Hi From Jersey, Channel Isles

[San]

Hi Everyone,

I'm so glad to have found this forum, I have lots of questions and have been all over the internet for the past few days (whilst off sick with a chest infection!) to get as much info as I can. I've been a vegetarian for most of my adult life and twice a vegan, this time I have been vegan for two and a half years and I just seem to have stumbled in to looking at raw food stuff, don't quite know how it happened! Anyway, I thought I'd have explore it and if I like it I may stay raw for good.

I do have a passion for cooked hummus, and I love wheat pasta & garlic bread etc so this may not be easy for me, but saying that, I tried a cooked vegan chilli after eating a lot of raw foods over the past week and to be honest, I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have done normally.

Seemed a bit lifeless but still tasty! I kind of have a problem with cold foods also, I'm not mad on fruit or salads, I usually eat lots of veg roasted in olive oil and roasted nuts etc. As I make the transition I'm going to give myself plenty of slack with this and do it without giving myself lots of "don'ts". If I tell myself I can eat cooked if I want to, then I'll be happier to have that option, but then still will probably eat raw anyway - if that makes sense!

I have found virtually no raw products over here such as crackers, cereals etc. All I could find was hemp & linseed butter and pecan butter. No raw food books in either shops or library, so I'll be getting them from the internet. My local health store will order in anything I want so I'm wondering, can anyone from the UK please give me the names of some companies that make for eg raw tahini, flax or similar crackers, granola cereal type stuff and also, where to buy seeds for sprouting in bulk, or at least big packets? Also, I know I'll miss soya milk in my tea, so is there anything similar in function that I can use?

Thanks in advance to anyone who has any ideas! Regards, San.

[Jax]

Hi San and :welcome: oh and thanks for giving the site a bit of an exotic feel all the way from the Channel Islands..........incidently I've always wanted to visit Jersey!

I personally call myself 75% raw, which allows me to eat some cooked foods as it's not always convenient or easy to eat 100% when you're away from home etc. This way I don't beat myself mentally that I'm not reaching a target, having been an athlete I can be quite competitive and determined to reach targets and hate anything that gets in the way http://www.rawinuk.com/images/icons/icon11.gif I love having warm raw soups made with our Vita-mix, so that sort of option may work for you, also if you have a dehydrator you can have warm raw foods with that, or warmed on a low oven temp keeping an eye on the overall temp of the food to maintain rawness of course.

Anyway back to you, Meridian (http://www.meridianfoods.co.uk/) do Tahini and nut butters, and I've got a raw almond butter from Carley's Organic Foods (http://www.carleys.co.uk/pages/products.html), which is Cornish. I've found Goodness Direct (http://www.goodnessdirect.co.uk/cgi-local/frameset/script/home.html) a good supplier of various things, may work for you too but not sure on postage for Channel Islands. Raw Living (http://www.rawliving.eu/?location_id=14) have some raw crackers but I've never tried them and so does Rob at Funky Raw (http://www.funkyraw.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=28&zenid=16259d858756b45d3d72add6359b0b03), haverawcakeandeatit (http://www.rawinuk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=27) are competitively priced for various items and Annette's very kind and gives us discounts here from time to time so watch out for that on here http://www.rawinuk.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

When it comes to milk or mylk in the raw world, there's a thread on that here, (http://www.rawinuk.com/showthread.php?t=278) not sure how they'd function in tea etc, I admit I sometimes have rice milk.

HTH for now, do feel free to post any queries in the Raw food board cos it might get missed here a bit http://www.rawinuk.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

[San]

Hi Jax,

Thanks so much for giving me so much helpful info, I'm just starting my transition and my heads a bit full with everything at the moment, you've given me some good relevant stuff to work with.

Love & Light to you, San.