Weekend family fun – the Simply Raw Festival

You know how some friends are more like sisters than friends? My friend Candice is like that. She’s been with me for the worst of times (she was the person I called when we got our infertility diagnosis) and the best of times (she was in the room when Tristan was born.)

Candice is also the best cook I know, bar none. She blogs about her adventures with food at Kitchen Mambo, and she’s the one who introduced me to the concept of raw food. Heard of it? At first, I thought eating raw meant eating a lot of carrots and celery, but it’s so much more than that. Eating raw means your food is vegan based (no meat, no dairy — only food from plants) and uncooked and unprocessed, but not necessarily in its original form. In addition to some spectacular salads, I’ve had raw crackers and raw pizza dough at Candice’s place — delicious!

It seems like more effort than I’m currently willing to put into my diet — after all, I’m a girl who has quite recently graduating from simply heating frozen entrees to actually cooking food — but I’m intrigued by the idea. I’m hoping to check out the Simply Raw Festival going on this Saturday in Central Park. From their website:

This year’s Simply Raw festival aims to promote healthy lifestyles through raw vegan food and active living. Our famous raw vegan pie contest will be back for another rawsome year, and the event will also feature a range of seminars on healthy living topics by a number of celebrated speakers from across North America. [It will] bring together local and regional businesses and organizations with healthy living as the core value of their mission, and a range of other exciting activities and events throughout the day.

The highlight of the event is a raw vegan pie contest Participants create desserts using only fresh plant foods, with no cooking allowed. The entries are then judged by local community figures, including Jim Watson, Ron Eade, Paul Dewar, Tony Greco, Robert Fife, and others. The festival also includes about 40-50 exhibitors, including raw food vendors, and organizations and businesses promoting eco-friendly healthy lifestyles.

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