This book isn’t necessarily locavorian, but it has to do with food, and I had to do with it, so here we are.

Back in March 2009, I had the pleasure of working as a prop and food stylist on a photo shoot for Raw Energy, by Stephanie Tourles, a book Dan was art-directing for Storey. I’d dabbled in propping and food styling before, but in this case, propping, excitingly, involved not only scouring the area for cool bowls, plates, and glasses, but also preparing the food.

Aside from a handful of trips to Pure Food & Wine in New York, my experiences with raw food were pretty limited. So it was enlightening to be given the task of creating these no-cook recipes, many of which involved using a dehydrator — something I’d never even come across before.

Soon, our dining room table was taken over by two squat dehydrating towers, each of their little mesh shelves filled with various treats: chili-spiced nuts, coconut-apricot macaroons, sweet potato crisps, pepita and honey brittle. And then there was the vegan raw fudge — a smooth and shockingly addictive confection of dates, almond butter, carob powder, and honey. I think about that fudge a lot.

It was a long day of shooting, but great fun, especially the cover shot, which Dan composed of a swirl of fresh fruits and vegetables. There are some fun behind-the-scenes shots on my Flickr stream, if you like that sort of thing.

Raw food! Who knew it could be so good? Thanks for indulging me this little show-and-tell. Now, I’ll get back to thinking about that fudge.