House of Honey, or The "No Agave Here" House

Ohhh Sweet Honey! (honey at Cafe Bliss)

Something that my intuition and my body has always told me is now being confirmed by some of the very people who worked so hard to bring agave to the mainstream: agave is the worst “bandito” of all sweeteners!

I bought one bottle of agave about 4 years ago after seeing pictures on David Wolfe's site of a beautiful young woman pouring it down her throat, straight out of the bottle! I thought, wow, a sweetener that is so good for you that you can drink it like water!?

I tried it, I didn't like it at all. It tasted like corn syrup to me, and made me feel awful. So I went back to what I have always used and loved, honey. Over the years since then, I have had many opportunities to enjoy raw treats made with agave. While I do enjoy them in my mouth, everything after that point is a mess. Or should I say, I am a mess! Katrina + agave = basket-case. I feel edgy, anxious, hungry, grumpy, and all those unpleasant things that go along with blood sugar imbalance. So I do my best to avoid the stuff.

If you are still using agave in your household, please read the following articles and then go and pour it down the drain!

The Agave Blues by David Wolfe

This "Tequila" Sweetener is Far Worse than High Fructose Corn Syrup by Dr. Mercola

Agave Nectar, the High Fructose Health Food Fraud on Natural News

So, that brings me back to honey! I felt inspired to write a little ode to honey..... Honey is magical. Bees are magical. Flowers are magical. Eating honey makes me feel magical.

In Organic Farming and Beekeeping, it becomes a partnership between bee and honey farmer. The symbiosis is beautiful, and as a honey eater I feel tapped into a beautiful, life affirming circle. And, honey is LOCAL! We get our honey from Babe's Honey Farm, and it is beautiful, and it gives me a pleasant, gentle buzz.

And did you know that bees will produce up to 3 times the amount that they need to survive? In ethical beekeeping practices, both the bees and the honey eaters benefit.

I love visiting honey farms and listening to the hum of the bees. See if you can find a honey farm near you and start to visit whenever you need a little sweetness.

Honey is expensive (at least compared to conventional sugar) but in my mind this is a good thing. It just means we use less of it and are more careful of our consumption. When it comes to sweetener, a little mindfulness is a very good idea! It also means we are paying the honey farmer a living wage rather than paying pennies for sugar grown by people living in abject poverty in countries miles and miles away.

Of course there are other alternatives to sweeten you treats, and honey may not be the one for you. If you are working with blood-sugar issues such as diabetes or candida, you will want to be even more aware of your sweetener choices. The above articles do a good job at listing out other sweeties to choose from.

In closing, if you needed another reason to start buying organic, this might be it. Saving the Honey Bee Through Organic Farming.

I'd love to hear your experiences with agave, and what your household's sweetener of choice is!

Nettles!

It has been a mild winter here on the West Coast....wet, gray, fogged in day after day, but mild. And that means early nettles!

Here is some info on nettles from Susun S. Weed in her book The Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year (a book I HIGHLY recommend if you are planning on having babies) :

The common stinging Nettle, Urtica dioica, is one of the finest nourishing tonics known. It is reputed to have more chlorophyll than any other herb. The list of vitamins and minerals in this herb includes nearly every one known to be necessary for human health and growth. Vitamins A, C, D, and K, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, iron, and sulphur are particularly abundant in Nettles.

Benefits of drinking Nettle infusion before and throughout pregnancy include (Katrina's note: I feel that many of these benefits are sure to be true after the birth as well!)

~Aiding the kidneys.

~Increasing fertility in men and women.

~Nourishing mother and fetus.

~Easing leg cramps and other muscle spasms.

~Diminishing pain during and after birth. The high calcium content, which is readily assimilated, helps diminish muscle pains.

~ Increasing the richness and amount of breast milk.

~ Improves the elasticity of the veins. Good help for varicose veins.


Feeling inspired to get out to the nettle patch and do some picking!?

As with any wild food harvesting, make sure you know what you are picking before you eat it! I find a pair of garden gloves and a plastic bag works best for harvesting nettles, but a pair of rubber gloves or even a thicker plastic bag for your picking had will work too (they really do sting!) Picking the top 1-2 inches of the plants in early spring (or late winter on the West Coast this year) gives you the tenderest treat, but I found that picking and using even the tougher late summer leaves was fine.

I did loads of nettle smoothies (and nettle tea, and steamed nettles) while I was pregnant with Sophia last spring and on into the summer. My intuition is that nettles and other green smoothies were part of the reason that my iron levels stayed in good range throughout my pregnancy (I was not taking any iron supplements or eating any meat.)

My favorite nettle smoothie:

1-4 cups nettle tops (they are very strong tasting, so if you have never had raw nettles before, start small!)

2 bananas

3 cups blackberries

1 apple

2 cups water

BLEND! YUM!

I also really love steamed nettles (yes, I am using some cooked food this chilly winter!) with a little bit of coconut oil and tamari. Simply put a huge pile of nettles, stems and all, into a pot with some water on the bottom. Bring water to a boil, and then turn off, leaving the lid on the pot and letting the nettles steam for about 5-10 minutes. Remove steamed nettles from the water and add a little coconut oil and a dash of tamari. After you have eaten the nettles, you can drink the water that they were steamed in!

Nettle tea, or infusion as Susun Weed calls it, is another staple in my kitchen. Here is how Susun recommends making a water based infusion:

Use one ounce of dried leaves (two handfuls of cut-up leaves or three handfuls of whole leaves) in a quart jar. Fill the jar to the top with boiling water, put the lid on and let it steep for four hours at room temperature.

Leaves contain the potent healer chlorophyll. Long steeping extracts all the chlorophyll, as well as the vitamins, minerals, and other medicinal components of the leaves. Steeping in a closed jar keeps the water-soluble vitamins from escaping in the steam.

Having the time to harvest and dry your own nettle leaves for tea is wonderful, but if you don't, you can almost always find dried nettle in the bulk herb section of your local health food store! If not, try out our favorite bulk herb shop on-line, Mountain Rose Herbs.

There you have it, one of my favorite wild foods, the common stinging nettle.

I've never tried it in juice, but I bet some one will! Let me know what you discover with nettle juice, oh potent!

Make a Wish!

Finding some sunshine on a winter day...orange juice!

Hello Juicy Friends!

I hope that winter is finding you enjoying plenty of cozy moments!

We certainly seem to be flying through winter with a baby in the house to light our days with her smile! Sophia is now seven months old and seems to be learning something new every day. I can't believe it is February already, and that March is right around the corner which means that SPRING is right around the corner!

I am writing to let you know about a very special event that is coming up....yet another gift from Tera Warner and Shannon Leone....My diva-licious friends, creators of the Raw Mom Summit, have gathered up yet another beautiful basket of wisdom, all there waiting for you to pick it up and sit down for a cup of tea with it….please be sure to listen in starting March 8th!

http://www.wishsummit.com

From the Divas themselves:

It sees women have always come together as part of a

community to support one another in their tasks and times of

need. Now, in our electronic world, we can facilitate the

coming together of much larger groups of women and a much

more diverse range of knowledge, wisdom and support.



That's why Tera Warner and Shannon Leone have created

W.I.S.H. Women's International Summit for Health. In

celebration of Women's Day this year, they're extending a

one-time-only invitation to attent an online summit where 40

of the world's leading experts on health and wellness for

women will be coming together at the same time.



http://www.wishsummit.com



For a series of 10 days, women will be given access to a

series of recorded interviews with some incredible people. You

can catch all of the interviews for FR@E!! by registering before March 8.


http://www.wishsummit.com


Whether it’s the kids, the cellulite, the hot flashes or

steamy romances, W.I.S.H. brings women together to find

solutions and recharge their batteries.


W.I.S.H. promises to be the world's biggest empowerment

party for women and I invite and encourage you to sign up

and be a part of this extraordinary event.


http://www.wishsummit.com

I hope you will join me in listening in and share a cup of virtual tea (or orange juice!) with me while we soak up some inspiration!

With peaceful steps,

Katrina Rainoshek

Green Beauty Soup

Well, I've fallen madly in love with photography again and as part of my plan to take my skills to the next level, I have committed myself to Project 365. Yep, a photo a day for a whole year. So far I am 26 days in and have already learned so much, especially that I have more to learn than I ever imagined! I'm having a lot of fun with it.

Today's photo was the above, Green Beauty Soup, and I felt that it was worth writing about here. I can't seem to get enough of it, so simple to make, so satisfying, and so full of those leafy greens that make my world go round. Getting a pound of leafy greens (or more) per day into your body is one of our top priorities, we want you to THRIVE!! This is why David is always talking about the "Four Means to Get Your Greens," because getting in that many greens can seem daunting until you realize that you can:

1. JUICE your greens. We all know about green juice.

2. Eat your greens in a beautiful, colorful SALAD. We all know about salad.

3. Blend your greens into a green SMOOTHIE. We all know about green smoothies.

4. Blend your greens into a green SOUP. We all know about green soups.

(If you don't yet know all about these things, Google around and find some recipes to play with. There are so many people blogging about raw food and raw recipes now, and you will be in good company. Learn how to make versions of these things that knock off your socks so that you will be inspired to make more and prosper! You can also check out my favorite raw food books here.)

Yep, simple as that. If you do at least three out of those four, JUICE, SALAD, SMOOTHIE, or SOUP, you'll be getting in close to a pound and probably more of leafy green goodness.

The Four Means to Get Your Greens can be added to any diet, any time, for a wonderful boost to health and vitality. So, if you just finished a cheese burger from Burger King, try starting with a green smoothie every day, and work your way up to having a green smoothie, green juice, cheese burger, and then a green soup :).....I'll be honest, I don't usually do three, but almost every day I have at least two of the four and get in close to a pound of greens because I make my morning smoothies so heavy on the greens, and my soup, salad, or juice so loaded with leafies.

Here is today's version of Green Beauty Soup:

Start with guacamole. Mash two ripe avocados with the juice of one lemon, a generous dash of Celtic Sea Salt, a generous dash of dill, and 4-8 cloves of crushed garlic.

Then, blend in your high-speed blender the following: 1/2 pound spinach. 1/2 pound mixed baby greens. 1 handful of cashews. 1 TBS hemp oil. 1 small head of broccoli. 1-2 cups water. Blend on high until nice and creamy.

Next, pour your blended greens over your bright green guacamole and mix the two together. Add more salt and dill if needed. Garnish with big red pepper pieces to crunch on the side, and sprinkle with hemp hearts and cashews.

Serves two lucky darlings.

I made this as a good-bye lunch for my mom who headed off on the 3 o'clock ferry today, on her way down to California to be with her husband who is working there for the winter. I wasn't crazy about the broccoli, but it was still delicious. Sophia enjoyed sucking on a piece of red pepper while we enjoyed the soup.

YUM!!

In other news, the January Juice Feast sold out (!), and is currently flowing along beautifully with an amazing group of folks. The next group Juice Feast lead by David Rainoshek will be during the Third Annual Global Juice Feast...more information to come on that soon!

Love and leafy greens, Katrina.

Raw Food World TV Show

We had a fun chat with the hosts of the Raw Food World TV Show the other day, Mat Monarch and Angela Stokes-Monarch....here it is!

Part One: Attuned Awareness after birth, episode #348 Today we had the pleasure in interviewing David Rainoshek. David discusses how they juicefeasted before conception and how more attuned awareness is experienced after birthing a new child.



Part Two: More on Juicefeasting w/David Rainoshek, Episode #349 Today we've got the second part of this Q & A discussion with the Rainoshek's. We go deeper into discussing Juice Feasting... Enjoy...

Membership!

Well, in beautiful HARMONY, we have had SEVEN lovely people leave their favorite juice recipes on our doorstep, and in return, we have SEVEN 30 Day Memberships to send their way! If you were one of those seven people who left a favorite juice, please send me an email at: katrinarainoshek@gmail.com that includes your first and last name and email address and I will set you up with a membership!

Here are the seven favorite juices, yum yum!

1. Cucumber/ Celery/ Cilantro/ Burdock Root/ Parsley/ Dandelion Greens/ Ginger/Lemon or Lime/ Red Bell Pepper/ Apple or Pear
*add cayenne after all ingredients are juiced. ~NaturallyMariam

WOW, what an amazing, full juice! Full of powerful medicine, this one will really take you places!

2. My favorite juice is what I call my "soup juice". Satisfies dinner cravings while juice feasting every time: Carrot/ cilantro/ parsley/ celery/ green onions/ spinach
Tastes like a soup broth of carrots, celery and onions..
My 16 month old, Mara, loooves my juices, too!! ~Jamie

So glad to hear that lucky little Mara is getting beautiful green juice! I loved "soup juices" too while Juice Feasting, and made a similar one to this but with tomato and basil added too! So good!

3. My favorite juice is really quite simple but oh so satisfying:1 head of greens/ celery/ apples/ carrots/ lemon ~Michelle

This is one of my favorite combos too, clear, clean, light, hydrating, and nutritious! I also like adding cucumber to mine too.

4. carrot/ apple/ celery/ ginger/ lemon ~Melomel

I've been adding ginger to all my juices for the winter too, a great way to stay warm from the inside out.

5. celery/ cucumber/ lacinato kale/ lime/ fennel ~Christine

I love the freshness of fennel and lime!

6. My favorite juice is made of celery/ cucumber/ kale/ apple/ lemon. Sometimes I add some ginger. ~ Lisa

Pure goodness. My sister has a juice just like this at Cafe Bliss called Pure Green. I always get a quart of it when I am there!

7. An old, simple, favorite is one we call Sunshine Rising: 10 Carrots/ 4 Apples/ 1-2" Ginger ~Rees

That sounds delish! We need some Sunshine Rising in these winter days of North! I love it that these ingredients can be found locally at this time of year here, we've been drinking lots of carrot/apple/ginger juice in this house!

Thank you all for your beautiful juice masterpieces! I look forward to having you on www.JuiceFeasting.com and hearing more about your juicy adventures....

Sophia and I making an evening juice: baby bok choy/ cucumber/ celery/ apple/ lemon, and ginger.

With blessings and love, Katrina

Happy Juicey New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR DEAR FRIENDS!!

Greetings from a wet, rainy, and winter-y west-coast island where post-Christmas finds us cozy, happy, well-fed, well-loved, and peaceful.

Our days were light on the gifts, but rich in time with family, good food, walks through the trees, and laughter.

We pulled a Christmas time favorite off the shelves after I experienced some last minute guilt and panic on December 24th about not having done any Christmas shopping! Bill McKibben's Hundred Dollar Holiday: The Case for a More Joyful Christmas is much loved by my family, and this year allowed me to fully reconnect with what is most important after I got swept away by a moment of Christmas flap.

In addition to an invitation to re-think your Christmas traditions, Hundred Dollar Holiday contains a succinct history of how it is that we came to celebrate Christmas the way we do (with a fat man in red coming down the chimney, the feasting, the tree, the gifts, etc.) The history of Christmas may surprise you, and if you already feel that it is over-commercialized, your feelings will be validated when you learn that Christmas was in part "the thin edge of the wedge by which many Americans became enmeshed in the more self-indulgent aspects of consumer spending...a crucial means of legitimizing the penetration of consumerist behavior into American society."

What we really want and need in Christmas is quite simple:

Peace, stillness, and quiet. Time with LOVED ones. An invitation to be outdoors. Community. Relationship with the Divine. Non-consumer activities with children (and adults). An outlet for human creativity in LOVE!!

If this sounds about right to you, do check out this little gem of a book, you'll love it!

As I write, we are drawing to the close of 2009. It has been a quiet evening for me. David is away in California at an event, and Sophia, myself, my mom, and my Oma celebrated the end of 2009 with four generations of women. Delight was on all of our faces as we loved and appreciated the generations before and after us! Needless to say, I was the only one left awake at midnight!

I am so excited and up-lifted about the year to come, may it be a beautiful continuation for all of us! It is coming in on a flood of JUICE in our world, as it seems that everyone is inviting in the new with a clearing of the old, cleansing with that nectar of the gods, fresh fruit and vegetable juice! Here are just a few of the juicy happenings to bring in the New Year....

~Matt Monarch and Angela Stokes-Monarch are currently Juice Feasting at the Tree of Life on all GREEN JUICES!! What a fantastic place to get juicy (Patagonia, AZ is where David and I Juice Feasted in 2008!)

David and I are going to be joining Matt and Angela via Skype on January 7th for an installment of the Raw Food World TV Show all about Juice Feasting, and answering your Juice Feasting questions! If you have a question you would like to send Angela to be asked on the 7th, please email her by January 6th at angela@rawreform.com. We always have fun with these two so do be sure to tune in and send in your questions!

~Shazzie is inspiring as many people as she can to join her on a 10 Day Juice Cleanse We were very excited to see that she Juice Feasted beautifully for 28.5 Days this past summer. "Juice feasting gives you great clarity and single-mindedness. I asked and I received, very quickly indeed." ~Shazzie

~ Sproutman (Steve Meyerowitz) is leading a 7-10 day Juice Feast for the New Year. As Steve says, "You clean your car; you clean your yard; you clean your house. Now it’s time to clean your inner house! Give your liver a break and your immune system a boost."

~And of course, David Rainoshek is leading a January Juice Feast, beginning on January 15th! There is still time to sign up for this and I can promise it will be an amazing way to bring in 2010, so be sure to check out the details and see if it calls to you!

Testimonial from one of our Autumn Juice Feasters:

Dear David
Thank you for one of the best experiences I have had to date in juicing (and I have done a great deal!) One of the reasons I decided to invest in your 1 month coached cleanse was because I wasn't sure if I could actually do 30 whole days!!. I found the daily check in calls with you held me accountable and enthusiastic and as a side benefit to weight and toxicity loss I was able to look deeper into my emotional attachments to food with the tools you discussed during the weekly group call ins. It was an truly enjoyable and effortless experience thanks to your expertise and lightheartedness.
Wishing you all the best to you and your new cleansers!

September Death
Founder/Head Chef
www.redcarpetcleanses.com

Oh so juicy! I'm sure that I haven't included NEARLY everyone who plans on getting juicy this season, so if are and would like to be included in this blog post with a link to your blog/website, let me know and I will up-date!

AND!! If a 30 Day Juice Feast sounds a little more involved than you are ready for just yet, don't forget to check out the 2010 Winter Liver/Gallbladder Flush LIVE with David Rainoshek, Elaina Love, and Chris Whitcoe. This interactive cleanse will start on January 10 and run through till January 17!

AND!! Last but not least, in THANKS and GRATITUDE to our on-line community for sharing in such a beautiful year in 2009, we would love to offer 7 memberships to www.JuiceFeasting.com! If you feel it is your time to get juicy and would love a little help along the way, please let me know by posting a comment and sharing your favorite juice recipe. If you have never made a juice in your life, just let me know what your favorite drink is (even if it is beer!) I will be randomly choosing 7 people for 30 Day Memberships, and announcing the winners on January 12!

I look forward to sharing many beautiful adventures, growth, splendor, and much love with each and every one of you in the coming year, be it in person or via blog-land!

Many blessings and oh so much JUICE for a healthy, happy, and inspirational YEAR IN 2010!

xoxoxoxox

Katrina (with David sending his love from California, and Sophia sending hers from dream land, sleeping on her Mommy's tummy in the Ergo!)