Whether you had plansfor holiday food or not you will want to get a dose of Quintessences outrageous Thanks Giving Rawgazm Experience.
Featuring some of the most satisfying food you could ever eat covering Thanks Giving Staples such as Candied Yams, "Mash Potato" & Gravy, Cranberry Relish, testy soft Breads and an incredible Entry Stand-in Pineapple Ginger Glazed Veggie a la Cream Stuffed Brazil Nut Roll complete with your choice of Pumpkin or Apple Cherry Pie..

If you want to order for pickup be sure to place your order at least12 hr before you plan to pick it up.

Menu

$55 pp or $100 for two

Celery Asparagus Garlic Creamy Bisque (raw)

or Creamy Butternut Squash Soup (cooked)

(ala carte $7)

Arugula Pear Salad with Pomegranate Vinaigrette

(ala carte $12)

Pineapple Ginger Glazed Veggies a la Cream Stuffed

Brazil Nut Loaf

Served with a side of

“Sautéed” Spinach & Shallots Topped with Sliced Almonds

(ala carte $20)

Light Buttery Coconut Yam Bread

(ala carte $5)

Walnut Cherry Stuffing (raw)

or Sprouted Quinoa Vegetable Pilaf (cooked)

(ala carte $8)

Whipped Cauliflower Mashed (raw or cooked)

(ala carte $6)

Creamy Black Pepper Gravy

(ala carte $6)

Apple Cherry Pie or Pumpkin Pie

(ala carte $10)
====================================

Add-On Side Dishes

(the followings are not included in the set menu)

Cranberry Relish  $3

Candied Yam  $4

Quintessence is testing a new Sprouted Lentil Salad featuring Arugula and the Greens of Red Radish along with their own Kosher version of a Balsamic Vinaigrette made with Raw Apple Cider Vinegar, Lemon Juice, Turkish Apricots, Sea Salt and a hint of Stevia.

In this delightful Salad you will encounter

Sprouted Brown Lentils
Red Radish Slices
Celery, Capers and Parsley
Tossed with a wonderfly cleaver and remarkebly saticfying
Vinigar Lemon Aprocot "Balsamic Vinaigrette" ala Kosher
Served on a bed of
Arugula and Red Radish Greens
Topped with Fresh Black Pepper

Quintessence is at
263 E 10th Street
Between
Ave A & 1st Ave
646 654-1823
www.raw-q.com

Hello East Coast Activists! World Food Day has finally arrived!
This Sunday, October 16 is slated to be the biggest day of action for labels on Genetically Engineered Foods in US history! Our loyal members and intrepid food activists have planned over 100 events nationwide. Our goal is that after October 16th, 2011 everyone in the nation will know and understand the health risks and environmental hazards of GMOs.WFD MAM logo But in order to get the media, our legislators, and the Biotech industry to heed our call for labeling, we need numbers! We need everyone out in the street supporting your local events. Can you lend your voice to protect our food supply? Will you be there on October 16th? Here is the list of events we currently have in your area. We realize that some event information is missing. If you have questions or would like to help with specific events, please contact the event organizers listed for each event.

STAMFORD, CT - Oct 16th, 1 pm Rally at the corner of Bedford and Broad St., organized by Lela Florel, maater4@att.net WATERTOWN, CT - Oct 16th Pot luck and speakers at the Watertown Library, 470 Main Street, organized by Kimberly A. Lawrence, positivelybalanced@yahoo.com

WASHINGTON DC - Oct 16th, 2:00pm - 5:00pm Right2Know March, Lafeyette Park, contact Erica, erica@right2knowmarch.org http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=253665024648042

BARNSTABLE MA - Oct 16th Tabling at the Unitarian Church of Barnstable, 3330 Main Street (Route 6A), organized by Diane Suhm, dianesuhm@gmail.com

NANTUCKET, MA Tabling at the Stop and Shop, organized by Ingrid Feeney, ingrid.feeney@gmail.com

LAKE HIAWATHA, NJ GMO-free meals in local restaurants, organized by Barbara J Hertz, stewardsffsafety@yahoo.com

BUFFALO, NY, Oct 16th, 7pm Screening of the Future of Food at Burning Books, 420 Connecticut Street 716-881-0791. www.burningbooksbuffalo.com

NEW YORK, NY, Oct 16th, 12pm-4pm Rally with speakers and music, Foley Square, Chinatown, organized by Maria Concilio, 3plus2@verizon.net https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=133646956731027

RICHMOND, VA, Oct 16th, 11am-3pm Tabling and chair massages, Good Foods Grocery, 3062 Stony Point Road, organized by Robin Ravers, robinraver@verizon.net

ROANOKE, VA, Oct 16th, 4:30 pm-7:00 pm Tabling at Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op, 1319 Grandin Rd, organized by Marilyn Draper, mardraper@embarqmail.com

More events are being organized every day, so if you don't see an event in your area, please check the overall list of events posted here: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_23862.cfm

Thanks again to everyone who worked so hard to make this day come together. And thanks in advance to everyone who will take to the street this Saturday and Sunday (and after)! **Remember to take pictures and videos of your event that you can later upload to our Virtual Rally for the Right to Know (http://www.flickr.com/groups/right2knowaboutgmos/pool/) Flickr photo album.***

Thanks Again, The Millions Against Monsanto Campaign Staff, OCA . If you no longer wish to receive e-mail from us, please click here.

Hello East Coast Activists!

World Food Day has finally arrived! This Sunday, October 16 is slated to be the biggest day of action for labels on Genetically Engineered Foods in US history! Our loyal members and intrepid food activists have planned over 100 events nationwide. Our goal is that after October 16th, 2011 everyone in the nation will know and understand the health risks and environmental hazards of GMOs.WFD MAM logo

But in order to get the media, our legislators, and the Biotech industry to heed our call for labeling, we need numbers! We need everyone out in the street supporting your local events. Can you lend your voice to protect our food supply? Will you be there on October 16th?

Here is the list of events we currently have in your area. We realize that some event information is missing. If you have questions or would like to help with specific events, please contact the event organizers listed for each event.

STAMFORD, CT - Oct 16th, 1 pm
Rally at the corner of Bedford and Broad St., organized by Lela Florel, maater4@att.net

WATERTOWN, CT - Oct 16th
Pot luck and speakers at the Watertown Library, 470 Main Street, organized by Kimberly A. Lawrence, positivelybalanced@yahoo.com

WASHINGTON DC - Oct 16th, 2:00pm - 5:00pm
Right2Know March, Lafeyette Park, contact Erica, erica@right2knowmarch.org

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=253665024648042

https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=133646956731027

Quintessence Launches it's new "Menu Of The Day" A new Set Menu option. A Three course fiesta for $35! Choose from the daily specials or a selected option from the menu. Each week the menu then repeats the cleaver Mon - Friday 5 day cycle. And save room for Brunch Sat & Sun - Definitely a not to be missed Dinning Experience!
Discount Coupons available at Restaurants.com

So why are we not doing this already?

The New York Times report that a radiation plume will reach California by Friday has a lot of people asking us for more information about what to do. (See http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/science/17plume.html?_r=1)

Fortunately, the amount of radiation that would actually fall on California (or Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Alaska, etc.) is currently very small. Too small to pose a serious health risk for right now.

The time to get really concerned is if -- and only if -- the Fukushima reactors suffer a fuel rod "meltdown" event which would release a massive amount of radiation into the atmosphere. The United Nations has calculated that such an event would send a cloud of very powerful radiation headed eastward, arriving on the shores of the United States and Canada within 2-3 days after the meltdown, depending on wind patterns.

Importantly, this will give you some time to take action should such an event occur. The next 24 - 48 hours are crucial in Japan's effort to stop the nuclear fuel rod meltdown. It is entirely unknown whether Japan can succeed in stopping it. The situation remains dire.

If you live in the western states or provinces of North America, it is extremely important to be prepared by taking the following actions RIGHT NOW:

1) Fuel up your vehicle(s) and be ready to hit the road for a possible evacuation (or hunker down if you're out in the country and feel like you would be safer there).

2) If you plan to stay put, go to the hardware store TODAY and buy large amounts of plastic and duct tape to seal up your windows and doors. This will help protect you from radioactive fallout. You will also need to store water, food, and all the usual emergency supplies because outside help probably won't be available.

3) If you plan to evacuate, have a "Go Bag" ready to go at a moment's notice. This go bag should include a water filter, emergency radio, flashlight, duct tape, emergency knife, spare cash, whatever medical supplies you might need, extra food and water, spare fuel cans and so on. Have it ready now in case you need it.

4) Significantly increase your intake of iodine-containing foods and superfoods starting right now: Seaweeds are a great source. We've listed our entire inventory of what we have available at our store (http://www.naturalnews.com/031730_iodine_radiation_poisoning.html), but I would actually prefer you to go out and get this locally TODAY at your local health food stores, where possible. You may not have time to wait on a UPS delivery. Fortunately, our store ships from Ojai, California, meaning that if you order foods from us today that are in stock, and you're in California, you could receive them very, very quickly (within 1-2 business days).

5) If you have potassium iodide pills (radiation pills), don't take them yet. Keep them ready to take if and only if a meltdown event occurs and a massive dose of radiation has been released into the atmosphere.

6) Have a plan for you and your family. Where will you meet if you need to evacuate? Don't count on cell phones working. Have a plan of where to go, how to get there and how to survive once you get there.

Hopefully none of this will be necessary. If they can stop the meltdown at Fukushima, there is virtually no real radiation risk in North America. That's the outcome we're all hoping and praying for.

But if a meltdown takes place, it is almost certain that strong winds will push a massive radiation cloud right into North America within a matter of days, potentially dropping a highly dangerous amount of radioactive material on California or other regions. That's the scenario that we all need to be prepared to guard against.

Do not rely on your government to tell you the truth about what's happening. Governments are in the business of "preventing panic" by withholding information you need to know. Governments believe that if too many people know the truth, it might start a panic, and even more people could die in the panic than from the event itself. They may actually be correct at some level on that, but I believe that people have a right to know what's really going on. And the sober, shocking truth of the matter is that as of right now, our world is facing an unprecedented nuclear meltdown event that could dwarf the Chernobyl catastrophe of 1987. We're talking about as many as 600,000 spent fuel rods which are now threatened by fires and loss of cooling fluids. This is not a set of circumstances to be taken lightly.

I urge all NaturalNews readers to take this seriously. Get prepared now. Get your go bag ready just in case. Start boosting your natural iodine intake TODAY. Be ready to head out of Dodge if you're in a geographic area that could be impacted. And then watch the news on this to stay informed (and read NaturalNews for an honest analysis of the situation).

Another thing: If a meltdown does occur and an evacuation is announced for parts of the west coast of North America, you will need to be one of the first to head out if you expect to get out at all. The highways around Los Angeles in particular do not have the capacity to handle a mass evacuation. They barely have the capacity to handle rush hour! Imagine what happens if half the people in L.A. try to leave all at the same time... that will be a week-long traffic jam, and people will run out of gas on the highways, abandon their vehicles, and make the highways impassable.

I don't mean to paint this as a worst-case scenario, but I'm trying to give you an accurate description of what might realistically happen if a radiation cloud is headed toward LA and an evacuation effort is announced. If you aren't out of LA by the time the government announces an evacuation, you're probably too late.

This is actually a good time to own a Prius because a Prius can idle without the engine running and use virtually no gas. A Prius is a great getaway vehicle for jammed evacuation highways where traffic is barely moving.

Be safe and be smart about all this. Think ahead. Get real about what might unfold if a meltdown occurs. This is a time to interrupt your regularly scheduled programming and start thinking seriously about what you can do to protect yourself and your family. It's better to be prepared than to be caught by the unexpected.

We are lucky in one sense right now because we have forewarning of all this. There is time right now to take preparedness steps to deal with a meltdown event should one occur. I strongly advise all NaturalNews readers to use this time wisely and get squared away for what might be coming.

Watch NaturalNews.com for more updates throughout the day. We'll be posting stories at an increased frequency during this Fukushima catastrophe to help bring people information more rapidly.

Radiation poisoning can be cleared using clay.

If you can't get these clays its better than not to just use any clear, clean clay you can get at the beauty shop or health food store. Adya clarity (black mica) can help too and it ironically comes from Japan.

I did an interesting interview yesterday and woke up
today to a full page spread in Madrid's El Mundo the cities daily paper!
How cool is that. 

I am here opening Europs first all raw food restaurante!. Thsi is going to be really good! 

This is Long, but well worth the read!!!!

There is nothing political about this commentary. It simply points out some very probable changes that could be in our future.

CHANGES ARE COMING ----

Whether these changes are good or bad depends in part on how we adapt to them.  But, ready or not, here they come.

1. The Post Office. Get ready to imagine a world without the post office. They are so deeply in financial trouble that there is probably no way to sustain it long term.  Email, Fed Ex, and UPS have just about wiped out the minimum revenue needed to keep the post office alive.  Most of your mail every day is junk mail and bills.

2. The Check.  Britain is already laying the groundwork to do away with checks by 2018.  It costs the financial system billions of dollars a year to process checks.  Plastic cards and online transactions will lead to the eventual demise of the check. This plays right into the death of the post office.  If you never paid your bills by mail and never received them by mail, the post office would absolutely go out of business.

3. The Newspaper. The younger generation simply doesn't read the newspaper. They certainly don't subscribe to a daily delivered print edition. That may go the way of the milkman and the laundry man. As for reading the paper online, get ready to pay for it. The rise in mobile Internet devices and e-readers has caused all the newspaper and magazine publishers to form an alliance. They have met with Apple, Amazon, and the major cell phone companies to develop a model for paid subscription services.

4. The Book. You say you will never give up the physical book that you hold in your hand and turn the literal pages. I said the same thing about downloading music from iTunes. I wanted my hard copy CD. But I quickly changed my mind when I discovered that I could get albums for half the price without ever leaving home to get the latest music. The same thing will happen with books. You can browse a bookstore online and even read a preview chapter before you buy. And the price is less than half that of a real book. And think of the convenience! Once you start flicking your fingers on the screen instead of the book, you find that you are lost in the story, can't wait to see what happens next, and you forget that you're holding a gadget instead of a book.

5. The Land Line Telephone. Unless you have a large family and make a lot of local calls, you don't need it anymore. Most people keep it simply because they've always had it.  But you are paying double charges for that extra service.  All the cell phone companies will let you call customers using the same cell provider for no charge against your minutes

6. Music. This is one of the saddest parts of the change story. The music industry is dying a slow death.  Not just because of illegal downloading. It's the lack of innovative new music being given a chance to get to the people who would like to hear it. Greed and corruption is the problem. The record labels and the radio conglomerates are simply self-destructing. Over 40% of the music purchased today is "catalog items," meaning traditional music that the public is familiar with. Older established artists. This is also true on the live concert circuit. To explore this fascinating and disturbing topic further, check out the book, "Appetite for Self-Destruction" by Steve Knopper, and the video documentary, "Before the Music Dies."

7. Television.  Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy. People are watching TV and movies streamed from their computers. And they're playing games and doing lots of other things that take up the time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than the lowest common denominator. Cable rates are skyrocketing and commercials run about every 4 minutes and 30 seconds. I say good riddance to most of it. It's time for the cable companies to be put out of our misery.  Let the people choose what they want to watch online and through Netflix.

8. The "Things" That You Own.  Many of the very possessions that we used to own are still in our lives, but we may not actually own them in the future. They may simply reside in "the cloud." Today your computer has a hard drive and you store your pictures, music, movies, and documents. Your software is on a CD or DVD, and you can always re-install it if need be. But all of that is changing.  Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all finishing up their latest "cloud services." That means that when you turn on a computer, the Internet will be built into the operating system.  So, Windows, Google, and the Mac OS will be tied straight into the Internet.  If you click an icon, it will open something in the Internet cloud.  If you save something, it will be saved to the cloud.  And you may pay a monthly subscription fee to the cloud provider.

In this virtual world, you can access your music or your books, or your whatever from any laptop or handheld device. That's the good news.  But, will you actually own any of this "stuff" or will it all be able to disappear at any moment in a big "Poof?" Will most of the things in our lives be disposable and whimsical? It makes you want to run to the closet and pull out that photo album, grab a book from the shelf, or open up a CD case and pull out the insert.

9. Privacy. If there ever was a concept that we can look back on nostalgically, it would be privacy. That's gone. It's been gone for a long time anyway. There are cameras on the street, in most of the buildings, and even built into your computer and cell phone. But you can be sure that 24/7, "They" know who you are and where you are, right down to the GPS coordinates, and the Google Street View. If you buy something, your habit is put into a zillion profiles, and your ads will change to reflect those habits. And "They" will try to get you to buy something else.  Again and again.

All we will have that can't be changed are Memories.

19 Facts About The Deindustrialization Of America That Will Blow Your Mind

The United States is rapidly becoming the very first "post-industrial" nation on the globe.  All great economic empires eventually become fat and lazy and squander the great wealth that their forefathers have left them, but the pace at which America is accomplishing this is absolutely amazing.  It was America that was at the forefront of the industrial revolution.  It was America that showed the world how to mass produce everything from automobiles to televisions to airplanes.  It was the great American manufacturing base that crushed Germany and Japan in World War II.  

But now we are witnessing the deindustrialization of America.  Tens of thousands of factories have left the United States in the past decade alone.  Millions upon millions of manufacturing jobs have been lost in the same time period.  The United States has become a nation that consumes everything in sight and yet produces increasingly little.  Do you know what our biggest export is today?  Waste paper.  Yes, trash is the number one thing that we ship out to the rest of the world as we voraciously blow our money on whatever the rest of the world wants to sell to us.  The United States has become bloated and spoiled and our economy is now just a shadow of what it once was.  Once upon a time America could literally out produce the rest of the world combined.  Today that is no longer true, but Americans sure do consume more than anyone else in the world.  If the deindustrialization of America continues at this current pace, what possible kind of a future are we going to be leaving to our children?

Any great nation throughout history has been great at making things.  So if the United States continues to allow its manufacturing base to erode at a staggering pace how in the world can the U.S. continue to consider itself to be a great nation?  We have created the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world in an effort to maintain a very high standard of living, but the current state of affairs is not anywhere close to sustainable.  Every single month America goes into more debt and every single month America gets poorer.

So what happens when the debt bubble pops?

The deindustrialization of the United States should be a top concern for every man, woman and child in the country.  But sadly, most Americans do not have any idea what is going on around them.

For people like that, take this article and print it out and hand it to them.  Perhaps what they will read below will shock them badly enough to awaken them from their slumber.    

The following are 19 facts about the deindustrialization of America that will blow your mind....

#1 The United States has lost approximately 42,400 factories since 2001.  About 75 percent of those factories employed over 500 people when they were still in operation.

#2 Dell Inc., one of America's largest manufacturers of computers, has announced plans to dramatically expand its operations in China with an investment of over $100 billion over the next decade.

#3 Dell has announced that it will be closing its last large U.S. manufacturing facility in Winston-Salem , North Carolina in November.  Approximately 900 jobs will be lost.

#4 In 2008, 1.2 billion cell phones were sold worldwide.  So how many of them were manufactured inside the United States?  Zero.

#5 According to a new study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute, if the U.S. trade deficit with China continues to increase at its current rate, the U.S. economy will lose over half a million jobs this year alone.

#6 As of the end of July, the U.S. trade deficit with China had risen 18 percent compared to the same time period a year ago.

#7 The United States has lost a total of about 5.5 million manufacturing jobs since October 2000.

#8 According to Tax Notes, between 1999 and 2008 employment at the foreign affiliates of U.S. parent companies increased an astounding 30 percent to 10.1 million During that exact same time period, U.S. employment at American multinational corporations declined 8 percent to 21.1 million.

#9 In 1959, manufacturing represented 28 percent of U.S. economic output.  In 2008, it represented 11.5 percent.

#10 Ford Motor Company recently announced the closure of a factory that produces the Ford Ranger in St. Paul,  Minnesota.  Approximately 750 good paying middle class jobs are going to be lost because making Ford Rangers in Minnesota does not fit in with Ford's new "global" manufacturing strategy.

#11 As of the end of 2009, less than 12 million Americans worked in manufacturing.  The last time less than 12 million Americans were employed in manufacturing was in 1941.

#12 In the United States today, consumption accounts for 70 percent of GDP.  Of this 70 percent, over half is spent on services.

#13 The United States has lost a whopping 32 percent of its manufacturing jobs since the year 2000.

#14 In 2001, the United States ranked fourth in the world in per capita broadband Internet use.  Today it ranks 15th.

#15 Manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is actually lower in 2010 than it was in 1975.

#16 Printed circuit boards are used in tens of thousands of different products.   Asia now produces 84 percent of them worldwide.

#17 The United States spends approximately $3.90 on Chinese goods for every $1 that the Chinese spend on goods from the United States .

#18 One prominent economist is projecting that the Chinese economy will be three times larger than the U.S. economy by the year 2040.

#19 The U.S. Census Bureau says that 43.6 million Americans are now living in poverty and according to them that is the highest number of poor Americans in the 51 years that records have been kept.

So how many tens of thousands more factories do we need to lose before we do something about it?

How many millions more Americans are going to become unemployed before we all admit that we have a very, very serious problem on our hands?

How many more trillions of dollars are going to leave the country before we realize that we are losing wealth at a pace that is killing our economy?

How many once great manufacturing cities are going to become rotting war zones like Detroit before we understand that we are committing national economic suicide?

The deindustrialization of America is a national crisis.  It needs to be treated like one.

If you disagree with this article, I have a direct challenge for you.  If anyone can explain how a de industrialized America has any kind of viable economic future, please do so.

America is in deep, deep trouble.

Before you read this just keep in mind that some believe the Food Safety Modernization Act is not at all for safety but control, manipulation and a medium to implement the depopulation agenda.

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

http://www.NaturalNews.com/030853_food_safety_government_spending.html

(NaturalNews) The recently-passed Food Safety Modernization Act, which was passed in order to prevent food-borne illness deaths in the USA, will cost $1.4 billion over the first five years. But nobody thinks about the economics of the issue. How many people are we going to save by spending this $1.4 billion, even assuming it works?

To answer that question, let's look at the food illness fatality figures offered by the CDC:

• Out of the 5,000 food-borne illness deaths each year in the United States, only 1,809 are "attributable to foodborne transmission" according to the CDC (http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol5n...).

• E.coli, which is often quoted in the big scare stories about food safety, only kills 78 people a year through food-borne transmission (52 plus 26, from the CDC's chart). Interestingly, according to the CDC's own numbers (from 1998), more people are killed from being struck by lightning each year than from e.coli.

• Listeria kills 499 people and Salmonella kills 553 people. But salmonella poisoning is easily acquired from store-bought chickens, of which two-thirds are contaminated with salmonella every day! Since the food safety bill doesn't even address chickens, cows or other animals because those are handled by the USDA, this salmonella fatality figure probably won't be reduced at all. (Salmonella comes largely from animals: Fowl, reptiles, etc.)

So how many people will the Food Safety Modernization Act actually impact? It's primarily going to address e.coli poisoning and Listeria contamination. So we're talking about a grand total of 78 + 499 people each year, or 577 people.

By the way, for comparison, consider the fact that 300 people die in the U.S. each year from penicillin allergies. Another 14,500 people die each year from taking NSAID painkiller medications. Nearly three quarter of a million people are killed by conventional medicine (drug deaths, surgical mistakes, iatrogenic deaths, etc, source: Death By Medicine). Congress does nothing to address these causes of death, of course. The focus is on the few hundred people who die each year from the common causes of food-borne illness.

So in order to prevent the deaths of 577 people each year for five years, the U.S. Congress is going to spend $1.4 billion!

Pine nuts are the edible seeds of pines (family Pinaceae, genus Pinus). About 20 species of pine produce seeds large enough to be worth harvesting; in other pines the seeds are also edible, but are too small to be of great value as a human food. In Europe, pine nuts come from the Stone Pine (Pinus pinea), which has been cultivated for its nuts for over 6,000 years, and harvested from wild trees for far longer. The Swiss Pine (Pinus cembra) is also used to a very small extent.

In Asia, two species are widely harvested, Korean Pine (Pinus koraiensis) in northeast Asia (the most important species in international trade), and Chilgoza Pine (Pinus gerardiana) in the western Himalaya. Four other species, Siberian Pine (Pinus sibirica), Siberian Dwarf Pine (Pinus pumila), Chinese White Pine(Pinus armandii) and Lacebark Pine (Pinus bungeana), are also used to a lesser extent. Afghanistan is an important source of pine nuts. In some cultures, it is believed consumption of copious amounts of pine nut may yield aphrodisiac effects.

In North America, the main species are three of the pinyon pines, Colorado Pinyon (Pinus edulis), Single-leaf Pinyon (Pinus monophylla), and Mexican Pinyon (Pinus cembroides). The other eight pinyon species are used to a small extent, as are Gray Pine (Pinus sabineana), Torrey Pine (Pinus torreyana), Sugar Pine (Pinus lambertiana) and Parry Pinyon (Pinus quadrifolia).

In the United States, pine nuts are mainly harvested by American Indians, particularly the Uto-Aztecan: Shoshone, Paiute and Hopi, and Washoe tribes. Certain treaties negotiated by tribes and laws in Nevada guarantee Native Americans' right to harvest pine nuts

Pine nuts are indeed the seeds of pine trees, and you could plant them, if they haven’t been toasted, which is often the case with those you buy in stores.

They’re tucked inside the pine cones and fall out when the cones open. Not all pines make pine nuts that are nice to eat, and most pine nuts are so small that you could easily not notice them. To make matters worse, when they come out of a pine cone, they’re covered with a hard shell that has to be removed before you see anything recognizable as pine nuts.

Although about 20 species of pine make nuts large enough to be interesting as food, almost all pine nuts used for food come from four varieties: Mexican pine, Colorado pine, Italian stone pine, and Chinese nut pine.

It takes a long time, usually 15 to 25 years, for a pine to start producing nuts, and three times as long before production reaches its maximum. This means pine nuts are often harvested wild, which is part of the reason their cost is so high.

There are some similar edible seeds from other plants that make cones. The juniper seed is well known as the main source of flavoring for gin.

Pine nuts are nutritious, having a high protein content and all sorts of other nutrients. There is an interesting phenomenon, however: After eating pine nuts, some people for days or weeks taste something bitter and metallic. If this should happen to you, don’t worry; it goes away with time.

Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_nut
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2010/01/04/where_do_pine_nuts_come_from/

I was asked today by a business partner what I think Quintessence's philosophy is: It is the same for me as it always has been. I always strive to be on top of the latest and most cutting edge health and dietary information.

In my restaurant Quintessence and in my classes... I am not afraid of new information, even if it may prove something I believed in the past to be wrong or misguiding. If there is changed to be made based on newer information, I do it.
Some people are confused by our changes and some are offended or even heart by them. I feel it is my job being in my position to make the changes required to not harm you with the foods we serve but to offer healing foods as you would expect coming into Quintessence restaurant. After all that is why most people come to a raw food restaurant, to eat foods that heal the body not poison them.

The problem I have seen many time with new information is people can take it personally, like they themselves are somehow stupid because a new study or research has derailed something they so wholeheartedly believed in. Things they learned about and adopted into their life and defended them strongly among coworkers, friends and family. As David Wolfe put it " Are you using the same computer you were using 5 or 6 yrs ago?"

My phylosophy for Quintessence Restaurant:

To serve the purest, cleanest foods available prepared to supply the most health benefit according to the most cutting edge/up-to-date health and nutritional information and technology available while still offering the tastiest and most satisfying meals possible..

Hey everyone, sorry I have been MIA for so long but life has me busy beyond belief.

I am in Japan now as you may know.
Last week I did a three day set menu event in Hiroshima to celebrate the 20 year anniversary of Country Grain bakery and vegetarian restaurant in Hiroshima.

That went great, the reponse was very exciting and the food was off the hook.

This was my Spicy Fofu Parfait served with Avo, Cucmber, Scallin and Nira.

Now I am in Osaka where I did a three sitting set menue dinner.

It was crazy, soo much work and such a tight schedule. Today I am off somewhat, shopping and preparing for tomorrows event I will do two sittings for brunch. Then I am off to Kamakura for a 2 day worshop.

More to come as soon as I have a minute to post more!