Californian fruit farmer Isaac B. Rumford and his wife Sara converted to a raw food vegetarian diet in 1881.[6] They advocated an "Edenic Diet" in which all animal foods were forbidden apart from honey. They held the view that "cooking destroys the vitality of the food, besides being a waste of labor and of time; it makes a slave of the one who cooks and shortens life."[6]
Joyful was founded by Rumford and his wife in early 1884 as a Utopian colony under the auspices of the Association of Brotherly Cooperation.[1][7] Joyful was located on the bank of Panama Slough, wetland adjacent to the Kern River that has been dry since before 1967.[8][3] Joyful was a vegetarian colony in which members followed a way of life influenced by the Biblical Adam and Eve before the Fall.[7] Members would eat a raw vegetarian diet of almonds, fruit juice, grated apples, raisins and a ground mix of oats and wheat called grainia.[6] They opposed cooking food as they believed it reduced nutritional value. Rumford and his wife founded the newspaper, Joyful News.[7] The Joyful post office operated from 1883 to 1884, when the colony was abandoned.[1] Although the other members abandoned the colony,Rumford continued to work as a fruit farmer with his family. In 1902 at age 68, Rumford wrote that his raw vegetarian diet consisted of starch foods such as dry flour with fruits and nuts.[9]
^Iacobo, Karen; Iacobo, Michael (2004). "Vegetarian America : a history". Worldcat.org. Westport, Conn.: Praeger. Retrieved February 24, 2024.
^ abBailey, Richard C. (1967). Kern County Place Names. Annual Publications of the Kern County Historical Society and Kern County Museum (No. 29). Introduction by Ralph F. Kreiser (1st ed.). Bakersfield, Calif.: Merchants Printing and Lithographing Co. p. 12. LCCN74018077. OCLC158106.
