The Simply Raw Festival in Ottawa, Canada was a blast last weekend! So glad I went. Lots of activity, booths, talks, contests, films and delicious raw food. The line-up of speakers was awesome too – like Victoria Boutenko, Brian Clement, Dorit, Lalita and many others.
Angela Stokes and Matt Monarch were there, so I stopped by to say hi. Angela wrote a series of Raw Reform Books after losing 150lbs on a raw food diet. Not only is that remarkable, but she looks amazing AND she’s maintained the weight loss for over 7 years! She’s obviously doing something right and is someone to learn from.
While I was at their booth, I tried the freeze-dried mangosteen that Matt raved about it in his newsletter. It was a great – crunchy and sweet. The texture was airy like popcorn. It wasn’t chewy or supersweet like some dried fruits, but rather light and yummy.
They also had freeze-dried durian but I can’t stand durian. It’s the foulest smelling fruit I have ever tasted! LOL. But some people absolutely ADORE durian. When I worked at the Tree of Life, the staff would have djembe parties every week and they usually centered around raw chocolate or durian. THAT gives you an idea of how much durian is loved – it’s on par with chocolate! (Luckily for me, they were mostly raw chocolate parties.)
There was an amazing array of raw food for sale at the festival. I had a delicious nori roll from Crudessence, a raw food restaurant in Montreal. The cake below was also from the Crudessence booth and it looked so scrumptious! It could rival a cooked cake any day.
The Bliss Balls below are a great and simple raw food treat that anyone can make. All it takes is some fruit, nuts and a little imagination!
I also had the pleasure of meeting Phillip McCluskey again who was selling the most divine raw chocolate called Gnosis. Each chocolate bar is handcrafted using the best organic raw ingredients. I’ve been wanting to try Gnosis chocolate for awhile, so this was the perfect opp.
On Phillip’s suggestion I tried the SuperChoc bar and oh man, not only did it taste great but check out some of this super ingredients: bee pollen, mesquite, maca root powder, Siberian ginseng powder, ashwaghanda powder, ginko biloba powder, gotu kola powder, burdock root powder, and more. Now this is the type of chocolate I would feel comfortable giving to my kids (if I had any!)
The only downside is that for the size of the raw chocolate bar, they are quite expensive at $9. But when you consider the expense of the quality ingredients, the fact that they are raw and made by hand, I would much rather treat myself to a Gnosis bar once in a while than spend $9 on a Costco value pack of sugar-laden, corn syrupy chocolate.
It’s hard to find Gnosis bars outside of NYC, but I hear they will soon be available in more Whole Foods stores. Phillip is also selling the Gnosis raw chocolate bars online, so go check out all 13 flavors. They sound so GOOD. Wish there was a variety pack of mini samples. That would be a great way to try all the flavors.
Well that’s a wrap of my on-location report at the Simply Raw Festival 2008 in Ottawa, Canada. This upcoming weekend is the Raw Spirit Festival in Sedona, Arizona. I so wish I was going this year. It’s doubled in size since last year and a lot of my Tree of Life friends will be there. Oh well, maybe next year. Rumor has it that there may be an East Coast raw spirit festival coming soon. Hope so!
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