3-27-10

IS THAT A BANANA IN YOUR POCKET
OR ARE YOU JUST HAPPY TO SEE ME?

THAT TUB IS LOOKING HOT

LUNCH: AVOCADO/SHIITAKI/ARUGULA/CARROT SUSHI,
SALAD, AND SUNFLOWER SEED HUMMUS


What's worse: Aaron has lost over 10 pounds in the last 3 days or that we were both criminals today? We're not sure.

The raw vegan diet is like vegetarianism; it works for some and not for others. Not surprisingly, it's working well for Jen but today Aaron hit the wall. And there is nothing wrong with that. Since arriving three days ago, we have abided by strict rules of raw veganism, minus consuming a very small amount of honey, which is not vegan since it's made by bees. Being a raw vegan in our own home might be different as we would purchase many varieties of fruits, veggies, and nuts and have lots of each. Here, four of us are eating well, however there is a small amount of everything. We don't want to be jerks and eat more than our share, but as mentioned above, Aaron arrived weighing in at over 170 and now weighs less than 160. Jen is having no such "problems". Working hard, we are hungry and eating very small portions. Part of this trip is to learn how other people in our country eat, and how that varies from what we're used to. Both of us could be vegans. Subsisting off a diet of mostly vegetables, fruits, and grains is already how we eat, however we do enjoy adding cheese and butter. We don't drink milk, we don't eat much yogurt, and we don't eat many eggs, so our level of vegetarianism is pretty close to veganism. Being a completely raw vegan, however, is quite another thing.

In a raw diet, you can't cook rice, pasta, bread, beans, quinoa, or anything. In a raw diet, a dehydrator is often used to "cook" foods, that our stomachs are physically unable to digest raw. Dehydrating a potato, for example, is the only way to make it edible since you cannot consume a raw, uncooked potato. If you dehydrate a potato, it doesn't cook above 100 degrees so it it still technically raw and essential nutrients aren't stripped in the cooking process, but it changes enough for us to be able to consume and digest. Being in Arizona is almost like having a natural dehydrator outside. In the summer, you could dehydrate foods by simply putting them outside, but right now it's too cold and won't work. A dehydrator takes an average of 10 hours running at 100 degrees Fahrenheit to "cook" anything. There is a dehydrator here, but we were very kindly asked not to use it because of the energy it requires. Without a dehydrator, the types of raw foods you can eat are very limited. You can eat salads, or soaked and blended foods. You can't eat a raw bean but if it is soaked long enough and then blended, it is edible. As a result we're eating a lot of soft, pate-like dishes and it is starting to feel like we're eating only salad and baby food. Please don't misunderstand, this food is quite tasty, but we require variety of flavor and texture. Aaron couldn't take it any longer and ate an entire box of crackers stashed in the car. Jen is pretty ok with this diet, however needs a wider variety of ingredients and access to a dehydrator to make this work.

Food aside, it was a bit exhilarating to be criminals today. One of our jobs while we're here is to lay stones around the pool and cement them in. There were 14 80-pound bags of concrete already here, but unfortunately they were exposed to rain and solidified before our arrival. As a result, we had to haul them off but since the local dump charges fifty cents per pound for your garbage, this is not very cost effective solution for Happy. Instead, we loaded the bags into her pick-up truck with directions to two local gas stations equipped with dumpsters. We all know that dumping your trash in private dumpsters is illegal. Although illegal, we intended to politely ask for permission before dumping. Also, Happy's stick-shift truck is currently uninsured. After numerous stall outs, and being rudely turned away from one gas station we successfully unloaded a large wooden table, a large wooden sign, 20 ceramic tiles, a five gallon plastic bucket with solidified cement, and 10 of the 14 bags of cement at the second location. On the way back we almost stalled out on a round about. Jen can't drive stick shift at all, and we learned today that Aaron barely can. Another farm staple lesson reinforced: always expect the unexpected.