I'm been reading a lovely book: _Simple Food for the Good Life_ by Helen Nearing (1980 (1999) Chelsea Green Publishing), homesteader and insipiration of the simplicity movement. She wrote the book in 1980 when she was around 80 herself and it was recently reprinted. It's not a 100% raw but she was good friends with Herbert Shelton and has a chapter called "to cook or not to cook" as well as a chapter called "to kill or not to kill" (she was a vegetarian), and a chapter called "complicate or simplify: processed versus fresh foods." In her chapter on soups she states that it is her love of soups that keeps her from joining the "true-believers' ranks of raw-fooders". However, she repeatedly asserts how much she dislikes cooking and how little of it she does, although she loves feeding people. In her intro she explains: I am staunchly determined, and tried to stick to it, that any recipies included in my book would be straight from the garden where possible, cooked slightly if at all, at low temperatures to kill fewer vitamins and enzymes, with little added flavoring and the fewest possible dishes, pans and utensils used. The simpler the food, the better, I think; the rawer, the better; the fewer mixtures, the better. This way of eating involves less preparation, less cooking, easier digestion, more food value, better health, and more money saved (p. 15) Her writing style is simple, direct, humorous, opinionated, and full of wonderful old quotes from the thousands of cookbooks she researched before writing her own in order "to see what other people have written, and to see what not to bother to write." It's a great read and some nice recipies for simple food. Lucia