Organic Cosmetics Companies

The Boston Globe had a story today about the growth of Organic Cosmetic Companies. I was pleased to see that CVS has released a statement that it will remove products that contain chemicals that have been linked to health problems and replace them with safer alternatives. Manufacturers continue to claim that products such as parabans, mercury (often listed as thimerosal), and petrochemicals (which can be found in some shampoos, mascara, perfume, foundation, and lip balm) are safe despite warnings from environmental groups, so it is very encouraging to see the first cosmetic safety policy from a major drugstore chain in the US. Hopefully other retailers will make similar changes in the near future.

Organic Gardening Basics

A nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.
-Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Letter to all State Governors on a Uniform Soil Conservation Law (26 February 1937)

We went to an organic gardening class at the Natick Community Organic Farm sponsored by NOFA on Saturday and came away with a ton of useful information. The above quote was by far the most eye opening as to the importance of soil quality to society. Soil is a fragile resource that must be protected and improved in the coming years to maintain crops. Read on to access my notes from the day regarding Soil, Seeds, Composting, Planting and more.

Happy Earth Day!

Here are 50 Ways to Help the Earth via Wire and Twine via Shelterrific.  I’m going to add using one less paper napkin and hanging clothes out to dry more often to my green resolutions.

World Water Day

World Water Day is on March 22nd and the Tap Project  is a campaign that celebrates the clean and accessible tap water available as an every day privilege to millions, while helping UNICEF provide safe drinking water to children around the world.  Participating restaurants invite their customers to donate a minimum of $1 for the tap water they would normally get for free. For every dollar raised, a child will have clean drinking water for 40 days.  Boston is a participating city so I may have to donate during my travels tomorrow.

Christmas Gift Tags

Cork Organizers

I finally got around to converting some old tin cans into a cork covered pencil holders. I used an extra cork square that I had from another project and went to work with my hot glue gun. I did find that it is difficult to make a perfect seam, so I added a simple line to cover the mess (See pic 2).

The excess cork was from a project in my closet. I decided to line the inside of my closet door with cork for pictures and other items. It is pretty handy and makes me happy when I open my closet. In addition, it keeps all the clutter out of sight.

5 Green Christmas Tips

1. Skip wrapping presents. I am going to wrap all my pressies with these Trader Joe’s reusable shopping bags this year.
   

   *The bags are only $.99/each at TJs, but when I bought 10 today I was asked by the manager if I was one of those losers who was buying out all the bags and selling them on eBay for $8/each. I told them of my green x-mas plan and they seemed skeptical. I just searched eBay and sure enough there are folks out there doing this.

   If you must wrap presents consider using old newspaper and recycled ribbons or reuse gift bags.

2. Buy a live tree to decorate and plant it later. I did this last year, but the poor tree did not survive. Here are some tips to keep a tree alive. (If you live in Portland, OR you can actually rent a tree that is planted in the community soon after Christmas.)  For those who do buy a cut tree, make sure that you have it composted or mulched when the season is over.
3. Use the more efficient and less dangerous LED Christmas lights.
4. Consider making some crafty gifts or some homemade food items. Another option is to purchase tickets to an event.
5. Instead of buying somebody something that they might already have or don’t need consider giving a gift that gives back to the community through Gift It Up!, which has many donation items from 14 great non-profits. The Alternative Gift Fair is organized by a Boston non-profit group called Conscious Consuming. If you can’t make it to the fair you can give online.

Winter Farm Share

Winter Farm Share

We joined a new CSA for the Winter and had our first pickup last weekend.  We were stunned by the amount of awesome quality vegetables that we received.  The Romanesco broccoli or broccoflower pictured below was by far the strangest thing in the bin.  We had some last night with dinner and it tasted a lot like cauliflower.

Romanesco broccoli

Originally uploaded by jjzach

Environmentally-friendly Stapler

The Staplefree Stapler attaches up to six sheets of paper by piercing and threading the papers with no metal staples.  Some friends gave it to me for my birthday and I must agree that it is very satisfying to use and good for the environment.

Backyard Beauties

On the show Chronicle last night I learned about Backyard Beauties, a year round local tomato option for New Englanders. They are located in Maine and they ship fully vine-ripened tomatoes the same day of harvest. Instead of being picked green and ripening on a truck, their tomatoes stay on the vine until the last possible second. I’m so happy to hear of a local tomato option for the winter months.