Pure Jeevan Blog - Pure Jeevan Raw Foods

Wow, it's been four months since we've run an article in our "Produce Buying Tips" series! Well, in today's installment, we want to remind you that our tips don't stop at the grocery store; you want to make sure you store your produce properly once it is at home to keep it fresh for as long as possible. After all, what good is your amazing organic produce going to do you if it goes bad? (That would be some super-expensive compost!)

Since Wendi has a difficult time right now with many motions involving her shoulders and wrists, I've taken over the responsibility of putting our groceries into the refrigerator. (I'm usually the "carry it all into the house" person, and then she likes to put away the refrigerated stuff.) But, wow, who knew so much went into storing vegetables and fruits I had no idea some things required air circulation, while others needed to be kept in sealed bags. Over the years, Wendi has fine tuned a system for keeping our fridge produce as fresh as possible and for maximizing storage time.

As many of you know, Kevin and Annmarie Gianni (of Renegade Health) have now started their RV tour, for which they selected Pittsburgh as their official kick-off location. While here, we at Pure Jeevan took a special ride in "The Kale Whale," their veggie-oil-powered RV. Inside, we enjoyed a comfortable ride (which included hanging out with Johnny 5 -- their cat -- and drinking some hot tea prepared right there in the Kale Whale). Outside, we endured the freezing cold temperatures of Pittsburgh while pumping filtered used veggie oil into special holding tanks in the RV. Here is some video footage from our Kale Whale encounter!

Today we're running another installment of our "Thankful Thursday" series. This time, we're especially thankful ... for YOU, the Pure Jeevan family! Who'd have thought, less than two years ago when launching this blog, that we'd make thousands of connections with others looking for inspiration on their raw food journey !!? It's simply astounding -- and we're still actually "just getting started."

As always, we're thrilled to provide information and inspiration. It's counter-intuitive, when you really consider it; "raw foods" may be just two simple words, yet there always seems to be more and more to talk about, more people to interview, more success stories to highlight, more recipes to contribute, more tips and tricks to share, more personal reflections to offer.

We'd like to welcome the RawFoodRightNow blog readers to our Pure Jeevan blog! We are a new blog (started earlier this month), so we are thrilled that you have already found us and have taken the time to come and meet us!

Our blog is focused on a holistic look at living life as a raw food vegan (we have a holisitc raw-focused newsletter, too). We write posts that cover the body, mind, spirit, and emotions--as well as just random talk straight from our hearts to the blog page.

We update at least five times per week because we have daily blog features (Makin' It Monday, where we share raw recipes we are making; Take the Time Tuesday, where we introduce people or businesses we think may interest you; Weird Wednesay, where Jim shares observations about strange things; Thankful Thursday, where we share what we are thankful for and ask you to share, as well; and Fun-Filled Friday, where we tell you what fun things we have planned for our weekend).

Read more: Which Sibling Is the Heyoka?

Jim here with another Weird Wednesday.

Recently, at the store, I came across a little plastic tool, priced at $1.49. It was an orange peeler. I'd never heard of such a thing. As someone who eats about 20 oranges/week, I was intrigued. Do you mean to tell me, I thought, that my days of laboriously de-skinning oranges would disappear (those trips to the company bathroom to remove the orange pulp from my fingernails!)?

Last year when I organized a raw food spiritual retreat at an ashram, I met some very lovely people. Two of those individuals were Patty and Denny (you can visit their blog to say hello to them). They were new to gourmet raw foods, so they were enthusiastic learners at the retreat. When they returned home after the blissful weekend, they began using their new raw food knowledge. Here are some excerpts of emails I have received from them since the retreat last year:

Well, you said you're motive in putting on this retreat was simply to pass on this valuable information and to help others; you were very successful where we're concerned - it is no exaggeration to say that you have changed our lives forever.

We've been almost 100% raw since the retreat. ... We're so excited about this new way of eating that we bought a new Vita-Mix. ...We can actually say that this has been our most notable and enjoyable dining experience - ever, in our entire lives! No one would ever put that much work into something if it were just for money; it is obvious that you did it from your heart. We feel blessed to have received such a gift.

Read more: Patty and Denny, Pure Jeevan Friends

A few years ago, my dear friend Melissa and I decided to split the cost and order a raw food home study course (then known as The Dr. Ann Wigmore Program).Let me tell you, this was not a cheap program that we purchased, but at that time there wasn't as much free information available on the Internet like we now have.

Was it worth the cost? Well, kind of. Since we had both been reading and learning so much about raw foods (she had actually been raw for a long time many years before), much of the information wasn't new to us. However, if someone was newly learning about raw foods, the program would probably have been fantastic. The quality of the materials we received wasn't great (photocopies of photocopies that were sometimes difficult to read, and some videos that were blurry or difficult to hear), but at least we had a lot of information at our fingertips.