Loving Earth Blog

Apple Crumble with Raisin infused Yacon Syrup Cacao Nib Sauce

info@lovingearth.net (Omid Jaffari) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Serves about 4 people

Ingredients

You Need

For the crumble

1 cup Really Raw Cashew flour *
2 tbsp Lucuma Powder
2 tbsp Light Agave Nectar

For the apples & raisins

½ cup Walnuts, roughly chopped
2 apples, pitted & cut into wedges
2 tbsp grape seed oil
¼ cup raisins soaked in 2 tbsp rose water
1 Vanilla Bean, scraped
¼ tsp Sea Salt

For the infused yacon syrup cacao nib sauce

½ cup Cacao Nibs
¼ cup Yacon Syrup
2 tbsp Mesquite Powder
½ tsp Sea Salt

Directions

For the crumble

1. Place all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until it reaches a doughy consistency.

2. Press into four mini tartlet pans with removable bottoms.

3. Place bases onto a mesh dehydrator sheet and dehydrate at 115 degrees F for six hours. They should now be firm enough to remove from the tart cases so you can continue to dehydrate them for a further eight hours.

4. Place the tartlets on a cooling rack for three minutes before serving.

* Tart cases should be approx 11-cm wide and no more than about 1-cm.

* To make cashew flour, process the correct amount of cashews blender slowly until flour-like. Please do not overblend as the oil from the cashews will turn it to dough.

For the apples & raisins

1. Mix the apples and grape seed oil together and dehydrate for six hours.

2. Mix all other ingredients in a bowl with the apples and place them in the dehydrator for another two hours before serving.

For the infused yacon syrup cacao nib sauce

1. Mix all ingredients in a blender until smooth. Pour into a glass jar.

2. Place the bottle on top of the dehydrator for two hours to warm it up before service.

Assemble

Crumble the tarts by hand followed by a spoonful of apples & raisins and drizzle infused yacon syrup cacao nib sauce.

All About Figs

info@lovingearth.net (Omid Jaffari) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Serves about 4 tartlets

Ingredients

You Need

For the tartlets

1 cup Really Raw Cashew flour *
2 tbsp Lucuma Powder
2 tbsp Light Agave Nectar

For the ricotta

2 cups Acivated Almonds, soaked for 1 – 2 hours
1 cup water
½ cup Yacon Syrup
1 capsule probiotic
2 lemons, zested
½ lime, juiced
1 tsp Sea Salt

For the caramelized figs

12 semi-ripe figs
¼ cup Dark Agave Nectar
¼ cup aged balsamic vinegar (optional)
1 Vanilla Bean, scraped

Directions

For the tartlets

1. Place all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until reached dough consistency.

2. Press into 4 mini tartlet pans with removable bottom.

3. Place bases onto a mesh dehydrator sheet and dehydrate at 115 degrees F for 6 hours. They should now be firm enough to remove from the tart cases so you can continue to dehydrate them for a further 8 hours.

4. Place the tartlets on a cooling rack for 3 minutes before service.

* Tart cases should be approx 11-cm wide and no more than about 1-cm.

* To make cashew flour, blend same amount of cashews as the quantity in a Vita-Mix slowly until four like. Please do not over blend as the oil from the cashes will make turn it into dough.

For the ricotta

1. Blend soaked macadamia and water with probiotic in Vita-Mix until thick paste.

2. Put in a cheesecloth or nut milk bag, place in a small strainer with a bowl underneath, and cover with a towel.

3. Place a weight on top of the cheese bag, such as a gallon container.

4. Let sit for 12 – 14 hour to culture.

5. Once cultured, mix in the rest of the ingredients.

6. Then finely dice halve of the figs and mix into the mixture.

For the caramelized figs

1. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.

2. Pour into a flat container and dehydrate for six hours.

3. Place the container in the fridge for four hours before assembling.

Assemble

Divide the ricotta between the four tartlets followed by half of a caramelized fig and serve.

Making Luv

info@lovingearth.net (Cormac), info@lovingearth.net (Scott) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

This week our newest creation finally starts to make its way out into the world! Officially released today, this is the perfect Valentine’s gift! We can honestly say that this is the greatest project that we've taken on to date: over two years in the making…say hello to Luvju!

This is something really special for us. It’s kind of an obvious product for Loving Earth to do, but we were waiting for all these elements to align, to formulate this and get it completely right; we didn’t want to do this at less than 100%. Our intention was to create a snack that’s a bit more price accessible for people, which is completely unique and has a really strong identity. We love the concept of the heart, which is an important symbol for us, so we decided that we’d do a range of chocolates in a heart-shaped mould with “luv” written on them (harking back to our old friend Dr. Emoto!). At the same time, we also wanted to do some fruit and nut flavours, which we’re calling Superfood Bars.

We spent a lot of time finding the right raw materials and crafting the right flavour profiles. We wanted to create strong themes, and as we were doing so we realised that there’s three main groups which really attract us. There’s your purple antioxidant superfoods, your green superfoods and then there’s your orange vitamin C superfoods, so we’ve followed that theme in having purple, green and orange flavours in the fruit and nut Superfood Bars.

We specifically didn’t want to use dates, since date paste is cheap, it’s sweet, and all the fruit and nut bars out there on the market currently use it as their main base. We wanted to create something that’s high-quality and has a multi-dimensional flavour profile, rather than a one dimensional flavour like all those date ones currently on the market. So we said, “okay, what are going to be the bases for each one?”. What we’ve chosen is the ultimate in each category of superfoods.

With the purple antioxidant one, you get a juicy explosion of energising antioxidant goodness! Each Purple Luvju contains a 500 mg dose of each of the highest antioxidising berries in existence: Maqui and Acai. To these we’ve added cashew, white mulberry, sour cherry and cacao, moulding them into a classic heart-shape. What we end up with is a really juicy multi-dimensional flavour arising between the creaminess of the cashew and the white mulberry together with the tartness and the bitterness of the sour cherry and the cacao. Finally, the maqui and acai comes in over the end, resulting in a beautiful purple colour.

Then with the orange one, it’s all about zesty synergy of revitalisation! Our Orange Luvju contains a 500mg each of both Gubinge and Camu Camu: the ultimate Vitamin C superfoods. We use apricot as the base of this delicious snack, blended together with activated almond and coconut. This Luvju has an exotically fruity apricot coconut flavour which goes fantastically with the layer of lucuma, mesquite and maca also included in our recipe. It's quite citrus-caramelly, with a third level of gubinge and camu camu coming through at the end. Not too sweet, but subtle and complex.

Finally then, the green one is a protein-rich, brain-stimulating burst of tasty complexity. It was the most challenging one for us create, since each Green Luvju contains 500mg of AFA - the ultimate green superfood, a whole other level above spirulina and chlorella. Together with figs, we’ve added activated almonds, goji berries, activated chia seeds and brasil nut powder. The chia seed and brasil nut powder ensure that this Luvju has a particularly high protein content, with the brazil nut powder creating a rich underlying maltiness. Our goji berries round out the flavor while the AFA comes through in a beautiful green colour.

With the chocolate ones we chose some of our favourite Coconut Sugar Chocolate flavours to create the Orange & Gubinge Chocolate Luvju and the Maqui Berry Chocolate Luvju, plus a whole new variety in the Mint AFA Luvju and our brand new innovation in the Coconut Mylk Chocolate Luvju. We wanted something that at $2.95 RRP is really accessible to people, which is what our Chocolate Luvju is priced at, with the Superfood Bars costing just $3.50.

Since we wanted to invest all aspects of Luvju with meaning, the packaging we’ve created is based around the classic heart symbol, formed by putting two of our drop-shaped logos together. We worked for a long time to get the first compostable metalised film that’s just become available in Europe. We’ve had it laminated to a paper finish on the outside, so it’s actually 96% plant-based recyclable material, and then designed a beautiful box that it all goes in with an inventive little dispenser printed on recycled board with vegetable inks. The artwork has also had a lot of time put into it, with a unique design incorporating totems on the front that reflect the spirit of each of the products.

With the Orange Luvju we’ve got the echidna, symbolizing the Kimberleys and Australia, aswell as the immune protection which the ingredients bestow. With the Green Luvju we’ve got the owl, which symbolizes wisdom, since the AFA really works on the brain. Then with the Purple Luvju we’ve got a baby condor, which symbolises energy, strength and rebirth, due to the inclusion of the antioxidants.

The overarching point of all this is that we’ve thought through everything. Every single aspect of this new product is done with a purpose; nothing is arbitrary. It’s all been charged with intention.

So now it’s all ready! Check out your local organic shop over the next couple of weeks and you’ll have a chance to taste them for yourself… Luvju represents the gold standard in Organic Superfoods and we're sure that you'll love Luvju just as much as we do! Come on, feel the luv! :D

-Loving Earth

Serena Williams – Food by Omid Jaffari & Loving Earth

info@lovingearth.net (Cormac), info@lovingearth.net (Omid Jaffari) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Many of you will have had gotten to know our raw chef Omid Jaffari through his recipes for our blog, where he’s been providing us with two recipes weekly for over six months now, a handful of which have also found their way onto the KORA blog. We caught up with him last week to hear all about his latest gig as a celebrity chef. Somehow or other former World No.1 Serena Williams heard about our Omid and requested his services during her visit here for the Australian Open, which the Botanical Cuisine maestro was only too happy to provide!

So you’ve finished up now with Serena?

Yes, I’ve finished with Serena, she’s gone, back in the U.S. now. It was fun, it was challenging, great to be catering to a celebrity. It was great serving her and finally making her happy!

Why then has she started on a raw diet?

She’s supporting Venus, her sister, who’s quite sick and was diagnosed with Sjögren's syndrome last year, an autoimmune disease. She doesn’t discuss those kind of things, to be honest, it was a matter of other people letting me know. She’s not fully raw, she’s eating from the most common areas of raw food: green smoothies, green juices, raw granolas and mueslis, almond milk, a lot of salads. She loves seafood, a bit of chicken, but she doesn’t eat red meat.

Lots of protein then?

Uh huh. Especially when she’s training.

How did you decide on her menu?

We crafted a menu which provided her with a lot of really beautiful green smoothies and juices in the morning, and of course we implemented a lot of Loving Earth supplements, lots of superfood products in her green smoothies and juices. So we gave her Buckini Deluxe for breakfast aswell and provided her with Loving Earth’s almonds too, since her mother is really keen on learning how to make her own stuff. We gave her lots of cinnamon, nutmeg, lucuma, mesquite, acai and she started making her own superfood nutmilks! We gave her a blender and a nutmilk bag and a couple of 1 litre jars plus some recipes to play with, so she made them fresh every morning. That was every day. A day’s menu for example, she had a really nice big lunch, maybe a smoked chicken salad with lots of fruits, rocket and all that kind of stuff, and then for dinner we made her a raw tart. A really nice, light tart base with beautiful cream cheese. Garlic, onion and cheese with herbs like dill.

A raw cheese with probiotics, or dairy?

No no no, no dairy! A raw vegan tart, a dill cheese, lots of lemon and lime, dehydrated seasonal root vegetables with lucuma…that one was delicious!

So what kind of things did you have to take into consideration for an elite athelete’s diet as compared to those of most people?

Well it wasn’t actually that difficult, we just had to make sure that she got one and a half litres of green smoothie every morning. We’d change the greens every day, kale or baby spinach, and we’d put in gubinge pulp, banana, a bit of pineapple, orange juice, plus some mesquite and lucuma, always some AFA and then we’d switch between acai and maqui berry each day. Her juices were mainly just lots of spinach, kale, parsley, mint, all that kind of stuff, with pear or grapefruit maybe.

How did she respond to the green smoothies?

She loved them! They were always gone! In fact, sometimes the other food would come back, she loves curries aswell so sometimes we’d make her a really nice vegetarian curry for lunch and we’d provide a very big serving, but some of it would come back. Always though, the juices and smoothies were gone. So it seemed like it was something she had in the morning and then kept drinking it throughout the day.

Were there any unforeseen difficulties with her?

Well, a funny one actually, she really liked chilies. A lot of chilies, and it was important for us not to just add chili to her food but to balance it amongst the flavours. So that was actually a really good experience because I had to learn to make hot, spicy raw food, but flavoursome instead of just hot. That was one thing we had to learn, but otherwise she was a really nice girl and she just wanted a lot of food, because obviously she was training, so we always had to make a lot more. It was better to have leftovers than to leave her hungry.

I was wondering how you dealt with protein since so many athletes in training require quite a lot of it?

Well there’s a lot of protein in her green smoothies, so she had a lot of that, plus a lot of mango, which has good protein, and a lot of nuts went into the almond milk plus a lot of other nuts in her tarts. So when you think about it, even if she didn’t have fish or chicken, she still would have been fine. Those raw food athletes out there train really hard, so we followed some of the principles of what they would consume.

What about dietary supplements, did you use any of those?

No. All the superfood powders from Loving Earth. No others were necessary.

Have you cooked for any other celebrities?

Yeah, yourself, hahah!! No, no other celebrities. It was fun though!

What about other celebrity raw foodies, do you know much about them?

Yeah, Radiohead eats a lot of raw food. Cold Play. A couple of actors, Demi Moore, Cher, there’s quite a few stars getting into the raw food diet. To be honest with you it’s not a big deal for me, cooking for raw celebrities.

Is it something you’d like to do again?

Oh, it’s definitely something that our company Botanical Cuisine would be interested in catering for, we’ll most definitely cater for Serena next year and quite possibly cater for other celebrities. The more raw food chefs we train, the better service we can provide.

Okay, cool, thanks Omid!

Thank you!

-Loving Earth

Loving Earth’s Food Diary – New Horizons

info@lovingearth.net (Cormac), info@lovingearth.net (Scott) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:00:00 GMT

Over two months have passed since we started our Food Diary Project and the results are in: it’s pretty much life-changing. The concept is simple; you buy yourself a blank diary and write down what you ate and how you feel three times a day. It’ll take you two minutes. When you feel a certain mood on a certain day, look back at what you ate a day or two before. The results speak for themselves.

Personally, keeping a food diary has revolutionised my life…no exaggeration. As someone who loves food more than almost anything else, I feel embarrassed that it took so long to become truly conscious of what it does to my body (in addition to simply tasting good!). Those who’ve kept up with the reports will have followed developments as they went, but there’s a summary here in a round-up from the beginning of December in case you missed it. Things have continued since, as I’ve felt like cutting out wheat and grain, eating less dairy and buying organic as much as possible, which has all increased my energy and concentration. In order to support my training I experimented with 24-hour fasting just before Christmas, with extremely encouraging results. I’ve found that I’ve been saying no to another beer or glass of wine more than ever, but the best part is that I don’t feel deprived…I’m not missing out on anything. In fact, it’s the opposite: eating like this means that I now have more energy to achieve the things I want to in my life. I’m getting up early in the morning to pursue personal writing projects before work, in addition to more than eight hours of training and six hours of band practice per week…and even going to bed feeling less than exhausted! I wouldn’t even have entertained such a mad idea just three months back! The fact of the matter is that I’m busier than ever, healthier than ever and happier than ever.

Over To You

It’s the same with you guys. We’ve had a wide range of respondents, and their conclusions are each completely individual. “For me I find I do much better energy wise, focus wise and mood wise if I eat a minimally processed low GI diet” tells Rachel. “I don’t do well on refined foods and high sugar foods. I get irritable, cranky and don't concentrate. To be honest I was highly skeptical of raw chocolate, but it was absolutely delicious. Not only that, but with the raw chocolate, a small serve was enough and I didn't get the blood sugar energy spike and crash that normally follows other chocolate. So not only did it taste better, I felt better eating it. I also found with a small serve I didn't feel the need for afternoon coffee either.”

Reports Nicola, “I’ve been trying to switch to organic and raw as much as I can with limited time and budget and I’ve already seen the difference! I’m a university student and teacher, and I definitely think it’s positively influenced my concentration and energy levels, meaning I’ve seen an increase in my work at a time when I’m normally finding it hard to concentrate: the end of the year. Eating consciously has also increased my energy levels and helped my skin look amazing, even through previous months of stress for which I am thankful.”

Diet Sharing

Ashley, a biochemistry student at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, tells us that “during the first week of logging meals, I happened to get paid which is always good news because I get to go to my favorite grocery store-Earth Fare which specialises in natural/organic produce and products. My energy levels were high and my mood was great. The second week things got tougher because it was my boyfriend's turn to buy the weekly groceries and he is the complete opposite if me when it comes to nutrition. So, that week was a lot of eating out at restaurants. I also made the mistake of drinking a soda for the first time in over a year and it gave me a massive headache that didn't dissipate for about 24 hours. Ironically, despite feeling awful after drinking it, all I can think about now is having another one! The third week was my payday again so that meant a refreshing trip to Earth Fare and eating more pure foods. The fatigue and bloating went away but I still wanted soda but managed to keep away until about two days ago when the craving was incredibly intense. I got the same headache but this time it didn't last nearly as long and the cravings are more frequent and I can only blame myself for this. Now I must embark on the mission of cleansing all of the soda particles from my system to eradicate the cravings.

It was incredible to see how much room for improvement I have in my dietary choices. I had always considered myself to be a pretty healthy person, but the truth is, I'm a healthy person every other week. I am now planning more ways to be consistent with eating healthy and finding the time to cook at home and also trying to help educate my partner as to why I try to eat organic and make green smoothies every morning.”

Melly Peiterse made some particularly fruitful discoveries. “This past year I started to struggle with my diet. It seemed that food wasn't processing correctly and I became quite ill” she tells us. “Amongst many symptoms I was experiencing weight loss, lethargy, and an enlarged abdomen. My doctor sent me for numerous blood tests only to return that I had low white cell count. Nothing else, and told me to rest. I however felt that it would be healed from the inside out (I generally don't get sick and never take antibiotics or medicines). So my food diary began!

I now am dairy, gluten and definitely nut free, which was difficult at first (I love nuts) but soothed with a divine piece of raw, dairy and nut free organic chocolate! I found that certain foods simply irritate my digestion and I've replaced them. Needless to say my diet is now filled with fresh foods, one ingredient type dishes etc and my mum has taken to it too! It is indescribable how our health and lives have changed! My diary is a work in progress. Still keeping tabs on my foods and liquids I am now once again fit, super active and able to partake in endurance sports, surfing and study! Moving to organics, listening to my digestive system and making changes has changed the end of this year into one filled with energy!”

Unexpected Discoveries

Amidst a whole range of positive discoveries related to us in detail, David Edwards from Melbourne tells us that “the first change in my mind and body that was directly from the food I ate was on day four. I was really hungry and I saw a great looking lasagna on the kitchen table, it was made with lots of cheese! I took a plate and got stuck into it, it tasted great but I wasn’t satisfied so I went straight for some leftover chocolate birthday cake. I started to feel heaviness in my stomach, I had an urge to eat nutella (out of the jar) which I did, and my energy level dropped but mentally alert at the same time. The second change that I felt was after eating sa-ca-ta type crackers and a little bit of dip, it had a fair bit of preservatives and salt added to it but I felt that I always eat well so it won’t hurt to have a little bit. I found that I couldn’t just have a few and put them away, I actually ate the whole packet of crackers and tub of dip!

And I did it again for the two days following; I went through three packets of dip and crackers over the next three days. I felt addiction when I ate them, I wanted more and it felt like I wasn’t conscious of what was happening, it was like I was just doing it on autopilot. My mind was a lot more active, it was noisy, I was a little snappy at people and I again felt very alert but unable to concentrate well.”

Holly from New Zealand had an entirely different though no less enlightening experience; “What has become most apparent to me, in the recording of what I eat, is that I am an idealist - I struggled so, so much to write down the things that I ate that do not sit within my list of 'what is healthy'. I literally could not bring myself to write down 'ice cream'. I began to realise that I was somehow convincing myself that if I didn't record it, I could pretend that it never happened. Never mind the fact that dairy makes me feel sluggish, sticky and thick, the most pressing observations that can be made of my relationship with food is that it is an unhealthy one. I actually restarted my food diary three times over the course of the month. Each time I ate something that I didn't want on record, I would begin again. While I am not proud of how this all played out, I am so happy that I am now conscious of the fact that I need to address the emotions that I associate with food, so thank you for prompting me to do this.”

You can read all of our correspondents’ full responses in detail at this page.

So there you go…many different responses, many different experiences. Now that it’s tried and tested, it’s time for those who’ve not yet committed to it to start their own food diary. It’s a new year. You’ve seen the evidence. Now go buy a diary and get onto it!

-Loving Earth

2011: A Year In Loving Earth

info@lovingearth.net (Cormac), info@lovingearth.net (Scott) — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 14:00:00 GMT

As we come to the year’s end, it’s time to take stock of what 2011 meant to us at Loving Earth. It’s honestly been an absolutely huge year for us, perhaps the busiest so far. The sheer level of intensity we’ve faced has more than been matched by the satisfaction we’ve felt, the challenges we’ve come up against equaled by the joy we’ve experienced in seeing things move forward so wonderfully.

Looking back, the really big thing that stands out about 2011 for us has to be our new range of Coconut Sugar Chocolate. It’s been an epic project, and it’s just reached a new peak (but more about that in a moment!). As soon as we realised that making raw chocolate using coconut sugar could be an option, Scott went and did a small-scale trial; the results amazed us. We got in all the gear we needed from a Melbourne auction late in 2010, installed it, and had it in working order by March 2011. There followed a period of fine-tuning, during which we experimented with the process, installed a new chilling unit to keep it cool and raw, and finally released our new chocolate range in May: three flavours, Dark Chocolate; Mild Chili; Orange & Gubinge. It’s really quite significant, but what’s particularly noteworthy is how it’s all led up to a very exciting development: Coconut Mylk Chocolate. Released just before Christmas on December 22^nd, it’s something of a milestone achievement for us, and we’re really quite proud of it! A brand new chocolate, dairy and gluten free, with a creamy smooth, melt-in-your-mouth feel…the initial feedback’s been great, with people telling us that it’s very much like traditional milk chocolate. What’s more, without wanting to blow our own trumpet too much(!), this is pretty innovative. In the history of the noble cacao bean, when Nestlé discovered milk chocolate it was a real milestone. This was preceded by their invention of powdered milk, which was necessary to make milk chocolate. It changed everything; Cadbury’s built on Nestlé’s innovations to become world-renowned for their Dairy Milk chocolate, which brought the sensually seductive flavor to much of the world for the first time. People really love milk chocolate, and deservedly so with it’s luxuriantly creamy flavor. The unfortunate fact is that combining dairy with cacao blocks and nullifies many of its nutrients and benefits. On the other hand, the synergy between two superfoods such as cacao and coconut is not only extremely healthy, but it’s delicious in a manner that simply can’t be imagined without tasting it. Following a lot of work and experimentation, we’ve been able to come up with something that approximates the flavor and smoothness of milk chocolate, yet without using any dairy or cane sugar, which is quite ground-breaking.

Maqui Berry powder is another new product of ours which we’re really keen on. It came out in October and it’s likely to be a big one in 2012: if you don’t already know about it, you will soon! The market for acai powder in Australia is very large, and we know that Maqui Berry powder is a vastly superior product. It’s got a much higher ORAC score (320,000 compared to 100,000 for the Brazilian Acai) and it dissolves easily (acai doesn’t dissolve at all), plus it simply tastes better…a lot better! We’ve been able to secure a significant volume of it from an organic grower group in Patagonian Chile, which is great news since it’s nowhere near as available as acai is. Not only that, but we’ve just combined it with our chocolate and it tastes fantastic…keep an eye out for the fifth addition to our Coconut Sugar Chocolate range, with our Maqui Berry Chocolate coming out in January.

There’ve been tons of other projects to keep us on our toes over the course of the year. From renovating the offices to keep up with our ever-increasing workforce, to expanding our factory to keep up with production…we’re running and running but there’s still so much to do! We’ve been getting our digital team in place and many of you have been enjoying our recipes and blog, which you’ll see become more sophisticated in 2012. We’ll continue writing for Kora Organics, and we’ll also be producing a whole range of exclusive videos featuring our resident chef Omid Jaffari. We’ll also be getting involved in more and more events. Basically, we’ve been growing organically in every direction and there’s a number of new endeavours on the starting blocks which will see Loving Earth flourish in diverse and delectable directions next year.

Looking forward, the big thing we’re really gearing up for is a great new snack range we have coming out in February. We’ve been working on this for two years, with a lot of effort having gone into the packaging, the ingredients, formulation, artwork, every single element. This will be launched on Valentine’s Day, so keep an eye out around the big day. We’ve also got a whole new range of other products planned for 2012, plus we’re in the process of getting a new, bigger dehydrator…our current dryer is already running 24/7 to keep up production of the most popular kid in class: our Kale Chips!

Overall, 2011 has been absolutely brilliant! We’ve done a lot of work this year laying foundations, and next year you guys are really going to see the fruits of that hard labour. As our company grows, so too does our interaction with our customer base, and it’s fantastic to hear what you guys think of our products. After all, we’d be nothing without you. We’re just so lucky that you guys seem to love our stuff so much! Thanks so much for joining us on this journey so far, and here’s to hoping 2012 is just as great as this past year has been! All the best,

-Loving Earth

Christmas Gifting!

info@lovingearth.net (Cormac) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:00:00 GMT

Fancy some free Loving Earth goodies for the New Year? ...of course you do! We're playing Santa Claus for the Christmas Season, but instead of mince pies and a glass of brandy, we want something else...photos!

All you have to do is take a few snaps of your Christmas Feast and send them in to us at info@lovingearth.net. As you're well aware, Christmas dinner can be a lot more creative than the traditional roast, so we'd love to see what kind of alternative Christmas feasts you guys manage to produce. Whether it's a case of simply freshening up the classic seasonal spread with some succulent salads and nutty roasts, or a cornucopia of raw vegan delights, we want to see them all.

Get the kids and grandparents involved, take a few pics and send them in by January 3rd. We'll send a package of surprise mystery Loving Earth goodies to the five most tantalising entries we recieve...you've nothing to lose -go for it!

Maca - The Superfood of the Andes

info@lovingearth.net (Cormac), info@lovingearth.net (Scott) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:00:00 GMT

Last week we started taking at look at Maca through the lens of Nadine’s wonderful experience, as she told us how the incredible Peruvian root helped her overcome fertility issues that seemed to be insurmountable. This week we’ll be discussing the finer details of our Maca, how it’s grown and why so many people are discovering the health benefits to be gained from its use.

Growing beyond the tree line 4,000 metres above sea-level, the Maca root is one of the only edible plants that can be found at this altitude. It’s considered one of the main superfoods, primarily for its unique alkaloids which optimise the function of the hormonal system, but also for its high protein content and good mineral profile. It’s a very hardy plant and since the mountains in Peru’s Junín province are volcanic, natural erosion means that the ground is particularly mineral-rich and therefore so is our Maca: it absorbs all those great minerals from the soil. Indeed, so effective is the root at absorbing nutrients from the soil that growers have to leave the fields fallow for six or seven years in between crops. This isn’t a problem as there’s a huge amount of land up there upon which nothing else can be grown due to the altitude. The grower association we work with in Junín is a member of the Fair Trade Association, where Maca really makes a difference socially, providing a sustainable source of income in an area where little else grows.

Maca is central to those cultures and has been for millennia, so it’s widely recognised as a powerful food; people know that it grants them this special energy. The Pumpush people of the region have been cultivating and consuming it as a staple food for thousands of years. Since it makes up a considerable part of their diet, they generally cook it, brew drinks from it or even use it to make a sort of porridge, whilst the leaves of the plant are used to make salads. Maca has quite an unusual taste and tends to provoke strong reactions; Scott’s daughter loves it, whereas Scott himself isn’t keen at all. It’s very distinctive, with a slightly bitter caramel flavour. It’s a whole food, since the root is harvested, dried and then milled into a powder, so you can have as much as you want. However, if you take too much to start with you can feel queasy, so build up slowly. We‘re often asked why our product costs so much less than other brands. It’s simple: we buy our 100% certified organic Maca directly from our grower association in Junín, whom we pay a premium price to. We then put the same markup on the Maca as all of the other products we sell, and that’s how we arrive at the price.

The benefits that Nadine and her family enjoyed, similar to thousands of others who’ve experimented with Maca, are due to the unique alkaloids which it contains. These alkaloids work on the master glands, the hypothalamus and the pituitary, which control the functioning of the hormonal system. They’re understood to help “tune up” the master glands, so basically if you’re experiencing any hormonal issues, adrenal issues, chronic fatigue, male fertility issues or the menopause for example, it works to help optimise the functioning of the master glands. It’s considered an adaptogen, which means it’s a herb which stimulates resistance to stress, trauma, anxiety and fatigue. It’s also good to stop taking it for a little while every few months, because although the body gets a kick from it and gains energy, it also adapts to its force. It’s not a stimulant per se; it gives you energy through optimising your adrenal glands. Some people get more benefits from consuming more of it, whereas others find that large doses don’t agree with them. You need to listen to you own body and monitor it in the context of your own hormonal system; with a minimal dose you can experience real benefits, but if you’re a high-performance athlete for example, you may want to consume more, as you’ll require something different to those who simply need a bit more energy.

It’s often cited that Maca was eaten by Inca imperial warriors before battles, their legendary strength imparted by the preparatory consumption of copious amounts of Maca. Whether or not this oft-repeated historical usage is actually true has yet to be determined, though a quick word of warning may be pertinent at this point…if you’re taking it, you might want to have your partner take it too. Not to be too risqué, but this stuff is proven to make you feel that little extra bit frisky…as a number of us here at Loving Earth have found out! Until next week, take care!

-Loving Earth

Loving Earth Maca: Nadine’s Story

info@lovingearth.net (Cormac) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:00:00 GMT

For a little while now we’ve been wanting to talk about the benefits of Maca, the superfood of the Andes. We’d already planned to take a detailed look at the fabulous Peruvian root this week, when suddenly we received the most wonderful testimonial from Nadine Sommerville in Port Macquarie NSW…such wonderful serendipity demands attention! Whilst we do regularly receive testimonials letting us know how our products have helped people become healthier and happier, this is really something else. The following tale is simply incredible; we’re so humbled and gracious to be a small part of this family’s beautiful story…thank you Nadine, Matt and baby Kurt!

“Hello, I want to share with you my experience. Since the age of 16 yrs, I was told it would be difficult to conceive due to polycystic ovaries. This left me devastated. 11yrs later I had my ovaries scraped and deflated, then finally had regular menstrual cycles.

After my 6th miscarriage, I went to my local health food shop and spoke to a naturopath. I started on Chinese herbs, for PMS and the balancing of hormones, but they would have affected the baby if I fell pregnant. Upon returning to the store, a lady was handing out samples of Maca Powder. I asked her for the info leaflet. All the info was exactly what I needed… I remembered a friend had given me some to try, yet I didn't. I contacted her and I ordered some Maca Powder from her sister, who is a naturopath.

I am pleased to let you know, due to your company and the Raw Organic Maca Powder you stock, I fell pregnant within 2 months, and gave birth to a healthy 8pound 12oz beautiful boy, on the 22/12/2010. He is nearly a year old. I cannot express or tell you how much I am grateful for people like you. You have helped make my world complete. Our son Kurt [pictured] is the first grandson for my dad, and has made our family better people. I have had years of heartache due to my health condition, and now I know there is hope for females with my condition!!

The emotional stress and heartache that a woman feels when her hormones are out of whack, having cysts on the ovaries and difficulty in carrying through a pregnancy…it’s very difficult. A lot of women suffer these symptoms and more. I think it's important to get the word out there of the benefits of your Maca Powder product, because not only have I come through the other side, but emotionally, physically and mentally I feel like a new person. I discovered also with taking the Maca Powder, it built up all the nutrients and cells on the lining of my cervix, womb, ovaries and uterus! After the miscarriages, it was all so badly depleted. So not only did it balance out my hormones, it replaced the most needed female parts, in order to conceive. All natural too thanks to your product!!

I don't mean to go on, but it’s changed my life. As well as taking the Maca Powder, I felt I needed to eat green veggies: spinach, beans, broccoli, peas, cabbage, anything and everything green!! I really tuned into my body and soul, and got on with the job!

I tell all my friends about my story, which in turn will hopefully help your business. Thank you to all your staff and the Pumpush people for their Maca Powder. Due to their work, I know my partner and I could conceive again, naturally. We never did try IVF, I just felt in my heart, "this is the 21st century!! There has to be something out there to help me, I can't live like this anymore!" The angels heard my prayers.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am eternally grateful!!

Love Nadine, Matt and our gorgeous son Kurt xxoo”

This story speaks for itself…so amazing. Next week we’ll follow up with our original intended article, an in-depth explanation of Maca, what it is and how it works. Here’s to miracles borne of the earth, and a big cheers to Nadine and her family!

-Loving Earth

Eating Consciously: The Food Diary Round-Up

info@lovingearth.net (Cormac) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:00:00 GMT

This week marks the end of the Food Diary experiment that we began back in October with our Listening To Your Body: Engaging With Food In A Conscious Way article. Those of you following our Food Is Sacred series will have seen the reports that we’ve been posting from my food diary on our website over the past month; here’s a summary of the results.

The first week involved a lot of headaches, general moodiness and a lack of energy. This went on into the second week, with Melbourne Cup weekend involving a lot of alcohol and unhealthy foods. I’d begun to be more conscious of how I was eating, adding maqui and gubinge to my breakfast cereal every day and eating more salads. The headaches and mood swings continued with my energy constantly waxing and waning, and it was only by Saturday of the second week that the initial detox period seemed to have passed. By the beginning of week three, my energy levels were extremely high, leading to restlessness and frustration…cutting out unhealthy foods meant I was feeling too active to relax! So, I joined a Melbourne city gym and started training Muay Thai. Around the same time I started to feel as if I didn’t need coffee to wake up anymore, and began to cut it out. The fourth and fifth week made it apparent that when I did drink coffee, it was making me feel frustrated and irritable. At first I was really disappointed; it would drive me mad to smell my wife’s gorgeous coffee in the mornings and not partake. But I quickly got over my embarrassment at ordering decaf (in a Melbourne café, ordering decaf is tantamount to asking for crack cocaine!) and I’m now experimenting with dandelion coffee, with encouraging results.

Six weeks after beginning my food diary, I’ve come to some important conclusions. Lighter food means that I have a brighter mood and more energy. More energy makes me more productive, but also more restless. Being restless and energetic means I need regular training and exercise. Regular training and exercise means that I’m losing weight and my body’s looking and feeling better. This makes me feel better in general and wake up easily without caffeine. I’ve also come to realise that caffeine’s making me feel frustrated and short-tempered with the typical pressures of everyday city life. And now, a month after my first gym session, I’m training five days a week and eating more consciously to support my development. I’m feeling amazing!

These findings go to show that even if there’s no dramatic health issues in your life, you can still discover some important facts about yourself, your habits and your patterns, simply by listening to your body. With the result being that you’ll feel better, live healthier and be more productive, it’s definitely worth the effort. Better yet, no external motivation can compete with the feeling which comes from within yourself.

Eureka!

Up until last week, our only feedback was coming from within the Loving Earth crew. You can imagine our excitement when we got our first public confirmation of success! This is what April Alexa from California had to tell us:

Hi Loving Earth!

I would love to share with everybody at Loving Earth the story about my journey that I recently experienced. Let me first start off by saying that within this past year I have been trying to live a healthy and balanced lifestyle. I can be the first to admit that it is not easy, but the health benefits can be truly rewarding. I am an avid reader of the Kora Organics Blog (led by Miranda Kerr and contributors), and recently came across an article written by Loving Earth. The whole article really caught my attention as it was all about listening to your body...something that I quite honestly never have done. I struggle every now and then with fatigue and digestive issues. While I do try to eat healthy, it never occurred to me that I had to see food in a "conscious" kind of way. I figured that eating "healthy" foods was all I need. Once I begun recording how I felt after every meal, I was extremely amazed by the results. Starting in the middle of October, I have been recording my body's feelings after every meal. By documenting my meals and feelings, within a week I already realized that eating bananas made me feel extremely weak and delivered foggy thinking. Why was this? I often wondered. From then on I had slowly started to remove bananas from my diet. To learn that bananas were contributing to my weakness, was a big surprise in itself for me, as I always have a strong moment of fatigue everyday. I was finally starting to get answers. Since I could no longer have a banana in my oatmeal, I switched to raisins. Within that week, I realized that raisins contributed to my fatigue and foggy thinking as well. I started eating just plain oatmeal and I felt great! To make a long story short, after 3 ½ weeks, I realized that high potassium foods were not coping with my body. High potassium foods were the culprit. By eating bananas, raisins, melons (anything really high in potassium)...I felt awful. From then on I started educating myself about high potassium foods and the connection it was having with my body. Before I knew it, I realized that I had Adrenal Gland Fatigue! Not only can people with Adrenal Gland Fatigue not tolerate potassium rich foods, but they experience digestive issues as well as acne. I had every single symptom! I basically gave myself my own answers all by just listening to my body! So I would like to send a BIG thank you to Loving Earth for inspiring me in the first place to take on this project. I have changed my nutritional habits, and I feel like a new person! Thank You!

Sincerely,

April Alexa

This response has made us so happy! Even if it’s just this one person who’s experienced the power of listening to her own body, this whole project has been more than worth it! April is the first to get her free Loving Earth goodies, with a package of Maqui Berry Power, Kale Chips, Orange & Gubinge Dark Chocolate and Deluxe Buckinis winging its way to sunny California. 49 more people who respond to us with a summary of their food diary findings will be receiving the same package to help them on their way to a healthier diet, and it’s not to late to submit your report if you haven’t already done so. Until next week, stay conscious and stay healthy! All the best,

-Loving Earth

Green Smoothies

info@lovingearth.net (Cormac), info@lovingearth.net (Scott) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:00:00 GMT

A little anecdote attributed to a certain nutrition professor claims that it was common for our ancient ancestors to eat up to six pounds of green leaves per day…he imagined them walking along from one place to another, just picking and eating leaves as they went. Whilst this certainly paints a pretty picture, it’s not exactly ideal in modern times, regardless of whether you live in a dense urban environment or a remote rural outpost. This week we’re going to look at how we can incorporate substantial quantities of greens into our diet in an easy and delicious way.

In the first part of this subseries we took a look at the nutritional aspects of greens and why they’re so good for you…this week we’d like to begin with the story of Victoria Boutenko, the green smoothie guru who inspired a revolution in green leafy veg. Victoria is the matriarch of the Boutenko clan, otherwise known as The Raw Family. Basically what happened was that back in 1994 the family began to have serious health issues such as juvenile diabetes, obesity, chronic fatigue, arthritis, asthma, allergies and a whole lot of others. They started researching nutrition and decided to pursue a living foods diet, after which they were able to fully reverse their symptoms and regain vibrant health. However, after about six or seven years, other health issues started to come up. The Boutenkos discovered that they weren’t getting enough greens in their diet. Victoria did a lot of research, and found out that it wasn’t possible to actually get the amounts needed just by sitting down and eating them…so she came up with the green smoothie concept.

We at Loving Earth believe kale is the ideal green leafy veg. Apart from being a great element in smoothies, it’s very versatile and can be used like bread to dip in soup, make wraps or raw burritos, and in many other ways. Curly kale, which we use, is particularly good since it doesn’t have a lot of bitterness to it. Those of you living in Melbourne who are in the habit of buying fresh kale probably have the same source as we do: the organic farm out in Labertouche. Situated about two hours outside of Melbourne towards Gippsland, it’s a beautiful property with a nice big dam on it and a decent bit of forest. When we first started making our Kale Chips, they were the only ones really growing kale in significant quantities around Melbourne, so Biodynamic Marketing recommended that we talk to them. We went out there and met Larry who runs the farm and developed a relationship from there. We’ve been working with Labertouche for a couple of years now, since we launched the Kale Chips. To ensure the maximum efficient use of water, they irrigate the field at the same time as they rinse the kale. They then harvest it, usually on a Wednesday afternoon. We give them these big tanks, which they destalk the kale leaves into. It comes into the market on Wednesday night for us to pick up on Thursday morning, take it out to our facility and process it the very same morning.

When we started buying from them, Labertouche wasn’t growing all that much kale. There wasn’t really much demand for it in the fresh market. We started buying a certain amount from them, and as we launched the Kale Chips in the market, they became more and more popular. We kept asking for more, but they could never really keep up with us. In the last six months, however, we’ve made a commitment to them: we’ve agreed to buy at least 250 kilos of kale leaf every week, which they’ve planted for us. With demand constantly increasing, what’s happened is that the fresh market now can’t get enough kale! The main guy down at the main organic fresh food wholesalers in Melbourne has told us that it’s because the kale chips have been out in the market for a while now and have been turning people onto kale….which is great to see!

So now that you know how good this gorgeous curly kale is for you, as well as where it comes from, all that’s left is for us to give you some fresh ideas on how to use it!

The Basic Green Smoothie

Lots of people say that the most basic thing you can do for your health is have a green smoothie every day; even if the rest of your diet is not great, a green smoothie a day will make a huge difference. This base of water, kale, orange juice and bananas can be mixed with whatever else you want, or you can have it just straight up and simple. It is so simple, yet delicious. We add the full spectrum of superfoods and a little yacon syrup to sweeten it and keep your probiotics humming along. Enjoy, and feel the massive health benefits!

Ingredients

4 cups Curly Kale leaf (the same one we use for our kale chips), washed
4 cups filtered water
the juice of 6 Oranges
4 Bananas
2 tbsp E3 AFA powder
2 tbsp Yacon Syrup
1 tbsp Gubinge Powder
1 tbsp Maqui Powder
1 tbsp Coconut Butter (melted in liquid form) or hemp seed oil

Mix all ingredients in a good powerful blender until smooth.

Enjoy your smoothie and see you next week!

Eating Consciously: Food Diary Report #3

info@lovingearth.net (Cormac) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 02:00:00 GMT

Tuesday I wake up feeling fresh and begin with a cup of tea and a bowl of buckinis and rice milk with maqui and gubinge powder. A very busy day of work leaves me feeling stressed, though resisting the urge towards coffee I nevertheless avoid feeling frustrated and irritated. By evening I can’t wait for training, with a particularly full-on session leaving me with a bruised thigh and feet. I’ve started using maca powder as a supplement due to its high protein content, adding 3-5 teaspoons to my water bottle for training. It’s having the added bonus of leaving me feeling particularly frisky… A pasta-bake with cheese and breadcrumbs for dinner and I feel great.

I wake up feeling perfect for Wednesday and have what’s fast becoming my breakfast of choice: buckinis w/ additions, plus a cup of tea. After a busy day of work and pasta-bake leftovers for lunch I feel like I really need a good workout, though I’m worried I’ll strain my muscles too much…I’m out of shape and it’ll be a little while before I can do it every day without injuring myself. Nevertheless I decide to go for it and it’s a good session, after which I feel great. With so much exercise I decide I need to up my protein intake and stop by the markets on the way home, so it’s a delicious fish curry w/ rice for dinner and I’m feeling really good.

Thursday morning I feel really bright and awake. My body aches from training and I decide I better take a break from it today. After a cup of tea and a green smoothie I get down to proper work. I’m still feeling restless, but again, not irritated in the same way I’ve been feeling over the past few weeks. I resist getting a meatpie – barely- and instead have a half-packet of kale chips and a fried tofu salad sandwich to satisfy my protein cravings. It’s not enough…quinoa salad w/ mock duck and avocado for dinner means I have enough energy for a late band practice which goes on past midnight.

Friday and it’s the usual for breakfast, and I’m feeling productive and energetic. With a green smoothie for lunch and curry leftovers a bit later, I’m really looking forward to training extra hard tonight since the day off gave my body a good rest.

After almost a month I feel like I’ve already come to some important conclusions. Lighter food means that I have a brighter mood and more energy. More energy makes me more productive, but also more restless. Being restless and energetic means I need regular training and exercise, which is making me feel better in my body and wake up easily without caffeine. Caffeine’s making me frustrated and short-tempered when I’m feeling the typical pressures of everyday city life. I think I’m going to start regarding coffee as a special treat, only for the times when I really particularly want it. And my favourite vice of all, alcohol, seems to be well-tempered with a healthier diet and higher fitness level.

Overall, I feel a completely different person to a month ago...this is revolutionary! So much more energy…and since I’m getting married on Friday and still have tons to do, I’m going to need it!

Continue on to the Food Diary Round-Up

Eat Yer Greens!

info@lovingearth.net (Cormac), info@lovingearth.net (Scott) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 14:00:00 GMT

Who amongst us hasn’t heard the cry at one point or another? EAT YOUR GREENS! From the dinner table to the lounge room, if it wasn’t your mum it was Popeye! They all said the same thing, and they weren’t wrong…greens are essential to good health. If you’re anything like we are, you probably went to great lengths as a child to avoid your spinach and broccoli. Under the same logic, you’ve probably since realised just how great they are! At Loving Earth we’re big fans of all sorts of greens. Kale in particular is fantastic, not only in the context of health, but also because it’s extremely sustainable and dead easy to grow, as the following little tale illustrates.

When Loving Earth first started out, before we’d ever dreamed of having our own premises, Scott was running things from home. With a really good veggie garden out in the backyard, he’d see it thrive day by day, going out and weeding the garden to take an occasional break from work. As things took off and we got busier and busier, the garden went into decline. One season, Scott just had no spare time...he'd done absolutely nothing with the garden. Still, tomatoes and pumpkins were coming up out of the compost heap. In the garden proper, however, there was only one survivor…kale! This type in particular was the variety which grows on the stem with the leaves coming off each side, so it could be picked from and still continue producing. Scott would pick six or seven leaves from the plants every morning and blend them up along with his juice. This went on every morning for about nine months, at which stage the kids were growing out of their nappies and finding ways to cause havoc in the garden…by the time they were big enough to properly wreck the kale, it had grown to four or five feet high without any help at all -completely 100% neglected! This just goes to show how easy this stuff is to grow…you have no excuse not to!

But why exactly are greens so good for you? Basically, greens are the most nutritionally dense food available on the planet, loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, proteins and phytonutrients. Dark green leafy vegetables like kale, spinach and bok choi are good sources of vitamins your body needs to stay healthy, such as A, C, K and many of the B vitamins. They’re also great sources of fibre and minerals, including iron, calcium, potassium and magnesium. Generally, the darker the leaves are, the more nutrients the vegetable has. Carotenoids found in dark green leafy vegetables such as lutein and zeaxanthin are concentrated in the eye lens and macular region of the retina, playing a protective role in the eye. They protect against both cataract and age-related macular degeneration, the major cause of blindness in the elderly. The phytochemicals (antioxidants) in greens like bok choy and kale are enzymes which help with digestion and keep our digestive tract healthy, in addition to keeping you looking and feeling younger. Greens are particularly good news for the weight-conscious, as they have very little carbohydrate in them. And the carbs that are in there are packed in layers of fibre, which make them very slow to digest. That’s why, in general, greens have very little impact on blood glucose.

Kale For Victory!

We personally have a very intimate relationship with kale! Every week it’s in season (sometimes even two or three times a week) you’ll find us down at the markets come 6am, getting our hands on as much of this stuff as we can possibly work through. Our process involves zazzing it up with one of our gorgeous recipes before getting it into the dehydrator as fast as possible to lock in all those nutrients before they escape. Generally, less than 48 hours will have passed from the time of harvest to our end product: Kale Chips, packed, sealed and ready to go. The other green veg we’re particularly crazy about is broccoli. Originally cultivated by the Italians back in Roman times, broccoli was selectively grown from wild cabbage to become the veg it is today: packed full of antioxidants. Broccoli's noteworthy nutrients include vitamin C, vitamin A, folic acid and fibre, plus it's a very important calcium source for those who don't consume dairy products. What we do with it (when the season is right!) is hand-cut the broc down to size, flavour it and dehydrate at 40 degrees C for 24 hours to create our Broccoli Bites. Just as with our Kale Chips, this preserves all the vital nutrients, enzymes and minerals, as well as shrinking the broccoli down to bite-sized morsels which are great to snack on. There’s one more product which we get out of these two great greens by adding in some of the other tasty treats we tend to find around the place! This is our Salad Sprinkles, which contain both kale and broccoli to make a great flavouring for salads, soups and many other savoury dishes…without the high sodium, sugar and chemical content found in many similar products.

The best thing about having these crucial veg in such a tasty and easily digestible form is that it provides a quick and easy way to get your greens! Since it takes 4kg of kale to make just 1kg of kale chips, you can see just how much nutrition we’ve been able to pack into such a small form. And since it would take forever to munch through a huge plate of raw kale, this is a much more effective way to get all that goodness into you!

Next week we’ll be taking a look at the interesting story behind the Fairy Godmother of Green Veg and detailing some easy ways in which you can incorporate more of this fantastic stuff into your diet. Take care and we’ll see you then!

-Loving Earth

Eating Consciously: Food Diary Report #2

info@lovingearth.net (Cormac) — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT

I’m now coming to the end of my fourth week of keeping a food diary, and the changes I feel are immense. Things have started to become really clear since the first report was posted last Friday…the difference I’ve experienced over the past week is greater than the first three weeks put together.

To recap a little, by the end of last week I’d begun to really notice the benefits of eating lighter, with a lot more salads and various superfoods added to my diet. I was feeling a lot more energy and had cut down on my coffee intake. I didn’t know what to do with all the extra energy I had, so I returned to serious training for the first time in five years. Since then I’m waking up fresh and full of life every morning, looking forward to work and training.

Concurrently, it seems that the general improvement in my diet is allowing my body to process the bad stuff more efficiently; last weekend was quite unhealthy. Taking a break from training on Friday left me restless, and I followed a Greek feast of haloumi, falafel, tsatsiki, pita bread and salad with a gig in the city at which I drank way too much.

Saturday morning at 8am brought the expected results…ooow! After a cup of tea and an omelette I decide to head into the city for training, with a bad hangover. It’s a tough workout but afterwards I feel excellent: positive and energetic. I have an overpriced wheatgrass smoothie from some juice bar near Flinders Street and do some shopping before returning home to salad and tempeh. I still feel a bit rough from last night’s excess, but it’s not so bad due to the training session and good food. A BBQ at a mate’s place with salad, tofu sausages and gluten chicken plus about six beers before a late night snack of cheese on toast leaves me feeling surprisingly okay the next morning.

With my fiancé’s birthday coming on Monday, Sunday’s looking excessive from early on. Poached eggs w/ smoked salmon, asparagus, spinach, home-made hollandaise and a nice coffee leaves me feeling well-fed but not stuffed, though the planned afternoon at the pub isn’t exactly what I feel like. Nonetheless I do my duty and manage to choke down an unreasonable quantity of alcohol and a half bowl of chips, followed in the evening with a kangaroo fillet w/ mash, beetroot and gravy (which is delicious). A vegan cheesecake at home requiring attention caps off an extremely OTT weekend in the food stakes. I try to make up for it by drinking gallons of water before bed.

Monday arrives with a green smoothie for breakfast and I feel fine. Lunch is a delicious tofu & bean burrito and a nice coffee. By the afternoon I feel awful; nervous and irritable with zero concentration. An intense evening training session leaves me in a great mood to take my other half out for a fancy birthday meal of sashimi, unagi yakatori and gyoza, though I’m still wondering about the afternoon’s low energy and negative mindset. This is obviously partly due to the weekend’s food and drinks, though I’m feeling as if the coffee is also largely responsible. Probably it’s both. All the same, I decide I’ll completely cut out coffee for the next few days. I first started regularly drinking coffee about six years ago whilst working early mornings as a cook. I’d always previously drunk tea, but the ubiquitous pot of coffee on the hotplate proved too tempting to resist…before long I cherished the active mindset which two cups of coffee would bring. Soon it had become a habitual wake-up call rather than a stimulant used for a purpose. Coffee, like any stimulant, is great for a treat or when you need to pull an all-nighter, or perhaps just to kick-start your brain when required. As an everyday habit though…personally I’m starting to realise that it leaves me feeling frustrated, irritable and short-tempered. What a pity…I love my coffee…

Continue on to Food Diary Report #3

Eating Consciously: Food Diary Report #1

info@lovingearth.net (Cormac) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:00:00 GMT

It’s now almost three weeks since I started the food diary and the changes I’ve felt are amazing. Initially sceptical, I’m now convinced of things I’d always suspected but never wanted to admit.

The first week I suffered from a lot of headaches, general moodiness and a lack of energy. I put it down to the fact that Monday three weeks back I had a wisdom tooth pulled and was taking pain-killers for it, plus that week I’d a lot of general stress in everyday life, in addition to the builders tearing down the house next door and generally causing a lot of ruckus. I began to be more conscious of how I was eating, adding maqui and gubinge to my breakfast cereal every day and eating more salads. By Friday evening I was still feeling irritable and headachey, though I was still eating evening meals as I generally would: homemade pizzas and tacos, often with a beer or two.

By Melbourne Cup Tuesday of the second week, I’d started to feel a bit better, though still extremely groggy. Looking back at the food diary entry for that day, I consumed coffee, buckinis, two kangaroo suasages, a chip butty, Mexican food and a lot of beers…it’s unsurprising that by Wednesday morning I was hungover, groggy and jumpy. I felt ill and distracted all afternoon at work. A bowl of rice, beans and salsa in the afternoon was the only solution. An evening meal of a couscous salad with asparagus, avocado, cucumber and tomatoes saw me back on the right track. Thursday was coffee, poached eggs, beans on toast, and pasta in the evening, and Friday I still felt headaches and mood swings with my energy constantly waxing and waning. With maqui + gubinge on buckinis deluxe w/ rice milk for breakfast, a half packet of kale and a green smoothie for lunch, and a spot at Omid’s Nettle kitchen in the evening, I felt fantastic by Saturday morning.

A big weekend followed, featuring everything from green smoothies and omelettes to a sausage sizzle and organic lamb, culminating in a vegan gluten fest for a friend’s birthday dinner at Enlightened Cuisine (allegedly the Dalai Lama’s favourite Melbourne restaurant!). I nevertheless felt good and in a positive state of mind by Monday morning. This week started out with my typical breakfast of buckinis, maqui, gubinge and rice milk, a white mulberry smoothie and half-packet of Kale Chips for lunch and a parsnip soup + salad in the evening. I was feeling great…but restless. By 10pm I had so much energy I just felt there was something missing. Very frustrating! Tuesday followed with the typical buckini breakfast, and I’m feeling great and light. A green salad with tuna & a boiled egg in the afternoon and one taco + a half-burrito for dinner…but again I’m feeling restless, antisocial and really bored. I’ve too much energy and I don’t know what to do with it.

Wednesday and I’ve gone two days without coffee for the first time in years. Not out of any desire to remove caffeine from my diet, but simply because I felt I didn’t need it. For a long time now I couldn’t face the day without a coffee in the morning plus numerous cups of black tea and sometimes another coffee or two during the day, just to keep going. So I have a coffee on Wednesday morn and feel the difference in my concentration: sharp and focussed. I follow the morning’s typical breakfast with a small green smoothie and a Mexican pie in the afternoon. By late afternoon I’m restless, full of energy and short-tempered. For the past five years I’ve not done any serious training except for bouts of running for a month or two when the belly threatens to get out of control. For the last two years I’ve been talking about going back into regular training, and now the time is right. I head in for a trial session at a city gym around 6pm. It’s intense and gruelling and exactly what I need…the perfect positive solution to all this extra energy I’m harbouring. Afterwards I feel absolutely amazing. I sign up for membership and head home to a dinner of salad, a poached egg and salmon.

Thursday and I have my buckinis with gubinge and a generous helping of maca powder for breakfast followed by training. Two slices of toast with hummus and a salad of leaves, carrot, avocado and olive oil for lunch and my concentration for the afternoon’s work is beyond anything I’ve felt without caffeine since I don’t know when. For dinner it’s tacos with salsa and avocado followed by rehearsal with my band. By the time I get home I’m absolutely exhausted, yet three weeks ago it’d be unthinkable for me to undertake an hour of intensive training in addition to band practice in one day. I just wouldn’t even entertain the idea.

Today, Friday 11^th November, I’m absolutely full of positive energy and heightened concentration. A green smoothie for breakfast and my body aches from the last two days of training, but in a good way. I’ll take a day off to recover and get back to it next week. Three weeks in, things are starting to make themselves apparent with proof that this is working: finally I’m getting fit again, and feeling energy without stimulants. The first few weeks were difficult. Even though I was still drinking alcohol, caffeine and having the occasional unhealthy meal quite regularly, it seemed the increased quantities of healthy foods were forcing some of the toxins out, which would also account for the headaches. What’s more, the food diary was acting like a little Good Angel on my shoulder to counteract the Bad Angel that says “eat the pizza, just get a fish’n’chips, fry up a sausage or two!”. When you have to write things down, you think a little bit harder about it…two days of sausage sizzles, organic spit roast lamb and heavy Mexican food looks a lot different on paper than it tastes in the moment!

This is just the beginning, and we can’t wait to hear how you guys are getting on! The deadline for your submissions from the original Food Diary post has been extended to December 8^th, so you still have a month to get on to it! What’s more, we’ve added in more free goodies, so take a look if you want to take part. We can't wait to hear from you guys! On we go!

Continue on to Food Diary Report #2

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Alternative Sweeteners 101

info@lovingearth.net (Cormac), info@lovingearth.net (Scott) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 14:00:00 GMT

There’s been a lot of attention in the media lately on the topic of obesity and health with over a million Australians currently affected by diabetes. A fantastic article by Paul Zimmet and Philip James published in 2006 in The Medical Journal of Australia outlines some solutions which could be undertaken on a policy level, though the unfortunate fact is that the situation has continued to worsen over the past five years. It’s all well and good to lobby politicians and discuss solutions, but what we at Loving Earth are interested in is what can we do about ourselves? This is a complex subject that we’re attempting to get to the essence of, particularly in relation to Agave Syrup, which has been the subject of a lot of misinformation recently. There are many types of sugar, but the three main ones are sucrose, glucose and fructose. A good rule of thumb in relation to sugars is that the less it’s processed, the higher the mineral content is, which makes it easy for your body to absorb it. The more it’s processed, the harder it is for your body to take it on, meaning that it just goes straight into your bloodstream without giving you any nutritional benefit. Let’s take a closer look at some examples.

A typical commercial sweetener is high-fructose corn syrup. It’s found in a huge range of products in many countries because it’s cheap, but unfortunately it goes through a huge range of processes to reach the form in which it enters foods. These processes strip it of its nutrients and minerals. High-fructose corn syrup is a very short-chained fructose and is stored in the plant as a starch. Yes, it provides quick energy, but it’s basically empty calories with no nutritional value. Our Agave Syrup, for example, has a good mineral content, is minimally processed and comes from long-chained fructans, called inulin (that’s inulin, not insulin – a common mistake!). This is why it’s diabetic friendly. Yacon Syrup then is also comprised of inulin-based sugars, and is particularly healthy due to its long-chained sugars in the form of Fructooligosaccharide (or FOS). FOS don’t go into the bloodstream, and it is in fact a really powerful prebiotic which greatly aids digestion…later on in this article we’ll explain just how it works.

Going back to the issue of the worldwide diabetes epidemic, an interesting insight into how it came about can be seen in the story of the Pima Indians. Living in the area nowadays known as Arizona, their traditional way of life was devastated with the birth of the modern United States. Prior to that the Pima consumed Mesquite as a staple food, milling the pods into a flour to make breads. Sweet and caramel-like, it was consumed in great quantities and the Pima benefitted greatly from its healthy properties. High in protein and containing significant quantities of calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron and zinc, it’s also rich in the amino acid lysine. When the Pima were taken off their land and forced onto reservations in the mid-to-late 19^th century, their diet changed dramatically, taking on higher and higher quantities of processed foods. That community now has the highest incidence of diabetes on the planet: 95% of their people suffer from the disease. Why is this? Well, mesquite has an incredibly low GI and a high mineral content, and the reason why the GI is so low is partly because of that very high mineral content. So although the Pima were used to a very sweet diet, it was nonetheless extremely healthy for them. When they went off this traditional diet, they retained a preference for sweet foods, yet their bodies simply couldn’t cope with white sugar and flour, which have a high GI content and are devoid of minerals…the high GI value being partly because these foods are devoid of minerals. Hence, widespread diabetes.

This is a good point at which to give a brief description of what GI refers to and why it’s important. GI means Glycemic Index, which is a way of measuring the short-term effect of foods on blood sugar. Carbohydrates that break down quickly during digestion and release glucose rapidly into the bloodstream have a high GI; carbohydrates that break down more slowly, releasing glucose more gradually into the bloodstream, have a low GI.

High GI = 70+: glucose.
Mid GI = 56-69: sucrose, cane sugar, white sugar, brown sugar, honey.
Low GI = <55: fructose, maple syrup, agave syrup, coconut sugar.

Broadly speaking, low GI foods will give you a long, sustained supply of energy while high GI foods will give you a short, intense burst of energy. All of Loving Earth’s sweeteners are low GI and diabetic friendly: Coconut Sugar has a GI rating of 35, Agave Syrup of <30, Mesquite of 25 and Yacon Syrup an unbelievably low rating of 1.

Yacon

Yacon is a root cultivated in mid-altitude Andean Valleys, providing a sustainable source of income for people there. It’s actually a health food –something you would take daily in small quantities as a supplement. It has these qualities because it’s comprised of long-chain complex sugars known as Fructooligosaccharides (FOS), which are not absorbed and digested in the same way as short-chain simple sugars. FOS acts as a pre-biotic in humans, which means that it travels to the intestinal tract and provides food material for the pro-biotic bacteria there which work as part of our healthy digestive system. We all need probiotics to digest and assimilate food and thus gain nutrition. Prebiotics such as Yacon Syrup provide a good environment for probiotics to grow. Think of it like soil in a field: you can plant a seed in any field, but for it to grow and flourish, the soil must be of good quality. Yacon is an example of the quality “soil” which probiotics require. Many people take anti-biotics for medicinal purposes, meaning that our probiotics are constantly getting run down. If you have good sources of prebiotic material in your diet, then you’re going to create a really healthy environment for the probiotic bacteria to thrive. This is why Yacon Syrup is probably the healthiest sweetener out there.

Agave

Our Agave Syrup comes from Mexico, where it is known as “El Á rbol de Las Maravillas”, the tree of miracles, due to its many uses. Like Yacon Syrup, it’s sugars come from inulin. Our agave comes from the Wild Maguey cactus species rather than the Blue Weber variety, which is generally cultivated by large tequila companies, since it’s only used for tequila. Agave syrup made from the Blue Weber variety is usually cooked, whereas the processing of the wild maguey variety that we use is different…it’s raw. Agave Syrup doesn’t have the same long-chain form as Yacon, leading to its higher GI value. You can actually notice this when you consume it: the flavour is sweeter and more concentrated, with a simpler sugar structure which is not unlike maple syrup or honey. In fact, our Agave Syrup is processed in much the same way that honey is…bees use an enzymatic process to turn pollen into honey, while we use a plant-based vegan certified organic enzyme to do the same thing. What you have to do with any type of fruit-based sweetener is concentrate the sugar so that it doesn’t ferment. We use a low temperature vacuum evaporator to do this. With its low GI of about 30, we’ve had feedback from some diabetics that our agave is the only sweetener they can consume…but we’ve also had feedback from people that agave doesn’t agree with them. Again, this provides a further example of what we discussed last week: our bodies are all different.

Coconut Sugar

Coconut Sugar is the latest one we’ve come to use, for a number of reasons. It’s sucrose-based and has a low GI rating of 35, as compared to most commercial honeys’ GI rating of 55 and cane sugars’ GI of 68. Coconut Sugar is particularly noteworthy to us not just because of its gorgeous toffee-toned flavour, but because it’s considered the most sustainable sweetener in the world. Coconut palms produce an average of 50-75% more sugar per acre than sugar cane and use less than 1/5th of the nutrients for that production, plus they’re ecologically beneficial since they grow in diverse, wildlife supportive agro-ecosystems, restore damaged soils and require very little water. Over time they actually improve soil structure, fertility and water conservation, thereby allowing marginalised land to become lush jungle. This has led many traditional communities throughout the world to consider coconut palms as the “Tree of Life”, as one tree can provide a multitude of usable goods, such as roofing material, food, coconut water, building material and shade for crops.

To finish then, people often ask us why we use Agave Syrup and Coconut Sugar in producing our chocolates. Apart from the support which these sweeteners provide to our health, to our environment and to small scale indigenous producers, we use them for two other very important reasons: they’re particularly suitable for processing the foods we make, and they’ve got a fantastic flavour. Dark Agave, which is what we use in all our manufacturing, has beautiful vanilla and cactus notes, while Coconut Sugar has this bright, zingy caramel toffee flavour. A further reason behind these two ranges is that different people respond to different sweeteners in different ways. Our basic approach to sweeteners is that no matter what type you use, they’re all concentrated: honey, maple syrup, fruit juice, agave –all of them. Therefore they must be used in moderation. There’s lots more information on our website, so do take a look if you want to research this further. We recommend that people experiment with different healthy sweeteners and tune in to what their own bodies are telling them. If consumed in such a way, they can provide a great enhancement to one’s diet in terms of flavour and enjoyment…because aside from being healthy, sustainable and fair, the things we eat have to actually taste good! See you next week!

-Loving Earth

Listening To Your Body: Engaging with Food in a Conscious Way

info@lovingearth.net (Cormac), info@lovingearth.net (Scott) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:00:00 GMT

Last week we took a step back to engage with the concept of food as sacred, examining traditions from the ancient age right up to modern times. This week we’re taking a step forward: we’re demonstrating how you can apply these concepts to your life in a very real way, with a simple process that puts you in control. This may be the most important feature in our Food Is Sacred series…it really gets to the core of what we feel Loving Earth is all about.

Nowadays we’re bombarded with a vast array of miracle diets and stress-free programmes. There’s an endless parade of gimmicks out there in terms of health and food, with experts and gurus constantly telling us how to achieve our end goal: feeling good. We believe that the best way is to be found within yourself - through listening to your body and learning to trust your instincts. This is the core of our project: consciousness. If people are engaging with things consciously, they’re going to be healthy, they’re going to be ethical, and they’re going to be vibrant. That’s the foundation, and that’s what we want: empowerment.

Difference is Beautiful

Many traditions from the Chinese to the Ayurvedic have much to tell us in regard to such matters, learnt by examining different peoples’ constitutions, body types, environments and so on. Common to these philosophies is the belief that different people respond differently to different things. This may seem obvious: we all have friends who eat exactly what they feel like, but never appear to put on any weight. Meanwhile, others seem to gain a kilo every time they even look at a cake!

We’re all different, and here’s an interesting example of just how this can have a profound impact upon our lives, often without us ever realising. Just this last weekend, Scott met an old friend who, after many years of not being able to sleep at night, decided to consult an allergist about her problem. What they proposed to do was to really simplify her diet, which this woman did vigilantly. She added one thing at a time and closely studied her reaction. Over a period of twelve months, she discovered a couple of interesting things. One was that preservatives kept her awake at night, making her mind very active. Now, this is kind of an obvious one: as we know, there are all sorts of issues going on with preservatives. The second thing, however, the really fascinating thing, is that she gradually discovered that spinach was making her tired! This is quite puzzling, since spinach is a great source of iron and chronic fatigue is often due to a deficiency of iron. We just keep getting confirmation that we are all so different. Chinese medicine has one take on food and the body, Ayurvedic culture has another; raw foodists, vegans and a whole host of other philosophies similarly provide an infinite variety of viewpoints on what people need to do. These traditions are wonderful, and there’s a lot of wisdom in them. Yet at the same time, by engaging consciously with food and listening carefully to our bodies, we can find out more about ourselves than anyone else is ever going to be able to tell us.

Experiments With Truth

The route which Scott’s friend took may seem an extreme one to some, but there’s a much less time-consuming way to discover similar facts about yourself. Anyone who’s read Gandhi’s autobiography, The Story of My Experiments With Truth, will be familiar with how the great man came to literally approach life as an experiment. This book was an important influence on the formation of Loving Earth, and part of Gandhi’s approach involved using the empirical method. This means coming up with a hypothesis or prediction based on certain research and theory, and then testing it. If Gandhi was going to try a particular type of food or diet, he would study it and make a prediction based on what he’d found out. He’d then go and try it, recording the results: How did I feel? What was my mental state? How were my energy levels? He would evaluate his hypothesis against those results, finally coming to conclusions. The basic principle of what Gandhi was doing is engaging with food in a conscious way. He listened to his body and developed a systematic way of doing that successfully. What we at Loving Earth are looking for is a conscious engagement with what we’re doing: the principle is conscious engagement. For us this approach is very empowering, because people can individually discover what’s best for their own unique body.

How can you make this really apply to you? The whole idea of listening to the body started to make itself really apparent back when we used to have our chocolate parties. We’d invite people to taste-test our products and help us to improve them. At the end of each session we’d give people homework: we’d ask everyone to keep a food diary for a month. This is what we want you to do.

Experiments at Home!

A tangible way to begin this process and engage with it is to buy yourself a nice blank diary. Fill it in three times a day. In the morning when you get up, write down what you eat and how you feel. Do it again at lunch and once more at dinner. Continue for a month. As you’re doing this, you’ll start to look back at certain points and see how you felt being affected by what you ate a day or two before…patterns begin to emerge. This can be a very powerful exercise and there are many levels of individual detail that can be included, but even if you spend just 10 minutes a day on it you’ll soon have produced a considerable body of knowledge. Just over a month from now we’ll be publishing a follow-up article to this, and we’d love to hear from you. What we’re offering to the first 50 people who respond with a 500-word summary of their findings is:

a 100g bag of Raw Organic Maqui Berry Powder
a 100g bar of Raw Organic Orange & Gubinge Dark Chocolate
a 55g bag of Yellow Kale Chips
a 500g bag of Deluxe Buckinis

All you need to do is email this to us at info@lovingearth.net before Thursday 8th December with “Eating Consciously” as the subject line. Remember to include your name and address and you’ll soon be chomping on our choc and reaping the benefits of our Maqui!

The real theme here is empowerment. Empowering people to take control of their own diet, their own health and their own relationship with food…we’re extremely curious to see how you respond, so don’t leave us hanging! Next week we’ll be looking at alternative sweeteners…get a start on that diary and we’ll see you then!

-Loving Earth

Is Food Sacred?

info@lovingearth.net (Cormac), info@lovingearth.net (Scott) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Over the past six weeks we've gone back thousands of years, all the way from South America to Western Australia, discussing the myriad aspects of chocolate and gubinge and explaining how we see the world at Loving Earth. This week we're taking a step back, with a short reminder as to what this is all about: the food.

The basic principle of Loving Earth is that food sustains us: it's at the core of everything. No food = no life. If we look to past millennia, one of the first things that people ever did was eat together. This was the most important thing: beyond shelter, beyond procreation, first we needed food. Groups, families and tribes would sit down together to share the fruits of their labours, giving thanks and honouring the source. Little surprise that as societies developed, food became an element of all religions. Whether the Cacao bean of the Mayans, the coconut in Hinduism or the bread and wine of Catholicism, every religion has its guidelines in relation to food. Some sacralise it, using it to venerate their Gods. Others have principles against what may be consumed, such as pork for Islam and Judaism, or animals in Hinduism. Examples are many and varied.

In many traditions, feeding people is one of the greatest blessings you can give. It both honours the guest and pleases the Gods. And when we consume it, we are in communion with the divine. Yet even if food does not have a spiritual basis for you personally, everyone can recognise the feeling of warmth and gratitude which is bestowed when a friend or loved one spends their time preparing a meal for us. Whether it's a 21^st century dinner party to celebrate an achievement, an 11^th century medieval feast to honour a cherished guest, or a 1^st century ritual offered to a God, throughout the ages, food has been central to the concept of honour and celebration.

In the yogic tradition, the body is considered a temple. It houses the spirit and what we consume nourishes and supports that temple in allowing us to achieve the goal of yoga. This may seem esoteric or at a remove from the reality of daily life to some people, yet the evidence is there in other ways. If you've spent a couple of days away from home eating fast food, perhaps in a new city or on holiday, you'll know the feeling. If you've drank too much on a night out, you'll recognise it too. Yet if you've spent a few days eating well, you'll also feel that in a very real way. If you've spent a few weeks going even further and supplementing your diet with superfoods or other functional foods, you will feel the difference: stamina, energy, mental health and strength.

From The Ancient World

An interesting example is that of Maqui; this is something we've just discovered for ourselves. Chilean folk medicine has used it for thousands of years to cure a vast array of ailments: sore throats, diarrhoea, ulcers, haemorrhoids, birth-delivery, fever, tumours... The Mapuche Indians of Chile ate very little food, though they were known to regularly drink a fermented wine made from the juice of the Maqui Berry, to which has been credited the incredible stamina and strength of their warriors. As recorded by the Conquistadores, the Mapuche were the only tribe who repelled the foreign invaders and went unconquered, with areas of their land remaining unvisited by Europeans until the late 19^th century. It is only very recently that science has begun to unlock the secrets understood by folk medicine for thousands of years: Maqui has the single highest antioxidant content of any food in the world - by a long shot.

Indeed, there are many aspects of plant spirit medicine which have long been understood in traditional cultures, yet have only in recent years made themselves apparent under the microscopic lens of modern science. The shamanic aspect of food is so important, particularly that which we've come to know through Central and South American cultures, but also that of our own Aboriginal culture...our relationship with plants and the whole concept of connecting with the spirit of those plants, knowing when and how to consume those plants so that they grant us the maximum benefit, respecting how those plants come to us.

In the modern world we've lost that connection; we worship technology and celebrity, even going so far as to disrespect the most basic element of life by enslaving it to convenience: TV dinners! We've lost our relationship with food, and in many ways Loving Earth is a reaction to that. Our intention is to remind people of the way in which food can be and is sacred. We want to reconnect people with that relationship...we want to remind people of the importance and significance of food.

Preparing food and eating food is a ritual which we'll look at in greater detail next week. We've already talked a little bit about about how we infuse feeling into food in our last chocolate article and mentioned the work of Dr. Emoto once or twice, and this is the next subject in our series: The Ritual. Preparing the food, connecting with the food, infusing the food with positivity. This continues when you sit down to eat: focussing upon your food, being present, enjoying it, actually chewing and extracting the full nourishment. It's not just fuel -it's our life force. So, until next week, enjoy your food -and don't stop thinking about it! All the best,

-Loving Earth

Gubinge: the Australian Indigenous Superfood and the highest natural source of Vitamin C on the planet

info@lovingearth.net (Cormac), info@lovingearth.net (Scott) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 14:00:00 GMT

One day a couple of years back, Bruno walked into the health food store in Broome. The store had some of Loving Earth’s Goji and Camu Camu raw chocolate bars, Camu Camu being a very high Vitamin C berry from the Peruvian Amazon. The woman working in the shop knew him and so she said “Hey Bruno! Check this out! These guys have this stuff from the Amazon that's real high in Vitamin C, but that Gubinge, it's much better, you should get him onto it!”. Bruno contacted us and we started a dialogue; Scott went up there during the Gubinge harvest and had a great time, camping out on the land, picking Gubinge up in trees for hours, fishing and living off the local bush tucker...and it all went from there.

The Highest Source On The Planet

Gubinge is a bush plum; there's a lot of hype around stuff coming out of the Amazon, Acai and so on, but Gubinge is a really powerful indigenous Australian superfood. It's the highest natural source of Vitamin C on the planet, and that's been verified. The species is called Terminalia Ferdinandiana, more popularly known as the Kakadu plum, and it grows in the Kakadu and the Kimberleys. The Kimberley version however has tested higher than the Kakadu version for Vitamin C. In the Kimberleys, where it is known as Gubinge, they're not irrigating it or cultivating it using typical commercial horticultural techniques, which a number of operations up in the Northern Territory are doing. Essentially, those precious vital phytonutrients (the antioxidants within plants) are there to make the plant itself stronger. They do the same for the plant as they do for us, so if you pamper the plant too much, it doesn't need them anymore! If that plant is in its natural environment and there's a certain level of environmental stress present, that makes the plant stronger, so you get these higher levels of antioxidants.

The Gubinge Powder that we produce and market under the Nyul Nyul brand is a raw whole food and in terms of the nutritional aspects, it's one of the only high Vitamin C products on the market that literally is a whole food. A whole food that just happens to have 13% Vitamin C. To make it we simply take the whole frozen fruit, dehydrate it at 40ºC for 16 hours and then mill it into a powder, so in essence all we have done is take away the water: everything else is there in the powder. The thing about it being a whole food is that nature packages these things in such a manner that they can easily be absorbed; Vitamin C is one important phytonutrient, but like most things, for that to be absorbed into the system, there are a couple of other things that the body really needs to be able to properly utilise it. Those other things are also important and carry out functions, but in our Western approach we tend to reduce things; there is in fact a whole, so in terms of a supplement it's amazing. It's packaged with everything; not only is it the highest natural source of Vitamin C, but it also includes everything else your body needs to assimilate the Vitamin C. All the synthetic Vitamin C supplements and extracts, they're going to be a lot cheaper in terms of milligram for milligram of Vitamin C. In terms of overall effectiveness however...they're incomparable. Two different worlds.

Back To The Land

Bruno is one of the stolen generation from the area north of Broome, near James Price Point, where they're planning on putting in the massive gas hub. He lived a fairly traumatic life, taken away from his mother at birth by missionaries. Back then it was law that Aboriginal women had to give birth in hospital, so that their babies could immediately be taken and given to missionaries. Bruno's mother ran away and actually gave birth to him in the wilderness, hence Bruno’s special connection with the land; on the weekends they'd let him go and spend time with the elders, but when he came back, if the missionaries found out that he'd been speaking his language or engaging with his culture, he was beaten. Yet they couldn't stop him: Bruno picked up enough traditional knowledge that together with his partner Marion, he was able to start reviving those traditional ways of taking care of the land. Gubinge grows up there in natural wild orchards, three or four trees together throughout the Bush. Each year the fire comes through and destroys everything, so what Bruno and his people began doing is back-burning, clearing the dead wood so that the fire's not coming through any more. They soon noticed that through these traditional ways of taking care of the land, the Gubinge trees started producing more fruit...

Each year Bruno coordinates the harvest. The picking season goes from December through March. Depending on the weather, it can be as long as three months or as short as six weeks, and there are designated spots where people can pick from. Most of the harvesters are from Bruno's language group and the surrounding areas and people get paid by the kilo, so come Gubinge season, everyone gets out on the land and picks it. It's a really good project because it's a high-value product and it's something that's growing wildly, so there's a fair bit of it around and it's sustainable. The other thing that Bruno is doing is working with people to show them how to care for the land throughout the rest of the year. People see what Bruno's achieved and then they say alright, we're going to do that as well. It's not just about the Gubinge: it's about the whole environment. If you're taking care of the land, the Gubinge will thrive...but so will everything else. Gubinge is their asset, it's the thing that they've got up there. It's something that's benign, that's sustainable and supports the environment. The other main industry up there is mining, which is unsustainable and which destroys the environment.

It took us at Loving Earth a couple of years to really get the project going, since we needed to develop the infrastructure and figure out how we were going to process the fruit. Scott stayed in touch with Bruno, and when we finally got our commercial dehydrator and found a special grinding machine from India, we were in business. That was a couple of years after the initial contact, during which time we'd been working on the post-harvest infrastructure to collect, clean and pack the fruit into frozen storage. With everything in place to really get stuck into the project, Scott returned for harvest season two years after first contact...the difference was amazing. The traditional harvesting techniques were paying massive dividends, and the quality was incredible. We got the frozen fruit down here to Melbourne and figured out how to process it into a powder. We did some trials, got some tests done and found out that we were getting really high levels of Vitamin C. That's when we began commercialising it. We got our graphic designer to come up with a logo, Nyul Nuyl, which is the language group for Bruno's people, and this is the brand we have created for the community up there.

Together We Can Change The Future

This year the Gubinge is finally starting to sell quite well, and now that it's building momentum we're hoping that next year we'll be able to really go for it. The plan is to buy as much Gubinge as those guys can harvest so that it'll become their full income and a really fruitful business venture for the Nyul Nyul community up there. We're doing this on a not-for-profit basis, so we finance the harvest, all the fruit comes down here and then we process and sell it to try to recover our costs. It's a way of giving back to the indigenous community and helping them put in more infrastructure up there. The project's also helped them move forward their native title claim, for which they needed funds to push through the system, so hopefully that'll go through this year. Once that's fixed up we can apply for the organic wildcrafted certification for their lands. Bruno is also working on an ecotourism project, so there's a couple of architects working on setting up some beautiful ecofriendly accommodation structures on Bruno's land, with the idea being to have people spend time on the land and get to experience the traditional Aboriginal bush life. Eventually the goal is to actually get them to make the powder up there once we build enough momentum, under the “value adding” ideal we mentioned in Part III of our Chocolate mini-series. Setting up the infrastructure costs a lot of money, and although Loving Earth doesn't make any money off Gubinge, if we ever cover our costs we'll be happy. Even if we just come close, we'll be delighted! It's an investment in our indigenous community and environment, because we believe in that community. In many ways, the Gubinge project brings Scott's original concept of enabling indigenous communities to help themselves back full circle. From India, through Mexico, back to Australia. Next week we'll be getting a bit deeper into the title of our series, and taking a look at just exactly how Food Is Sacred. Take care and see you then!

-Loving Earth

Revealing The Magic of Chocolate - Part IV: The Alchemy

info@lovingearth.net (Cormac), info@lovingearth.net (Scott) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Making chocolate is a sort of alchemy. It's a very fickle medium to work with and people spend their entire lives experimenting with it, always discovering new things... The modern method of making chocolate revolves around synergy: the synergy between the Cacao and the sweetener. At Loving Earth we make our chocolate by hand-mixing the unique ingredients together and infusing them with our own heart energy and powerful ancient superfoods. This is where the magic really happens...

Crafting The Magic

When Scott came back from Mexico, he'd been working with various indigenous groups: the raw cacao people in Chiapas, the agave syrup folks in Ixmiquilpan and our vanilla bean producing friends, the Totonacans of Papantla. He started with importing and commercialising the raw materials before he hit on a brainwave: what if we made chocolate? He called a few people, did some research and spoke to the experts, trying to find out if chocolate could be made using agave syrup. They all said no - “you can't make chocolate with a liquid sweetener; it's just not possible”.

We went on to prove that this isn't strictly the case, though it is true that you can't make chocolate the way people normally make chocolate. This is because of the moisture content in the liquid sweetener: it gums up the machines...which is why our raw agave chocolate is 100% handmade: it's all blended, stirred and poured by hand. It's quite different to normal chocolate...it's not tempered, so it's not as stable and melts at lower temperatures. At the time we hadn't heard of other people doing this, and it was all learned through trial and error...but it's not rocket science! In fact, it's quite a simple process and through doing it commercially there's things we've discovered that have allowed us to create a certain quality.

Our new raw coconut sugar chocolate, on the other hand, is tempered. We put the nibs and the coconut sugar into a grinder, which we chill with a special water jacket to maintain low temperatures. We then temper it, which means stabilising the structure of the chocolate. At 42 degrees, the crystalline structure in cacao fat disappears. If you take that 42 degrees, bring it down to 28 degrees and finally warm it back up to 33 degrees, you end up with a crystal structure which is very stable, giving our chocolate a gorgeous sheen and a clean, satisfying snap.

The Heart Connection

One of the things we discovered when first making chocolate was something we call “the heart connection”. There's this special moment, especially when you're making chocolate by hand, when you blend the powder with the butter. These two elements of the Cacao bean have previously been separated through the pressing of the nibs, and now we bring them back together. Each time, at that exact moment, we started to notice a feeling develop...this amazing heart connection. The magical alchemy that comes into your heart.

We've taught a lot of people how to make chocolate and everyone has the same experience of this heart connection. In a lot of traditions, the emotional state and thoughts of a person are understood to go into the food they make. We feel this is genuine; a lot of people comment on our products and how amazing they are, and that's a big part of it - the vibration that we infuse into our food. The people that are making it...there's a lot of love, there's a lot of joy there, and that goes into the food - even more so with chocolate. As we discussed in Part II, chocolate is a very powerful transmitter. We feel that it transmits feeling in a similar way to how it transmits nutrients; it could be understood as something similar to when you're spending a day in town and someone smiles at you or holds a door open for you...this affects you, it lifts your mood. But if someone scowls or pushes past you, it puts you in a bad mood. Just like with Dr. Emoto's research and the manner in which he's physically shown how positive feelings affect the crystalline structure of water, cacao absorbs those vibrations. This is a subject we'll get back to later on in the Food Is Sacred series: if you really connect your heart positively with your food, that food's going to be charged with those vibrations...and the people who eat that food will experience it too.

The Alchemical Synergy

As we mentioned earlier, the essence of making chocolate is in the synergy between the Cacao and the sweetener. What we've done is move away from traditional sweeteners that people are having issues with, such as cane sugar, because there's just so much of it in foods nowadays that people have trouble processing it. Our two ranges of chocolate use either raw agave syrup or coconut sugar, which comes from the nectar of the coconut tree. Commercially, we've been one of the first companies to use these two sweeteners in chocolate. Most of the sugar-free chocolates on the market today use a sweetener called Maltitol, which is a highly processed carbohydrate product that comes from wheat, corn and potatoes. Maltitol syrup has a GI rating of 52, as opposed to Coconut Sugar at 35 and Agave at less than 30. It just doesn't have a suitable flavour synergy, leaving an odd aftertaste in your mouth.

Synergy, synergy, synergy: the synergy of the sweetener and the raw cacao is critical. Our dark agave syrup has these gorgeous, deep round flavour notes and vanilla tones, which marries beautifully with the raw cacao to create its unique synergy. On the other hand, using coconut sugar for our chocolate gives it a character of broad toffee notes. This is the basis of all our chocolate.

Once we've got our base-synergy of raw cacao and sweetener, we then begin to add inclusions, creating functional flavours using traditional superfoods. This means that they don't just taste good -they're also extremely good for you. Take for example our Purple Corn & Almond Chocolate; for this we use purple corn extract, which is absolutely loaded with purple antioxidants and has a slightly bitter malt whiskey flavour...it almost tastes like there's a liqueur in there. The flavours we choose are special; our Orange & Gubinge Dark Chocolate with its high Vitamin C content, our Sour Cherry & Acai Dark Chocolate, bursting with antioxidants and juicy sour cherries. Nothing in our chocolate is superfluous: there's no emulsifiers, no soy lecithin, no cane sugar...just pure nourishing goodness: wholefoods.

So then, that concludes our chocolate series! We hope it's been informative and that you've found out a thing or two which you didn't previously know. It's a fascinating topic and one which we're constantly learning more about...rest assured that this isn't the last you'll hear from us on the subject! See you next week, when we'll be introducing a genuinely Australian superfood: Gubinge! Take care,

-Loving Earth

If you'd like to find out more about the social history and nutritional profile of chocolate, here's some reading recommended by the Loving Earth Team:

Naked Chocolate - David Wolfe and Shazzie [the benefits of raw chocolate]

The Chocolate Wars – Deborah Cadbury [the birth of modern chocolate]

The True History of Chocolate – Sophie D. Coe & Michael D. Coe [the social and historical aspects of chocolate]

Revealing The Magic of Chocolate - Part III: Cacao & Biodiversity

info@lovingearth.net (Cormac), info@lovingearth.net (Scott) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 22:00:00 GMT

People often ask us about our chocolate. A single bite and they can tell that there's something a bit different going on here...this is partly due to the most basic element of the chocolate: the cacao. A little known fact about the innocent bean is that the heirloom variety, such as that used in our chocolate, is vastly different to the hybrid variety, which is found in the stuff made by most other chocolate makers. Our heirloom cacao is incredibly aromatic, meaning that it's greatly affected by the biodiversity in which it's grown. Yet that's not the only reason that our chocolate is so fantastic; there are three main factors at work here:

1) the plants we use and how they're grown.

2) the alternative natural sweeteners we use.

3) the method of production.

Criollo Cacao – The Taste of Biodiversity

In much of the Amazon it's still possible to find wild cacao in the forest. You find these little pods which the locals call cacao chuncho: the original wild cacao. Over time, growers have taken these beans and carefully selected them to grow larger, but essentially it's that same family of wild cacao. They're called cacao criollos or “aromatic cacao” because the aroma in them is incredible; as our video shows click here to see, the grower has both a hybridised Trinitario variety and a Criollo Amazonico variety. Criollo basically means “heirloom”, so Venezualan criollo is different to Peruvian criollo or Mexican criollo, whereas all the African cacao and most of the commercially grown monocropped cacao in different parts of the world are hybridised versions. When you crack open the criollo cacao, this perfume comes out that smells amazing...the other just has no fragrance whatsoever. The difference between a real criollo cacao and a hybrid cacao can be compared to the difference between an organic (heirloom) tomato and a monocropped tomato: you'll notice the second you bite into it.

The aromatic variety produced the way that the Olmecs grew them is basically an ancient system of permaculture, which small groups of our Mayan and Peruvian growers still adhere to. The cacao, the criollos, they don't like the sun. They grow under the shade in the understory, where there'll be other fruit trees, followed by hardwood trees, and finally some bigger fruit trees like mango, coconut, avocados...maybe bananas or pawpaw. Each grower might have two or three cash crops, like cacao and citrus, or cacao and coffee, and then they grow other crops for their own consumption, such as coconuts or avocados. What happens is that the cacao actually takes on the flavour of the surrounding plants through the soil. If it's grown with a lot of coffee you'll get coffee notes...if it's grown with jasmine you'll get jasmine notes.

We had a batch of cacao that came from a co-op who were growing a lot of citrus - it was literally as if someone had put orange essential oil through the whole crop! Our current batch of cacao liquor is full of these fragrant coffee notes which are just amazing. Now what's really interesting is that the more biodiverse the area of permaculture is, the more complex and unique the aroma and flavour of each cacao crop will become. Biodiversity is directly proportional to quality, meaning that cultivating our criollo cacao in such a way not only guarantees a beautifully diverse biological blueprint but also results in a gorgeously complex flavour. This is why we pay our carefully selected producers up to two or three times the world commodity price trading on the NY stock exchange...because it's the highest quality cacao in the world, produced under the best conditions and most rigorous guidelines.

The True Value of Cacao

The families of the main cooperative we work with in Satipo, Peru often have fifty or sixty different varieties of fruit trees that they grow. These are mostly edible plants that they regularly consume, meaning that in terms of food, our growers are self-sufficient. With a wide range of biodiversity and often two or three cash crops, there's a high level of sustainability there. Many growers around the world aren't quite so robust, in the sense that if they've got just one cash crop and it fails, then that's it. With this kind of biodiversity, producers are both growing their own food and they're not 100% reliant on the cash crop, which goes to provide extra income for the family, community infrastructure, education and so on. Click here to see another video interview with one of our growers.

This isn't the only way in which our producers differ from the majority of growers; something which allows them to become economically stronger and more self-sufficient is the practice of “value adding”. Worldwide, most producers sell their crops to buyers in the developed world, who double, triple or even quadruple the value by processing that crop. So whilst growers can earn a certain amount from the raw material that goes into the end product on the market, the majority of the money comes from “value adding” in the processing. Instead of just selling a fermented cacao bean, our growers add a huge amount of value to their crop by processing it into nibs, liquor, powder and butter.

Producing The Five Elements

First of all, the pods are harvested from the trees and cracked open. The beans are then taken out and fermented. The level of fermentation affects the flavour; we do a low fermentation of about 45 degrees C, as otherwise the temperatures can get quite high, which affects the structure of the nutrients. The main thing that Loving Earth does differently to other chocolate makers is that we don't roast the raw cacao beans before we process them. The standard procedure in the chocolate industry is to roast the raw cacao, which helps bring out the flavour. It removes a lot of the microbiological contamination they might contain, but it also removes some of the valuable antioxidants contained within. What we do instead is wash them with a citric-based organic disinfectant. Afterwards, they're dried in large commercial dehydrators, at controlled temperatures, before being winnowed into nibs, which basically means taking the skin off them. Then we grind them into liquor, and finally we press them into powder and butter.

Basically, we get five products from this process. We get raw cacao beans, and because we've disinfected and washed them you can eat them - raw! We get raw cacao nibs, which are the beans without the skin. We get raw cacao liquor, which is the nibs ground into a paste. Then when we take the liquor and put it into a very high-pressure press, which presses all the fat and butter out of it. So the end product is the raw cacao butter and then this hard cake that's milled into raw cacao powder. 1kg of liquor is about 50% fat, so when you press the liquor you get about 40% cacao butter and 60% powder. The powder retains about 10% fat content after pressing, and all the antioxidants plus a lot of the nutrients are concentrated in that powder.

We buy and import these five products, which we use to make our raw chocolate from scratch. When indigenous communities such as our friends in Peru manage to add as much value as possible at the point of origin, not only do we support agricultural industry, but also the development of that community. We get the five basic materials we need to make our chocolate, and they earn more, allowing them to further develop infrastructure to process their cacao.

Next week, we'll reveal the final piece in our magical chocolate puzzle: how we actually make the stuff!! See you then!

-Loving Earth

Revealing The Magic of Chocolate - Part II: Love & Bliss

info@lovingearth.net (Cormac), info@lovingearth.net (Scott) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 22:00:00 GMT

A food that makes you happy, that stimulates your brain. A food that makes you fall in love and keeps your heart in perfect working order. Pure fantasy? No...Cacao! Especially when it's raw, as in our chocolate. This amazing bean was used in the shamanic rituals of the Mayans in order to attune the mind with the cosmos. It acts as a sort of enabler, allowing the brain to harness and extend the power of substances taken in conjunction with it. Yet it also works in tandem with the body, helping to facilitate the absorption of other nutrients. If you consume cacao with Maca, for example, you'll absorb the Maca's nutrients a lot more readily than when you eat it by itself. Cacao's latent ability to absorb and assimilate is truly incredible...but what really transcends the incredible, taking cacao into the realm of the magical, are the chemicals of emotion.

Chemicals of Emotion

We're talking about anandamide. Named after the sanskrit word ananda, this means “bliss”, which is why it's often known as the “bliss chemical”. Anandamide is part of the cannabinoid family and occurs naturally in cacao. It also occurs naturally in our bodies. Studies have shown that people who are generally happy have a lot of anandamide in their system. When they're happier, they have even more.

Likewise, cacao contains phenylethylamine, or PEA, known as the “love chemical”. Again, this occurs naturally in our systems, but when people are in love, they produce more PEA. It also contains serotonin, a neurotransmitter that helps us feel good, and epicatechin, which helps reverse the effects of depression, improve immunity and combat the effects of stress.

All of these substances exist in cacao in quantities high enough to have a strong effect on us. What's more, when you consume cacao, you're not only getting more of these great phytonutrients, but you're getting them for longer because of something called MOA inhibitors. Ongoing research is showing that they prevent the breakdown of these phytonutrients, so the love-bliss continues for even longer!

Loving Heart

Raw cacao can be thought of as the perfect natural cocktail for the heart. It's full of magnesium - probably the most defficient mineral in modern Western culture. Magnesium is critical for the muscles, and the major muscle in our body is our heart. Another factor which makes chocolate so vital for your heart is its theobromine content. Theobromine (taken from the latin name for cacao, “theo” and “brosi” meaning “food of the Gods”) is a stimulant which occurs only in chocolate. It's similar to caffeine, though it has a lesser impact on the central nervous system and stimulates the heart to a greater degree. From the 1890s to the 1930s, heart-attack patients were injected with straight theobromine to save their lives. More recently, it's even been identified as one of the compounds contributing to chocolate's reputed role as an aphrodisiac.

New research presented at the 2011 European Society of Cardiology Congress in Paris found that high levels of chocolate consumption could cut a person's chances of developing heart problems by more than one third. The findings were published online by the British Medical Journal and follow previous studies which demonstrate chocolate's ability to reduce blood pressure, improve brain function and lower cholesterol. Researchers from the University of Cambridge who conducted studies on over 100,000 participants found that “high chocolate consumption was associated with about a third decrease in the risk of cardiometabolic disorders [heart problems] - 37 per cent in the case of any cardiovascular disease and 29 per cent in the case of stroke prevention.”

Stay Young

As if it weren't enough that eating chocolate makes you feel happier and be healthier, it can also make you look better! Raw Chocolate is one of the highest natural sources of antioxidants such as flavanols and polyphenols, which stop the oxidation of our cells and keeps us vibrant. Oxidation is basically the ageing process; our cells oxidise and deteriorate and that's how we get old. It's a bit like how metals go rusty. As our systems start to decay, antioxidants essentially retard that process. They scavenge free radicals, which are oxidising agents, so that the cells in our organs and our skin remain more vibrant and youthful. Vitamin C is an antioxidant: it helps reinvigorate the system if you're sick.

Raw chocolate, without sugar or dairy in it, speeds up metabolism and works as an appetite suppressant, so it can - theoretically - help you manage your weight. What's really special about our raw chocolate is that it's 100% vegan organic, meaning that all of these great minerals and nutrients are preserved as intact as they possibly can be. In fact, our raw chocolate has been independently tested by Southern Cross University to have up to twice the antioxidants of conventionally processed chocolate; the ORAC score is a comparative scale for measuring the antioxidant content of different foods. And when your source of antioxidants are organically grown whole foods, your body just can't get enough of them!

Next week we'll tell you all about how our cacao is grown and processed. See you then!

-Loving Earth

Revealing The Magic of Chocolate - Part I: Cacao & The Ancient World

info@lovingearth.net (Cormac), info@lovingearth.net (Scott) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The Lost Treasure of Moctezuma

The last king of the Aztecs, Moctezuma died in 1521 as the Conquistadores established their rulership of Mexico. Haunted by legends of Moctezuma's gold, the Spaniards spent years searching the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan for the fabled lost treasure. They never found it…they didn't even know what they were looking for. Moctezuma's treasure was Cacao: his vaults were full of Cacao beans.

Consumed by the Aztecs in liquid form just as it had been by the Mayans before them, Cacao was highly prized for its health-giving properties. Aztec nobles would drink chocolate served cold and frothy, the foam believed to hold its fundamental essence. Considered so valuable that it was used as currency, master counterfeiters would manufacture the most valuable varieties of the Cacao bean, replicating the tiniest details. Cacao continued to be used as currency in parts of Latin America up to the 1880s. Although its consumption was widespread, the best quality Cacao was reserved for the nobles. Maps of the time show that it was grown in many different parts, but there was one place that was prized above all others: Xoconusco [so-con-osko] in Chiapas, a region five hundred kilometers away from the centre of the Aztec empire. Why did the Aztecs go to such extreme lengths to conquer this remote place?

The Olmecs - Ancestors of the Mayans

It was here that the Olmecs lived. They were the first to domesticate Cacao, taking the wild plant and cultivating it, selecting and incorporating it into their culture. It is believed that the genetic material of the plant originates in the Amazon basin, from where it migrated naturally to the people of Izapa in Xoconusco. It was they who produced the first and finest variety of the cultivated bean: Royal Criollo Cacao.

Nowadays, Loving Earth works with the Mayan descendants of the Olmecs in Chiapas to produce Cacao. To find out more please visit this page.

The Magic of Chocolate

Many people will have seen Lasse Hallström's movie adaptation of Chocolat, the fantastic 1999 novel by Joanne Harris. Based on a Mayan myth, the film tells the story of a young mother who opens a small café named La Chocolaterie Maya where she begins curing the villagers' various ailments using you-known-what. A classic scene occurs when an older woman comes into the cafe and needs some help with her husband; the chocolate maestra simply prescribes a bag of raw cacao beans, which soon fixes him up. Although just a playful, fictionalised account of the benefits of Cacao, it's true that the magic bean works in many different ways. This is why it was considered sacred and valued so highly in ancient Mesoamerican culture. It's a powerful and potent food. It's not a staple; it's not something you eat all day, every day…but when you do eat it, chocolate provides a kind of magic that's found nowhere else.

Food of the Gods

"Cacao was more than a simple food. It was a divine food. Quetzalcoatl, the sacred king of the Toltechi, high priest and king of Tula, was the gardener of paradise where the first men lived. From there, he brought the cacahuaquehitl or cacaotero to his country."

-Fernàndez de Oviedo (1535), Historia General y Natural de las Indias [General History and Nature of the Indies]

In many ways, Cacao was the basis of the whole Mayan civilisation. As with many traditional cultures, the figure of the serpent was one of the main archetypes of spiritual energy for the Mayans. It was their primary god Quetzalcoatl (meaning “feathered-serpent” in the Nahuatl language of the Mayans) who brought Cacao to earth and gifted it to the people. This is where its name is derived from: Theobroma Cacao, the Latin term meaning “food of the gods” given to the species by the Spanish. This was not the only connection between Cacao and the divine; shamans of the time would use Cacao in their rituals, as it was understood to be a tuning mechanism, opening the psychic instrument and connecting the mind with the cosmos. The results can be seen in everything from art to architecture. Cacao was sacred; it was central to these civilisations because of its amazing nutrients and the secrets within, which modern science still struggles to explain. Cacao opens the heart and the mind, yet it also relaxes the muscles. If you eat Cacao beans and then do yoga, it's a whole different experience. Since Cacao contains so much magnesium, your muscles relax and you can get into the postures a lot more effectively. It energises you. But more about that next week, when we'll be focusing on the nutrients in chocolate and the chemicals of emotion. For now, try a bit of that Mayan magic in your kitchen!

Loving Earth’s Magical Ancient Mayan Hot Chocolate

All alone I sing

To the one who is my Lord:

In this place where the gods command,

The flower-chocolate drink is foaming – the flower intoxication.

I yearn, oh yes!

For my heart has tasted it:

It intoxicated my heart – songs, dreams, yearnings.

My heart has tasted it.

-Tlaltecatzin, Aztec Poet

This is a gorgeously decadent drink that combines the Mayan tradition with the Loving Earth approach. Rich and creamy, thick and velvety, this will see you through the last of winter with a smile on your lips and a toasty mug to warm your hands!

For the Mayans and Aztecs, the foamy froth of the chocolate drink was achieved by splashing the potent mixture back and forth between two jugs. It's unlikely that you'll have someone available who's content to follow such directions for an entire afternoon, but you can use a traditional molinillo whisk or a hand blender to recreate the effect instead!

You Need

• 3 cups boiling water

• 200g raw cacao liquor

• 6 tsp coconut cashew cream

• 1 vanilla bean, chopped and ground

• 150g coconut sugar

• ½ tsp chilli powder

• ¼ tsp cinnamon

• a pinch of sea salt

• zest from half an orange

Method

To remove the zest from the orange, grate the skin while it's still attached to the fruit. Be careful not to include the white layer beneath the skin.

Assembly

In a small pan, add the cacao liquor to your boiling water. Stir in the coconut cashew cream, sugar and vanilla. Add the chilli, cinnamon and a pinch of sea salt. Finally, add the zest to your chocolate mix a little at a time until a rich vibrant flavour has been achieved. Froth with a whisk and enjoy!

Food Is Sacred - Introduction

info@lovingearth.net (Cormac), info@lovingearth.net (Scott) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 06:00:00 GMT

The most desired flavour on the planet is chocolate. Who gave it to us? The Mayans. The most desired fragrance in the world? Vanilla. Domesticated by the Totonacans of Papantla, Mexico, it's now grown all over the world. Quetzalcoatl, the primary god of the Mayan pantheon, brought cacao down and gave it to the people as a gift. To them, it was completely sacred. And to us, food is sacred.

This idea is central to us here at Loving Earth. As a brand and as a vehicle for getting our products out to people, we're committed to sharing this concept: food is sacred. To many cultures in both the ancient and modern worlds, food is central. Yet for many of us today, food has become a convenience, an afterthought...you get it into your body to keep you going. It's like driving your car or checking your watch; people don't think about it closely. Alternatively, it's seen as an indulgence, a leisure activity...

We want to connect people with the idea of food as something conscious. It's the source of our life-force: engaging consciously with food is essential. Where is it grown, and how? What's the story behind it, what's the cultural context? For many of us, it's one of the only ways that we come into direct contact with nature on a day-to-day basis. We spend our time surrounded by four walls, in cities and cars, at work...food is the one chance we have to come into contact with nature. It can be a ritual to connect us to the natural world, and part of this is not only what you eat, but how you eat it. If we look at the Ayurvedic tradition of medicine from India, the basic principle is that all disease is caused by undigested food. If you're able to easily assimilate what you put into your body, you're going to be healthy. The philosophy of Hippocrates stated “let food be thy medicine”, a concept similarly found in many traditions of the Orient.

In this, our Food Is Sacred series of articles, we're going to be sharing with you the many aspects of Loving Earth and what we're all about. Next week we'll be kicking off with a subseries entitled Revealing The Magic of Chocolate. Chocolate's a very deep subject, from its fascinating history to how we view it today, the health benefits associated with it and the bliss nutrients within that directly affect how we feel. Over the next few months we'll be looking at topics such as:

Our Gubinge project with the Nyul Nyul community up in the Kimberleys and the story of how we were approached by the community up there and were able to finance the project. Find out about how Bruno is bringing back the traditional Aboriginal landcare methods, how we facilitated setting up the post-harvest infrastructure and created a joint brand with them, began processing the product in our facility here in Melbourne, and finally got it out into the marketplace.
Listening to your body and eating consciously. Nowadays we have an unfortunate tendency to see food as little more than a daily chore. We'll invite you to relearn how to hear the natural rhythms of your body, to engage with food in a real way and conscicously experience the reality of how you feel after consuming different foods.
The importance of greens and green smoothie recipes. Greens are essential for a healthy diet and your mum was right when she told you to eat yer greens...the only problem was that she should have made 'em tastier, which is what we'll be showing you how to do!
Superfoods and their significance to the ancient world. Why were certain foods elevated to sacred status, and how is it that people were able to survive in harsh conditions with a minimal variety of staple foods in their diet? What relevance do these foods have to you in the modern world?
Sprouting nuts and seeds. These methods allow us to glean maximum nutrition from these foods with the minimal expenditure of energy; we'll be explaining exactly how we do it and why we do it.
Alternative sweeteners and how they affect the body. Whilst many weight-conscious people now use a number of non-traditional sweeteners, they're often unaware of the other effects they may have. We investigate a number of alternative sweeteners and sugars, detailing the complex effects they have on the body.

This is just a small introduction to some of the topics we'll be tackling weekly over the next six months; we're very excited about putting our ideas out there, and we hope you'll want to join us on this journey. See you next week!

Loving Earth

info@lovingearth.net (Cormac), info@lovingearth.net (Scott) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 06:00:00 GMT

Loving Earth's story begins in rural India not far from Mumbai, where Scott had been living on an all fruit diet, studying yoga and working with the local Adivasi people on an organic farming project. Industry had begun creeping into the area and many local farmers were selling their topsoil to brickmakers, since agriculture just wasn't a viable source of income anymore. It was back in 2000 that David Suzuki's book From Naked Ape To Superspecies provoked Scott's realisation that to really support these communities, the key was having a brand in the marketplace.

Finding a way to support these people meant finding ways of commercialising their commodities in a way that not only honoured them, but also allowed them to do what they've been doing for thousands of years. Scott went on to Mexico, working with an indigenous Mayan co-operative to help them find a market for their coffee and cacao. It started to become apparent that the only real asset many of these communities had in the modern world were these crops that their ancestors had domesticated. It was the Olmecs, the ancestors of the Mayan cooperative that Scott was working with in Izapa, who first domesticated cacao thousands of years ago.

Three years later Scott was back in Melbourne, broke and with a child on the way, but full of inspiration... Loving Earth began in 2007. It took off quickly: we found that people were looking for products which could fulfil these values and we've been running to try and keep up with demand ever since! In fact, one of our biggest challenges has been to grow the operation fast enough. The current facility in Campbellfield is a far cry from our humble beginnings four years ago, going into a little bakery at night to make chocolate, operating the business from home, hand wrapping chocolate bars in the kitchen.

It took a while, but now we have a brand in the marketplace that makes that initial vision a reality. Everything has come full circle, and we've been able to go and work with the Aboriginal community of Nyul Nyul people up in the Kimberleys, doing exactly what Scott envisioned back in India. As for our name, when the initial vision was evolving and developing, James Lovelock's theory of Gaia and the Earth as a living organism was an enormous source of inspiration. With the company originally formed as Living Earth, all it took was changing one letter and, with a little nod to Mr. Masaru Emoto, here we are: Loving Earth!

The three principles of Loving Earth are Healthy - Sustainable – Fair. These ideals have been extremely important to us since the beginning, and are the foundation of everything that we do. Starting out, the intention was that all the products had to be Healthy; we only wanted to put stuff out there that was going to serve people. We've never been interested in doing something commercial just to make money. To be Sustainable was extremely important; it's something we're working towards in an ongoing process. We've achieved sustainable packaging with our raw chocolate bars, which is the heart of the brand, though we're still using plastic bags with some products. We're working on that...within 6-12 months we hope to completely eliminate plastic from our packaging. Lastly, Fair refers to the socio-cultural aspect of our company. It's not just about fair trade chocolate, and it's about so much more than just the price. It's about sharing stories and history, honouring communities and letting people know where our products come from, who's grown them and exactly how they've been processed. Healthy - Sustainable – Fair.