100 Day Raw Food Challenge
Lessons learned from Hurricane Ike
Hey Gang! I'm here in Houston and still without power after hurricane Ike wrecked this city. This is my first time online in over a week. My heart goes out to all of you who felt the wrath of Ike. I hope you are all safe and sound and that you have your power back on. Please share your food stories and lessons learned here. It's been really challenging staying raw for the past week. If another storm comes, I don't want to be forced into eating primarily cooked (& non vegan) food ever again.
We got slammed hard here in the middle of the city (although even not half as bad as the storm surge that wiped out Galveston and Bolivar only 325 miles away). Last Sat. morning a twister cut a path about 75 ft from our door. It uprooted 4 trees on our street and threw them several feet blocking the entire street. The city says it could be a month before they are cleared. We tried to clear them ourselves but they were full of angry bees. Another twister came through a few blocks away and picked up five 70-year old oaks and threw them into houses at the end of a nearby cul-de-sac. All the houses sustained damage. We got away with some leaks and minor roof damage. Although some parts of the city have power restored, those of us in central Houston are not expected to get our power back on for another week or longer.
My body is feeling yucky after all the cooked food that crept back into my diet. Can't wait to get back to raw. We've been living out of ice chests and it's really hard to keep them at the right temp and not soak everything through. Until a couple of days ago, there were no veggies in the stores at all (nor was there meat, diary etc ). This experience has been surreal. We were told the water was contaminated, so no washing the few veggies we had on hand. But I got high marks at our numerous evening pot luck parties for bringing great big salads. We were all trying to clean out our freezers and fridges since everything in them was about to go bad ...plus everyone wanted to be outside since it was so gosh awful hot indoors. Unfortunately, we ran out of all those yummy greens all too soon. :-( Not to whine, but I have to say that it's been next to impossible to sleep from both the upset tummy and the heat. Anyone in this kind of situation might want to think twice before going from raw to cooked overnight. It has been quite painful.
Today was my first real trip to the grocery store in over a week for anything more than ice & water. It was really strange that there were so few people in the store after waiting in lines for hours in the early part of the week. The shelves were stocked with fresh food at long last! Most stores have been operating on generators and have only been carrying ice and canned goods until now. So today was the first day without long lines and stores were not rationing ice either. The best part was I got the last two boxes of organic arugula on the shelves. My daughter and I were high-fiving each other and dancing through the aisles with delight in celebration of our good fortune. I have missed the amazing colors of wonderful fresh veggies. A gray cloud has been lifted! I love those greens, purples, reds and oranges. YUM! Hallelujah! Bring them on.
For the next storm, I think I'll leave town and find a nice hotel suite near a great organic grocery store.
We got slammed hard here in the middle of the city (although even not half as bad as the storm surge that wiped out Galveston and Bolivar only 325 miles away). Last Sat. morning a twister cut a path about 75 ft from our door. It uprooted 4 trees on our street and threw them several feet blocking the entire street. The city says it could be a month before they are cleared. We tried to clear them ourselves but they were full of angry bees. Another twister came through a few blocks away and picked up five 70-year old oaks and threw them into houses at the end of a nearby cul-de-sac. All the houses sustained damage. We got away with some leaks and minor roof damage. Although some parts of the city have power restored, those of us in central Houston are not expected to get our power back on for another week or longer.
My body is feeling yucky after all the cooked food that crept back into my diet. Can't wait to get back to raw. We've been living out of ice chests and it's really hard to keep them at the right temp and not soak everything through. Until a couple of days ago, there were no veggies in the stores at all (nor was there meat, diary etc ). This experience has been surreal. We were told the water was contaminated, so no washing the few veggies we had on hand. But I got high marks at our numerous evening pot luck parties for bringing great big salads. We were all trying to clean out our freezers and fridges since everything in them was about to go bad ...plus everyone wanted to be outside since it was so gosh awful hot indoors. Unfortunately, we ran out of all those yummy greens all too soon. :-( Not to whine, but I have to say that it's been next to impossible to sleep from both the upset tummy and the heat. Anyone in this kind of situation might want to think twice before going from raw to cooked overnight. It has been quite painful.
Today was my first real trip to the grocery store in over a week for anything more than ice & water. It was really strange that there were so few people in the store after waiting in lines for hours in the early part of the week. The shelves were stocked with fresh food at long last! Most stores have been operating on generators and have only been carrying ice and canned goods until now. So today was the first day without long lines and stores were not rationing ice either. The best part was I got the last two boxes of organic arugula on the shelves. My daughter and I were high-fiving each other and dancing through the aisles with delight in celebration of our good fortune. I have missed the amazing colors of wonderful fresh veggies. A gray cloud has been lifted! I love those greens, purples, reds and oranges. YUM! Hallelujah! Bring them on.
For the next storm, I think I'll leave town and find a nice hotel suite near a great organic grocery store.
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Comment by Ce on September 20, 2008 at 5:16am - WOW! What a story. I am so thankful you are OK. We all have been thinking of you guys so much. I love that you were dancing in delight in the store with your daughter. What a wonderful post! Sometime we really take for granted things and then when they taken away so quickly and we feel the loss and then to have things restored to us we appreciate them more than ever on a deeper level than ever before. I bet that will be the best arugula you have ever tasted! You have made it through the storm!
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