Scenes from a Raw Kitchen - Share yours!

[Beckla]

Home today (yay for personal days) and was standing in the kitchen contemplating what to make. I glanced in the pantry and noticed it has all the markings of a raw foodie's pantry. Thought it might be fun to share some pics.

[Veganforlife]

These are great photos. Looks like mine. I'll have to take some and post... :D

[KatK]

LOL, that's what my refrigerator looks like. It's stuffed to the gills with produce. It must drive my meat-and-potatoes roommate mad. :D

[Beckla]

My husband, too. LOL. He's taken to buying frozen foods. Though he did eat raw with me last night!

[luna99]

oh, I love that second picture! how beautiful.

My fiance said the same thing once I went raw.. "you're taking up all the space in the fridge!" I try to keep things neat and organized though. :rolleyes:

[Sharon in Colorado]

Here's a raw kitchen thread

http://www.rawfoodtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?p=66141#post66141

[Beckla]

Wow. The pics on that thread put me and my 1973 food processor to shame. Thanks for posting it, though - inspiring!

[rawpriestess]

these are some pics of my kitchen, I made the stained glass, first stained glass I ever made, it was for the castle I build with my ex

1. The North west side of my kitchen, with 3 dehydrators and a carved dragon on top guarding them, a belly dance tapestry, quite old, and you can just barely see my Oster kitchen center on the left side, it is really cool, one machine base for the blender, salad shooter, food processor, ice cream maker etc, it's very handy.

2. The West corner, with my kitchen center, and my champion juicer, a few dragons, and a sculpture.

3. the North corner of my kithcen, with my Vita Mix, mandoline, food processor, bamix, slicey chopper and saladaco, with the cutting board over my burners for my stove, the microwave above the burners.

4. my microwave, with my home grown organic spices and herbs in it, all dried at 95 degrees

5. the North east side, with my stained glass and antique French green coal burning stove, (it isn't hooked up, too many fire codes to deal with) and my food from my garden, plus bananas,

6. another North East pic, with my hand carved shesam wood doors to the foyer

[Beckla]

What a great idea to use the microwave as a storage space! Thanks so much for sharing. The stained glass is beautiful.

[trinity082482]

these are some pics of my kitchen, I made the stained glass, first stained glass I ever made, it was for the castle I build with my ex

1. The North west side of my kitchen, with 3 dehydrators and a carved dragon on top guarding them, a belly dance tapestry, quite old, and you can just barely see my Oster kitchen center on the left side, it is really cool, one machine base for the blender, salad shooter, food processor, ice cream maker etc, it's very handy.

2. The West corner, with my kitchen center, and my champion juicer, a few draongs, and a sculpture.

3. the North corner of my kithcen, with my Vita Mix, mandoline, food processor, bamix, slicey chopper and saladaco, with the cutting board over my burners for my stove, the microwave above the burners.

4. my microwave, with my home grown organic spices and herbs in it, all dried at 95 degrees

5. the North east side, with my stained glass and antique French green coal burning stove, (it isn't hooked up, too many fire codes to deal with) and my food from my garden, plus bananas,

6. another North East pic, with my hand carved shesam wood doors to the foyer


Your place is so beautiful. As a very spiritual wiccan woman I feel most at home in places like yours. There is such a tranquil vibe to it.. at least until the vitamix gets going hahaha :D

[Carmella]

Don and I are the permanent residents at a Retreat Center so, as you can see, everything is very simple and rustic.

- Here's the Left corner of the kitchen. You can see our Cook Help spiral slicer, our 'cheap as in not-so-hot' big Rachel Ray Food Processor and our two smaller FPs (a Moulinex on his way out and our new Mini-Prep Cuisinart that we bought second hand)

- Our brand new Breville Fountain Juicer, bought on Ebay for $100 can including shipping! (What a deal!) and our B and D blender.

- Our 'cupboards'

- The table and seats where we enjoy our evening meals. Don made them a few winters ago out of scraps of cedar.

- Back from doing grocery shopping in Nelson (about 50 kms away). We usually only go to town once every couple of weeks so we buy LOTS of food!

- Here you can see my Mac computer. I have a super recipe program that blows up the recipes so that I can follow them from the counter. Neato, eh? Below the computers is where we store our fruit cases, as it stays nice and cool.

There you have it! Our little raw kitchen in the BC boonies... :D

[Beckla]

Carmella, I LOVE it. I'd love to hear more about where you live. I'm a huge fan of BC. Was married in the pacific northwest and if I could, I'd move in a heartbeat.

Thanks so much for sharing.

[Tirza]

Carmella, this is so super! It brings me right back to my own rustic home when we first started building. We lived north of Armstrong and had several friends with log homes. Mine was cedar paneled. Talk about nostalgia! (This was the 70's) I think I may go back again and squat on a little parcel of land and just do the simple thing again. Oh my goodness, I don't DARE let my husband see this. He'll go so beserk. He always wanted to hermitize (sp?) at the top north wilderness end of one of the "arms" on Shuswap lake, but I wouldn't go for it. Now...maybe I would. Or maybe there is more room for permanent residents at your retreat. You could start a raw wilderness retreat/community. Nelson is a good area.

By the way, what is the program you use on your Mac? I am abandoning my PC and getting a Mac. Would love to know of a good program like that.

And just out of curiosity, what do you do with all those limes? I never got into the use of them. They usually dry up on me if I buy any. (I was one of those people who used to get powdered lemon juice from the HF store or the bottles of "juice" from the store.) Now I am using about a dozen lemons a week. Would like to know good things to do with limes.

[Ama]

FANTASTIC Carmella! Thanks for posting those pics... I love your raw kitchen. I'd also love to know what you do with all of those limes. I used 1/2 of one in a recipe and put the other half in some water to drink!

[Beckla]

I just posted a recipe that you could have used that half of the lime in! =)

[SeaGrass7]

great idea for a thread..i will post some soon!

[Carmella]

Beckla,
I love your avatar! It took me a while to figure it out but once I did... he he!

Hey doubleg,
Long time no hear! Glad you're enjoying the pics! It is a beautiful place... I guess I so get used to the rustic-ness of it that I don't notice it so much anymore. Actually, come to think of it, I did get a shock when I saw Sandy's modern kitchen in Calgary! LOL

The Retreat is operational in the summer time. It has a bunch of little cabins where people can stay and they have access to the main lodge that has the big kitchen and a library/workshop area on the second floor. In the fall and winter, the lodge is rented out (to us!) We've been living here for nearly 5 years now and, in spite of the hassle to have to move out every summer (we then live in a little trailer on the Retreat land), and how remote it is (esp when you don't have a car! It's located on top of a mountain...) this place is so quiet and so perfect for us as we lead a contemplative lifestyle.

Oh Good for you about switching to Mac! Really! It's so user friendly and virus-free... We just LOVE ours! I recently bought the recipe program from advenio.com. It's called MacGourmet and is the best that we've found. It's cheap and Michael, the guy who created it, is just super! From within the program itself, you can send feedbacks directly to him and he's right on top of it, always ready to make improvements and help you out. In fact, this is the newest version of the program which came out last Dec. so it's brand sparkling new with LOTS of great features. Importing recipes is sooooooo easy and you can find your recipes in a pinch. You'd love it, I'm sure, as I just love mine.

Oh, and about those limes, we just use them where we'd use lemons really. We put them in our morning's juices and smoothies, also in soups and spreads. They have a milder flavor than lemons and aren't as acidic tasting. They're awesome squeezed in water.

Hey Ama,
I was wondering if you'd see my post! LOL I was sorta thinking about you when I put the pics up as I know you'd been wanting to see my loghome...

[Ama]

Thanks Carmella! I just love it. I would love to live in such a simple, quiet and beautiful place. I love the table that Don made... he's pretty handy huh.

[star1919]

Hi Seagrass7... great to see you! :p

Fun to see all your rawsome kitchens and all the yummy produce... Mmmmm... Thanks for sharing! :D

[Ireland]

Hi Carmella, I didn't catch on until this post that you lived in BC. I'm a little slow on the draw... :rolleyes:

I live in the sunny Shuswap and absolutly love it. I'd love it even more if I was living in a rustic cabin somewhere. I lived that way for 4 years in Alaska and would love to do it all over again.

Anyhow, nice to see another British Columbian on here. :)

[Firicia]

Carmella, how cool that you live near Nelson. I was born there and lived in Castlegar for most of my life. I don't live there anymore, but my family still does. But Nelson is just so beautiful, and if thats where you get your raw foods then I deffinitly know that this can be easy when I go home to visit family. Thanks!

[Carmella]

Walkin'onWater,
Alaska eh? Wow! Preety cool!

Firicia,
He he... small world! Yep! There's a wonderful health food store in Nelson, the Kootenay Coop, where you'll find pretty much everything you need! We get our bulk produce at the Canadian Wholesale. They also carry quite a lot of organics too.

[SNMB]

By the way, what is the program you use on your Mac? I am abandoning my PC and getting a Mac. Would love to know of a good program like that.

Not sure if you're planning on getting a new Mac, but if you do, the computer does it automatically. You can zoom in on text in a New York Times article or a recipe or whatever. This'll mean nothing to you just yet, but you just push control and then, if you're on a laptop, you drag using the two-finger scrolling feature and if you're on a desktop, you use one of the programmed buttons on the Mighty Mouse. It's a really cool feature - in fact, one of the only ones that my PC-loving boyfriend actually likes!

[rawpriestess]

What a great idea to use the microwave as a storage space! Thanks so much for sharing. The stained glass is beautiful.
Thanks Beckla, those are the first two pieces I ever made of stained glass, I didn't even have a diamond grinder when I made them for a castle I was building back in the 70's, took them with me to this home, when I moved, they are my favorites, now I have 4 stained glass dragons that I made for my home, I collect dragons in case you couldn't tell. LOL

I so love kitchens, and gadgets and such.

[rawpriestess]

Carmella, I LOVE your kitchen, it is so very beautiful with all the wood, and I really like that table, how clever of Don to make that, and out of scrap wood too. It is truly a beautiful kitchen to prepare raw foods in, how lovely.

[Carmella]

Hey RP!

Thanks for the compliments! I was actually envying yours with the brick walls and all the beautiful stainglass! Maybe we could switch, eh? LOL

[Veganforlife]

Since my kitchen isn't much bigger then this, I thought I'd share the main thing!

[Pansy]

RawPriestess and Carmella,

I love both your kitchens! They look so warm, charming, and inviting!

Thanks for posting!

Pansy :)

[Carmella]

Veganforlife,
This is so funny! Your fridge is pretty much as packed as ours! LOL

I see that you have some lovely sauerkraut in there! BTW, thanks again for your tip about the sauerkraut maker! The stuff really grows on you! Now I gotta have kraut with EVERYTHING! he he

Hey Pansy!
You're welcome! My kitchen looks warm, eh? You should come for a visit when it's real cold in the winter and it gets down to +2 degrees in here! Brrrrrrr :D

[Pansy]

Hey Pansy!
You're welcome! My kitchen looks warm, eh? You should come for a visit when it's real cold in the winter and it gets down to +2 degrees in here! Brrrrrrr :D

Ooooo!!!....I think I will pass...lol!

Stay Warm,

Pansy ;)

[Carmella]

Earlier this week, we did one of the biggest shopping we've done for a while. Here's the kitchen once we got it all in. (Notice the Puss, wandering around it all! :D )

Somehow, we've worked some magic again as we did manage to put it all away! (It always amazes me! LOL)

It was pretty tough, though, to get anything out of the fridge without causing an avalanche! he he (Oh, btw, the fish and eggs are for the Furries...) :D

[Ama]

Carmella... how do you keep from things going bad? Especially greens... they go bad FAST. How do you keep lettuce, spinach, parsley etc from going bad for weeks?

[mershwista]

I'd post pictures, but my fruit in boxes and vegetables crammed into a mini-fridge are just not nearly as attractive as what's been posted...lol. I'll let those with the money make this look good...lol.

[Carmella]

Hey Ama,

We usually shop for about 2 weeks at a time. We make sure our greens are well wrapped in plastic bags (as you can see on the pic). We put our herbs in a plastic tub with a little water (to keep the roots moist) and store the whole thing in a plastic bag as well (actually, you can kinda see it on the top left of the fridge...)

What really helps too is to pick the freshest possible greens from the store. We find that the spring salad mix has a really short 'lifespan' (for lack of a better word). It keeps for a week max. We just kinda do without until we get to go shopping again.

mershwista,
I found your comment about money interesting (and a little ironic too!) The fact is that Don and I are on an extremely tight budget (most of you would be shocked!) It's just a matter of priority. We spend most of our money on food. (Perhaps 60% of our total income!) I gotta say that we don't have any money sucking addictions (such as coffee, cigarette, alcohol and the likes), which makes a HUGE difference. We don't own a vehicle and never eat 'out' either so that certainly helps too.

Here's basically what we do:
We're careful to shop where it's the cheapest. We try to buy as much organics as we can, but we just have to be flexible when it comes to fruits, though, as the organics are usually above what we can afford. (We've found out that it's not as critical when it comes to fruits with thick peels.)

We buy in bulk a lot (fresh and dried fruits, nuts and seeds). Oh, and big bags of juicing carrots too which are considerably cheaper than the loose stuff.

We are also fortunate as one of the big stores here have a discount rack, where slighly bruised or 'tired' produce is marked down considerably. Actually, that's the reason why we got so much stuff last time we went shopping. We hit the jackpot! Yay! :D

Whenever a recipe calls for something pricey like pine nuts or macs, we just replace or cut down the amount with other nuts. It almost always works out perfectly!

Having said all this, Don and I feel that we eat like kings and queens! We consider ourselves as sort of 'masters of energy' in the sense that it is of primary concern to us to waste as little energy as possible (or to put it differently, we try to make best use of the energy that we've got!) I guess we've become really really good at it. Spending our money wisely is just one of the ways it manifests in our lives.

BTW, I used to play meditative music too! :D

[mershwista]

That's good to know that other people struggle with money, too. I wish I could stretch my $15-$20 a week like that, but it's rather difficult most of the time as there really aren't too many places I have access to that will sell large quantities in bulk for cheap like that. I suppose it depends a lot on your area.

I do have other priorities, true, and as someone finishing up my undergraduate degree, I feel that justifiably that is where any money I'm able to come upon goes. Food is nice, but I don't think I'd ever feel right about my lifestyle if I spent extravagant amounts on it, just because I've lived simply long enough and don't mind it too much. And neither decision, to spend lots on food or not to, is wrong...so I am glad there are those out there with great pictures to share to make this idea of raw foods look good, as I'm not the one who will msot likely supply those.

I must point out the irony, though, in that raw foods is based (at least the approach I originally learned) that the food in its natural state...unadultered, uncooked, etc...is the healthiest, and that nature provides all that we need...yet it seems almost expected that on a raw food diet that we own things like juicers, spiral slicers, etc. For living the natural way, we should theoretically be able to live simply, no? And those who preach it, myself included, at least have access to computers...and God knows THOSE aren't generally necessary (although quite handy when there are 10-pg research papers to write for history and literature...)

Generally when I try to explain things I subconsciously assume that people already understand some crucial point that I never even mentioned, so I hope that whatever that point is has not been omitted here.

[Ariannah]

I must point out the irony, though, in that raw foods is based (at least the approach I originally learned) that the food in its natural state...unadultered, uncooked, etc...is the healthiest, and that nature provides all that we need...yet it seems almost expected that on a raw food diet that we own things like juicers, spiral slicers, etc. For living the natural way, we should theoretically be able to live simply, no? And those who preach it, myself included, at least have access to computers...and God knows THOSE aren't generally necessary (although quite handy when there are 10-pg research papers to write for history and literature...)


When I first started raw, I took it extremely literally: just buy and eat. No "preparation" - no need to do anything but sink your teeth into it. The ultimate slacker's diet. Food in its whole natural state.

I love the taste of many of the pretty, creative and tasty creations that can be found with recipes (I even bought a dehydrator, but don't use it anymore), but I feel best just eating the things that taste delicious on their own without any embellishments or gimmicks. :)

[Carmella]

mershwista,

There is no right or wrong way to eat raw (or do anything else for that matter!) We each are wherever we're at and do the best we can.

We got into the fancy, gourmet stuff only a few months ago, after nearly 6 years on a simple, mostly raw diet. In the summertime, we usually eat nothing but fruit. However, we haven't been able to stay fully raw during the winter months; eating only salads and fruits just wasn't appealing to us. So we thought we'd purchase a dehydrator last fall and see how that would help. It has so far...a lot! Everything is just an experiment for us.

The key is to do what feels right for you and have fun in the process...

[Ariannah]

mershwista,

There is no right or wrong way to eat raw (or do anything else for that matter!) We each are wherever we're at and do the best we can.

We got into the fancy, gourmet stuff only a few months ago, after nearly 6 years on a simple, mostly raw diet. In the summertime, we usually eat nothing but fruit. However, we haven't been able to stay fully raw during the winter months; eating only salads and fruits just wasn't appealing to us. So we thought we'd purchase a dehydrator last fall and see how that would help. It has so far...a lot! Everything is just an experiment for us.

The key is to do what feels right for you and have fun in the process...
Oh exactly! Those exquisite creations are very tasty, and if they keep people eating raw food, then I'm all for it!

[Morningstar]

My Kitchen creates Raw & NON Raw Foods

I keep most of my appliances put away in a hutch & Pantry.

I did a quick trip the Health Food store for my seaveggies ( Gonna get a bad storm so I stocked up)

here it is:

[carolg]

Don't' have a picture here, but love everyones. I know we buy tons of produce and my husband is the one to organize the refrigerator when either of us bring in all that produce. I just love opening the refrigerator and seeing all the beautiful colors. That is enough to give me a natural high. Thanks all for oallowing me to snoop in your kitchen.

I know I have a few houses I can go to visit. Yahoo. Carmella, I used to buy tons of stuff in cases too.
carolg

[RawFoodieMom]

Morningstar, great pics. Thanks for the addition to the thread, I hope to post some pics of my kitchen soon! :)

I love the ceramic house. Is that a cookie jar? Do you keep raw cookies in it?? :)

Debra

[Morningstar]

Thank you!
They're really dark ( Icestorm Hovering over us today :(
I adore old Milk Paint Red Barns. So in my kitchen I have a collection Primative barns/Red Barns. One Christmas the Boys got me that Cookie Jar. It is a limited edition one by a Primitive Folk Artist named Warren Kimble. So it holds special "things" That I do not need to get to often. I used to keep treats in it but my twins fought and dropped it. So the treats Raw or Sad (they do both) stay in Mason Jars, Or Large glass jars that are easily replaced. It had a matching spoon rest that was destroyed in the same fight.

To be absolutely honest the raw treats do not stay around long, as well as fresh fruits( carrots). Sad stuff tends to get stale & Tossed ( so maybe they're coming over to the LIght Side ;)
Here is another angle to show my addiction? I mean collection :p

I restored an Octagonal Barn & painted it Milk Paint Red Which is ECO Friendly

[Apasaraw]

Sorry OT....

Carmella, your kitty cat is my kitty's twin! :)

[Carmella]

Apasaraw,

That's too funny! Is your kitty always bugging you too when you're making raw stuff? :D

[rawjojo]

.........where abouts in Ohio are you located? If it happens to be in the NE region I may be able to point you to some cheaper organic shoppes. Let me know and I will try to help you out! I also know that it is tough to live on a tight budget!

Jodi