DC Green Festival

We just got back from the DC Green Festival and boy did we have an awesome day! I woke up so giddy to go this morning I felt like a five year old on Christmas or a kid in a candy store (a raw organic candy store that is!) Ready to stock up on food, energy and life awesomeness, we set out early in the morning to get there as early as possible. We got in pretty fast thanks to complimentary tickets I won from a VegNews giveaway (they're awesome because they now have online subscriptions to stop killing trees! Gotta love companies who walk the walk...)

First stop was Pangea Organics of course. The mother of all organic care products. If you start a Pangea regime, you will honestly not know what hit you. My mom taught me early on that your skin is your biggest organ so you should take care of it. Moisturize every day and what not, but the other steps (exfoliating, cleansing, weekly masks, etc.) are just as important to keep you radiant and glowing. Plus, if you wear organic because you are trying to avoid eating

chemicals/pesticides/etc. think of what youare doing when you buy cheap beauty products! There's a reason women constantly try to defy aging with creams and lotions that don't work... because they're full of stuff, and they should have been taking care of their skin at a younger age! (which would explain why my mom is almost 60 and has skin better than half the girls my age I see walking around...)

We then stopped at this awesome and strange acrobatics looking device called an OmGym. After playing on it for a while and getting the BEST back stretches and adjustment of our lives (except for from our awesome Canadian chiropractor)... we splurged on one and now have to figure out where in the world we can use this thing (outside obviously, but it'll get cold soon!). Plus, they are really fun and I got to feel like a kid on monkey bars again (which I always loved most!) I want to go back tomorrow just so I can play with it some more...

Next stop, the hemp pavilion to stock up on all our discounted hemp protein powder, seeds, oils for the year (damn these laws against growing hemp in the States, it's makes everything so expensive!). We tried some raw chia and hemp breakfast goodness from Ruth's (her ginger cranberry has always been my favourite), bought a 6 pack of her hemp protein powder, and got to catch up with the awesome folks from Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap (fair trade AND organic!) who I got to spend wonderful times with in Mexico this summer. Nutiva was also there with a sampling of their hemp products, but had a lot of their raw products as well (like their coconut butter).

Onto the raw foods! There were a good number of stands out there for a little growing movement. Natural Zing was there of course from whom I bought my lunch (the best kale chips ever and raw nori seaweed/wasabi sticks that I can never get enough of), and a couple of Lydia's Organics raw cereals (her Berry Good and Grainless Apple, though her Vanilla Crunch is my new favourite). The people from Natural Zing were probably my favourite. They were super helpful and very knowledgeable, which would probably explain why there were so many people at their stand. Green Living Harmony was also there again; they sampling raw goji berries and the BEST raw chocolate paste ever (pretty much pure cacao butter and cacao powder so if you don't like non-sweetened chocolate this isn't for you, but YUM).

Don't want to give you an inventory of my grocery list, but I will anyway because I'm super excited: we also ended up getting an amazing deal for 5lbs of raw mesquite powder form Ultimate Superfoods, a couple (not raw) Green superfood mixes from Amazing Grass, and the yummiest raw honey from Really Raw Honey (the top layer of honey when you upon a new jar is to die for).

The best surprise of my day was a company called Emmy's Organics that I hadn't heard of before, who came in to save the day when my newly developed sweet tooth kicked in. (Yes, ironic that eating raw foods has magnified my desire for sweet foods... it's almost as if all high sugar conventional foods were actually putting me off the whole dessert thing). Everything they make is obviously organic, but also raw, vegan, and gluten-free. They're based out of Ithaca, NY, and the girls there were really fun to talk to. We ended up spending our few remaining dollars on a selection of their macaroons (choco-organic, lime-ginger, and chai), though I was really eyeing their raw chocolate sauce...

Of course we also got to talk to lots of people from everything from intentional communities, to rain barrels, to organic tulip bulbs (oh ya, I also bought five of those from Eco Tulips, because apparently it's time to plant them and I love tulips in the springtime).

We may go back tomorrow, though I want to hit the organic Farmer's Market, pick up some bulk raw foods to make this piece of culinary eye candy. In the meantime, be green!