Not raw and dangerous foods and The Most Amazing Fruit in the world!

I have lots to talk about food-wise. 1st some concerns:

1 - baby carrots - I had always wondered about these and according to an e-mail I recently received, baby carrots are not baby carrots at all - they are not young nor grown to be small. They were conceptualized 21 years ago by a Californian farmer with the aim of selling more of his imperfect carrots which were knobby, twisted or broken.

The carrots are cut down in size and fed through machines which smooth the edges and remove the skin. Then they are rinsed with perservatives such as sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, nitrates/nitrites, or salts (undeclared as 'aids to processing') and inert gasses such as carbon dioxide or nitrogen (like bagged washed lettuce brands). Often they are washed with chlorine to inhibit oxidation, browning or discoloration.

Apparently one California carrot grower(near Bakersfield) is trying to use the pasterurized, highly chemicalized and processed liquid mash left over as good for you carrot juice. This is not good! & on top of that they are then using the left over squeezed carrot mash, which is often dried and sold off as 'carrot fiber' for baked goods. Sadly, they are really quite poisionous and passed off as healthy when they are really quite bad for your health.

So bagged carrots are out.. not that I have been eating them, just had a bad feeling about them.. but, you have to wonder about the ones that are organic. Safest bet - go to your local farmers market and buy real fresh organic carrots!

2 - agave - I just bought a bottle of organic blue Raw agave. It was sitting next to the organic blue agave (no raw on the label) & it occurred to me that I have lately just bought agave & hadn't really looked to see if it was raw.. just assumed it was. That might be obvious to some.. but was an oversight on my part.

3- Bagged frozen vegetables - Not raw. They are blanched before they are bagged and frozen to brighten their color. Killed, bagged, frozen.. sorry, stay away if you want raw.

each one is getting shorter.. lol. But I have saved the best for last..
The most amazing fruit in the world (which is also dangerous) is .... drumroll....

4 - the Fig! This is honorably given the title of most amazing fruit in the world by me (& Simon, who told me about this ; ) because it is the only fruit in the world to have a flower on the inside.
I was in the kitchen yesterday & offered Simon some dried figs I had bought & told him they are dangerous (cause I was eating to many) & he said yeah.. they really are dangerous. Why? because ..if you look at the bottom of a dried fig there is a little hole in it.. this leads to where the flower is on the inside.. Simon said if you open it fresh off the tree at a certain time and cut it open you can see the petals & flower inside there. How cool is that??!!! Very! ..but this hole is where bugs can go into. Every time Simon eats one he opens it up & looks inside.. sorry to gross anyone out but he says he has found worms inside them before. It doesn't happen often.. but can happen. Told me about one time when he found 5 or 6 worms in there. yuck! ..but, you can't really blame them for wanting to get in there to see that flower. ..what a cool little internal environment that must be.. I have just expanded it 1000x and am going in & hanging out in there myself.. livingroom, imagination getting carried away now.. a huge natural environment - jungle just grew around me - that was cool.

but back to reality.. & getting ready for work.. another day.. filled with surprises. Wonder what will happen today? Let's go.. & Enjoy..
~Hugs~

ps. I just rubbed my puck of cacao butter over my legs & arms & neck & face while rereading this.. that feels so amazing! (Thank you for the idea M!!!) Wow - chocolate Love - great idea! Mmmm