One room over, dehydrators hum along in the kitchen. The dried flowers and branches draped along the walls tremble from the constant sound. A pitcher of freshly pressed cider sits on the table with a vanilla bean floating on top of the amber liquid. Caleb Crowell can be spotted through the foggy kitchen window examining a handful of radishes in his garden out back.

No pot of coffee is seen brewing, no stack of pancakes are waiting to be devoured.

Their business, Hold the Heat Raw Food Makery, offers a variety of raw food snacks to the small mountain community.

At the booth, bags of raw granola sit neatly arranged in woven baskets. Raw chocolate and flax chips are spread out on the table in front of Megan where she utters words like “enzymes,” “nutrients,” and “sprouted” to a customer.

The man, with a tuft of silver hair underneath a faded ball cap, picks up a sample of a Chipotle Sweet Potato Flax Chip and takes a bite.

“It tastes like a chip,” he tells me. “Except food. You know what I mean?”

I continued to explore this “beautiful thing” that evening after accepting an invite to a raw potluck at the Crowell’s home. I debated bringing a plate of carrot sticks, but instead tapped into my lacking gourmet skills and whipped up a small bowl of guacamole.

I pulled up to the house to find Caleb and his father, Mark, tossing buckets of apples into an old fashioned press. The machine was earsplitting as it clinked and clanked, but Mark shouted instructions over the noise as Caleb used strength developed through years of teaching yoga to turn the wheel and churn out fresh cider.

“A lot of the family thinks he’s no fun anymore since he doesn’t eat the things he use to,” Mark said. “But once you’re around him he’ll just dive into a giant salad and nobody notices that [he’s] not eating the same as everybody else.”

While continuing to emphasize his support of his son and daughter-in-law, Mark mentioned their wedding last summer.

In their own backyard, Megan and Caleb were married in front of 300 of their friends and family who celebrated with a 100 percent raw buffet catered by Hold the Heat Raw Food Makery (a.k.a. Megan and Caleb).

With a table full of options like “bread sticks” with pesto, romain tacos with corn salad, radish ravioli, tomato tart, raw rosemary cookies, and raspberry sorbet, nobody noticed the absence of a white-frosted wedding cake.

“They didn’t make anything for all the old son in laws and uncles who sat there and weren’t going to eat anything.” Mark said. “They didn’t like bring some chicken nuggets for those people. They just made as much good food as they could, but all adhering to their principals. “It was just drop dead gorgeous. It was so pretty, you had to eat it, you had to try it. All these hundreds of people, all the old church ladies, everybody just say there and ate and ate. It was amazing.”

As the sun began to set, Mark and I ventured into the house where about 12 people gathered in a small circle. Initially, I felt like I was participating in a support group like “Raw Foodists Anonymous” as the introductions began:

“I’m Megan and I’m here because raw food is what I do…” but as she continued, she explained the pumpkin cashew pudding she struggled making and a marinated kale salad thrown together for the group. Her passion and excitement to share the importance and benefits of a raw food diet showed through animated hand gestures and a bouncing demeanor.

A woman in the circle, JoAnn, a raw foodist of two years explained meeting Megan and Caleb at the farmers market months earlier. After hearing from her friend Sally that there were raw foodists she went to check it out.

“Oh, we have raw food community, I’m so thrilled, how many are there?” JoAnn explained as she told the story. “Megan said, well there’s me, there’s Caleb, and there is you!’ So that was that.”

Now with interest from the farmer’s market, local wedding guests, and customers who’ve seen Hold the Heat products at Bare Essentials health food store, monthly potlucks have grown to gather 40 or 50 guests at times.

“We get a wide range of people and we try to tell them as much information as we can about raw foods and why we don’t heat above115 degrees and why this could be a good alternative to your regular [diet],” Megan said.

Overall, the main goal of the couple is to promote a healthy lifestyle.

“And were living proof,” Caleb added.

"El dinero no se puede comer" or... "You can't eat money"

Beer sludge for the open-minded traveler

A travel column for The Appalachian, App State's student newspaper: http://theapp.appstate.edu/content/view/5602/56/

I think it is safe to presume that college students love beer. 

They love drinking it: in plastic red cups, out of holes on the side of the can and through homemade funnels. They love playing with it: beer pong tournaments, endless card games and chugging contests. They love promoting it: neon signs hung in cluttered apartments, logos on worn-out t-shirts and embroidered on sweat-stained ball caps.

I have recently learned of a way to take this passion a step further by eating it.

Well, not necessarily eating beer, but more of byproduct of the drink that is popular here in the South Pacific.

It can be purchased at any supermarket and most convenience stores and comes in a variety of sizes of plastic jars with red caps.

This New Zealand delicacy is known as Marmite.

After beer is brewed, concentrated yeast sludge is left coating the bottom of the barrel. This thick, dark, tar-like substance is then processed and packed with salt, vitamins and extra ingredients before pressed into a jar and sold to kiwis and other daring individuals.

My native New Zealand flatmates can’t seem to describe the flavor other than just plain “tasty.”

Generously buttered toast with a thin layer of Marmite spread on top is an enjoyable snack that they’ve been eating since they were old enough to chew solid food.

But for Americans, it’s not as appetizing and is repeatedly described as “salty” and “bitter.”

“It tastes like salty dirt,” Boston native Kristen Keaney said. Keaney has been living and studying in New Zealand for four months and refuses to eat Marmite.

“If I need to coax myself into to eating something, I’m not meant to eat it,” she said.

I tried the spread within the first few days I arrived here. After smearing about half a teaspoon on a piece of toast with butter, I took a small bite while keeping an open mind.

It has a sharp, unusual taste with a slight meaty flavor, although it’s 100% vegetarian.

I have continued to eat it this way while remembering the fact that there is some aspect of it that kiwi’s adore.

Now, four months later, my thin layer has turned into a solid, gooey coating across a piece of multigrain toast.

Like my flatmates, I can’t tell you why I enjoy the spread and or why it is such a satisfying snack, but I like it.

I’m just glad I was able to keep an open mind and try it. I think this mind-set is one that every traveler should maintain while in a foreign environment.

You do not have to like every entity of that culture, but you will be more apt to enjoy it if you approach an experience without negative expectations.