03

We have been at Cedar Springs Renewal Center for about a week now and have gotten really comfortable with pretty much everything.

Cedar Springs is a raw food center that has guests who come to say for any length of three days to a month. There is a staff of a couple of people who keep everything going. AJ, Sage, and Cheryl (yes, another Cheryl! how awkward.) are the kitchen staff, and there is always one of them around working. They make all of the raw meals, many of which are the best I’ve ever had.

Bernice coordinates a lot of classes and helps out with general things, and Nan and Michael are the proprietors and are always around doing classes and keeping busy. The guests stay in the guest lodge, which is a beautiful place to hang out and relax, as well as the place all the meals are made and eaten. It has a great porch with a bunch of birdfeeders that are constantly being filled to meet the high volume of birds that are always around. We've spent time lately with a bird encyclopedia, trying to identify them, and Cheryl has spent a lot of time trying to trick them into landing on her finger so she can pet their bellies.

The guests follow a daily itinerary that includes things like a morning walk, three raw meals, wheatgrass shots, tea time, yoga and other movement classes, dialogues, kitchen classes, and more healthy living classes. There is also a sauna in the lodge, and specialists in massage and reflexology come in at various times during the week to see people.

There are a bunch of beautiful horses and sheep here, and a dog named Bandit.

We were just told that we could be in charge of feeding the sheep in the mornings, which we are beyond excited about. The garden isn’t huge, but is growing a lot of amazing things like kale, lemon balm, corn, peapods, cilantro, garlic, parsley, basil, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, roses, a million different flowers that I don’t know the names of, carrots, cucumbers, and a bunch of other things I’m totally leaving out.

There is also a huge cherry tree at the entrance that we’re constantly eating from.

We work four hours a day doing various things. Our tasks so far have included: weeding an enormous pathway on the bank of a pond (this was a week-long project), planting things in the garden, watering, weeding, general garden maintenance, pruning, mowing, and our favorite…helping out in the raw food kitchen. Chopping figs and gathering peapods from the garden feels far from actual labor, but here it is. They have a wealth of raw food cookbooks and recipe binders, and it’s been really amazing to see what can be done with raw fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, and spices. The kitchen is amazing and huge, equipped with all sorts of appliances that have been making Cheryl and I drool rather constantly (and figuratively…don’t worry, kitchen hygiene is something taken quite seriously). They have a blender of the heaviest-duty to make serious juices (every week the guests do a three day juice fast), a huge dehydrator to make breads and chips and tortillas and anything else that needs it. In raw foods, nothing can be raised above the temperature of 104 degrees if it is to be considered truly raw. So, a dehydrator is used to blast air onto things to dry them out. Delicious chips and breads have been made using it, so far, and Cheryl and I made raw meatballs one night using it. The kitchen has an amazing and huge food processor to chop up things for pates and sauces. They grow their own wheatgrass here, and the wheatgrass juicer is also amazing and super efficient. I really want to look into starting to grow it ourselves when we come back from this trip, and also getting a wheatgrass juicer.

There is another WWOOFer here with us, a man named Trayce who is a yoga teacher, musician, furniture salesman, and raw foodist from California. We have done yoga under his instruction a few times, which has been really nice. We haven’t tried out the sauna yet, but I imagine we will shortly. On the fourth of July, the three of us dug out this game called “Wildcraft!” from the severely lacking gameshelf, and played. It was a ridiculous “cooperative learning” game that involved herbal remedies, a huge game board, so much group cooperation, and getting two pails of huckleberries apiece back to grandmother’s house before the sun went down.

We all won the game because it was a cooperative effort, of course, and afterwards we went outside and saw fireworks from all directions. They scared the horses a ton, but were kind of pretty.

Most everyone left the farm for the weekend, so we were in charge of our meals and time, which was really nice. We made a really nice salad with raw meatballs one night, as well as a raw sun-dried tomato marinara sauce for them.

Rania, a Syrian woman who stayed with her daughter Tayma for a little of the weekend with us made an apple nut bread in the dehydrator that was really fantastic with coconut butter.

Tayma was young and so full of energy and so excited about doing headstands and about showing me her life story via pictures on her mother's ipod. She also loved hugs, which is a great trait. Cheryl tried her hand at making raw halvah, which tasted way too much like tahini for my taste. For breakfast one morning we made a fruit parfait with an almond date pate topping.

It was really nice to explore raw foods like that, with all the resources and ingredients handy. There’s a tub of raw agave nectar here that’s about a third of my height. That’s a really serious amount of raw agave.

There’s so much room around here to explore and roam.

We walked to a creek yesterday, with a pretty fast little current, surrounded by rocks. We take walks after dinner pretty much daily, going around the area and seeing yaks and mountains. Lately, a tiny neighboring dog has been accompanying us.

We are probably going to camp out for a night or two eventually in the big fields around the area, with a nice view of the mountains. It gets light here at around 4am, and doesn’t get dark until 10pm!

Saturday night we went to Seattle, which is about an hour and a half South, to see Your Heart Breaks, Craig Salt Peters, Heathers, and Ghost Mice play. The drive seemed short and it was, bizarrely enough, really nice to be inside a car again. When we got there we realized that the area was the one we had eaten in with Stacy and Robert a week ago at the thai restaurant. It was nice to see something familiar to ground us. We have since researched some Seattle things and have found an amazing raw food restaurant in that same area, as well as an organic vegan donut store. We do realize that these two interests are in conflict.

When we got to the show we were greeted by Hannah, and it was nice to have a friendly and familiar face there at our arrival. Craig Salt Peters is a friend of Cheryl’s who played first. He had really nice songs and was also really great to meet. It was the last show at this particular art space, so there was lots of food and things available. Sticking to the raw food thing, Cheryl and I ate watermelon in honor of Simon Thrasher, and sweet corn. The band Heathers consisted of two twin sisters from Ireland. One of them played guitar and they both sang. They are currently on tour with ghost mice, and I can’t stress enough the importance of getting out to see them if it is at all plausible. They had the most intense vocal harmonies I have ever heard, and their voices carried so strongly throughout the space. My mind was completely blown from my skull by them, and I still can’t really find my frontal lobe. I got their CD, which is amazing but obviously can’t really compare to the live experience. Still, if you’re a Tegan and Sara fan, or just want to check it out, definitely go for it: myspace.com/heatherswhatsyourdamage

Ghost Mice played after them, and then Your Heart Breaks played. It was totally amazing, as expected. We got to talk to Clyde about the corn palace, and then a magnificent cover of New Kids on The Block’s “Right Stuff” was played, making the night complete.

We said goodbye to people and then had a nice drive home.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading about soy and things, which lead me to believe that I should totally cut it out of my diet as much as possible. Also, eating only raw foods and feeling absolutely incredible has made me evaluate my diet entirely. I don’t expect to keep up eating as raw and as well as I have for the rest of the summer, as traveling makes that pretty impossible…but in the fall I’m hoping to eat way better and smarter. I feel much more aware of health things since being here, which feels really great. I have to note ahead of time, though, that even though I have given the chick-o-sticks a Viking funeral, I will probably enjoy vegan donuts and the like during the rest of this trip. There are some things I just don’t want to shake for another month or two.

Speaking of, Sage did a raw chocolate making class the other day, which was a relief. Chocolate is very important to me. After an amazing dinner last night, she served a lemon torte that was mindblowing.

Nan just came in with a bunch of new furnishings for our room. I was totally satisfied with our prior arrangement, but now that she brings in a rug, things are really turning around nicely. Cheryl is on the floor right now attempting to assemble an end table with instructions that are only drawings. Her ambition in the face of confusing pictorals and imminent frustration is impressive.

Update: During the span of me posting this entry, she did it! She assembled the end table! It's a little wobbly, but what isn't these days?

"It just needs some stuff on it, that's all." -Cheryl

Tomorrow starts a three-day juice fast. Nan was thinking about giving the kitchen staff some time off and having Cheryl and I do the juices for everyone for a day or so. We are here for another week and are hoping to make a day trip to Vancouver at some point!

Love,
kate