While in Barbados, I attended seminar in Orchid World. This included a walking tour of the local herbs and their use as remedies, which was led by Chantel Selman. She was referred to as The Village Doctor, but she actually left Barbados to study the medicinal use of herbs in Canada. But she's back now and is waging an honorable battle--to teach, coax, and cajole the people of Barbados to eat more raw foods. This is no small feat in a country that loves their fried flying fish fritters. Like many other places, there's been an upswing in obesity and related health problems, so she is determined. She opened a restaurant called Organic Earth located at #24 Pelican Village, Bridgetown, Barbados 246-426-7521, where she peddles mango pie with guava sauce and pizza in the raw. Visit her website at Organic Live It to learn more.

The day of the cooking demonstration two of my favorite dishes she made both included pumpkin, and now is the perfect season for it. So if you didn't gut yours and burn a candle inside of it, (and you're wondering what the heck to do with it), give these recipes a try.

(I tried both of these recipes and they are really good, despite the lack of cooking and animal fats).

Chantel's Pumpkin Soup:

2 cups of raw, chopped pumpkin flesh
½ cup of bell pepper
2 small red onions
1 ½ cup of peanuts
1 ½ teaspoon of Chinese 5 spice
½ teaspoon of sea salt
1 tbsp. of coconut oil (olive oil works as well)
4 cups of warm water (but not boiling, as you don't want to kill the enzymes in the raw food.)

Put all of this into a food processor, blend until smooth. Garnish with pumpkin seeds.

Pumpkin Pasta (Yes, that's raw pasta)

Put chunks of raw pumpkin through a Saladacco to make angel hair pasta

Sauce:
Puree the following in a food processor:
two large tomatoes (quartered)
2 dates (soaked)
½ cup of sun dried tomatoes (soaked)
3 sprigs of fresh basil
2 tablespoons of coconut or olive oil
dash of sea salt

Don't Cook It!
Blend it to be as smooth or chunky as you like, then pour it over the pasta.