stokin' the fire within

Sitting out on the deck basking in an english summers day…

we luxuriate in the fact that it’s midwinter in New Zealand and we’re relishing lunch outdoors! 

OK, the air’s nippy enough to be wearing socks and a cosy hoody, but isn’t that the ravishing bit about winter? 

And fires? 

Admittedly, the fire’s on indoors, gently keeping the hot water tank full, and at the ready to take off Jack Frosts icy touch in the morning.

Beach fires have been lit and friends gather as the sun lays its’ head behind the ranges of the national park. Children flit about burning bare bottoms with sand slides and the elders swap their weekly chatter and philosophise over Matariki, super-full moons and the footy.

What to share around a fire?

Blankets, mead, music and love. And feast on familiar hearty foods. 

Wracking my brain for a raw dish to share with fellow foodies is not on my list of priorities. Gathering beach clodder and having a fun day at the local markets, eating lunch al fresco is.

feelin' blue? go for green ...

Life’s our choice. 
It’s up to us how we feel, where we go and who we choose to share it with. 

My beloved and I have recently made huge choices to create a life that we wanted to live. 

And that meant leaving loved ones, a family home, a country, a hemisphere. 

In short, we left one life to create another.

I know without doubt that our raw food lifestyle enabled us to do this. Lifting us up instead of keeping us down, making us feel lighter, happier, clearer about stuff. 

We stopped stuffing down our emotions, let them rip forth and dealt with the rubbish.

It wasn’t that pretty. 

Some people say that it’s OK for us, it comes easy. 

Some say we’re lucky, they don’t have that opportunity. 

I say whatever you want, you go and get it as no-one else can do it for you.

warming up to raw foods

I‘m heating my food!

The decidious trees are hitting the limelight with technicolour dream coats, snow has touched the mountain tops and although enjoying an indian summer, the hours that snuggle close to the darkness tempt us to light the fire.

I’m getting alot of folk asking, ‘How do you do it? I couldn’t eat salads all winter…my body needs cooked food.’ 

There’s a misconception about raw foods having to be cold.

 In fact, alot of our food is warm, either through gently heating or adding spice. 

When food is cooked, it’s boiled, fried, and roasted until it’s so hot, we have to wait until the meal is cool enough to stop burning the skin from the roof of our mouths! Preparing raw and gently heating, we get close to the same temperature, the bonus being we get to keep all the good stuff.

wrappin' up summer

My hearts bangin' in my chest and I'm drooIing at the mouth. I'm getting heart palpitations at all the plants yelling out to be eaten this month. 

What a gloriously gratifying month April is. 

Fruit's dripping off the trees, and our senses are hammered with the overflowing flavours of our labour. 
The dehydrator is at full whack and I am eternally thank-full for my fruit flies who know what to do with the produce that hangs out waiting to be stored for the winter months.

They guzzle it fresh. 



Feijoa juice clings to salty skin, figs tossed down whole. Pears, zuchinis, tomatoes, sapote and apples have little chance to be hangin' out together in storeage. 

Bellys rubbed, jiggled and juggled to squeeze in a wee bit more. Tanks topped up for nut foraging expeditions, my four year old's turned squirrel as she disappears into the trees and buries her treasure for another day.

diggin' deep into the belly of harvest

Carving out a pumpkin and warming our souls is gonna be our tiptoptastic craft activity this Easter. Our pumpkin patch that mysteriously gifted itself to us, cradling the compost in its vine like arms, has plenty of fruit to share. 

Highly nutritious and rich in fibre, vitamins and anti oxidants, it's gonna do more than scare the ghouls into submission.

Pumpkins gift us with many things, not only a vine that covers the mess of the ever growing kitchen scraps. 

First of all, a shell to carve out the worlds greatest jack o' lanterns. 

Not just for children, I've seen many a grown up digging deep into the belly of this magnificent fruit, drifting off into the moment, as they carve their dreams into the surface of the lantern. 

Itsa piece of cake!

Easter's elongated into harvest with the school holidays falling after the main celebrations. Not sure why this has involved us, seeing as we neither celebrated in church or go to school, but it does seem that religion and state education rule the nest when it comes to holidays. 

I'm grateful for all, as it means that we're gifted holiday after holiday, reminding us that life's one big celebration. 

And in my mind, celebration equals cake. 

Not needing any other prompting, I can find a celebration cake for any day of the week... happy monday cake, happy outa work cake, happy pay day cake. And it doesn't have to be chocolate. But it always helps!

scrumpin' with the easter bunny

Celebrating Autumn with Easter festivities hurts my brain.
Easter is a Christian celebration, celebrating the rebirth of the Messiah. Oestre or Ishtar is the pagan celebration of the feminine and fertility and the coming light.

So why, down south, do we celebrate Easter in the Autumn when everything around us is decaying, the mornings and nights are magnetised to one another and we are reaching out towards our gum boots, jumpers and fires?
I'm pulled to carve out a pumpkin. Or at least to make mini chocolate mushrooms!
Who wants to celebrate life by eating an egg anyhow?