. (In a house we babysat while waiting for our own house.)Making fruit faces with my sisters.Blackboard at Cafe Bliss.Cake. My mom made this from blended frozen fruit, just like ice cream cake! Chia pudding with fresh figs and blueberries. Chia has become a staple, I LOVE it!! I made a delicious chia smoothie with spirulina and cinnamon, which I thought was a weird mix of flavors but it worked out yummily.
Sweet flax crackers with guacamole, sun dried tomato sauce and fresh tomatoes, and of course SALAD!!Rosemary/garlic/onion/carrot/flax/pumpkin seed/sesame seed crackers with basil pesto and fresh tomatoes and of course SALAD!!
I Am Honoring Nachos from I Am Grateful, made for a dinner with guests. Made with I Am Kind Refried Beans, I Am Generous Guacamole, I Am Fiery Salsa, and I Am Ravishing Cashew Sour Cream. Served with flax crackers made by mom, and freshly made lemonade. Strawberry Vice Cream. Made with almond mylk and frozen strawberries. Joe aptly noted that is was silly for us to be calling blended nuts and spices "beans" or "cheese" and why didn't we just call it what it was? Just call it a spiced nut pate he suggested. For our "ice cream" he has bestowed the title "Vice Cream." V for vegan, vice for healthy indulgence (we don't really think this treat is a vice in the strict meaning of the word, don't worry.)
Alright! Done with the food shots, here is us on the Sonja after a sail, me about to jump in, David climbing the rat lines for a better view.

David enjoying sunset on a Northern California beach on our way home from the Vibrant Living Expo in Ft. Bragg (a fantastic event!)Setting up the tent to sleep by the sea.

Me visiting the redwoods.
Me swimming in a river, still feeling bon dans ma peau 3 months post Juice Feast!! Strike a pose Katrina!
Enjoying the island abundance of Blackberries, we are going to need a second freezer!
Look at the size of these babies!!

We are off again in a few days to head down to Sedona, Arizona for that fabulish gathering called Raw Spirit Fest! We hope to see you there!!

All love and blissings,

Katrina

Cafe Bliss is Here!

Cafe Bliss Grand Opening!

Proud owner, Cosmo serving up smiles with everything. Proud owner, Heather serving up smiles with everything too!
Heather and Shayou busy making juice.
Follow your bliss, and do not be afraid. Doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be. ~ Joseph Campbell
Robyn, juice making beauty!

Happy Bliss salad customers.
The chalk board menu (and my artistic contribution to Bliss.)

Sister hugs.

Being juicy and raw in Victoria, B.C. just got a whole lot easier with the opening of Cafe Bliss!

The grand opening was yesterday, and it was rockin' busy all day, with people flowing in to try Bliss salads, wheatgrass shots, freshly pressed juices, and amazing smoothies. Oh, and don't forget the chocolate truffles!

We went for lunch and had the "Baja" cracker plate (yam crackers with guacamole, fresh cut salsa, and cashew sour cream) with a Sombrio Salad (tenderized kale, B.C. kelp, arugula, cucumber, daikon radish, grated carrot, red onion, and pickled ginger tossed in orange/miso dressing and topped with marinated shitake mushrooms and cashews.) It was so good that David and I went back a second time yesterday, and had a five o'clock "Johnny" (orange, banana, lime, and wheatgrass) and a "Cacao Jedi" (almond mylk, banana, cacao, hemp hearts, maca, and dates)

Should we go again today? I think so!

It is so fantastically exciting to me to see just how switched on everyone is getting to the joy of fresh, raw foods and juices!

Thank you Heather and Cosmo and the whole Cafe Bliss team!!! We love you!! Your food is amazing!!

Disclaimer at the bottom of the Cafe Bliss' menu:
We cannot claim responsibility for the vibrant health you achieve by eating the organic, local, living foods served at Café Bliss. We are not responsible for anyone running naked, laughing with non-causal joy, barefoot in the rain.

Raw Ice Cream Support!!

Heather and her amazing, supportive of raw foods cashew vanilla ice cream with fresh berries.

Hello!

I have been enjoying my family so much this past month. It is amazing to me to remember how difficult it was to go raw, two and half years ago, when I am now surrounded by family members who are also amazing raw food chefs!

My dad has become an amazing creator of delicious crackers, the whole family makes wonderful green smoothies, David makes my favorite Brazil nut pate, my dad's girlfriend Constanze just filled the fridge with sprouted almond hummus and cacao fudge that is to die for, and my sister Heather is about to open Victoria's first all raw cafe so you can imagine the treats she is trying out on us! Even my nine year old sister Finn tells me that her future husband is going to be "very nice, and he will eat raw food."

It can be very difficult to switch to raw foods. Two years ago Constanze remembers "you were living way out in the forest (well, I was living in a house in the forest) and you would come into town and tell that you were eating only raw food, and we thought Oh sure Katrina, whatever!!!" I can remember it was very difficult for me to eat all live foods for that first year...I was not able to, in fact. I realized how important it was to surround myself with support for the shift, and so after a year of trying to go raw in a cooked world, alone, I set off for The Tree Of Life. Once I was there it was a whole different world, it was so easy to eat raw food when all I was exposed to was raw food, and all the people I spent time with understood my choices and the conversation was not dominated by the need to explain why I was eating raw food! How refreshing!!

Even after two and half years, I still suffer amnesia in the face of some situations as to why it is that I am choosing to eat live foods. Take the recent move David and I have made for example...I have had to re-commit to myself all over again that I choose the best foods possible, especially while staying with my beautiful mother who really does make amazing food, both raw and cooked! I found that re-reading bits from the books and websites that inspired me to go raw in the first place was all it took for me to feel a sense of grace around eating raw foods rather than a struggle against cooked foods. I realized again that I CHOOSE to eat raw foods not because I "can't" eat bread but because raw foods create magic for me.

If you are new to raw foods, or even if you are not, do not underestimate the power of support. In addition to friends, potlucks, and family, I use on-line support as much as possible, and now there is even more with sites like Give It To Me Raw, and all the amazing blogs and personal websites of people who are walking the same path. Go out there and get some support for yourself! We support you! You are not alone!

And if it is inspiration you need, here are some pictures of Heather's amazing cashew vanilla ice cream with strawberries and raspberries fresh from the garden:

Constanze says "yum yum!"
Ayrie says "Delicious!"
Finnerty says "mmmmm!"
Heather says "I'm so glad you like it!"David says "Wow!"
Katrina says "Thanks for the support, Heather!"

Oh, and because I promised, here is the Post Juice Feast Smoothie-Luck that we had on Wednesday! Enjoy!


Find more videos like this on The Juice Feasting Green Room

63 Pounds of.....

....STRAWBERRIES!!!!!

David and I went strawberry picking with ma Rineke yesterday morning and picked, yes, 63 pounds! What a treat! I ate so many berries while picking that they stopped tasting good to me for the rest of the day, (that is a lot of berries!) but luckily this morning I was ready and eager to add some of the red jewels to my morning green smoothie.

I also got a lovely link from Jinjee's Daily Raw Inspiration for finding a U-Pick near you, click here. (BTW if you haven't signed up for this amazing daily resource, do it! I love reading what Jinjee has to pass along every day, and often discover new and wonderful things from her lovely words and links.) Check it out! Nothing tastes better than food right from the source, still warm from the sun.

Katrina in berry heaven!
Ma Rineke in her berry picking hat.
David and Katrina with the load of berries from Stowel Lake Farm.
David and strawberries.
Ma Rineke and Katrina prepare the berries for freezing. Come December these berries are going to be very special, a taste of sunshine!

We are doing wonderfully, we hope you are too! More to come on life post-Juice Feast soon! Today we have come to stay with Ayrie, Constanze, and Finny-Foo and they are planning on doing a post-Feast video, and I'll be sure to post it here once it is up and live.

Love and blessings,

Katrina