Spotlight on Denman Island Artists

• Matsuki Masutani (poetry) (page D1)
• Jane Masutani (country life -- with an edge) (page D3)

RawForLife Raw & Sustainable Living Ezine

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• Edible Flowers (page 1)
• Michael McCarthy: En Route to Portland (page 2)
• Rawganique Convergence (page 3)
• Random Ruminations (page 4)
• On Hybrids and Such (page 5)
• Steve Scharmer's 36-day Fast (page 6)
• The Simple Life IS the Good Life (page 7)
• Raw Veganism and the Protein Myth? (page 8)
• Rawganique Diet (page 9)
• September 11, 2001 (page 10)
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• Humanure (book review)
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On Hybrids and such & How Raw is Raw??
by Touch Jamikorn

Years ago, I used to be quite a militant raw foodist I would balk at eating hybrid fruits (horror of horrors!), which meant that there was little left for me to eat, which meant I quickly got bored with what I could eat. In this world, basically everything is a hybrid and there's no truly wild, unhybridized food. And even if you manage to find it, take care that it's not doused with Roundup or some other concoction that's coming out daily from the chemical factories.

Being a truly militant rawfoodist also meant I didn't eat anything that wasn't whole, so no raw cuisine preparations whatsoever, so for lunch I'd munch on whole lettuce plants, leaf by leaf, and that was that. Now, if you've seen my recipe section, you probably know that that is no longer the case, that I'm no longer such a militant rawfoodist. I'm now enjoying such gourmet raw cuisine as Stir-frei (be free!) Pad Thai.

OK, back to hybrids. Raw hybridized fruits and vegetables are still raw. If you eat them and you feel OK, then it's probably OK to eat. Ten years can do a lot to one's thinking and I'm no different. Truth be told, if you had asked me the same question ten years ago, I would give you a very different answer. But such is the trick of time.

Today I am a lot more relaxed and, yes, accepting. Just eat and not worry too much about too many things. Try to make sure you're eating truly organic foods from reputable sources (your own garden is the most reputable of all, of course). Any other excess worries will translate into a less happy and productive and healthy life for you.

I eat dates and perhaps the dates I eat are hybrids. Unless I get sick from eating them, they're OK for me to eat. Basically everything that grows on earth today are hybrids and it's a challenge to search for something truly primal that existed exactly as it did 100 million years ago. But so what if you've found it. Nature believes in hybridizing--it makes for a stronger gene pool, so why should we avoid it at all costs?

As I said, I'm not as much of a hard-liner as I used to be. And trust me, I used to be quite a hard-liner.

Nature herself believes in hybridization and cross-pollination; therefore, I'm fine with it. Where I draw the line is excessive hybridization and genetically modified intervention, because that's out of the ordinary and, frankly, quite scary. You don't see pigs cross creating with California poppies nor do you see two California poppies cross-pollinating with each other over and over to get the offspring into the right shade of saffron.

--Normally, not excessively, hybridized Touch (aren't we all?--perhaps not inbreeding, as over that time that might qualify as excessive hybridization) ;) Cheers.

How Raw is Raw?
Touch Jamikorn

When I first started, I used to actually spend hours in the local health food store deciding between two brands of almond butter, alternating my stare from one to the other as if the act of staring could reveal the secrets behind the manufacturing process and hence the "rawness" of the almond butters involved. No more. Now when I'm hungry, I dig into my almond butter; of course, in this case, I know that the almond butter I'm eating (and that we carry) is processed at ultra-low temperature and is truly raw and teeming with enzymes.

But the point is this: the worrying you do takes as much fun and well-being out of your life as the eating of something that might not have 100% of its enzymes intact. So if you asked me, I'd say try to be as conscientious as you can about where your food comes from (your own vegan-organic garden is best) and how pure and raw it is, but also have fun doing it and don't lose your health in the process of trying to squeeze 2% more live enzymes into your diet. The beauty of the raw food diet is that it's cleansing so even if you err inadvertently on the fewer side of the enzyme equation, you'd still come out OK as your body will be able to cope with such an aberrance.

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