learning about agave nectar

today donna and i visited scott fry and his team at loving earth. in a small warehouse, tucked away on a quiet street in coburg we discovered the raw chocolate dream. more about chocolate later, but right now i am considering the question of agave nectar (or syrup).

is it raw? scott explained that when the nectar is extracted from the agave cactus, heat processing is used. so agave is not 100% raw.
the agave cactus is grown in mexico and loving earth source it from farmers who harvest the syrup from the plant grown in the wild (wildcrafted). however, not all agave syrup comes from wild plants as some agave is grown commercially, and much of the commercially produced crop is used for making tequila.

here's more information about agave from the living earth site.

now this is confusing, as i found a post on the veg society discussion board, where someone has contacted spiral foods (who also sell agave nectar) and claims to have confirmed that the agave sold by spiral is raw. is there another processing method? the story continues.

in the meanwhile, i guess i shall have to reconsider whether to continue using it as a sweetener. i love the taste, though as my palate becomes more attuned i find i need less and less sweetener. fruit on it's own is sweet enough.

the great soy debate

How much of this discussion is substantiated by research? Or is it just viewpoints and opinions of the eaters.? At any rate, i didn't think soy was raw. don't they pasteurise it before it goes into containers?
So sure enough, i googled it and discovered that not only is soy boiled during the preparation process to inactivate the soybean trypsin inhibitor, but there are also differences in the Chinese and Japanese methods for preparing soy milk. These differences amount to whether the boiling occurs before or after filtration.
Give me almond milk anytime. My recipe, adapted from Alissa Cohen's recipe for almond milk.

Almond Milk
Soak 1 cup of almonds for every 3 cups of water. In the blender add soaked almonds, water, and a dash of agave nectar to taste. Blend it. Then enjoy the drink. That's it.

Are oats raw?

Wow. Seredipity at work. Cathy and i had this conversation yesterday, on the way back from seeing a film. She asked me if rolled oats were a raw food. I didn't have an exact answer, but had heard that some brands were and others were heat-treated above 45 deg. In summary, it depends. Mental note, to do more research. Then in today's paper . . . here it is!

Demeter Farm Mill "oats are not heated when they are rolled".