Episodes Videos

There s a raw juice movement sweeping the nation, as it seems to do from time to time. I remember my family briefly going through a similar craze when I was young. It seems to be a binge and purge business, there one minute, gone the next. This goes a long way toward explaining the impressive selection of juicers to be found in many suburbian rummage sale block parties. Well, color me a bandwagoner, I m hooked. For how long it will last, no one knows. Many folks in the raw food community are onboard already, such as Phillip, Heidi, and Kris, to name just a few. Last week I wrote about my favorite fresh juice, or more precisely, about its color. This week were showing how to make it. Without further ado, we give you The Director s Cut. The Director s Cut: 2-3 large carrots, to taste 2 ribs celery ½ cucumber ½ green apple 1 small beet 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger Since weve been slow posting this past week, were going to be sure to include a bonus recipe in this week s edition of our mailing list, the Freshtopian. If you haven t already signed up, just enter your preferred email address in the widget at the sites upper right corner. That issue will be coming out this Sunday, so be sure to tell all the neighborhood kids to sign up to receive the free recipe and secret decoder ring. no, there s no decoder ring. Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv)

I m growing to really love Michael Pollan. Among other things, Pollan s seventeen minute TED Talk (above) takes us on a tour of the survival of the fittest, from a grass-eye perspective. Pollan, director of the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism at UC Berkeley, is probably best known for his 2006 book The Omnivore s Dilema. Regardless of your views on omnivorousness, vegetarianism, veganism, Pollan gets people thinking deeper about food and where it comes from, and that is a true service to our surprisingly nature-starved culture. Alas, you won t find many fun graphics or sound effects, but if you re a foodie and care about the world around you, you many find this interesting. This far-ranging talk covers ground from the human genome project to the sophisticated yet simply logical permaculture of Polyface Farms. You can check out some of the other TED Talks here. Oscar Director, Freshtopia.net

This Valentines day, weve gone buck-rogers with a racy show about aphrodisiacs! For the occasion weve concocted a pulse-pounding chocolate sauce chock-full of sensuous spices like maca, cayenne, and cinnamon to get you in the mood for love. Treat your sweetie, (or yourself!) and use it to top some of our fabulous nearly raw vegan ice cream from episode #0055, or if you live in New York City, grab some awesome raw vegan ice cream from Pure Food and Wine. Feel the love! Ginger-Cardamom Ice Cream: 1 recipe Simply Vanilla Ice Cream Base and add to the blender: 1T fresh ginger juice, OR 2t dried ginger 1/8t cardamom Sensuous Spicy Chocolate Sauce: Serves 2 with extra for drizzling! 3T raw cocoa 1t maca powder 1t carob powder 1/4t cinnamon pinch cayenne pepper pinch sea salt agave syrup to moisten, about 4T water as needed Whisk all sauce ingredients in a small dish, add water if the mixture remains un-saucy. Serve portions of the ice cream topped with the sauce, fresh banana and chopped raw almonds. Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), MPEG4 Video (.mp4), Flash Video (.flv)

This episode we take you on a quick and dirty (and occasionally bloody) history of Valentines Day.  The story of this holiday and its patron saint is still a bit of a mystery.  From Roman pagan festivals (Lupercalia), to saintly love letters sent from the joint, the truth behind the origins of Saint Valentines Day continue to illude.  Be sure to check back next Tuesday, when we ll be showing you how to make some festive pagan treats of your own. -Oscar Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), MPEG4 Video (.mp4), Flash Video (.flv)

Happy Lunar New Year! February 7, 2008 begins the year of the Rat, the first year of the Chinese zodiac, a time of activity and renewal. Today we’ll take you on a quick tour of lunar new year basics, factoids, and food traditions. It is said that this is a good year to make a fresh start, and after the year we’ve had, we couldn’t agree more! As uncertified joy practitioners, we here at Freshtopia.net love a good reason to celebrate and eat some delicious food. So why not wear a little red, do a spot of cleaning (a lunar new year tradition), bring some fresh blossoms into your home and enjoy some healthy, auspicious fruits and vegetables? In addition to tossing a little green, Tanja put together a wonderful, earthy, spicy parsnip noodle salad for this episode. We’ll be putting the recipe in the next edition of the Freshtopian, so if you haven’t already signed up, do so by entering your preferred address in the field at the site’s upper-right. Once you’ve had a chance to check out Tanja’s little nerd-core rap tribute above, take a look at the video below. MC frontalot is making me lose my mind, and his glasses look like mine, which is splendid. Special thanks to Justin Winokur, and Hello This Is Alex for letting us use their music in our show. And thanks to Brian Beggerly, Jakob Montrasio, John Haslam, Jim Winstead, and Laughlin Elkind for releasing their great photos under a Creative Commons license via Flickr.