Fruit  - including tropical fruit such as mangoes, figs (particularly good for brain chemistry), papayas and bananas; berries and other fruit.  We enjoy melons, apricots, apples and pears, cherries, kakis, grapes, currants, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, avocados, tomatoes, cucumber etc. 

Nuts and Seeds - fruit is not dense enough to supply all our nutritional needs in our current state. Nuts and seeds give us dense nutrition.  They should be soaked for a few hours before use to break down their growth inhibitors which interfere in digestion and assimilation of nutrients.  We include a wide variety - hemp is our staple, we also eat sunflower seeds,  pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, hazels (filberts), walnuts, almonds, coconut, Siberian cedar nuts, macadamias, brazils and pecans.

Greens - needed for minerals, chlorophyll and protein and various co-factors, they also alkalise the body in a way that is essential to counteract the acid-forming properties of most nuts and seeds and some other foods.  Dark greens are the most nutritious. In late winter and spring we drink wild green juice nearly everyday and eat wild greens with our salad.  For the rest of the year we grow some of our own salad greens and purchase mixed greens.  I nearly always have some sprouts on the go - alkfalfa, brocooli, radish, quinoa…. Green superfoods are also helpful.

Oils - we get fatty acids from nuts and seeds but to keep the correct balance between omega 3 and omega 6 essential fatty acids flaxseed (linseed) oil is very helpful.  This oil is very unstable and needs to be kept sealed and cool.  I think the higher quality oils are also the ones that taste best.   My favourite brand is Stone Mills which, to my surprise after previous experiences of lower quality flax oil, is delicious and we have delighted in pouring it all over our chocolate pudding and eating it with teaspoons of bee pollen. Flax oil has to be converted inside us to DHA which the brain needs.  Coconut oil helps this process. 

Animal Products - we have found these, in small quantities to be one of the keys to being completely raw.  We use raw goats milk, goats’ butter, sheep or goats’ yoghurt, kefir, unpasteurised cheese and raw (carefully selected organic, free-range) egg yolks.  They could be seen as a substitute for the large amount of insect matter we would consume if we gathered our food in the wild.  They are a vital souce of vitamins D and A, fat soluble vitamins which are diificult to obtain in sufficient quanities and in an assimilable form from elsewhere.  B12 needs also to come from animal sources - plant sourced B12 is not the form humans need and can even get in the way of proper B12 absorption.  I suspect there are also subtle factors in animal products that we do not fully understand yet.   We have found ethical sources of these products.  See Raw Dairy Suppliers.  I personally eat raw, smoked or pickled fish sometimes.  I have not come to an ideal answer about the best way to consume it but I feel like I need it from time to time.

Superfoods and Supplements - due to poor quality of soil (including organic because of long term soil erosion), fruit being picked unripe, storage and the fact that the human gut is probably not working at its best, we need all the help we can get.  This is the case whether eating cooked or raw food.  I and the children take minerals, vitamins and MSM. I sometimes take aloe vera juice too. We also eat goji berries, raw cacao, maca, bee pollen, green superfoods, purple corn, camucamu, seaweed and other superfoods. 

Water - of course- our main constituent - it is well known now that we should drink plenty of good water - spring or filtered.  we collect water from a local spring but bottled spring water is  a reasonable alternative.

In practical terms the menu for us typically works out something like this at the moment:

On waking: a pint of spring water.

Then rooibosch tea with raw goats milk.  When I am working (most days) I brew a tea with vanilla rooibosch, rhodiola, gingko and he shou wu.

Early Breakfast: melon or other fruit. 

Late Breakfast: chocolate pudding topped with kefir, fruit such as mango or berries and flax oil

 

Lunch: green juice, usually nettles and celery in spring. Sometimes a raw green soup (blended salad or smoothie) out of wild garlic leaves (in spring), watercress or other greens, and, for example, tomato, carrot, avocado, miso, celery and filtered water  as well.

Later Afternoon: big mixed salad with lots of greens, and including grated root vegetables and avocado or a rich dressing such as coconut and tomato or almond and olive.  I and the children also like miso (unpasteurised).  A slice of unpasteurised cheese with it .

At some point: an extra treat made of fruit, dried fruit, nuts,seeds, superfoods etc.  Extra special additional treat for the children (and me!) is spoonfuls of bee pollen mixed with flax oil, a fresh date with goats butter inside it or a fig with raw cheese in the middle.  Also raw chocolate made with cacao butter, lucuma, cacao seed powder, vanilla, rosehip, he shou wu, purple corn, crystal manna.

 

Through the day I enjoy snacks of fruit and superfoods,and drinks of water, rooibosch tea.

 

 updated July 2008

photos from over the last six years