Green Harmony Living

Hello Everyone!

I have sensed for many years that unhealthy eating habits continue to be promoted as normal and even have been given the most favorable marketing and placement in newspapers and other forms of media. At the same time I have sensed that truly healthy eating and lifestyle habits, while generally known by the government and much of the American public, has continually been described as being extreme and is often hidden away in newspapers and not given the chance to be advertised.

Well, in The Baltimore Sun newspaper on Wednesday, 04.August.2010 I found conclusive evidence for the media bias against promoting true health. Hidden away on page 9, which is about the center of the 20 page main section, there is a small article titled, “Red meats eyed as possible cause of cancer”. This article cites a study by researchers led by Dr. Amanda Cross of the National Cancer Institute, that states that red meat is “a possible cause of cancer”, and the chemical additives often added to meat, namely nitrates and nitrites, “could … raise the risk of bladder cancer”. This article sounds like very important news for the public to hear, and yet it is buried in the middle of the paper. Even serving to disarm the premise of the article is a photo next to the article of a hot dog in a bun.

It looks like standard operating procedure for newspapers to hide the real science based news regarding health in the middle of the paper. The real damming evidence that the media is hiding real health information and glorifying the status quo of eating animal foods is what I found in the same paper. On the front page of the Taste section of The Baltimore Sun on the same day, Wednesday, 04.August.2010, there are large photos of hamburgers barbecuing on the grill, a sausage sandwich, a smoked crab cake, and three people chowing down on foods. The implied message is that this is great food, especially since the article is about “Charm City Food Tours” in Baltimore.

Furthermore, on the same cover there is an article titled “Charleston and Woodberry Kitchen get Zagat honors”. I have never seen an article in any newspaper about restaurants receiving vegetarian or vegan awards or honors, even though they are out there. In addition, on page 4 of the Taste section there is an article titled, “Basting with a brush made of herbs”. The article is about grilling meat and along with it there is a large dynamic photo of grilling meat with flames shooting up. Over on page 5, there is continuation of the Zagat honors with the two above mentioned restaurants basking in glory with a photo of each. I will mention that also on the cover page of the Taste section there is an article titled, “Purslane: a weed with nutritional punch”. So, sometimes a health touting article does make it through to the cover page of a smaller section within the paper, but rarely if ever to the main cover page. However, it is very noticeable that the photo of a purslane plant is tiny compared to the meat photos on the same page. This further validates the premise of my article, that the animal foods diet gets most, if not all, of the press and plant foods get much smaller press.

I think the media have an inherent conflict of interest. Media is supposed to supply the American public with unbiased truthful information, but they are not currently. The reason is, the major media corporations, including publications of all kinds (newspapers, magazines, etc.), TV, radio, & internet, all are dependent on advertising revenue from other mostly large corporations who only want the status quo animal based diets continue. If you don’t believe that this could possibly be true, when was the last time you have seen an advertisement or an article or news story or broadcast or anything that told why eating animal foods was wrong or was a positive depiction of vegetarianism or veganism? Probably never, right? In fact, I heard from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) of how they tried to advertise during the Super Bowl one year recently and the TV network at first allowed and then suddenly disallowed their commercial because many of the other advertisers threatened to pull their ads if PETA was allowed to broadcast their ad. This is the real behind the scenes news that people don’t hear about. And the reason that most of the American public still feel that eating meat and dairy is the right thing to do is because they hear any major opposing viewpoints from the mainstream media or government. I really think that if the truth was broadcast strongly and positively just as the status quo pro meat and airy is broadcast now, vegetarianism and veganism would surge in popularity and the meat eating culture would die out. This was seen when Oprah Winfrey famously declared on her show that she will never eat another hamburger after hearing firsthand about the horrors of industrial agricultures’ treatment of animals and the very unhealthy aspects of eating meat from the former farmer, now vegan, Howard Lyman. After Oprah’s show aired, sales of hamburgers and beef plummeted across the US. That is why the Texas Cattlemen sued Oprah. Oprah eventually won, but the outcome of that episode was that people in the media are still afraid to speak their mind if they believe meat and dairy is harmful since they think they will get sued.

I think the current trend is the truth about the dangers of an animal based diet and the positives of a plant based diet is coming out, however slowly and behind the scenes, and eventually an animal based diet will be in the minority and a plant based diet will be in the majority. The reason is that eventually, after scientists have performed many studies, the evidence will be overwhelming in favor of plant foods. If you research science journals and even the government’s guidelines you will see that a plant based diet being validated all the time as we become better at performing scientific studies and analyzing the data. So, I think it is only a matter of time until we see most of society living in harmony with themselves and the planet. Even today, I sense that meat eaters know that eating meat is unhealthy, but they eat meat for taste or to fit in with society. This will change as evidence to the contrary mounts and habits are changed in children. Smart people today are coming to the conclusion that an animal friendly, plant based diet is the best choice for a healthy, happy lifestyle. Let’s all choose to live a compassionate, healthy, and happy lifestyle today!
What did you think of this article? Please leave your comments if you have something intelligent to add!

Written by Roland Oehme

Thank You and Make Today a Wonderful Day!
Roland and Naoko’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!

Most likely many people were surprised, like I was, to hear David Wolfe disparage calcium supplements of all kinds in his Longevity NOW Conference and Program. I recently bought his program, which includes a book and several CDs, in Dec. 2009. Then in Jan. 2010 I bought his 10 DVD set of his 2009 Longevity NOW Conference. In these programs he shares a ground shaking revelation of how calcium supplements are causing great harm to our bodies. He calls this process of calcium supplements and other minerals clogging up the body’s systems, calcification. In fact, he states that calcification is the cause of most diseases of humankind. Is that mind blowing or what???!!! Of course, this is contrary to what most doctors, medical professionals, dieticians, nutritionists, and the general public believe. It seems, some groups, like the dairy and meat industry, have been doing a great job brainwashing the public and everyone else into believing that calcium supplements and milk are necessary to prevent osteoporosis and bone loss which becomes pronounced as most people age. Well. I believe that what is happening is that it is the meat, dairy, and processed foods based diets that are actually causing calcium deficiencies and the subsequent bone losses. The easy explanation for this is that animal foods are acid forming in the human body, while most plant foods are alkaline forming. The human body uses its own calcium reserves to counteract the acid condition in the body caused by the acid forming foods.

Well, in The Baltimore Sun newspaper, on Monday, 02.August.2010, there was an article hidden in the middle of the paper with the important headline “Adding calcium supplements may boost risk of heart attacks”. The article goes on to describe two clinical trials that Dr. Ian Reid of the University of Auckland in New Zealand led that showed an increase in risk of a heart attack for 143 women who took a calcium supplement versus 111 women who took a placebo. The article states “Although the increase in risk is small, they said, the widespread use of the supplements suggests that many women could be adversely affected.” It goes on further, “An accompanying editorial suggested that patients with osteoporosis not be treated with supplements unless they are also receiving medication for this condition.” It appears that what David Wolfe has stated about calcium supplements being harmful is true. In this case he is being backed up by mainstream science.

Unfortunately, the article was hidden in the middle of the paper where I only happened to find it since I read the full paper that day. This article is so important to the public’s health that I think it really should have been located on the cover page of the newspaper.

What did you think of this article? Please leave your comments if you have something intelligent to add!

Written by Roland Oehme

Thank You and Make Today a Wonderful Day!
Roland and Naoko’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!

Have you ever eaten nuts or seeds that were not fresh, had no flavor, not a good quality, had many broken pieces, or were just plain rancid? Have you ever noticed that is often hard to find good quality nuts and seeds? Have you ever eaten really fresh, not just goof, but great quality nuts and seeds? Maybe you are like most people and you have gotten used to low quality nuts and seeds since that is what is available at most stores. Yes, even at Whole Foods! I have not been impressed with the quality of nuts and seeds sold there.


Did you know that manufacturers will “hide” the poor quality nuts and seeds by roasting them and also by added other herbs and spices, or coat them with yoghurt and chocolate? By hiding the inferior quality nuts and seeds by cooking them and with stronger flavors, and then can charge you more for the extra ingredients, manufacturers can make more profit and sell some nuts and seeds that would otherwise be unsaleable. For example, nuts and seeds in broken pieces are hard to sell since nobody wants to eat them. But, once you mix them with a special ingredient like chocolate, or grind them up to make a nut butter, like peanut butter, they instantly become saleable and actually increase in value.

Did you know most nuts and seeds in stores are not fresh and often sit out in warm air, turning rancid (decomposing)? That is because nuts and seeds are properly stored in an airtight container in a refrigerator or even freezer in order to keep fresh for longer periods. Of course, fresh is best. It is important to not eat rancid nuts and seeds since they lose their nutrient content once rancid and they taste horrible too, meaning we should not eat them.

Did you know that many nuts and seeds that are often labeled as “raw” are not really raw or uncooked? That’s right. For instance, often cashews are labeled as raw, but during the typical processing, they are boiled to remove their toxic shells. A new occurrence has been the recent mandate by California almond growers to pasteurize all of their almonds, meaning most almonds in the US are not raw even if labeled as such. Almonds from Europe may still be raw. The way to test them is to try to sprout the nuts and seeds. If the nut or seed will sprout and start to grow into a seedling, then it is raw, if not, then it has been cooked.


We have tried many types and brands of nuts and seeds during the course of running our online store business. We have found that the best flavored, freshest, best quality nuts and seeds with no rancidity and all whole pieces are sold by Blue Mountain Organics. And they produce an extensive line of products, such as, nuts, seeds, dried fruits, sea vegetables, raw ice cream, raw snacks, cookies, cakes, bars, cereals, brownies, and so on. Since we sell their products at our store I have talked to them many times and I have learned some things. I was startled to learn that Blue Mountain Organics actually hands picks each nut and seed as they package them up. I get the feeling that other manufacturers just shovel the nuts and seeds into the bags and have no quality control. This became apparent to Naoko and I as we have eaten another manufacturer’s Pistachio nuts. Very often, every time we would eat them, there would be a rancid nut in your hand full of Pistachio nuts that would taste horrible and ruin the whole eating experience. Do I need to tell how many times I had to spit out the nuts and rinse out my mouth in order to rid myself of this terrible taste? Too many times inn my mind! I want to be able to eat nuts or seeds and to enjoy eating them every time! I don’t want to have to check every one before plopping them in my mouth, like I have been doing with the Pistachio nuts. That is not enjoyable!

Another thing I learned, is that Blue Mountain Organics does not by in huge bulk quantities like many retailers do in order to simply save costs. This practice will save money, but will mean lower quality nuts and seeds since it means you are storing them for longer periods during which their freshness will disappear and then you have rancid nuts and seeds. On the contrary, Blue Mountain Organics buys in smaller quantities in order to ensure freshness in all of their products, all the time! You might pay a little more, but you are guaranteed freshness and more nutrients for you body! I think this is much more important! After all, do you want to spend your whole life eating old, rancid nuts and seeds, or do you want to eat the freshest, most nutrient dense nuts and seeds on the planet!

So, you can imagine how happy we were to find Blue Mountain Organics. We noticed right away at how much better the quality was in their products. Blue Mountain Organics has two brands of nuts and seeds: Love Raw Foods™ (LRF) and Better Than Roasted® (BTR). Love Raw Foods™ nuts and seeds are organic, raw, vegan, fresh, whole pieces. Better Than Roasted® nuts and seeds are the same except the nuts and seeds are soaked and sprouted and then dehydrated.

This makes a huge difference in terms of taste and nutrient availability. Sprouted nuts and seeds will often taste better since the bitter tasting enzyme inhibitors found on nuts and seeds have been washed away. Enzyme inhibitors are on most nuts and seeds in order to prevent the nuts and seeds from sprouting until there is adequate moisture, which makes sense for survival of the nut or seed. Soaking and rinsing with water will simply wash these inhibitors away allowing the true nut and seed taste to shine through. Sprouting, that letting the germination process just start to begin, changes the chemical composition of the nut or seed, making more easily digestible and with more vitamins and minerals available to our bodies. So, BTR means more flavor and more nutrients! And Blue Mountain Organics is the only company with such a high commitment to quality and selling such a wide range of sprouted nuts and seeds.

The Better Than Roasted® brand includes many types of nuts and seeds including almonds, Italian almonds, apricot kernels, Brazil nuts, truly raw cashews, Extreme Nut Mix, hazelnuts, Just 4 Nuts, macadamias, pecans, pistachios, walnuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and black sesame seeds. BTR also includes even more nut butters, Love Bites (snack food), and trail mixes.

Love Raw Foods™ brand includes in addition to the nuts and seeds listed above, almond meal, chia seeds, brown flax seeds, golden flax seeds, and hemp seeds. LRF also makes an extensive range of nut & seed butters, dried fruits, spices, chocolate products, sproutable beans & seeds, sea vegetables, sproutable grains, superfoods, oils, and sweeteners.

This is only the tip of Blue Mountain Organics iceberg! Did I mention that they also make organic, raw, sprouted flours, have a whole line of raw “baked” products in the Raw Bakery™, and offer the world’s best ice cream that is raw and vegan in their Blue Mountain Cashew Creamery brand. You may view their extensive line of products here(Click Here)

In conclusion, after some bad experiences with rancid, old nuts and seeds from average manufacturers, I have come to trust and depend on the ultimate quality and taste of sprouted organic, raw, vegan nuts and seeds from Blue Mountain Organics’ Better Than Roasted® brand. Or if I want to save some money, I use their Love Raw Foods™ brand of nut and seeds and soak and sprout them myself. I dare you to try them today. You might not believe how good they taste! What have you got to lose except a lifetime of eating bad tasting, low nutrient nuts and seeds!

What did you think of this article? Please leave your comments if you have something intelligent to add!



Thank You and Make Today a Wonderful Day!
Roland and Naoko’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!

I just received wonderful news on Tuesday that Green America, the nation’s leading green business certification organization, has accepted our company, Green Harmony Living, into its Green Business Network membership! So, what does being a “green business” actually mean? Well, this is how Green America explains it in a nutshell. “Green businesses operate in ways that solve, rather than cause, both environmental and social problems. These businesses adopt principles, policies, and practices that improve the quality of life for their customers, their employees, communities, and the environment.” And furthermore, ”Green businesses listed in Green America’s National Green Pages™ have passed a screening process that qualifies them for membership in our Green Business Network™.”

As you can imagine, Naoko and I are thrilled to officially become a member in Green America’s Green Business Network. Being approved by Green America is a great validation that what we are doing is truly green and helping the environment and our community. So, this validation reassures us that our business, Green Harmony Living, is really having a positive impact and doing the right thing. We look forward to growing our green business in exciting ways in the future. Drop us a line if you have any suggestions!



We really love Green America since they are a great quality organization promoting green values for people and the environment. The best part is they provide a huge array of resources for everyone at their website: http://www.greenamericatoday.org/ We recommend that everyone visit their website and use it on a regular basis for all of your needs.
They produce an online and printed Green Pages (look for GHL’s listing !) that lists all of their approved green businesses. They also have resources on being a responsible shopper, green investing, sane financial strategies, they produce a green publication called Green American and have email newsletters, and produce the Green Festivals across the country each year (read below). As you can see, Green America provides a lot of information for a great quality of life.
And much of what Green America is suggesting is motivated by the idea of keeping capital in the hands of small businesses and communities instead of large corporations. This idea is very important for all of us, as every time you shop at a supermarket or mall or gas station or bank, or use a credit card, etc. you are very likely supporting big corporations who are reaping large profits and often don’t treat their workers fairly and don’t care about local communities in which they operate. This ‘power in the hands of a few” system has been operating like this for years and is one of the main reasons that America and many Americans are hurting financially today. If you are sick and tired of supporting the faceless, greedy, spineless mega corporations, then we encourage you to take positive action supporting change (and yes, if we all take action we can change everything!) by supporting Green America’s programs and by following their suggestions. Visit Green America’s website now: http://www.greenamericatoday.org/

We have exhibited at Green America’s Green Festival for the past two years in Washington, DC, and now that we are a certified green business means that we can continue to do so. In fact, we have signed up to exhibit at the 2010 Washington, DC Green Festival on October 23rd and 24th. Roland has attended every Green Festival in DC for the past six years! According to Green America, Green Festival is the world’s largest sustainable festival. They are currently held in four cities across the US every year, including Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, DC. This event attracts a lot of people, about 35,000 attended DC’s 2009 event. And all topics are covered so there is something for everyone to experience. Every year I am amazed at how much this event has grown and every year there are new companies and new speakers to see there. At the Green Festival, I really feel a green can do attitude in the air that keeps me motivated for a long time afterwards!

We invite you to visit our Green Festival booth on October 23rd & 24th in Washington, DC!
We will be located in the “Organic Food” section near the “Organic Foods Dining Area”. Our booth numbers are 851 and 852. To find out more, visit here: http://www.greenfestivals.org/washington-dc/news/ And, if you are interested in volunteering to help us at the booth, please let us know as we can always use a helping hand.

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 story of our summer 2010 trip to California where my wife, baby, and I sampled the burgeoning rawfood scene at festivals, stores, and restaurants in greater Los Angeles and San Diego. We also visited places that propose various green living methods. We hope you find this interesting. Please give us feedback as to what you learned or any comments you have. Enjoy!

Index
Day 01: Sun, 20.June: Erewhon in West Hollywood
Day 02: Mon, 21.June: Mother’s Market in Huntington Beach
Day 03: Tue, 22.June: Tree People, Miyako Hybrid Hotel, and Planet Raw
Day 04: Wed, 23.June: Exotica, Barry Koral, amd Ocean Beach Coop
Day 05: Thu, 24.June: Jeff's Edible Garden
Day 06: Fri, 25.June: Dwell on Design Conference, LifeFood Organic Café, and Ani Phyo
Day 07: Sat, 26.June: MJL Meetup & Mother’s Market
Day 08: Sun, 27.June: LA Raw Bazaar & Better Life Cuisine
Day 09: Mon, 28.June: LifeFood Organic Cafe
Day 10: Tue, 29.June: Jeff’s Edible Garden & Au Lac Restaurant
Day 11: Wed, 30.June: Return Trip to Baltimore

We woke up early for our flight back to Baltimore. We had a great time visiting the Los Angeles region, but I realized that I would not want to live here again for two very important reasons: 1) Smog is still omnipresent in the sky above Los Angeles, and 2) The over reliance on the automobile and the lack of a viable mass transit or bicycle transportation system. Both of these concerns have far reaching effects on life here. The two above concerns mean that living here is never really sustainable, not environmentally friendly, not healthy, not energy efficient, and prohibits real community building.

Los Angeles is not sustainable because it wastes too much energy, there is excessive air and water pollution, there is an over reliance on the automobile for transportation, meaning there will be complete gridlock in the future, and the lack of public parks and open space to provide for recreation and a connection to nature. Los Angeles is not environmentally friendly because most everything that has been built here for the past two hundred years was built for the benefit of humans and to the detriment of the environment, including the natural ecosystems and wildlife. The smog is a clear signal to humanity that we are not respecting the planet. The Los Angeles region is not healthy because of the way most people drive everywhere to get anywhere, and many people drive long commutes, which creates a sedentary lifestyle and leaves little time to be with your family, and stresses people out too. The air pollution in this region also has detrimental effects. Much energy is wasted in the Los Angeles region with the energy inefficient homes (often there is no or little insulation) and the wasted gasoline from excessive automobile use. Lastly, since people spend so much time driving in their cars, they rarely get a chance to know their neighbors. Also, southern California is well known for its gated communities and community associations that control who visits these places and who uses their facilities. Both of these practices create more divisive living practices and less connection between people. This is the key to form real communities and to form a sustainable society.

Upon our return to Baltimore it was nice to feel the warmth of the east coast again and to see the sun and clear blue sky. Baltimore may not be a perfect sustainable city, but the thing you notice right away compared to Los Angeles is that it is literally green here. I mean really green! The summer drought in Los Angeles means many plants turn brown in the summer. In Baltimore and the east coast there is a wonderful greenness most everywhere. And Baltimore has many parks and green spaces. Recently it was reported that the air quality is bad over Baltimore especially in the summer, but compared to Los Angeles it certainly looks and feels better. People do tend to overly rely on their automobiles for transportation here as they do in Los Angeles, and this phenomenon has gotten more intense over the years. So if you compared Los Angeles to Baltimore in terms of which is a more sustainable city, I would give Los Angeles a 5 and Baltimore a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best. I give Baltimore a slightly better score because of the more green spaces, that clean the air, and the air quality is better in Baltimore as well. Both cities need major improvements to be ranked near the top of being considered a sustainable world city.

What do you think? Tell us how your city ranks and why, and what cities do you think should receive a high sustainable city ranking and why.

Naoko and I are grateful for our California rawfood adventure! We learned and experienced much about rawfoods and are ready to share our newfound ideas and optimism with the world! Here we come!

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

Our last day in paradise! Strangely enough for much of our stay here the weather has been downright chilly and many days were cloudy with no sun. When we first arrived it was only in the 60’s during the day. And this was after leaving sunny, 90 + degrees Baltimore. Needless to say, at first we were freezing, and then we got used to the coolness after a few days. Does global warming have something to do with this apparent switch of the weather systems from coast to coast where Baltimore has more California like weather and vice versa?
So today was the last day to finish the edible garden work. Roland worked for several hours, then we all took a walk to the Huntington Beach pier and back. Then Roland worked the rest of the afternoon until 20:30. Roland and his friend removed a large Apricot tree since it wasn’t producing any fruit and it was in the wrong location (too warm), planted a Strawberry Guava, a Yellow Guava, a Jujube, a Raspberry, a Blackberry, and sowed Papaya seeds. We also made good headway in setting up the automatic drip irrigation system. Most everything was completed. The garden looks fantastic and is set to grow anew for the following year!

Au Lac Vegan Restaurant

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We all went to Au Lac for our last dinner in CA. Au Lac serves cooked Asian vegetarian food and raw, vegan foods as well. It was very nice. We met Chef Ito who was happy to see us and he just loved to see our baby, he even carried him around the restaurant showing him off to all the other diners. He also gave our baby a balloon. We also met the owner Mai who was very happy to see us as usual. Our rawfood meal was amazingly presented and tasting. We had the Cream Cheese appetizer (made with avocado), Da Bowl (salad with romaine and lots of avocado), and the living rice Risotto. The Risotto had a wonderful flavor and nice chewy texture. After eating, we met our friend, Lou Corona, who just happened to be there since he gives a talk every Tuesday night there. We also met Joel and Chef BeLive, who I have heard about. They both were very nice. Chef BeLive’s real name is Brian James Lucas, he lives in the Los Angeles area, and he calls himself a “Gourmet Living Culinary Artist”. I would like to learn more about him since he sounds fascinating. Chef BeLive said he is thinking about doing some sort of a rawfood fast food restaurant chain as well. It sounds like this idea is finally coming to fruition and it will be interesting to see who succeeds and makes this concept work.

Where have you had your favorite Asian vegetarian, vegan, or raw food meal experience?

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

Roland worked on his friend’s edible garden again. At 17:30 we drove to Hollywood again to meet Annie Jubb at LifeFood Organic cafe. This time we did meet her and it was a pleasure to sit down and talk to her. Annie is a wonderful and intelligent person. She is going to succeed in her business. We learned she grew up on an island in Washington state, about how she got started in this business, by baking as a child, how she lived and owned a café in Manhattan, NYC, and finally moved out to L.A. and opened her new café here. Her goal is to start of chain of healthy rawfood cafes across the country and eventually the world in order to get the populace eating healthy again. She cited how two thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. I believe that this is not just a business venture for her and I sense her genuine concern for humanity. It was really wonderful to meet someone like her that believes in herself and is taking direct action to improve life on this planet. If her vision is carried out successfully we might even join her by investing in her business as well. Look for a franchise to open near you! Oh, did I mention that her food is excellent, some of the best in L.A.? Also, she loves children as was evident by the way she lovingly talked to our baby. Do I need to mention the long drive home again?

So, has anyone visited an organic café or restaurant? Has anyone visited a raw food café or restaurant? Have you been to a nice vegetarian or vegan restaurant? Tell us about your experiences!

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

We attended the L.A. Raw Bazaar located at Jerry’s Garden in the West Hollywood area. This was a great, lively event that we were told occurs every month. There were a dozen or so vendors in a courtyard. On the other side was a small stage and chairs for the audience, so at times it was hard to talk to anyone. Around the corner there was a different seating to hear people give talks. I heard Troy Casey of Amazon Botanicals, and former actor and model, give an impassioned talk telling us to eat healthy, take the right whole food supplements that support the Amazon, and live a green lifestyle to save the world. It was refreshing to hear a creative, intelligent person like him talk and I hope he got through to the other people in the audience. I believed in most of what he said, although I don’t know about following our ancestors’ diet concept he was purporting. I met some old friends like Lou Corona (he gave a talk also), Rawsheed (selling his delectable rawfoods; his jackfruit pizza was great!), and Augusto and Victoria. There was a woman there named Melba Thorn (company: Native Gardens, Inc.) selling organic vegan truffles that were the best tasting healthy truffles I have ever tasted. If they are raw and made with good ingredients, I would like to eat more of them. The vibe there was relaxed, like a nice, neverending party, making it easy to meet people. I met some interesting new people including Kirk of Essential Living Foods who graciously offered us a multitude of tasty, super nutrified raw blended smoothies, Isaiah who sells ozone water, Sam Fetzer who does quantum laser healing catalyst and advanced energy work, a nice young Swiss entrepreneur named Michael Broennimann who makes raw oils (company: Oelmuehle Thunersee), and Raffi Dillian and Matt Pollock of Omica Organics. After talking with them for a while it finally dawned on me that I had seen Raffi give a presentation at David Wolfe’s 2009 Longevity Experience conference on the DVD set I purchased, and highly recommend for opening your mind to the ultimate health and world of possibilities. Talking to Raffi was truly amazing since you can see that he is very intelligent and very focused on his business, and what an incredible business he has. We hope to be working with him in the future.
What is your favorite health or green event you attended?
Next, we drove west to Santa Monica to dine at the all organic, raw, vegan café called Better Life Cuisine that Augusto had recommended. It had a nice appealing interior, although not the most relaxing since there is an adjoining room for other uses like drumming when we were there. The way it works is you go to the counter order your food and sit down at a table and then the server brings your food when it is ready. The food was excellent, presented very creatively, not fancy, and very tasty. We loved the three salad combo with “egg” salad (so creamy and chewy), broccoli stem slaw, and kale salad (all excellent), fiesta platter with its multitude of dips, and the very tasty and dense pizza. For dessert we ate a spirulina cheesecake that was very good and bought some to go. Of these the durian cheesecake was excellent. The other two: a cookie and a ball were nothing great. Overall we would highly recommend this café to everyone and we would love to go visit again.

Where did you have your best 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

Roland, Naoko, and baby visited the Dwell on Design conference at the Los Angeles convention center this afternoon. It was nice to see all different aspects of design, from architecture, interior design, industrial design, graphic design, and landscape architecture, presented here and all of the latest ideas were evident. There was even a play area for children. Unfortunately, most of the firms seemed to be selling high end stuff with nothing shown being affordable for us, unless you consider some of the prefab buildings to be a good value home since the smaller ones cost tens of thousands instead of a typical home hundreds of thousands of dollars cost. But these homes were tiny and would not work for most families. I love the concept of the prefab, but I think it must be practical with lots of storage space and an adequate number and size of rooms, and the savings that prefab engenders since it is made in a factory must be passed on to the buyer in order to attract mainstream America. Right now, the prefab architects seem to be mostly going after the high end market which I think defeats the biggest promise of prefab, which is to give the masses affordable, healthy, nontoxic, energy efficient, using passive energy, well designed homes, something that has never existed in the US as it largely has in Europe. I feel the biggest problem with the US housing market is the escalating, over evaluation of homes that are way over priced, unhealthy, toxic, energy inefficient, use sunlight inefficiently, and archaically and awkwardly designed. This fundamental truth is what caused the housing market bubble to burst, since the value is simply not there. Also of not at the conference were the living walls of green plants growing on walls. I also really liked viewing the student drawings showing us what is possible with the human mind. Unfortunately, most of these imaginative visions will never be realized and what is mostly built is drab and ordinary. Sometimes I think we should put students in charge since they are not overly concerned about keeping their career or getting reelected, they are more earnest and want to improve upon what currently exists.
What is your favorite design? It can be a building, interior, object, garden, and so on.
We drove north to Hollywood to visit LifeFood Organic café, owned by Annie Jubb. After searching for a parking space for nearly an hour, we finally decided the one hour parking meter was the best since it expired at eight o’clock. This is more of a takeout café since there are no restrooms here, although you can visit the coffee house next door. There are some seats available here. The food is excellent; some of the best rawfood we have tried on this trip. There are various juices prepared daily in the refrigerated case. We liked the green juice. The best items in the deli case that we tried were the award winning chili, spinach soup, shitake sandwich, lasagna, LFO burger, and the lemon poppyseed cake. The burger was truly amazing. It looked like a real miniature burger, had a real dense structure, real like bun and cheese, and tasted wonderful. Your hands will even get messy. The lemon poppyseed cake is one of the best rawfood desserts I have ever had. It was a joy to eat since it was really creamy and smooth and the flavor was amazing. We ate it very fast!
We wanted to meet the owner, Annie Jubb, and drove to the Yoga Works, where we were told she was, to no avail. However, while there we did get to meet well know rawfood chef, author, and dare I say, tv star, Ani Phyo, who was giving a talk. We bought her new book, Ani’s Rawfood Essentials, asked her to autograph the book, and we chatted with her for a short time. She was very nice. I only wish we could have talked to her longer, but she was on her way out. She was gracious enough to let us take a photo of her with us. Her new book is packed with over 250 recipes, with many of the recipes trying to emulate traditional recipes, but there are also many original rawfood and healthy fermented recipes to enjoy. We look forward to trying them out! So we didn’t meet Annie Jubb but we met Ani Phyo instead so life is full of happy surprises if you let it happen! I won’t talk about the long traffic laden drive home.

What is your favorite raw food chef?

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