Related articles:

• Daniel Vitalis talks about why he is no longer vegan
• Frequently Asked Questions

So on Friday night, we went to Nice ‘n’ Easy Bio Cafe, 60 Omirou Street, an organic restaurant which has 3 specifically raw items on the menu. They also have a range of salads which are almost raw. From the raw menu, I ordered a mock tuna dish, which was ok but fairly bland. I also got a green salad which came with goats cheese (not sure if from raw milk but I ate it, was delicious) and sun dried tomatoes, with a wine based dressing (probably not raw), this was really good. We tried to order the raw dessert, but they didn’t have any left – that’s the problem with places where raw food is only a small part of their menu. The website is only in Greek, but the menu was in English and the staff spoke English.

We had more success in the organic shop at 30 Nikis Street (not far from Syntagma metro), I think it is called Emporio Trofimon, but easy to spot next to a vegetarian café called Avocado with a colourful avocado painted on the wall. As well as the usual organic fruit and veg, there was a wide range of raw foods: raw chocolate bars (we got a couple of coconut Om bars), Biscru crackers, raw snack bars and a wide range of superfoods including lucuma, camu camu, acai, raw chocolate ingredients and more. Probably a better range than in most organic shops in the UK!

And now, what you’ve all been waiting for, the obligatory photos of the Acropolis:

Related articles:

• Eating out raw in London
• Pure Flavour – New Raw Chocolate Bars
• When is a raw food bar not a raw food bar?

This recipe is so simple but I love it. There are only 3 ingredients, butternut squash (also works with other types of squash or pumpkin), salt and water. I’ve tried adding various flavourings and seasonings but I always go back to this simple recipe as it tastes the best.

I’ve talked about fermented foods before on this blog, they are wonderful for digestion, assimilation and detoxing and I eat several different fermented foods every day.

Start by cutting your squash into pieces suitable for grating, and then grate using a file grater:

Pack the grated squash into a jar, a kilner jar works well. Don’t fill the jar right to the top, make sure you leave some space as it can bubble up during the fermentation.

Next, add salt water so that all the squash is covered by water. The ratio of salt is approx 1 teaspoon of salt per litre of grated squash – so for example the jar I used was 1.7 litres, so I used just over 1 and a half teaspoons of salt. The amount of water you will need will depend on how much water is naturally in the squash. So mix the salt into a small amount of water and pour in, then add more water if necessary.

Finally, place something on top of the squash to keep it all under the water. I use a stone, cleaned thoroughly first of course. Check every day to make sure that the squash is still under the water.

Store at room temperature during the fermentation process. It usually takes 3 to 4 days to ferment, although it will take longer in colder climates. You can taste after 3 days and see what is happening. Once it is fermented to your liking, you can store in the fridge to stop it fermenting more.

What is your favourite fermented food? Please leave your comments below.

Related articles:

• Recipe: Quick and Easy Fermented Courgettes
• Fermented Broccoli and Carrot with Leek
• Wild Fermentation by Sandor Elix Katz – Book Review

Click on any photo to enlarge.

Croatia has over 1000 islands, this is a little island called Lošinj, just below Cres island. It was really beautiful here.	I was very supprised when I found that Pula has a Roman Amphitheatre, in amazing condition. Plus other Roman buildings.
	Near Pula is a wild peninsular called Rt Kamenjak. Wild and beautiful.	Pazin is an interesting little village, but the best bit is in the ravine, really beautiful but so cold as not much sunlight.
Pazin ravine.	More coastlines on Krk Island
Plitcitce National Park was one of the most beautiful places I have been. A completely unique landscape with lakes and waterfalls, made even more beautiful due to the November frost.
More in Plitvitce.
And more Plitvitce.	Waterfalls in Krka National Park.
Forest in Krka National Park		We got a ferry from Makarska to Brac island.
An amazing beach which sticks out into the ocean, called Zlatni Rat (Golden Beach) on Brac island.	Korcula town on Korcula island, a short ferry trip from Brac island.	Dubrovnik is amazing, the old city is surrounded by the castle like walls.
Another view of Dubrovnik	We went for a great walk along the coast from Dubrovnik.	The sunsets in Croatia were almost always beautiful, the colours this night are amazing.

Related articles:

• Photos from our travels: Part 5 – Basque Country and Pyrenees
• Photos from our travels: Part 3 – Mediterranean France
• Photos from our travels: Part 2 – Italy

When I lived in London, I found one in someone’s garden near Epping Forest and found a few ripe fruits on the ground on the street. They were delicious, with a flavour and texture like apricot jam. I always wanted to find another tree to eat more.

A few days ago we found a few Strawberry Trees on the island of Cres (Croatia), most of the fruit wasn’t ripe although we found a few good ones. Then yesterday we saw loads of trees with ripe fruit along the side of the road so we found somewhere to park and found some trees away from the road with loads of ripe fruits. I ate loads, when ripe they are so delicious. Ripe ones are generally dark red and very squashy, generally we found the best ones were on the ground under the trees.

But a little while later I started feeling ill. Thankfully not too bad, just a bit of nausea, but it did go on for a good few hours. We got the ferry back to the mainland and I felt really bad during the journey, thankfully it was only a 20 minute crossing.

So I did some more research, and some people say the when the fruits are over-ripe they start to form alcohol and you can get drunk from them. I didn’t feel like I was drunk though. Interestingly Jolita was fine, although she probably didn’t eat as many as me.

So if you do find a Strawberry Tree, go easy on them!

Related articles:

• Travelling in our van
• Wild fruit: Rose hips and Hawthorn berries
• Raw and Ripe Olives

I love cheesecake, and it is actually very easy to make raw cheesecake, assuming you can get some good raw cheese to start with. We got some soft plain curd cheese, it needs to be fairly plain to make into cheesecake.

I didn’t measure the ingredients, but I think this is a recipe where it is hard to go wrong.

Base
brazil nuts
apricots
a few cacao beans (optional)
1 tsp vanilla powder
grated lemon rind

Topping
cheese
lucuma
honey
grated lemon rind

For the base, you want an approximately equal amount of nuts and dried fruit, you can use various combinations of fruits and nuts. I soaked the apricots for a couple of hours so they would process easier, but you don’t want them too wet otherwise the base will be soggy. Put all the ingredients in a food processor until it forms a sticky ball. If you need more liquid you can either add a little lemon juice or water. As you may know, I don’t generally eat dehydrated food as I find it hard to digest, so this base was soft and sticky, but you could probably dehydrate this is you want a more traditional cheesecake.

For the topping, just mix all the ingredients together. The more lucuma you add, the thicker the mixture will become. And of course, the more honey, the sweeter. (The cheese I used was very soft so I only needed to mix it with a spoon, with a firmer cheese you may need to blend.)

I’m sure there are many variations you can make instead of lemon.

Related articles:

• Making Cheese
• How to make a raw Cherry Cake
• Real Raw Milk Chocolate

The book is in three parts: Life, Language and Conclusion.

Part 1, Life, which is the largest section of the book, is a selection of experiences, challenges and insights during Daniel’s life while living with the Pirahá people. One of the most fascinating things about the Pirahá is that they seem to live in the present moment, much more than us westerners could even imagine possible. They have a very minimal amount of personal possessions. In general, they do not store food – they go out hunting/gathering almost every day, if they don’t, they don’t eat that day (which is ok by them, a self imposed fast).

The Pirahá people will only talk about things that they themselves have experienced, or that someone else they know who is still living has experienced. This was one of the major challenges Daniel encountered when attempting to talk about Jesus – once the Pirahá realised that Daniel had never met Jesus, and that Jesus died a long long time ago, they weren’t interested!

The second part, Language, goes into much more detail about the Pirahá language. I found the first half of this interesting and easy to read, although the second half started getting much more technical and possibly only interesting to linguists. But even if you skip part of this section, it doesn’t detract from the rest of the book, and it is only a small part of the whole book.

The conclusion contains the information that convinced me to read this book in the first place – after living with the Pirahá people for many years, Daniel didn’t manage to convert a single Pirahá, and in the end Daniel stopped believing himself. To ‘save’ someone by converting them to Christianity, they would need something to be saves from, and Daniel found that the Pirahá were the happiest people he ever met, and didn’t need saving!

I highly recommend this book, there is so much to be learnt from the Pirahá people.

Related articles:

• Wild Fermentation by Sandor Elix Katz – Book Review
• Book Review: Raw Food for Real People
• The Encounter book review

For anyone strictly raw, this product does contain Sweet Freedom which is a natural fruit based sweetener that isn’t raw, but the other 95% of the ingredients are raw.

It’s just won the Taste of the West Gold award, so another vote for how good it tastes.

For more information and to order, see the Elements for Life website.

Related articles:

• Review of Raw Food Controversies by Frederic Patenaude
• Juice in a Bar review
• Pure Flavour – New Raw Chocolate Bars

And even better, if you live in their local area (Eastbourne area) they will deliver in glass bottles, and collect the used ones for re-use, just like in the ‘olden days’!

For more information and to place your order see www.hookandson.co.uk

Related articles:

• Raw Chocolate Ice-Cream Recipe
• Real Raw Milk Chocolate
• Coconut Butter

For this to work, you need very small courgettes. The ones in the photo are probably a bit too big, it works better with smaller ones.

The process is really simple:

1) Take a kilner jar, (or a screw top jar) and wash well with hot water. The larger the jar, the better, the jar pictured is 1.7 litres.

2) Fill jar with whole courgettes.

3) If desired you can add some flavouring, I’ve used various combinations of grated ginger, grated turmeric, crushed coriander seeds and crushed cumin seeds. It does also work well without any flavouring, just experiment and see what you like.

4) Mix the brine – for each litre of your jar, use 1 teaspoon of salt, so for example for this 1.7 litre jar, use approx 1.7 teaspoons of salt. Mix with water and add to the courgettes so they are completely covered. If necessary, use something to push them under the water if they are floating to the top – a boiled and scrubbed stone works well.

And that’s it. Check every day that the courgettes are still completely submerged, and remove any scum that may form on top. Taste after 3 days. After 6 days or so (or once they are to your liking) you might want to put them in the fridge to stop them fermenting any more.

In hot weather the fermentation happens quicker, in cold weather slower. The more salt you add, the slower the fermentation, so in really hot weather adding more salt can slow the fermentation down and in cold weather less salt will speed up the fermentation.

If you can’t find small enough courgettes, you can also use larger ones and slice them. Make the slices quite thick slices, around 1cm each.

Let me know your favourite fermented recipes in the comments…

Related articles:

• How to make Fermented Butternut Squash
• Fermented Broccoli and Carrot with Leek
• Nettle Soup Recipe