Activating my nuts and seeds has taken a while to get the hang of. The many wellness books l have all say that it is essential to activate the nuts and seeds you are eating if they form a regular part of your diet.

What is activating your nuts? It involves soaking the nuts in water and a small amount of salt, then drying them at low temperatures so that they are easier to digest. This process also helps to remove substances in nuts and seeds called phytic acid and protease inhibitors which can interfere with the absorption of important minerals such as Calcium, Magnesium, Iron and Zinc.

I started off activating the nuts using my oven. Hard nuts such as almonds, walnuts and brazil nuts need to be soaked over night. Place them in a tub and cover with room temperature water and add a small pinch of sea salt. In the morning, rinse off the nuts under running water. Place them directly on to oven trays and place in the oven at the very lowest temperature (under 60 degrees celsius) so as not to destroy all of the enzymes in the nuts.  Make sure they are not piled high on top of each other. After a few hours turn them over. Keep them in the oven for around ten hours, and try one every now and again to see if they are ready. Store them in the fridge in a container and place any excess in the freezer. Softer nuts such as cashews and macadamia nuts only need about 6 hours soaking and less time in the oven, so you could do this all in one day. Because of this, l buy nuts in packets with just one type of nut, rather than mixed because then l have to pick all of the soft ones out. Aldi have a good selection of nuts such as macadamias, almonds and walnuts. You want to buy raw, unroasted nuts. Activated nuts can take some getting used to as they are a bit softer than unactivated nuts, but that is good for your teeth also.

I was given a dehydrator and it has really changed my dehydrating a lot. I was never comfortable with having the oven on for hours and the dehydrator just sits on the bench and doesn’t heat up the kitchen. I can also put the temperature on very low. I recently had great success with my first batch of pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. I soaked them overnight separately and because they are thin they only took a few hours to dry. You will know when they are ready as they won’t taste as if there is any moisture in them. I have never been a big snacker of these seeds but after they were dried they were so delicious. The ones that were not eaten have been placed in air tight containers in the fridge. If you are in Australia l can recommend http://www.bulkwholefoods.com.au for organic seeds and nuts. If you spend over $100 delivery is free, the service is really good and if ever there is a problem with the order it is resolved quickly. I met the owner at a recent Wellness Expo and she was really nice and she had a range of their products on display which was very impressive. Good luck with the activating!