The Rawctopus's Garden

Hydro Harvest Farm

2008-10-04T09:06:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to sit down and write another blog and I apologize in advance for how long its going to be! Adding links and images takes more time than it should so I rarely get enough time to sit down and work on it. But I have 4 hours 'till work so I think I can manage. =)

The past week has been lots of fun. I attended my first Leafy Greens raw potluck Sunday night and met a lot of inspiring people. From the Buddhist minister who said a prayer before we ate to the non-raw vegetarian who we tried to convert, the restaurant was packed with diverse and curious people. I wish I had snapped a pic of the table before we dug in but there was raspberry pie, raw olives, cucumber sushi, and all types of yummy slaws and salads.

We had off again on Monday and we both had dentist appointments. I finally got my permanent crown put on my front tooth and Rob was examined for future work. Its gonna be a long year at the dentist for him. =( We cheated (again!) and had lunch at Panera, then stopped off at a hydroponic store for a looksy. When we have some more money we'd like to set up a hydroponic vertical system for growing yummy edibles. Our garden is pretty depressing right now but I think its just hungry for nutrient-rich soil. A week or 2 ago we took the kittens outside so they could explore and we got some pretty cute pics! The white fluffy one is Finley and the dilute tortie is our little Lilo. Since being on raw food they are the happiest kittens and get along so well. Finally, Fin has filled out and gained muscle mass and Lilo has lost a couple pounds after 2 years of trying to get her to slim down. So glad we made the switch!

Tuesday night was another crazy dinner at Leafy Greens. We had a smaller turnout but we prepped up until serving time and got everything out perfectly. Those dinners are so much fun! Denise took a pic of (from left to right) Diane, Doug and I in our chef's coats right before dinner. I'm so fortunate and grateful to work with such a positive group of people.

I worked 9-5:30 on Thursday and 4:30-10:30 on Friday. Yesterday before work we dropped my car off at Whole Foods and drove over to the Hydro Harvest Farm in Ruskin. It was a pleasant drive and a beautiful day out so we were delighted to have the opportunity to walk around this farm and experience the beauty of nature. Rob grabbed the camera and took lots of great pics of all the herbs and veggies we saw. We bought 4 pint boxes full of herbs for only $2.50/each, a decent size pumpkin (for pumpkin curry), green onions that we picked ourselves and some other fruits and veggies they were selling in their fresh market. We didn't have cash with us so the owner generously told us to just send him a check! What a wonderful and trusting human being! They also have a pumpkin patch for kids today plus a Halloween event and Easter egg hunts in the future. If you're ever in Ruskin please check out this wonderful farm!

Afterward, we drove back to Whole Foods, ate lunch before Rob clocked in, and then I drove home to drop all our goodies off. Before work I drove down to the butcher's to pick up food for the puppies and kitties. I had a nice talk with Al and snapped a pic of him before I left. He's off of Drew St and Keene Rd and has always treated us with generosity and compassion. He also has a weekly e-newsletter with his current sales that is really helpful.

We had a knock on the door this morning while we were still in bed. My bindis arrived early from India. So exciting! These works of art cost next to nothing and are handmade by women in India. Please visit bindishop.com for a look at other wonderful pieces.

Rob and I had one of our late night talks last night and didn't get to bed until 4am. These conversations are such a crucial part of our relationship. We're generally very truthful and comfortable with eachother but this is when we feel that we can be brutally honest and not worry about hurting eachother's feelings. We've traveled very far spiritually together and we have helped eachother in so many ways. He has helped me see the beauty in my flaws and I have helped him open up to his feelings and stop hiding behind what's comfortable. We're better people because of the other and will continue to grow together in the pursuit of a healthier relationship and a happy life.

PS One of Rob's bday presents was a well-made duct-tape wallet from thinkgeek.com. This site is full of similar goofy things and they delivered in just a few days.

PPS You can click on any underlined words to bring you to their website and you can click on any of the pics to go to my flickr photostream. Or just click here. Thanks for reading!

2008-09-27T10:36:00.000-07:00

If you love music but are sick of hearing what's already in your iTunes, Pandora Radio is an awesome site. You just type in an artist/song that you want to hear and Pandora will find similar music styles based off specific "genes." Founder Tim Westergren writes,

"Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We [...] (assembled) literally hundreds of musical attributes or "genes" into a very large Music Genome. [...] These genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song [...] from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It's not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records - it's about what each individual song sounds like."

Very cool. Right now I'm listening to artists that sound like Anoushka Shankar, daughter of the world-renowned sitar player Ravi Shankar. We'll be seeing both of them in concert October 11 at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, FL.

We both close today so we got to spend a short but lovely morning together. I made delicious green smoothies with fun superfoods:

1 banana
handful of strawberries
cup of ice
cup of fresh young coconut water
large handful of baby greens
2 pinches of cinnamon
2 tablespoons each of maca, cacao, and tahini

You'd be surprised how well all the ingredients hide the greens (we can never taste them). It was like drinking liquid chocolate halvah. Yum!

We also had yummy nori rolls with red bell pepper, scallions, cucumber and a sauce made of fresh garlic and ginger, tahini, nama shoyu, rice wine vinegar, lime juice, cayenne, coriander, curry, and cumin. I used to eat nori wraps every day for lunch (and sometimes for dinner!) but we ran out a week or 2 ago. So happy to have scrumptious chewy seaweed again! We also jogged the puppies around our community and gave them (and ourselves!) a nice workout. The weather is beautiul lately and it was nice to work up a bit of a sweat. I miss running!

Also, as some of you may know, I dedicate a LOT of my time (maybe too much) to researching the world of alternative health. I love keeping up-to-date but I absolutely hate politics. I used to find them fascinating but it just seems that corruption is everywhere. I did happen to stumble upon a video called the Future of Food which you can view below. I found it on Dr. Joseph Mercola's informative website Mercola.com. And while I disagree with his promotion of dietary supplements its nice to have an additional source of info. I guarantee you'll find something of interest.

This video discusses what has happened to the food industry in the past and what we're heading towards. Did you know that plant species can be patented? Its true, and Monsanto (leading producer of Round Up and genetically engineered seeds) owns an estimated 11,000. Scary stuff. Its our responsibility to protect ourselves from these companies and to buy organic products whenever possible. To see all the companies (just about every one in your general grocery store) that use genetically engineered ingredients please read the True Food Guide.

Well, I just wanted to pass on some important info I found this morning. Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

2008-09-26T19:46:00.001-07:00

Hm, I think I need to set up a schedule for my self so I have time to blog more often. Work has been going very well and I'm working a lot more hours than I had expected. Fortunately, it's the best job ever and I'm having lots of fun. Rob actually decided to work there part-time (as a second job) to pull in some extra cash. He was hired today and everyone seems to like him already. How could they not? =)

The local Tampa Bay Vegetarians group met for an enticing sample dinner at Leafy Greens Tuesday night. We prepared for them portions of our simple Romaine Salad, truly Hearty Lentil Soup, zesty Mediterranean Pizza, comforting Real Deal Sandwich, spectacular Zucchini Spaghetti, and decadent Banana Blast (that's a lot of adjectives!) for only $15 a head! 12 hours of work and I was still smiling as I limped barefoot to my car. And we get to do it again next Tuesday!

They gave me Wednesday off to recuperate and after Rob got home from work we had one of our always fulfilling errand-days. These have always been fun for us as we don't get much time together out of the house to do much of anything. So even simple things like running errands make great little outings. We first stopped off at the Clearwater Bait & Tackle Shop to pick up some red worms for our composting pile. I'd rather have gotten them from one of the local farms but it felt nice to give them a nutrient-rich home rather than leaving them to be dangled off a fisherman's hook.

From there we headed to Al's Meat & Deli to pick up a whopping $55 worth of meat for our 5 animals. Al, coincidentally, is from Albania and thinks its hysterical that we buy all this organic meat for our dogs. He bursted out with the typical "What do you mean you don't eat meat?!?" when he found out none of it was for us. Pretty funny. He's since gotten over this phenomena and told us to say hi to our puppies and kitties from the butcher.

Then to the Nature's Food Patch for some yummy raw superfoods. Whole Foods carries no where near the amount of raw (and local!) food that we find at this place so we go out of our way every month or so to pick up some delicious (and nutritious) treats. This time we bought lots of dried mango, sprouting seed mix, maca powder, and nori sheets. Its amazing how the good stuff adds up! But hey, my father always says, what else to spend money on if not your health?

We also stopped at John's Produce on Belcher and Nursery for some fresh goodies and were pleasantly surprised to find a huge furry green caterpillar who needed a place to munch on greenery away from cars and giant feet! So we scooped him up, named him Hank, took him home, and let him crawl into the bushes in front of our house.

So Wednesday was a bit of a crazy day! Thursday I worked 1-7 and loved every minute of it. Today I worked 9-6 and made onion bread, corn salsa, orange walnut cream, and many other raw delights. So excited to be working with Rob again (we both worked at Whole Foods together, just in different departments) and glad that this job is turning out to be everything I had hoped for. We're one step closer to our dream!

2008-09-21T09:25:00.000-07:00

Wow so the past couple days have been absolutely crazy. My first day at Leafy Greens went very well. Trying hard to learn everything as quickly as possible. Every night is getting busier after their review in the St Pete Times and it looks like I'll be working more hours than we had originally planned. Very exciting! They didn't have proper coverage for Friday night so I went in for 2 hours then left, went to 2 different stores to find collard greens and then back home to finish my food for Saturday. Unfortunately, the collard burritos took forever and I didn't finish them in time so I had to roll the rest that night after work (which was loads of fun).

We got about 4 hours sleep but had a lot of fun at the Junk in the Trunk meetup on Saturday. Not as many people came as we had planned/hoped but it was still a lot of fun. I finally got to meet Donna (the group organizer) and got to gift to her our coffeemaker. Coincidentally, hers had just recently died and she wasn't wanting to buy a new one. The Junk in the Trunk meetup was basically a free-cycling event where everyone brings "junk" they don't want anymore for other people to take. So we got rid of a lot of books and some electronics we no longer wanted/needed. And in return, we took home a pretty beaded green frame, an adorable white wooden shelf, a tall wicker vase type thing, and some other little stuff. There was also a raffle where Rob won a men's toiletry gift basket and I won one of those stretch bands. Hard to explain but its great for resistance training. We were at Freedom Lake Park for a fun 6 hours and met some great people. Jen of ACT Green will be picking up our recycling every month for a very small fee. She came by today and we filled up her bins! We had been saving recyclables since we moved for such an occasion and felt very relieved to get rid of it all. Rob said that even though the clutter had been driving him crazy he was happy we waited instead of just throwing it all out.

Yesterday, Denise (owner of Leafy Greens) called me in on my day off. I was actually excited to go in and help and made sure I let them know it was the only time I had gone into work on my day off. It was actually a very fun day and I found it quite amusing when Jessica (my bestest friend who lives too far away) let me know it was the International Day of Peace. 2 years ago yesterday we got peace sign tattoos (mine below my ankle and hers on her hip) in honor of this peaceful day.

We had originally planned to drive to the Hydro Harvest Farm in Ruskin today but instead met up with our wonderful friend, Christopher Lovett and his new english bulldog, Daisy Mae, at the West Park Dog Park in Tampa. It was our puppies' first dog park experience and they all had a lot of fun. Russ (our aussie/collie) spent the whole time running around trying to make friends and Sasha (dobie/kelpie) politely said hi to everyone while Lucky (lab/chow) stayed right by our side the whole time. Poor little Daisy had just come back from the vet so she wasn't up for much of a meet and greet. The 3 of us humans hung out and munched on chips (not the raw kind) and salsa (leftover from Saturday's Junk in the Trunk) and fruit salad. Yum!

We were supposed to do laundry and some grocery shopping today but instead had to operate on our poor little piglet (Lucky) who sadly had an abscessed anal gland. He's now munching on a bone and feeling much better! Below is a video I found on Annet van Dorsser's Raw Food Success Blog of the fabulous Scott Kaleichstein at the Raw Spirit Fest in Sedona. Its absolutely fun-hearted and makes me wish even more so than before that we had been able to make it! Maybe next year!

Leafy Greens Cafe

2008-09-17T18:07:00.000-07:00

It seems like its been months since I quit my job at the animal hospital and everyday just kind of blurs together. Hours spent online researching marketing and advertising, trying to get this Ameriplan thing up and rolling. Everyone's out there trying to promote the next get-rich-quick-scheme and its all very exhausting. I did purchase www.therawctopusgarden.com with the help of blog i360 so hopefully that will be up and running in the next week or so. I'm very anxious/excited about Ameriplan because I'd really like to find a way to do good (and cheap) online advertising but if its not making me anything then unfortunately I won't be able to stick with it.

I've actually just finished a conference call with the ever-excited (and always exciting) Kevin Gianni and Mike Anderson (author and health documentary film maker) where they discussed his book The RAVE Diet & Lifestyle and his movies Healing Cancer from Inside Out and Eating. I believe this recorded call can be found here for the next 24 hours or so. (Kevin runs several amazing sites that bring great health news to the public.) Its definitely worth listening to if you have any doubts about our current medical system. And if you don't, well then its even more important for you to open your eyes and question a system that relies on fallacy, keeping Americans sick, and pharmaceutical company payouts.

On a lighter note, I met up with the wonderful Denise Becknell (and all her rawesome employees) of Leafy Greens Cafe in Reddington Beach today. We have a lot of similar interests and I got to try lots of yummy food. Their raw carrot cake was absolutely phenomenol, as was the raw apple pie cookies, the raw walnut burger, and all the delicious sauces and dips she forced me to try ;). We also fed this little egret (who the locals have named Chuck) some raw white fish by hand (too cute) and talked a bit about our love of Indian culture and how going raw has changed our lives. She showed me her wonderful herb garden (I wish my basil looked like bushes!) and let me try some chocolate mint! yum. I'll be working as a prep chef/server there and I'm really excited to see how a raw food cafe operates. This will be an amazing opportunity for me to learn the business and network with the driven people of the alternative health world.

After spending 2 hours there chatting, I walked across the street to the beach and wanted to cry the second I stepped into the water. We haven't been to the beach at all since we've moved and I didn't realize how much I'd missed it. Our apartment in Indialantic was a 5 minute walk to the beach and even though we didn't go every day as we had originally planned it was still nice to walk over there early in the morning to feed the seagulls or late at night so the dogs could run through the water. Seeing the ocean this afternoon was so moving and yet so comforting. I wanted to dive into the water and play with the pelicans. Instead, I picked out a perfect shell-encrusted rock (its our little beach tradition), said good-bye to the sea, and walked back to my car. I think many lunch breaks will end with me brushing the sand off my toes.

2008-09-15T17:57:00.001-07:00

Today was a lovely day of too much pizza (not sure why we keep falling off the wagon) and good movies. I worked a lot on Ameriplan, getting ads out everywhere and trying to get some people in. I really want to mostly advertise online because its so easy to get hits. We had lots of yummy fruit today and yummy green smoothies.

On another note, if you didn't read Angela Stokes moving blog last night, click here to read her thoughts. Steve Pavlina and Angela Stokes were the first 2 people I knew about in my raw food beginning for a good couple months. Seeing her transformation, and jealous to feel that sense of serenity and purity, I was motivated and clear-thinking in my quest for optimal nutrition. We've really wanted to start a juice feast because we've been eating so horribly lately. We've been eating more and more cooked food and I'm sure its all stress related but we're worried we've wandered too far off the path. Maybe writing up a schedule or to-do list will help me manage my time better and help to relieve some pressure.

Rob (my better half) brought home a very yummy Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé that tastes like adult strawberry juice. Would've been really good with chocolate-dipped strawberries. You can get the 2007 here. Although it seems to have different notes than the 2006, I'm sure its equally impressive.

Kaboodle has been one of my favorite sites since I discovered StumbleUpon. I've always been a list hoarder, making lists about anything and everything. This site soothes the ever-pressing desire to remember EVERYTHING! The Gadgets & Gizmos list has this super cool DIY Pinhole Camera Kit I bought for my sister.

I've also been totally in love with etsy.com right now. Yellena's store is filled with these mesmerizing drawings and paintings that fully embody my wonderland.

This piece "Breeze" is a combination of feathers and the ocean and it inspires me to be colorful and peaceful. She brings to life such a retro, effortless style and I hope to one day hire her to paint the inside of the Rawctopus's Garden, or at least hang and sell her paintings there!

The Yumi Yumi Shop has radiantly delectable and elegantly crafted images of nature and fairy tale. Flower Burst and These Are For You are absolutely fun.

And lets not forget my Mom's wonderful shop Giggling Goldfish filled with delightful goodies such as the Sassyfras Tree Tote Bag and beautiful custom wooden letters from her store lushiss.

Closing, if anyone would like any information on a really cool work-at-home opportunity, let me know. Ameriplan basically teaches you how to get paid, maintains 5 websites for you and give you discount health benefits for only $25. Lots of fun. Visit my site here for more info.

Hope tonight has the same crazy dreams I remember from last night. Took Gaia Herbs Migra-Profen and it must have altered some brain hormones. Weird stuff. Also woke up thinking it was Christmas this morning, very odd.