*Raw Family Newsletter, September 2005***

In this issue:
*1. Raw Family's Super Quick summer delicacy: Chips and Guacamole Recipe*

2. Introducing our new step-by-step recipe book, *Igor's Live Flat Bread*

3. Are There Enough Greens in Our Stores? By Victoria Boutenko**

4. New book *Green For Life* is coming on October 1st

5. The Fresh Festival-2005 in UK

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*Zucchini Chips*

4 medium zucchinis

� cup lemon juice

� teaspoon salt (optional)

� teaspoon cumin

� teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

� bunch cilantro (finely chopped)

Thinly slice the zucchinis by hand or by grater. Place in a large bowl and
add the remaining ingredients. Mix well.

Lay out the zucchini pieces in a single layer on dehydrator sheets.
Dehydrate until crisp.

Enjoy chips by themselves or with guacamole.

*Bell-pepper Guacamole *

Blend the following ingredients in a food processor:

3 large RIPE avocados

1 ripe colored bell-pepper

1 medium tomato

� cup lemon juice

1 spicy pepper

� teaspoon sea salt (optional)

Place the contents of the food processor into a large bowl.

Chop the following ingredients:

� bunch green onion

1 bunch parsley

Mix the chopped ingredients into the mixture already in the bowl.

Serves 6

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* *

Our new recipe book is out:
*IGOR'S LIVE FLAT BREAD - $15.00 US*

I heard some people saying that Igor's crackers were to live for.

They definitely helped my family to stick to the raw food diet.

Reading this book is exactly like watching over Igor's shoulder.

Dozens of colored pictures reveal all the details of Igor's refined cracker
making process.
* *

*Other books of this series:* *Raw Jams and Jam Pies – $15.00 US * *Live
Kim-Chee and Cultured Veggies - $15.00 US* *How to Eat Uncommon Fruit -
$15.00 US*

These books are step-by-step recipes that are very helpful.

People who bought them say they are better than videos.

Available now at www.rawfamily.com <http://www.rawfamily.com/>

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*�2005** Copyrighted material! Please reference this source when sharing
this information! ***

* *By Victoria Boutenko

* Are There Enough Greens in Our Stores?***

Millions of years of co-existence on the same planet has resulted in plants,
people, and animals developing a strong symbiotic connection. Plants do not
mind if people and animals eat their fruits because such practice benefits
the plant by spreading its seeds and thus promoting future generations. In
fact plants are "interested" in someone eating their fruit, but only when it
is ripe. The ultimate goal of all plants is the continuation of their
species and providing adequate living conditions for them. That is why most
of the fruit in the world has a round shape, so that it could roll away and
start a new life. For the very same reason plants have learned to make their
fruit colorful, palatable, fragrant, and nutritious to ensure that its
consumers not only eat one fruit but continue to return for more. This
strategy works very well and all fruit gets eaten. Have you ever noticed how
thoroughly birds clean cherry trees or how squirrels keep working on an oak
tree until there are no more acorns left? What happens next? The "eaters"
digest their food and have bowel movements far away from the mother plant
and the seeds are covered with nice "organic fertilizer." The seeds get a
perfect start. Inside the fruit, the seeds are wisely protected from being
digested with hardy shells and inhibitors. Note that the plant keeps its
fruit extremely un-tasteful, colorless, and without attractive fragrance all
the way until the seeds are ripe, so that nobody wastes them before the
seeds have matured.

The following example illustrates how much the continuation of their species
means to plants. In a recent study in Russia, biologists discovered that
"When a tree is foreseeing its death, the tree gathers its entire energy and
deposits this energy into producing seeds for the very last time. For
example, an oak tree broken by the storm or a cedar tree with its bark
removed from its trunk, in a farewell effort before they die forever, give
their record crops of acorns or
nuts."[1]<http://mail.google.com/mail/?&ik=fc0a94e705&view=cv&search=inbox&th=10\
6484a6c2a95f9c&lvp=20&cvp=0&qt=&qt=&zx=i8g9virje1mu#106484a6c2a95f9c__ftn1>

In contrast with the previous example, when a plant is genetically altered,
it does not produce seeds on purpose. Such a plant makes itself infertile to
prevent future unhealthy generations. Seedless watermelons are usually
odorless and tasteless, because an upset plant has no motivation to make its
fruits sweet, fragrant, or attractive in any other way. I am sure that it is
not healthy to eat seedless plants, because their entire chemistry,
electromagnetic charge, and who knows what else has been altered. In my own
life, I prefer to pay double for an organic seeded watermelon or tomato.

Do plants "want" us to eat their trunk and roots? Nope. Without roots,
plants would instantly die. That is why the roots are hidden in the ground.
The sweetness in roots is meant for specific beneficial microorganisms in
the soil that are fed off of tiny rootlets. The trunk is also vital for the
life of the plant and is purposely covered with hard and bitter bark. And
what about the greens? Here, plants demonstrate their perfect ability to
develop symbiosis with different creatures. Plants "allow" humans and
animals to eat ALL of their fruits, but only PART of their leaves, because
plants need to have leaves for their own use - which is manufacturing
chlorophyll. However, plants depend on moving creatures for many different
reasons, like pollination, fertilizing the soil, and hanging around to help
eat the ripe fruit. For this reason, plants accumulate a lot of highly
nutritious elements in their leaves, but mix these nourishing ingredients
with either bitterness or very small amounts of alkaloids (poisons). *That
is how animals are forced to rotate their menu* and that is why all wild
animals are browsers. They eat a small amount of one thing, then move on to
many other plants during the course of the day. The body is capable of
easily detoxifying small amounts of a great many things, but it is much more
difficult for the human system to get rid of a large amount of one type of
poison. This is why it is crucial for us to learn to rotate the greens in
our diet. Chimpanzees also rotate the green plants they eat. They go through
approximately 117 different plants in one
year.[2]<http://mail.google.com/mail/?&ik=fc0a94e705&view=cv&search=inbox&th=106\
484a6c2a95f9c&lvp=20&cvp=0&qt=&qt=&zx=i8g9virje1mu#106484a6c2a95f9c__ftn2>We
humans need to learn to alternate our variety of greens as much as
possible instead of eating only iceberg lettuce, spinach and romaine.
Unfortunately, I was able to locate only about 40 types of various greens,
including edible weeds that are available in my state of Oregon. I hope that
our farmers will learn to grow a larger variety of green leafy vegetables to
increase our green sources. The greens available in grocery stores were
mostly bred from the dandelion and mustard families. Despite their names and
appearances, cultivated greens have similar nutritional content. To meet our
nutritional needs, it is essential that we learn to include greens from a
number of totally different plant families into our daily diets.

After several months of drinking green smoothies I got very tired of using
kale and spinach. It was at that time that I first embraced weeds. I
appreciate that weeds presented me with a practically unlimited variety of
greens. This summer I discovered heavenly scrumptious and nutritious "new"
foods such as: pumpkin leaves, grape leaves, chicory greens, young and
tender borage leaves and flowers, tightly curled fists of young ferns,
clover leaves and flowers, plantain, sorrel, and even lemon grass. Next year
I plan to fill my garden a large variety of weeds.

The following is a list of greens that my family has been rotating in our
diet during the last year.

* ***
*
*

*Greens:***

*Arugula*

Asparagus

Beet greens (tops)
Bok choy
Broccoli

Carrot tops
Celery

Chard
Collard greens
Endive

Escarole
Fresee

*Grape leaves*

Kale (3 types)
Mitsuna

Mustard greens
Pumpkin leaves

Radicchio
Radish tops
Rhubarb

Romaine lettuce green and red leaf (no Iceberg or light colored leaf)
Spinach
*Weeds:***

Borage leaves and flowers* ***

Chicory greens and flowers **

Chickweed

Clover

Dandelion (greens and flowers)

Fiddlehead ferns

Lambsquarters

Malva

Miner's lettuce

Plantain

Purslane

Sorrel

Stinging nettles

*Herbs:***

*Aloe Vera** *

*Baby dill ***

Basil
Cilantro
Fennel

Mint
Parsley (2 types)
Peppermint leaves
*Spearmint *

*Sprouts:***

Alfalfa

Broccoli

Clover

Fenugreek
Radish

Sunflower

Wild edibles often contain more vitamins and minerals than commercially
marketed plants. Weeds have not been "spoiled" with farmers' care in
contrast to the "good" plants of the garden. In order to survive in spite of
constant weeding, pulling, and spraying, weeds had to develop strong
survival properties. For example, in order to stay alive without being
watered, most weeds have developed unbelievably long roots. Alfalfa's roots
grow up to 20 feet long reaching for the most fertile layers of the soil. As
a result, all wild plants possess more nutrients than commercially grown
plants. I feel so silly now when I remember how I used to always pull out
the "nasty" lambsquarters from my garden to let my "precious" iceberg
lettuce grow.

The best way to learn which weeds are edible is to sign up for an herb walk
with an experienced guide in your local area. This way you can learn to
recognize particular edible plants by actually touching, smelling, and
tasting them so that you can gather your "wild produce" on your own. Also,
there are lots of articles and photos of edible weeds on the Internet. You
may also find many books that help identify edible plants in your area.
Please maintain caution when picking wild plants to avoid poisoning. There
are usually only a couple of poisonous plants in one region, make sure you
can identify them well.

For the sake of variety, I include several kinds of sprouts in my diet, but
never more than a handful and only one or two times a week. Approximately
from the third to the sixth day of their life, sprouts contain higher levels
of alkaloids, as a means of protection from animals nipping them off and
killing
them.[3]<http://mail.google.com/mail/?&ik=fc0a94e705&view=cv&search=inbox&th=106\
484a6c2a95f9c&lvp=20&cvp=0&qt=&qt=&zx=i8g9virje1mu#106484a6c2a95f9c__ftn3>That
doesn't mean that sprouts are poisonous or dangerous, but only that we
cannot live on sprouts alone. Most sprouts are rich in B-vitamins and have a
hundred times more nutrients than a fully developed plant because sprouts
need more nutrition for their fast growing period.

Once in a while I read in the news or receive an e-mail about kale or
spinach or parsley or any other green having a toxic ingredient and
therefore being dangerous for human consumption. This is all true but not to
such a degree as to exclude any particular green from our diet. Let us learn
to increase the variety of greens in our diet and to constantly rotate them
for better nutritional results.

There are several other ways in which plants protect themselves from being
destroyed. Some plants have thorns instead of alkaloids and one type of
acacia tree in Africa is inhabited by colonies of very aggressive ants with
a painful sting.

Thorny plants, like cactuses and stinging nettles, do not contain any
alkaloids, which makes them a valuable addition to our diet. Of course, we
need to first figure out how to eat them. I have often successfully added
stinging nettles to my green smoothies by harvesting them while wearing
gloves.

It is September now, and there is an abundance of incredible wild greens
everywhere. I encourage you to take full advantage of them now keeping in
mind that we have another long kale-spinach winter ahead of us.

If you would like to learn more about rotating greens, you may read my
up-coming new book, *Green For Life*.

*�2005** **Copyrighted material! Please reference this source when sharing
this information!***

www.rawfamily.com <http://www.rawfamily.com/>

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*NEW Book Green For Life** *is now available for pre-orders

by Victoria Boutenko


Victoria's long awaited new book about greens and green smoothies contains
exciting new information. The author approaches human nutrition from a new
angle, comparing the human diet with the diet of chimpanzees. This book is
written in a clear style, illustrated with anecdotes, diagrams and pictures.
The results of the Roseburg study conducted by Victoria and Dr Fieber,
reveal the unique healing potential of green smoothies.

*This book is scheduled to come out October 1st, 2005. ***

We recommend pre-ordering this book early to avoid waiting. Your orders will
be processed in the order they were received.

$14.95

-Pre-orders only-

www.rawfamily.com <http://www.rawfamily.com/>


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For those of you living in the UK or those of you who love traveling, there
will be an excellent Raw Food Festival not to be missed: The Fresh Festival
2005 <http://www.fresh-network.com/festival/index.htm>

World renown raw food teachers, nutritionists, and top raw gourmet chefs
will all be presenting at a gorgeous location

during the three days extravaganza: *Friday 28 October - Sunday 30 October
2005*

My family participated in The Fresh Festival-2004 and consider it to be one
of the best organized Raw Food events!
For more details go to: http://www.fresh-network.com/festival/index.htm

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