Before planting

I’m a very lucky gal.  My wife may not be much into the raw eating thing, bless her heart.  But she consumes a lot of what I make and she supports me for the most part.  Best of all, she’s an avid gardener.  She’s into being a locavore.   She has planted an abundance of food in our yard over the years.  Now she’s taking it to the next level.  We are finally getting rid of the grass in the front yard so we can have our mini-farm.

There’s nothing better than walking out my door, picking ingredients for my creations, and eating the freshest and most flavorful food possible.

I feel very loved when I behold the results of  my wife’s  hard work.

We haven’t decided yet what we’re planting but you can bet it will be a colorful addition to my raw chef-ery.  We’ve already got apricot, avocado, grape vines, laurel (bay leaf), lemon, lavender, loquat, orange (Seville and Valencia), 3 pomegranate trees, rosemary, sage (pineapple & regular) in our perennial arsenal.    Plus we have plots where we plant basil, chard, cilantro, dill, mint, spinach, and tomatoes (heirloom & grape).

We have a good friend who is a permaculturist that runs a consulting business helping people do green landscaping and she does a lot of work creating edible lawns.  She’s helping us out because it’s what she does for fun.  She tells us that we have areas where berries will do well.  OMG.  Heaven.  We’ll be adding berries to the mini-farm for sure.   Since we’re a small family we do plan on joining a local produce swapping co-operative to share any excess and get a wider variety of home grown food into our diet.

I get a bit teary-eyed when I consider my good fortune.  My home is my Eden.  I am humble and grateful for my blessings.  Fresh ingredients are a chef’s dream come true.

I’m in the midst of completing raw chef certification.  I began the training in 2007.  Living Light lets you take your training in chunks.  At the rate I’m going, it will take me around 10 years to make the transition from librarian (I prefer to be called an information diva, thank you very much) to chef.  I’ve finished the introduction and essentials courses.  I need to do associate chef and advanced courses plus knife skills and raw food nutrition courses.  I’ll need to finish up in two years once I start the advanced courses.  No pressure there.  It’s difficult juggling the expense and the time off from the day-gig.  Somehow I’ll figure out a way.  Meanwhile, I can do the knife and nutrition work and save my pennies.

I’m inspired now that I’ve committed to taking a couple more classes towards the certification.  I think I’ll do a juice fast feast tomorrow.  Sundays are a good time for fasting. I don’t need to make juice ahead of time and I don’t have to worry about being grouchy at work if I start to experience some detoxing symptoms.  The drawback is that my meat-eating family is nearby with their tempting standard American fare.  And that box of Skinny Cow treats remains in the freezer.  How do I retain the motivation? I find it easy to get inspired but difficult to stay inspired.

How do others manage?