We have had an abundance of kids birthday parties lately…and predominately raw birthday parties. They have all been amazing! Inspired by these, we organized a raw birthday party and blessing for Jeddabug last week. It was fabulous!

What was the menu?

- Basil and lime cocktails (zesty alkaline drink to wet the palette)
- Raw pizza: flaxseed and buckwheat bread base with tomato tepenade, spinach,  antipasto veges, pesto and raw cheese (see pic) (Inspired by my friend Ame from Raw and Peace)
- Raw chai seed crackers, olive tepenade, and hummus dip.
- Nona’s green salad (most greens came straight from her organic garden)
- Antipasto of eggplant, mushrooms and (marinated and slightly dehydrated so they are soft and juicy)
- Strawberries with avocado and cacao dipping sauce
- Tahini and apricot bliss balls
- Fruit salad with lime and mint puree
- Strawberries, cashew cream and chocolate moose raw birthday cake! (I’ll post the recipe tomorrow – its so good!)

The meal was a hit! Living! Green! Potent! Fresh! And the kids still found it funky enough to eat. Going raw is certainly getting easier.

Following our raw birthday feast we asked our family and friends to write a note to Jedda on some paper. ‘Who do you want to be for Jedda?’ we asked them to consider in their reflections. This blessing was reminiscent of the old African proverb ‘It takes a village to raise a child’ or as my Grandma used to say ‘It takes a village to work with the family, to raise a child and weather the storms of life’. Together with a seedling which people brought as a gift to Jedda, they planted their blessing note in our vegepatch.

So happy birthday Jedda! I feel grateful to have such a beautiful baby in my life, a family so open to celebrating her life (and ours), participating in a raw food feast (quirky and unique someone called us?) and grateful that the rain stopped long enough to plant our seedlings and rain again when they were planted.

[PICS: Jeddabug hanging in the garden; Raw pizza!; All the lively kids; Matt & Ash planting a blessing or two for Jedda]