DeAnna Raw in Obamaville has a question about dried fruit and almonds.
She asks, "Do you make them yourself and dry them and then soak them or do you buy them dried from the store? Just wanted to know. And also must all almonds be soaked and for how long?"
DeAnna,
Thank you for the question. Other than fruit leather, I have not dried fruit in my dehydrator, yet. It’s definitely on my raw foodie to-do list.
I buy my dried fruit at a few places here in the Denver area, Sunflower Farmers Market, Sprouts Farmers Market and Vitamin Cottage.
Soaking almonds is a good habit to get into. It removes the enzyme inhibitors, thus making the nuts more digestible. A good time frame is 6-8 hours. Before you go to bed, just place almonds in a bowl and pour filtered water over the nuts to cover and in the morning you are good to go.
If you were going to prepare an almond flour, you have two options. 1. Soak, dehydrated until dry and crunchy, then grind into flour. or 2. Grind straight away to flour. I think at this point it’s personal preference and how much time you have to work with almonds. I am more prone to grind straight away. (Ok, is it me? or did that statement just come off naughty?)
There’s a catch with soaking though. Soaking doesn’t amount to a hill of beans (nuts) if the almonds are not raw. I purchase my almonds at one of the stores mentioned above and buy from the bins labeled “Organic Raw Almonds.” They are priced about twice as much as the pasteurized raw almonds. I’ve asked about it and I was told the Organic Raw Almonds are straight from the farmers and they are unpasteurized.
But truth be told I don’t know if they are truly raw. I have soaked them and they soak fine. I see nothing hanky. It’s hard to tell with almonds because you don’t get a sprout to indicate life. I have to trust I purchased the good stuff. I’m not going to sweat it too, much. Heck, I just found out that agave nectar is evil now. I’ve been away too long.
Here are a few sites that offer raw almonds:
Living Nutz
Sun Organic Farm
Briden Wilson Farm
If you want to get updates on The Authentic Almond Project, visit The Cornucopia Institute. They have done a good job relaying current information regarding the matter.
If others can add more to anything stated, please feel free to. The more the merrier.
DeAnna, thanks again for your question and for reading.
Terilynn
