Sunny Raw Kitchen Tour East Coast Adventures - Pennsylvania

Ooopsie! I'm starting to fall a little behind with my blogging! Eeek!

Such an interesting challenge this Sunny Raw Kitchen Tour is... "Lots of balls in the air" as we need to juggle with the Present (meeting what Life is delivering moment to moment, such as connecting with folks along the way, giving classes, oh and let's not forget prepping our food as yes, we still gotta eat too! lol), the Future (organizing upcoming events) and of course the Past (telling you all about our adventures).

Life's intensity has really turned up a huge notch since we left Canada almost a month ago, but especially so in the last 10 days. There's been a sort of feeling of urgency with the people we've been staying with; you know how it is when you haven't got a great deal of time and there's so much to be shared and explored together! We didn't go to bed earlier than 1 am during our time in DC, which is totally like being in an alternate reality! lol

But I'm getting ahead of myself. What was I saying? Oh yeah, I haven't been keeping you guys up to date. Let's try to remedy that right now! ;-)

Change of Plans
One of the really cool aspects of this trip is seeing how each stop comes together, sometimes in the most unexpected way. One day I received an email from Marty in Pennsylvania, telling me how she'd love for us to come and give a class in her area. At first, I wasn't sure if we could make this work as we already had classes scheduled in NJ and DC, but I couldn't shake the feeling that we had to somehow find a way.

It actually proved to be pretty simple; all we had to do was push dates around a little. After all, plans are there to be changed! ;-) And so we left New York state and headed down to NJ in order to give a class, but then zoomed back up to PA for another class two days later. As we were driving to Marty and Davis' house, we were curious to see whether this last minute reorganization would prove to be the right thing to do. It didn't take long though to realize that it was yet another one of those 'meant-to-be' kinda things.

What we didn't know when we agreed to do it is that for Marty to invite anyone (especially strangers!) to her home was a totally unusual thing. She confided that she was very moved by the way we trust as we've embarked on this journey across the US, and she felt like being a part of it. We feel so grateful that she did, as we all had such a lovely time!

Marty and Davis live in a beautifully renovated old house on a quiet property near Carlisle. They set us up in a part of their barn which they have converted into what they call 'the Pine Room'.

Our own little private hideaway!

In record time, Marty had managed to talk a bunch of her friends into attending the class. Few were actually into raw per se, but they were all interested in more healthy and conscious eating. It's so neat to see how each gathering is completely different. In this case, it was all very informal and relaxed as they all knew each other.

Notice the old recycled beams?

After the class, Marty's daughter Jessica and her boyfriend Ian (who had come all the way from DC to attend) and friend Carol joined us for dinner. Carol just took over a charming inn hidden in the foothills of Pennsylvania called Warm Springs Lodge. It has been used for 3 centuries by local folks for all sorts of purposes: weddings, reunions, conferences, luncheons, picnics and retreats. Sure sound like a lovely place. I wish we had more time to check it out... But anyhoo, we had a fabulous evening around the dinning table. In fact, it became clear that we needed to spend more time with Jessica and Ian so they invited us to stay with them in DC.


After giving two classes back to back, we were due for a rest and Marty and Davis' home proved to be the perfect spot! We even enjoyed the rare luxury of going to bed at 9 pm, like in the good ol' days. Yay! ;-)

Puss and I making the most of this opportunity to recharge our batteries before the next (and as it turned out SUPER busy!) leg of our journey.

The property is away from the road so Kyky could run around and chase deer to his heart's content. It was lovely and sunny for most of our stay. What a treat to do the Tibetan Rites with the sun caressing our skins.

Puss also enjoyed the sun's company.

On one of our daily walks, we hopped onto the famous Appalachian Trail, America's first National Scenic Trail that stretches from Katahdin in Maine to Springer Mountain in Georgia, that passes in a nearby town.

In Marty's Sunny Kitchen
Marty has the most gorgeous rustic kitchen straight out of a Home & Country magazine which was a real pleasure to play in. Not to mention that she is also the proud owner of the latest Vitamix 5200 with which I immediately fell in love! I adore my 5000, but Vitamix keeps improving and has managed to make their high-power blender even more efficient and comfortable to work with.

Some of the dishes we enjoyed...

Marinated Fennel & Tomato Pizzas: Rich Cheddar Sauce, thinly sliced fennel in a marinade of tamari, olive oil and agave, and cherry tomato slices marinated in olive oil, salt and dried basil on Matthew Kenney's Cumin Flatbread (as all of our buckwheat based pizza crusts had gone moldy! boo hoo)

Asian Veggies in Ginger Marinade

We served these on zucchini angel hair along with a mixed green salad.

When I found out that Marty had never made a raw dessert, I decided we ought to do something about that! I opted for Heathy's super simple but utterly stunning Triple Berry Cake.

Doesn't Marty also have the most gorgeous dishes?

Mr. Didge Comes Out of Retirement
I probably have mentioned it already somewhere on my blog, but in what feels like my 'past life' now, I used to make a living with the didgeridoo (a traditional instrument played by the aborigines of Australia). In addition to giving private lessons and group workshops, I went to elementary schools in order to teach children. I also made didgeridoos out of PVC pipes (yeah, yeah, I know!) to give people an opportunity to see whether they connected with it enough to invest in a real eucalyptus didge which is made of a branch of eucalyptus tree hollowed out by termites.

As Davis has a passion for music (he's actually quite the bluegrass expert) and plays the guitar in his spare time, he was very curious to hear the didgeridoo. Although I haven't had a chance to play much in the last 9 years, the night before we left Don got the didges from the top of the van and we had a little jam.

Back in 2000, just before I put down my didge so as to focus on my internal work, a friend gave me a stalk of agave that he had harvested in Arizona. By cutting it open, scraping out the pulp and re-gluing it, I obtained a super light yet resonant instrument which you can see in the next picture.

Bet you never thought that agave was so versatile, eh?

Marty decided to call one of her friends, Camille (who also has a didgeridoo and plays drums) to see if she'd like to join us. Since it was getting late, Camille wasn't too sure at first, but then hopped in her car to come for a little visit. As a bonus, she even got to enjoy a piece of Triple Berry Cake. Bet if she'd known that from the get go, she wouldn't have hesitated for even a second! lol It was such a fun way to end our time at Marty and Davis'!

OK, I think I better stop here for now before getting into the uncooking blitz Kelliann and I had in her kitchen.

Stay tuned for a bunch of droolsome pics and yummy recipes! ;-)

To find out more about our Sunny Raw Kitchen Tour itinerary, click here!