Green Harmony Living

Mother's Market in Huntington Beach

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Today, after much rest, we visited Orange County’s finest natural foods store called Mother’s Market. There are about four or five stores across the county and they are very nice to visit since it is a great natural foods store and each one has its own mostly vegan restaurant. The produce is excellent since they have a large selection and they always seem to have the best mangos, melons, strawberries, and other fruits. We visited their Huntington Beach store which has a nice selection of rawfood products, although not nearly as extensive as Erewhon’s. Since there was an amazing special of 10 mangos for $10, we bought 10 of them and many other fruits and veggies. We also ate dinner there. I felt the meal was disappointing since it relied heavily on salt, most likely soy sauce to give the cooked dishes flavor. Afterwards, it left me feeling full, but dehydrated. The salad was nice, but with a little too many shredded beets on top and not enough cucumbers and tomatoes. Now I was yearning for a nice rawfood meal.

What was your favorite raw food meal?

Roland’s Websites:
Green Harmony Living – Planet friendly website
Green Harmony Living Store – Raw, Vegan, & Organic Foods & Products
Green Harmony Design – Beautiful, Edible, & Sustainable Gardens
Green Harmony Tours – Sustainable Ecotours to Germany

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During our flight to L.A., we decided that after we landed at LAX, it would make sense to head straight to the ultimate natural foods store called Erewhon, located in West Hollywood.

Do you know how sometimes people or places come into your consciousness and it means the universe is trying to tell you to pay attention to what it is telling you. Well this is why I started paying attention to Erewhon. I had heard about it many years ago in 2003 while working at the Good Mood Food Café in Huntington Beach, CA since our café made packaged rawfoods that we sold to various local natural stores including Erewhon. Well, recently I heard David Wolfe talking about the amazing Tonic Bar at Erewhon in his 2009 Longevity Experience conference. And then just before we left, we ran into Daniella Troia who owns Zia’s Café in Towson, MD, a mostly vegan and rawfood place, although there is some animal foods there too. Daniella mentioned that her friend just visited Los Angeles and loved Erewhon. So there it was, I kept hearing about Erewhon and thought we must visit this place. And we did!

I was immediately impressed with the large movie like posters of the rawfood speakers that have lectured at the store, such as David Wolfe and Ani Phyo. It looks like Hollywood already. They would never have such large posters for any rawfood leader in Baltimore, or any poster for that matter. Also outside there was a generous seating area with picnic style benches to sit at while you chow down on their food. Inside the store was nice, though nothing really extraordinary in terms of interior design. What was different was the features. There was the typical deli, juice bar, produce department, and many aisles and refrigerators of vegetarian and vegan packaged foods, as well as aisles of beauty products. The standout features were the Tonic Bar and the aisles of many rawfood products, the most I have ever seen in any store in the world. So, right away I know this is the biggest center for rawfood in the world. Every major brand of rawfood products, and many small brands I had never heard of, were represented there. We spent much time perusing the aisles, finally selecting some intriguing rawfood products to try. We skipped the Tonic Bar this time since we were dehydrated and tired and just wanted a simple green juice to drink and not the potent superfood, superherb blends the Tonic Bar serves up. The green juice was excellent and the avocado sandwich was very nice, although the gluten free bread gave me an allergic reaction later that day. Also, the avocado from the produce department was excellent. One of the employees was super friendly and loved to talk to our baby. Of note, there were a lot of vain beautiful people visiting the store of which the Hollywood area is famous.

The rest of the day we rested since we had a very early morning flight and little sleep.

Have you visited a really nice natural foods store? Tell us about it.

Roland’s Websites:
Green Harmony Living – Planet friendly website
Green Harmony Living Store – Raw, Vegan, & Organic Foods & Products
Green Harmony Design – Beautiful, Edible, & Sustainable Gardens
Green Harmony Tours – Sustainable Ecotours to Germany

First we visited the Pure Food and Wine restaurant that we have heard has great rawfood, and the menu certainly looked tantalizing, but unfortunately, the prices were out of our reach during this trip, so we had to pass. We just looked inside and glanced at the menu, which we wanted to take with us to study but the staff gently denied us.

Luckily, the same restaurant has a carryout and small dine in establishment just around the corner called One Lucky Duck. Here the prices were a little more reasonable although still not what I would call affordable. Everything is organic and/or local, raw, vegan (except for raw honey), free of dairy, refined sugars, animal products (except raw honey), and processed ingredients. The menu features “sweets”, “cookies & snacks”, Norwalk pressed juices”, “juices”, “shakes”, “prepared foods”, and “salads”.

There were many seemingly delectable choices on the menu, of which we wanted to try many of, but alas we only could try two dishes and one drink. They have these interesting and supposedly nutritious Norwalk juicer made juices made the night before, but they are stored in plastic containers in the deli case. So I opted instead for a fresh made Thai green drink that was nice except it had too much ginger in it. The Caesar Salad was excellent with chunks of romaine lettuce coated with a creamy dry sauce, topped with decorative Nori strips. The Spicy Thai Lettuce Wraps was a dud as nobody in our group liked it very much. It seems it was a bit too hard to chew being mostly cabbage shreds wrapped in collard leaves, and it had little distinctive flavor.

Overall, the staff was not particularly friendly probably because they looked overworked, some food was very nice, some not, and the atmosphere was lacking. It is quite obvious that the place is setup for carryout because of its tiny space and deli order setup. We look forward to trying more entrees and desserts next time we visit.

One Lucky Duck (Pure Food and Wine’s “juice & takeaway” place)

Overall: **

125 East 17th Street, New York, NY 10003; P 212.477.7151; www.oneluckyduck.com

Hours: Open daily: 9:00 – 23:00

Atmosphere: ** Noisy, not relaxing since people are in line behind you, and people are waiting for tables in this cramped space

Food: ***

Service: *

Credit cards: Yes

Drinks Available: A diverse offering of fresh juices (including daily made Norwalk juices) and shakes.

Price Range: Prices run the gamut from $3.50 to $100; entrees are $10 to $19

Recommended Dishes: Thai Green juice (no ginger), Strawberry Blonde shake, Caesar Salad, Zucchini and Tomato Lasagna

Reservations: None needed.

Sound Level: Noisy.

Wheelchair Access: Yes

(Key: **** = Excellent, *** = Good, ** = Fair, * = Poor)








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Bonobo’s Restaurant
Address: 18 East 23rd Street New York, NY 10010
Phone: 212.505.1200
Website: www.bonobosrestaurant.com


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Bonobo’s Restaurant was quite easy to find since it is prominently located on a busy street across the street from the popular Madison Square Park and nearby one of NYC’s historic architectural gems, The Flat Iron. Unfortunately, there was façade renovation being done on the building where it was located so there was scaffolding in front. Once inside the place felt rather sparse and almost had a diner feel to it, except most diner’s have more decoration. There was a large deli to the right and large refrigerators to the left and simple rows of seating straight ahead in the back. Perhaps you can tell that I didn’t enjoy the atmosphere. I got the feeling that this restaurant is designed to be mostly for lunchtime crowds since for dinner it doesn’t give one a comfortable feeling that makes you want to stay awhile.

The next shortcoming was ordering experience which for a first time customer was hard to navigate. Diners order from the large board hanging on the wall or one points to the items in the deli case and orders that way. Since the board is hard to read and understand we ordered by pointing at the food directly. Unfortunately, two of the staff did not speak fluent English and this made it difficult to understand them when asking questions. And questions we had a plenty since items were not marked clearly. After awhile we got tired of asking the same questions twice or thrice. We also made the mistake of ordering packaged foods from the refrigerator since they had a buy one, get one free offer. I say mistake because it was obvious to me upon tasting these packaged foods that they were not the freshest foods.

Bonobo’s Restaurant calls itself a vegetarian restaurant, but as far as we could tell, everything was raw and vegan. The menu states “organic as available”. The menu features “beverages”, “blends (coconut water and fruit)”, “tapas”, “soups” (cold and warm), “salads”, “organic dressings”, “scoops (delicious on salads)”, “organic seed nut crackers, crisps & wafers”, “entrees”, and “sweets”.

The best item we ate was a simple mixed green salad and the Lemon Garlic Tahini dressing was super! The other packaged items seemed old, not fresh. A small pancake like nut pate was not very tasty. The Tomato Soup was nice. For dessert were tried two of their balls: one was chocolate, one was halvah. The halvah ball was very tasty, the chocolate not so good.

Overall, I was glad to have been able to eat mostly, organic, raw, vegan food at a dedicated restaurant, but some of the foods were not fresh or tasty or were poor recipes, and the atmosphere was lacking. Next time I would like to try some of their juices like Pressed Sugar Cane Juice (since this is hard to find & healthy), raw lasagna, and raw ice cream.

Bonobo’s Restaurant
Overall: **
Atmosphere: **
Open box dining hall and deli creates a rather cold, unwelcoming atmosphere. This is not a restaurant you want to linger over a relaxing, candlelight dinner.
Food: **
Service: **
Credit cards: Yes
Drinks Available: A diverse offering of fresh daily made juices and smoothies made of coconut water and fruit.
Price Range: Prices are reasonable and not expensive.
Recommended Dishes: Pressed Sugar Cane Juice, Young Thai Coconut Water, Pressed Fruit & Vegetable Juices, Agave Lemonade, Fruit Blends, Banana Coconut Cream, Tomato Soup, All freshly made salads and dressings, Lasagna, and Halvah ball.
Reservations: None needed.
Sound Level: Relatively peaceful with only a few diners; may be noisy with many people since the space is an open box and there is no real decorations, furnishings, or plants.
Wheelchair Access: Yes

(Key: ****= Excellent, ***= Good, ** = Fair, *= Poor)

Thank You and Make Today a Wonderful Day!
Roland’s Websites:
Green Harmony Living - Planet friendly website
Green Harmony Living Store - Raw, Vegan, & Organic Foods & Products
Green Harmony Design - Beautiful, Edible, & Sustainable Gardens
Green Harmony Tours - Sustainable Ecotours to Germany

Here is the Roland’s Review of NYC Rawfood Restaurants

• Bono's
• One Lucky Duck
• Quintessence

Thank You and Make Today a Wonderful Day!
Roland’s Websites:
Green Harmony Living - Planet friendly website
Green Harmony Living Store - Raw, Vegan, & Organic Foods & Products
Green Harmony Design - Beautiful, Edible, & Sustainable Gardens
Green Harmony Tours - Sustainable Ecotours to Germany

Hello Everyone!

Naoko, Yuma, and I attended David Wolfe’s lecture last night and we had a wonderful experience! David gave an inspiring and entertaining talk on his latest research findings into many topics of healthy living that increases longevity. Some of the major points he covered include the best and the worst quality drinking water, the single cause of most major diseases and health issues (including anxiety, arthritis, body lumps, brain chemistry, cancer, candida, cell phone issues, dental issues, diabetes, poor eyesight, heart disease, weak immune system, intestinal issues, liver issues, lyme disease, osteoporosis, pollen allergies, prostate problems, and more), why calcium supplements and wearing shoes are the worst things for your body, the solutions to the major diseases of the body, the main points of his Longevity Now program (1st edition is sold out, 2nd edition available in June.2010) including medicinal mushrooms, superherbs, superfoods (like bee pollen & honey, raw cacao, Goji Berries, Maca, marine phytoplankton, noni fruit) super supplements (like enzymes, MSM, probiotics), super technology, the dangers of static electricity, raw, live foods, seaweeds, and more! As you can read, he covered much ground and many important topics. I will be covering more of these topics in more detail in future blogs and newsletters, so stay tuned!

I am currently reading David’s Longevity NOW book and watching some of the ten videos from 2009’s Longevity Experience conference and I highly recommend this series to anyone. No matter who you are or what your ailment or if you think you have perfect health you owe it to yourself to purchase this book and videos or attend the next live conference in Sept.2010. I guarantee you will learn much new information about a healthy lifestyle with infinite positive possibilities. In short, it will change your life in ways that never thought possible. Since I have been reading the Longevity NOW book I have been inspired to eat a healthier, higher percentage living foods diet and I have been able to share this desire with my wife. David makes it easy by emphasizing taking in the higher quality foods and herbs, and not by emphasizing what one should not eat which tends to leave people discouraged. Our health has improved markedly as I have read this book, and after meeting David Wolfe in person last night and hearing him speak, we look forward with eager anticipation to the future as we put into practice the other concepts in the Longevity program!

We offer many of the highest quality superfoods and supplements that David Wolfe recommends everyone eat including Raw Cacao Beans, Nibs & Powders, Digestive Enzymes, Goji Berries, Wild Honey, Maca Powder, MSM, Raw Nuts & Seeds, Probiotics, Sauerkraut, Seaweeds, Shilajit, Spirulina, and Zeolite! We will be carrying more of his recommended superherbs, superfoods, super supplements, and super technology in the near future as this is our current main goal!

So check out our many fantastic specials on the above super products, our new and improved home website, and our new cheaper shipping rates today!!! Visit us at www.GreenHarmonyLiving.com

Thank You and Make Today a Wonderful Day!

Roland’s Websites:
Green Harmony Living – Planet friendly website
Green Harmony Living Store – Raw, Vegan, & Organic Foods & Products
Green Harmony Design – Beautiful, Edible, & Sustainable Gardens
Green Harmony Tours – Sustainable Ecotours to Germany

There are only healthy, life giving ingredients in all three: Plain Flax Sprouts’ ingredients is certified organic sprouted flax seed; Flax Sprouts with Blueberries’ ingredients are certified organic flax sprouts, certified organic blueberries (organic blueberries, organic evaporated cane juice, organic maple syrup, and organic sunflower oil); Flax Sprouts with Cranberries’ ingredients are certified organic sprouted flax seed, certified organic cranberries (organic cranberries, organic evaporated cane juice and organic cranberry seed oil). That’s it!

The powder form allows for easy mixing into applesauce, cereals, smoothies, yoghurt, baking or entrée recipes, by itself, and so on. One to three 10 grams scoops a day is all that is recommended.

Of course, the myriad of benefits of flax seed are well known today. BioSprouts is even better in that it is made of “a truly living, enzyme active superfood providing the perfect blend of health promoting nutrients including omega 3 fatty acids (over 2300mg per serving for the Plain Flax Sprouts, 1600mg for Blueberry and Cranberry), lignans, soluble and insoluble fiber, vitamins, minerals, and enzymes.”

We have tried Organic BioSprouts™ Flax Sprouts and found it to be a delicious and easy way to get the many health benefits of flax seeds into our diet. Flax seed oil does not stay fresh very long, and flax seeds by themselves are hard to chew or require grinding to make more digestible. In contrast, the BioSprouts is ready to use, just place a scoop into your favorite food, stir it together, and reap the benefits!

Roland’s Websites:
Green Harmony Living - Planet friendly website
Green Harmony Living Store - Raw, Vegan, & Organic Foods & Products
Green Harmony Design - Beautiful, Edible, & Sustainable Gardens
Green Harmony Tours - Sustainable Ecotours to Germany

Hi Roswitha

Thanks for your fertilizer question. Your question and my answer follow.

Question: Would you consider selling Market America’s Lawn Power or Plant Power products on your Green Harmony Living’s website?

Answer: I looked at the Lawn Power product. I think its premise is sound: adding enzymes, nitrogen, and minerals to plants and the soil are good. However, what I don’t like is that the ingredients list is vague; it doesn’t state exactly what the ingredients are; which enzymes, what form of nitrogen, and what form of minerals. There are natural forms and synthetic forms of each. I prefer to use only natural, organic, and animal free forms. I did read that this product uses urea nitrogen which is a red flag for me since I am morally and health consciously opposed to using slaughterhouse products. Urea is made from the urine from slaughtered cows and buying it supports the slaughter industry.

I prefer to use natural forms of nitrogen from plants such as cottonseed meal, and will occasionally, if for a special reason, use non slaughterhouse, composted animal manure from wild animals, such as bat or bird guano, since then my plants and in turn I am consuming what is naturally found in the environment. Using only plant forms is called veganic, as in veganic fertilizer. Veganic is important to me since I think that if you apply animal fertilizers to plants, the plants take up many of the toxins, which are higher in animals than in plants, so that when you eat that plant, you are getting more toxins into your body. In fact, there is a line of science called phytoremediation that uses plants to take toxins out of the soil for safer cleanup and disposal, so this phenomenon is well documented. I want to live as toxin free as possible and I think that what fertilizer I put on my vegetable garden is important to my health, so I choose only plant derived fertilizers which I think are safe and effective.

To go a step further, in most instances for a vegetable garden, one doesn’t need fertilizers if you are able to put in a little extra effort. Good, homemade compost is the best nutrient source and all your plants need. For lawns or ornamental plant beds, some organic, plant fertilizers may be needed to establish a new planting, but once the plants are established after a few years, and you employ nutrient recycling where you leave the lawn and plants trimmings on the lawn and beds, then fertilizers aren’t really needed. Using fertilizers, especially slaughterhouse and factory farm derived ones, causes more global warming since it generally takes much energy to produce the fertilizer, transport it, and then once applied, the plants need more water to deal with the higher nutrient load, especially during the summer when plants can burn or die out from too much fertilizer. The only fertilizers found in nature are naturally occurring animal excrement, nutrient recycling from leaves and other decaying plant (mostly) and animal (some) materials, and nitrogen from the air (which is why plants get a boost after a rain),


In my green point of view, following nature's way is the soundest way to go since in nature we see regeneration and longterm sustainability at work as opposed to humans’ unsustainable, rape the earth mantra which will only bring about the planet’s demise.

In summary, the lawn power sounds fine in premise, but I don’t agree with the use of urea nitrogen and cannot comment on the other ingredients since it doesn’t state what they are. For me as a consumer or when deciding what products to carry on our webstore, I do not buy from companies who are vague or do not list exactly what the ingredients are since it appears that the company is trying to hide the truth and are, in many cases, using cheaper ingredients, i.e. slaughterhouse and factory made, and then cover this fact up with glossy marketing and then sell it to unknowledgeable consumers. That is, in a nutshell, how most products are made and sold by large companies, especially in the USA. That is why we started our company Green Harmony Living, to offer to the public really healthy, really green, really truthful, really effective products that are hard to find anywhere else these days! I apologize if I gave you more information than you wanted to know. I believe in being honest with people since I believe this helps people more in the long term.

To our green and healthy world!

Roland Oehme

Thank You and Make Today a Wonderful Day!
Roland’s Websites:
Green Harmony Living - Planet friendly website
Green Harmony Living Store - Raw, Vegan, & Organic Foods & Products
Green Harmony Design - Beautiful, Edible, & Sustainable Gardens
Green Harmony Tours - Sustainable Ecotours to Germany

A friend of mine sent me an email with an attached publication written by some group extolling the importance of humans getting enough Omega 3s in our diet. I have read about the importance of Omega 3s since I used to eat hemp seeds and it is advertised as being a rich source of these healthy fats. Which reminds me, it is time to order some more hempseed!!! I love the taste of hempseed and it is easy to use in many foods.

I don;t believe one needs to eat fish in order to get Omega 3s, as repeatedly written in the article, after all the fish is getting the Omega 3s not from itself but from plants, ie from algae and other water growing plants!!! I just love how these typical medical or organization publications write these supposedly helpful information writings and write that a person has to eat animal products to be healthy. Well what about all of the vegan animals out there that are doing just fine, in fact, thriving on their purely plant diets??? I believe humans are also designed to thrive on a purely or mostly vegan diet.

I know Purslane, in fact it grows as a so called weed here, or as I like to say a "wild plant". Purslane is healthy and rich in Omega 3s too. However, it does have the same oxalic acid that is found in Spinach I believe and as such is not recommended to be eaten too often since this acid can deplete minerals from the body or such. Purslane seems to grow the best in compacted soils in seemingly the least favorable conditions. So, it is a good idea to leave areas in the vegetable garden that is untilled, unmaintained, where nutritious wild plants, such as Purslane, Lambsquarters, Nettle, Malva (see photo above), etc., may grow, and provide you with super foods that will do wonders for your body.

I think our modern lifestyles today have taken us away from our gardens and from the wilderness where we would have historically gotten our nutrients, from the wild foods, unwashed and unprocessed. Look at all of the animals out there doing just fine eating what they find in the wild, including vegan animals.

So, that's why I think it is very valuable, even essential for every person to grow their own food and to not wash their food unless they have to. Our overly clean society washes much of the nutrients off of the food. Yes if we just grazed in our vegetable gardens on all of the planted and wild greens there we would get a more complete diet. To me this seems to be the easiest and closest way for us humans to replicate the wild, healthy diet our bodies were designed to consume. That's what my dad taught me and that's why you see me grazing in the vegetable garden or anywhere else I see a healthy dandelion growing!

I do eat purslane, when I am lucky enough to find it growing wild in our garden. It is great in a salad since it is fresh tasting (slightly acidic) and crunchy. Now where do I order my hempseeds??... Oh, that's right...at www.GreenHarmonyLiving.com.

Thank You and Make Today a Wonderful Day!
Roland’s Websites:
Green Harmony Living - Planet friendly website
Green Harmony Living Store - Raw, Vegan, & Organic Foods & Products
Green Harmony Design - Beautiful, Edible, & Sustainable Gardens
Green Harmony Tours - Sustainable Ecotours to Germany