When the postman rang the doorbell this morning, I was surprised. I wasn’t expecting a parcel. I ran downstairs and opened the door and the postman handed me a small package, just too big to go through the letter box. I saw the packaging and realised what it was… my temptress! I ran back upstairs and opened the box, and in amongst all those corn chips, there it was:

It was the new raw chocolate bar from Shazzie. I quickly unwrapped it, broke off a square and put it in my mouth. Mmm… this is good chocolate. I know many of you will love this chocolate, but for me, I’m going to have to say that it could do with being a bit sweeter. I think Shazzie is doing some more flavours so I hope at least one of them is for us sweet toothed people! But don’t take my word for it, Shazzie has given us 5 bars to give away next Issue of Funky Raw, but for those of you who can’t wait until September, you can buy it from Shazzie’s online shop.

I’ve talked briefly before about omega 3s and Flax Oil. The basic story is that we need omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids for many bodily functions, especially for our brain, and they are “essential” meaning that our bodies cannot synthesise them. The problem is that we need the 3s and 6s to balance and most of our diets are loaded towards the 6s. Most nuts are seeds contain a lot more 6 than 3, apart from hemp which is approximately equal and flax, which has approx 3 times more omega 3 than 6.

So, to keep the balance, flax oil is a good choice. I use flax oil in salad dressings with avocado, hemp leaf powder, chili, you know the kind of thing. The reason for this post is that I have found a new brand of flax oil from Stone Mills which seems to be the freshest and highest quality organic oil available, and it’s a bit cheaper than Veridian, the best brand available in the shops. After trying oil from Stone Mills I decided to start selling it through Funky Raw. So here it is, only £8.50 for 300ml including postage and packing – Organic Cold Pressed Flax Oil.

I find it interesting how my diet changes over time, sometimes I eat mushrooms regularly then in a different period of my life, I’ll not eat them for months.

Well, the same thing happened with sprouts.  I stopped eating them because they seemed to give me indigestion.  I’m sure a lot of them still do, especially chick-peas, but recently I’ve started eating fenugreek sprouts and sunflower sprouts.  They’re both easy to sprout, I soak them over night and then rinse two to three times a day.  After only a couple of days they’re ready to eat.

I’ve also been experimenting with hemp seeds. I’ve been planting them in soil in pots on my windowsill and letting them grow for about a week and then eating the whole plant, much the same as you can do with sunflower seeds.  The seeds are good for us, the leaves are good for us so I’m assuming that grown in this way they are also good for us!

I’m so excited! The new issue of Funky Raw is out (download PDF) and it’s got a full colour cover!!! I’ve wanted the magazine to have a colour cover since the beginning but it’s not been possible until now. I know it doesn’t change too much for the readers but it’s more about peoples perception of it. If people see it in a shop they are more likely to pick it up. Maybe more shops will be interested in selling it… if any of you know of any shops who might want to sell it, let me know.

The Food of Life festival was amazing. I met lots of people for the first time, people I’ve been in contact with by phone and email, including Shazzie and Karen Knowler.

I still don’t know how many people came but I was told it was over 700, which is great for a first time event.

We made a free A5 flyer called “Why eat raw food?” to give out at the festival and it went down really well. It covered the reasons for going raw, nutritional requirements (taken from the Funky Raw website) and a couple of recipes.

Hey Everyone, I’m back. I moved to London a month ago and had two weeks without internet access, which for the me was difficult and it meant that I got behind with my work. Anyway, everything is back to “normal” now and I will be posting regularly (well, as regularly as it gets for me.) Although at the moment, I don’t have a blender or food processor, just my trusty hand mincer, so maybe my recipes won’t be as exciting for a while!

If you live in the South-East, you should come to Brighton this Sunday for the Food of Life festival. It’s at the Old Market in Hove, costs only 2 quid to get in and there are 9 speakers including Holly talking about Raw Food and Consciousness and Shazzie talking about Raw Kids. I’ll be there with a Funky Raw stall where you’ll be able to come and get copies of the magazine and our superfoods.