Secret to deseeding a pomegranate: do it in a bowl of warm water. Score the pomegranate as if you were cutting a orange. Then open the pomegranate in a bowl of warm water so that the juice doesn't squirt out. Deseed the pomegranate in a bowl of warm water then pour the water through a strainer to catch all the pomegranate seeds! They have more phytochemicals and anti-oxidants than any other fruit besides the acai berry.
Not only do I eat the core, but I eat the stem. I do not blend the flesh as it gets too foamy. I only eat the stem near the top of the pineapple. I throw the stem in almost all of my fruit smoothies. The stem has an abundance of the enzyme "bromalain" and it is released in a 3+ HP blender. It has so many enzymes that if you eat it with food it will start pre-digesting your food. Click the pineapple to see more intestesting things we do.
This is the reason that Jello will not set if you put fresh pineapple, kiwi, or papaya in it. The protein-degrading enzymes in those fresh fruits break down the gelatin. Cooking the fruits first (such as when they are canned) destroys this effect.
How to Open Up Young Coconuts using a Chef's Knife
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Young coconuts from the tree.
These are what young coconuts look like in nature before they are husked. | 
Young coconuts partially husked. These are Young Thai Coconuts after they are partially husked. They are found at most Asian Food Stores and are usually cheaper if bought by the case. |
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Select a good young coconut. The young coconut should be heavy and when shaken you shouldn't hear a swishy sound because it should be completely full with water. The husk should be white, not tan, with no purple or brown spots on the bottom. | 
Use a chef's knife to open. Turn the young coconut on it's side and begin husking the top of the coconut with a chef's knife. Please use extreme caution when using the chef's knife.
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Completely husk the top of the coconut. Completely husk the top of the coconut to partially reveal the coconut shell. Make sure there is no white husk left on the top. | 
The coconut shell should have three veins that divide the top of the coconut into 3 sections like a pie chart. Make note of the biggest section. In this case the bottom third is the biggest section. |
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Use the side of your chef's knife to make a slit. Make a small slit with the corner of your chef's knife in the largest section of the coconut shell by using a quick flicking motion. Make your slit about 2 inches from the apex or center. | 
Or make a slit with the tip of the chef's knife. Another option is to make the small slit with the tip of the chef's knife by using a firm and constant pressure. You can hold your chef's knife with one hand and with the other gently tap the top of the handle until the point of the knife breaks the surface of the coconut shell.
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Press the tip of the Chef's knife into the slit. Press the chef's knife into the slit until it is about one inch long and the knife is securely in place. | 
With the point of the chef's knife still securely in the coconut shell, bring the knife parallel to the table.
When the knife is horizontal begin rocking the handle back and forth as if you were revving up a motorcycle. |
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Continue rocking until the lid pops off
The lid should pop off easily. | 
Finish pulling off the lid with your hands.
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Pour water into a blender carafe or other container. Drink the water as is or use as a base for smoothies, soups, and dressings. | 
Scoop out the meat from the lid with a spoon. |
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Use a spoon to scoop out the rest of the meat.
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Enjoy!
Eat as is our use in recipes that call for young coconut meat. |
How to Use Vanilla Beans
This is how they are supposed to look like. Dry ones will snap when you try to bend them.
If you want a bundle of them, please call for special pricing. Click here to see our calcium rich heirloom seseme seed milk that
we make. We put in a vanilla bean and it makes the seseme milk taste wonderful.
How to Use Vanilla Beans
| Slice the vanilla bean carefully. Slice the top outer layer of the vanilla pod in half lengthwise. Be careful to not slice through to the bottom layer. It takes a knife with a very sharp point such as a paring knife and a little practice |
| Pull open the vanilla pod. Once you have cut through the outer layer you can open the vanilla pod revealing many little black seeds inside. |
| Use a spoon to scrape out the seeds. Put the pod on a flat surface and scrape the inside of the pod with a spoon or pairing knife. |
| Collect the seeds on the spoon. If done right the seeds should collect on the spoon or on the back of a paring knife. Now you can use the seeds for any recipe that calls for vanilla. 1 whole vanilla bean is a substitution for about 2 teaspoons vanilla extract. For smoothies you can use the whole pod. |
| When using the whole pod, cut off the ends. If you are making a smoothie with a high speed blender you can use the whole pod. Just cut off the ends and . . . |
| Chop into small pieces. Chop the pod into small pieces and throw them into your blender with your smoothie. |
Vanilla is an amazing food source that someone could live off of, being a bean and containing the right amino acids, someone could actually include whole vanilla beans in their diet as a staple and be completely healthy.
However, most people don’t think of vanilla as a staple food though, since it costs anywhere from 3 to 10 dollars for just 1 whole vanilla bean in most grocery stores. Vanilla is one of the most expensive, if not the most expensive spices on the market today. Since it has to be hand pollinated and it’s a very labor intensive crop to grow, the price corresponds with that.
Vanilla is the only orchid flower in the world that actually produces a fruit though, so it really is a special spice. Each whole vanilla bean contains up to 60,000 small crunchy black seeds (think black specks in French vanilla ice cream), which are all edible and taste amazing in the right combination.
Vanilla husks, or the outside of the pod, is extremely fibrous. It is edible though, but a little easier to chew if you coffee grind it into a vanilla powder, or run it through a 3 HP or more powerful blender. Most regular blenders cannot grind the tough husk of vanilla beans, which is why it is best to split the bean open and just use the seeds in that situation.
Or you could soak vanilla beans in water until they puff up and rehydrate like a dryed fruit. This is fun to experiment with since the vanilla will go back to it’s original size on the vine before it was dryed, and it actually get’s a lot bigger. It’s not a waste of vanilla either because the water will become tan like a tea, and it will taste like vanilla! It’s a very cooling and calming beverage and one of the best refridgerated drinks to drink in the summer.
However, one should not refridgerate vanilla usually, because it will become stiff. If kept properly out of light and heat and air, vanilla will last indefinatley and actually develop more flavor as it ages. But, I enjoy fresh vanilla and I usually use it as I have it.
Quality in vanilla is definatley something to keep an eye out for. Most beans I see in store compared to farm fresh vanilla beans are horrible. I actually can’t imagine buying old vanilla in stores anymore, because the quality can be that poor. All you have to do is take one good look at most vanilla products in stores and you can see how dry they are, and how little oil they have.
A really good fresh vanilla bean should have so much oil on the outside that it rubs off onto your hand. Then you can rub this into your skin and smell like vanilla!
While it might be tempting to get grade B beans online just because the price is so significantly lower, you really do get what you pay for. I made this mistake once and I actually gave away all my grade B beans to friends, and I thought about composting them because the quality was just that poor. Grade B beans are also known as extract grade beans and their usually made into alcohol extracts, where they are required to be in a 35% minimum alcohol solution.
Grade B beans are rock hard and not pliable, they have absolutely no oil, and the seeds are actually very hard to get out of the beans. They're really not usable in my opinion, unless you have organic alcohol and you want to make an extraction…But even then the flavor won’t be a full complete whole vanilla bean flavor that you can get from a good grade A bean.
It’s also important to note that many vanilla beans are cured in alcohol which is not organic… and Madagascar variety is the most common vanilla bean that is cured in alcohol.
Vanilla is a vine that grows on trees in tropical places…and it can actually grow on chocolate (cacao) trees. Some people say chocolate and vanilla are meant to be together and many myths in history have written interesting stories about how they came to be(see the book : Naked Chocolate). It is interesting to note that almost every chocolate bar in the world has vanilla bean or some kind of vanilla extract in the bar. While I don’t eat chocolate bars, I do eat a lot of raw carob and whole organic vanilla beans go really good with it.
Raw food guru David Wolfe even says that whole vanilla beans can help cure cacao hangovers. Because chocolate has a warm energy that heat’s people up and causes inflammation in large doses, vanilla has a cooling calming property that helps cool people off. The synergy between these two foods is truly amazing.
So if your going to get into vanilla as a food source, it would probably be a good idea to get a bulk amount instead of paying 5 dollars a bean at retail cost. It would also be a really excellent idea to shop for quality because you really do get what you pay for, and there are many, many poor quality vanilla products on the market today. Getting truly fresh oily and plump easy to use vanilla beans is very important.
I know what I am about to offer is going to upset a lot of vanilla bean re-sellers but here goes:
I am offering to everyone my vanilla beans at $2.15 per bean and you can buy as many as you want. I will sell these at whlolesale in quantities of 100 beans or more. I do favors, including coaching and providing equipment to these farmers and I get pretty much near their cost on their beans. (If you have any type of foods or anything that I could promote on my website I would be interested in making similar arrangements with you. Please email me at TheBlindGuru@yahoo.com if you think you have something you believe we would like to offer as part of the symbiotic lifestyle. If we need what you have to offer we will call you.
For Nut and Seed Milks: Blend soaked nuts or seeds in the blender with water and then strain them through the sprout bag. Our sprout bags have a super fine cotton mesh that makes the smoothest silkiest almond milk I have ever tasted. Nut and Seed milks are an easy way to wean yourself off cow's milk.
How to Make Almond Milk
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| Measure 1 cup almonds and pour into sprout bag. |
| Close the sprout bag and soak the almonds in water overnight or for at least 6 hrs. |
| Rinse the soaked almonds with water and put the almonds into the blender with three cups of water. |
| Blend the almonds and water until smooth. |
| Pour the puree into the sprout bag over a big bowl. |
| Squeeze the almond pulp through the sprout bag to extract the milk. |
| Drink as is, or put the almond milk back into the blender and blend in vanilla, dates, or other sweeteners such as honey or stevia. |
| Save the almond pulp for cookie or cracker recipes that require almond pulp or almonds. |
If you want to have a phone consultation on food prep contact me at glowingraw-info@yahoo.com.
