The Raw Vegan Network e-newsletter
May 2007
Editor: Vickie Fisher, owner Raw Vegan Network
Welcome to the Raw Vegan Network e-newsletter. This newsletter is for informational purposes only. It is not intended for diagnosing, prescribing or healing.
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IN THIS ISSUE
-Network Happenings
-Questions and Comments
-In the News
-Health Tip: Greenhouse Gardening
-Recommended Reading and websites
-Featured Network Member: Karen Shifa, United Kingdom
-Favorite Recipes: Karen’s On the Spot Recipes
-Products: Juicers, distillers, dehydrators, raw recipe e-book, supplements
Please email us with your feedback about the articles and recipes, and what you would like to see in up coming issues.
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NETWORK HAPPENINGS
- Congratulations to Raw Vegan Network members Vickie Fisher (owner), Becki Campbell, Linda Wooliever and Mika Gilmer for having recipes in Frederic Patenaude’s new ebook Healthy Salad Dressings. For the month of May you may obtain a copy for only $10.00 at https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_xclick&business=info%40therawvegannetwork%2ecom&item_name=70%20Healthy%20Salad%20Dressings&amount=10%2e00&no_shipping=0&no_note=1¤cy_code=USD&lc=US&bn=PP%2dBuyNowBF&charset=UTF%2d8
This ebook is being sold by permission from Frederic Patenaude
-The Raw Vegan Network provides online raw food certifications for those who wish to expand their portfolio of expertise enabling them to serve others in there locale that wish to experience the health benefits of living a raw food lifestyle. For information: www.therawvegannetwork.com
-We also provide free contact services for people desiring help in there local area for raw food services. For information: www.therawvegannetwork.com
**Need help getting started with incorporating healthy raw food choices into your diet and maintaining the raw vegan lifestyle? Put together an entire holiday feast or a light meal. Mostly Raw Recipes by Vickie Fisher (owner of The Raw Vegan Network) is available at www.therawvegannetwork.com/productindex.htm
**Check out the “member’s events” page at www.therawvegannetwork.com/events.htm. It has the latest on what members are doing, such as raw food classes, retreats, raw food delivery, etc
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QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS
Hi!!!!
I just wanna say thank you for these e-mails, I've been a little far away from rawfoodism and your words have kept me in touch, now that I'm happily back I feel so happy 'cause you've always been and will be there for me.
Thanks! –Leyla (Italy)
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IN THE NEWS
The Non Toxic Times Recycling is so
20th Century. What Do You Say We Just Forget All About It?
Once the vanguard idea of modern environmentalism, recycling is getting a
little long in the tooth. Recycling rates have leveled off in communities around
the country, and increasing numbers of products and packages can’t be recycled
at all. Couple that with a lack of any real public enthusiasm for recycling and
the fact that recycling isn’t impacting the solid waste problem the way we need
it to, and it’s clear that something else is needed.
[What could that be? Click here to zero in on the solid waste solution a
landfill-laden planet has been waiting for…]
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HEALTH TIP
Greenhouse Gardening
Ed Fisher, co-owner Raw Vegan Network
When Vickie and I decided last year to move out of town and into the rural area outside Wichita Falls, Texas it brought on many expected and unexpected challenges. We knew that living in the city and living in the “country” were two different lifestyles. In the city our yard offered limited space for growing a garden, although we did have a small 8 foot by 16 foot raised garden which produced some very tasty organic veggies. In the country we have 10 acres, more than enough area to plant a garden.
Living in northwest Texas we soon discovered that the soil is not as fertile as it is in many other areas of America. Our area is mostly clay soil. Because of the poor soil we decided to go with a greenhouse to see if we could be successful in our garden venture. One would think that finding a good greenhouse at a reasonable price would be easy, however, we discovered differently. The internet is a wonderful tool for finding what you need so a way I went surfing the net to find the perfect greenhouse. There were so many styles, sizes, and prices not to mention different materials greenhouses are built out of. Some appeared to be massively labor intensive to put up some no labor at all. It really is hard to make a choice when all there is to go by is the seller’s flowery description and the best pictures the seller can come up with. How many of you know that word and pictures can be deceiving?
After hours even days make that weeks of surfing and comparing all the greenhouse information I could stand Vickie and I decided on the perfect greenhouse for us, in fact we bought two. We based our decision on cost, ease of setting up and described ease of use. Our choice was the Solar Prism Greenhouse. They are 8 feet by 15 feet. These greenhouses are one piece fiberglass, two roof vents with automatic openers, a main entrance door with fold out window for ventilation, and a fold open window on the end opposite the door. NO assembly necessary. These greenhouses come with a 14 year warranty. The company delivers to your site and “installs” them.
Having never owned a greenhouse and never being in one, except at the local nursery, I cannot compare ours with the others. That being said, let me share with you the positive and the negative of the Solar Prism greenhouses from our experience. In order to finish on a positive note I will start with the negatives experienced with this particular brand.
Professional installation is part of the price. The houses are supposed to be placed in a 4 inch deep and 8 inch wide trench and then the dirt is filled in to hold the house down. The professionals will need to borrow your tools since they don’t carry much besides a screw driver. They will dig only as deep as they can, depending on the hardness of your soil. (You really want to dig your own trench before they show up.) We were given a 2pm delivery time and they showed up at 8pm and spent about 1 ˝ hours putting them up. One of the houses had a broken roof vent which the deliverer said for us to call and arrange for a service technician to come out and repair. We called and were assured a technician would be there to repair it within 2 weeks. About a month later and many calls to the company the “repair technician” showed up, it was the delivery drivers, again with no tools. We have continual problems with the roof vents opening properly.
The fiberglass takes getting used to. The door and window edges are not finished and the inside walls have fiberglass “spikes” waiting to impale the unsuspecting gardener.
Bottom line is if you are in the market for a greenhouse and chose this one be aware that customer service is not there strong point.
There is one good point about this greenhouse, the ease of setup.
We like our greenhouses because we were able to sprout our own seeds to get a good start on our garden for the season. We are growing a large variety of veggies and they are doing very well.
Although we are pleased to have 2 greenhouses I wish we had chosen a different company to deal with, maybe we would have had a better experience. Time will tell if the 14 year warranty is worth anything.
Do you have a greenhouse? If so, and you would like to share with others your experience please write and we will include it in a future newsletter.
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RECOMMENDED READING AND WEBSITES
Angel's HealthWatch is an e-mail service provided by Angel's Health Food Institute that is dedicated to increasing natural health awareness and education. Angel's HealthWatch is a watchdog media network that stays abreast of health studies and reports/findings that do not have the best interests of the Earth, the Animals and the PEOPLE in mind. Every day in the news there is at least ONE article about a "new" Alzheimer's Vaccine or new "obesity cure", etc., that we all know is based on ignorance and half-truths. "Scientists" are looking in the WRONG places and don't have an understanding of dis-ease or real health to begin with. This is where Angel's HealthWatch comes in, sending out media alerts about what to watch out for, what doctors or scientists or the FDA are going to try to tell or do to you or your loved ones, and of course, the corrected information. Eventually, they may form a discussion group surrounding this service. Communities need to get involved and minds need to be opened. Angel's HealthWatch is perfect for the new natural health convert or the long-term believer and student. All are welcome and submissions are welcome!
To subscribe to Angel's HealthWatch, please send an email marked SUBSCRIBE in the subject line to AngelsHealthWatch@yahoo.com!
To help this project come to fruition, please join this service. Note that it's just getting started so please be patient as the project gains momentum.
**AngelsHealthWatch is put out by Raw Vegan Network member Peggy McDonnell
We recently lost our rights to raw almonds. Pasteurization will be mandatory in September of 2007. The labels will continue to read RAW, but they will not be raw.
http://www.almondboard.com/Programs/content.cfm?ItemNumber=890&snItemNumber
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FEATURED NETWORK MEMBER
My Mind’s Journey to Eating Raw
Karen Shifa
Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdom
homeopathybyemail@blueyonder.co.uk
Are the simplest of things in life the hardest? How is it that a simple act of eating some raw fruit for breakfast instead of a bowl of cereal can cause even the most logical person to be in a state of emotional mayhem during periods throughout the day, or how is it that a simple act of eating a plate of vegetables instead of boiling them for 20 minutes first, actually becomes a dilemma to the intelligent beings that we all are? In my quest to attain and maintain good health I asked why was doing something simple so impossible for me?
Was it the programming I had since childhood, that a nutritious meal was to eat a roasted animal garnished with some lovely soggy carrots and potato slop covered with water mixed with a suspicious powder, finished off with a delicious concoction of sweeteners, additives, preservatives, dyes, oh, and yes don’t forget the flavourings? Was this the reason for my struggle with eating pure food? Was it because of years of habit or addiction to dead things? Was it because of all the shelves of little packets, tins, boxes, bottles, jars and wrapped up parcels that tasted deniably good and were everywhere I went?
Maybe that was it; simple was not simple any more and nature was just a little too complicated and difficult for me. An easy answer to accept, but I knew it wasn’t the truth. No, I would argue that the common factor of all my problems was not nature, it was of course, other people. Other people (my excuse) were the ones providing me with processed food, trying to make life easy for me. Why did I want to eat processed food, oh yes, I forgot, it was because it is really hard (not) to chop up a salad, and so instead I have to search the supermarket shelves for some tins, bags, jars and packets, get home, measure and weigh the contents, sieve them, boil them, heat them up, co-ordinate the times that each of them take to cook, add this (which I had always forgotten) and that, mix, and a stressful hour and a lethargic half an hour later, voila, a prolapsed colon and a load of washing up.
I wanted to eat raw because you see with a little bit of study and research I had found that eating raw food was the fundamental answer to illness (hold off the noble prize - this has been known for years and is not my discovery). I researched and studied and I learned that certain types/preparations of food could make you ill and that raw food could make you well, and could even cure you. Not really rocket science when you think about what it is that makes your cells grow, repair and maintain themselves. I found there is a place for medicine and different types of therapies, but the reality was that fruit and vegetables that were in their natural state (i.e. uncooked, undamaged, alive) were not only the answer for my own body’s health but the answer for my patients’ health too.
I discovered that eating raw, living without disease and living longer was achievable, but I still had the excuse that these ideals were being held back from me. I could argue that eating raw had been held back from me by the food industries, the factories, the supermarket owners, the corner shop owners, the owner of the takeaway down the road (how dare he have a fish and chip shop near to my home!) the stockbrokers, the investors, the lorry drivers, the farmers, the dieticians, the doctors, the hospitals, the pharmacies, the pharmaceutical companies and well, just about everyone, but the truth is, quite simply, that nothing except me had prevented me from eating raw.
The reality is that I am the owner of my mind. My mind is the most powerful, valuable asset I will ever have – and it’s mine. I control my own mind. It had a journey to take, but it’s mine to do with it what ever I want to do. I now know eating raw is simple and possible – and I have decided – I can eat raw!
© Karen Shifa 2007 www.homeopathybyemail.com
Karen Shifa is a Qualified Homeopath, Raw Nutrition Specialist, NLP Master Practitioner and Medical Hypnotherapist. Email: homeopathybyemail@blueyonder.co.uk. Any spam will be reported. © Karen Shifa 2007. Permission to print/distribute this whole article with this notice is given to anyone providing that no changes/deletions are made.
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FAVORITE RECIPES
Karen Shifa – Favourite On the Spot Recipes:
homeopathybyemail@blueyonder.co.uk
My favourite raw recipes are usually the ones you make up on the spot with what ever raw fruit and vegetables you have in the fruit bowl or in the fridge. But I do especially like these quick and easy recipes (created by myself):
Finely chopped celery, finely chopped cucumber, finely chopped tomatoes and a very small amount of finely chopped onions mixed with fresh parsley, altogether wrapped up in a large spinach leaf, held together by a cocktail stick holding one cube of cucumber, one cube of tomato and one cube of celery.
Or:
Slices of pears decorated with chopped dried figs circled by date syrup (date syrup made by dates, mineral water and pear juice blended together).
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BACK ISSUES
To access all back issues: www.archive.therawvegannetwork.com
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PRODUCTS
**Are you interested in the top 70 healthy salad dressings you can make in less than 2 minutes? Several of our Raw Vegan Network members have recipes in Frederic Patenaude’s new ebook Healthy Salad Dressings. You may obtain a copy of these delicious and easy recipes through The Raw Vegan Network. For the month of May we are offering it at the discounted price of $10.00 https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_xclick&business=info%40therawvegannetwork%2ecom&item_name=70%20Healthy%20Salad%20Dressings&amount=10%2e00&no_shipping=0&no_note=1¤cy_code=USD&lc=US&bn=PP%2dBuyNowBF&charset=UTF%2d8
This ebook is being sold by permission from Frederic Patenaude
**Need help getting started with incorporating healthy raw food choices into your diet and maintaining the raw vegan lifestyle? Put together an entire holiday feast or a light meal. Mostly Raw Recipes by Vickie Fisher (owner of The Raw Vegan Network) is available at www.therawvegannetwork.com/productindex.htm
**The Raw Vegan Network is offering juicers, distillers and dehydrators for sale. Products are available at www.therawvegannetwork.com/productindex.htm .
**In today's environment, even if you are eating all organic fresh raw fruits and vegetables you may not be receiving all the nutrients you need for optimum health. If you are not a raw vegan, then you definitely need to supplement your diet. That is why we decided to add a line of all natural health products that we believe are the best health supplements available on the market. These are available at www.myaimstore.com/pathway2health .
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FEEDBACK
-If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email us at info@therawvegannetwork.com and we will include them in our questions and comments section. Please email us with your feedback about the articles and recipes, and what you would like to see in up coming issues.
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