Rasta Gear Shop - RASTA FOOD

Rastas grow their food chilli peppers coconut ground provisions tropical fruits herbs spices and vegetables. Selection of food posters, vegan cookbooks and cooking pots. Rasta Food is about simplicity and sustainability. Having your own patch of garden and seed to grow, no matter how big or small. This is your ticket to fresh, nutritious organic food full of life force. It also saves you spending money on expensive, inferior processed inorganic food covered in pesticides, fungicides and herbicides.You know what you are getting. The rastas know that food is medicine and anyone who has been lucky or adventurous enough to travel to Jamaica and eat delicious ital food will tell you how healthy they felt on their return. Rastas avoid salt, oil and meat, chemical food, alcohol, cigarettes and drugs, herb is not considered a drug. Pork is not eaten and referred to as "The Seven Devils", shellfish as they are the bottom feeders of the ocean and fish without scales. This way of living is biblically based and the vow of the Nazarites is taken, see King James Bible, Numbers 6. Ital food and Jamaican food in general is influenced by inspired by many different cultures, African, Indian, Middle Eastern, and Chinese. The flavours are unique due to the strains of chilli pepper grown and the mixture of seasonings used in the pot. A nice little rasta garden is the first thing you need for an ital diet, the second is a great cooking pot.

Food Posters Book of the Year
Each One Teach One Salt Sugar Fat - Michael Moss

Chewing sugarcane, drinking coconut water straight out of the green coconut or eating barbecued corn off the cob, the message is simplicity, food that is as fresh and unadulterated as possible. Boiled green banana, roast breadfruit, yams, coco, plantain and ackee are some of the rasta ital staple food crops. Herbs like thyme and basil, spices like pimento, cinnamon and paprika and the red hot spicey Jamaican scotch bonnet pepper provide the flavour. Fresh coconut milk the exotic richness and sustenance. Rice and peas is also a staple dish, made with red kidney beans or gungo peas latin name Cajanus cajan.

The world is changing and the foods that we have associated with different cultures in some cases is dying out. One of the many reasons is because youth are not learning farming and are being brainwashed by mass media to pursue cash instead of becoming self reliant. As well as this prime agricultural land is being destroyed to make way for highways and factories to provide the export markets with endless pointless goods for us to buy. At the local markets in Jamaica you can find fresh coconut oil, abundant tropical fruits and ground provisions in season.

Jamaican sorrel or Hibiscus sabdariffa is a plant that comes into season at christmas time and is made into a delicious drink. The rich crimson color defies description and the medicinal properties are profound. This plant is being used to treat blood pressure and is good for the circulatory system. The seeds are heart shaped and the sepals look like congealed blood once they have been steeped in hot water.

Unfortunately in the modern world, the contamination of food has gone to a new level. Genetic contamination is now a real issue and pure seed is more important than ever. Some seed can carry local adaptation and genetic traits for survival going back thousands of years. Unfortunately with modern corporations seeing the potential for great financial gain by monopolising the seed food market, abominations like "Terminator Technology" has been developed so that seed can only be planted once and the resultant seed from that plant doesn't germinate.

Hence the great importance of swapping and saving your own precious seed. If a lot of people keep their seed then that is our food security, with the people. Seeds have to be grown out regularly each year to keep them fresh and strong. Rastas save their own seed. Growing your own food and learning to save the seed each season ensures it's purity.

The hurdles are immense but if we go back to basics we have a chance to regain some power for ourselves and our families. Grow your own or learn to grow your own. Go straight to the source. Seed is the source, not money. Simple nutritious food to fill a hungry belly in abundance. Your humble rasta garden is about as close to Jah as you can get. This is the rasta way of livity.

Rasta Cookbooks

Rasta Food - Ital is Vital

Food is your Medicine