Living Heathly & Green: Shaklee

I'm going to start this post just by saying, Shaklee is AWESOME!!

The first cleaning product I purchased was GET CLEAN Scour Off. I picked it up because my little guy has a bad habit of picking up his older brother's Sharpees and drawing on furniture. I had heard Scour Off could take off Sharpee. I've tried many, many products, none of which have worked so I was a bit skeptical. But Scour Off worked! And surprisingly for a green product, smells lovely!

My mother-in-law who just came in for a visit brought a bag of GET CLEAN Dish Wash Automatic Concentrate. One again, awesome! I'm especially intrigued by the very little scoop of detergent required.

Here's a link to a green checklist I found on Shaklee's site which I thought was worth passing along. 4 Simple Ways to get Clean.

HPP recommended on Fair Indigo

While reviewing end of week website traffic reports on Friday, I noticed a fair amount of traffic coming from FairIndigo.com. Upon further review I found Hand Picked Pumpkin listed on their support fair trade page.
This link is wonderful for so many reasons. At first glance it is a great source of traffic but even more importantly this link represents a recognition of our direction and efforts surrounding local and fair wage production.

Earth Day 2008

While surfing for Earth Day activities to do with the kids today I came across this site, Kaboose. It's full of craft ideas, recipes, history of the day and more. Looks like a good resource!

A fun twist

This is a good time of the year to separate and re-pot your inside plants and share them with someone. Same for any outside plants that need to be divided. Have a plant exchange with some of your friends.

In Defense of Food has got me reading labels

My book club gathered this past Sunday night for the discussion of our latest read, In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. His website, michaelpollan.com, has a detailed summary of the book which we all found extremely eye-opening.
The second half of the book was by far my favorite. Pollan does a wonderful job explaining simple steps we can take to escape the evils of our Western diet. Since finishing the book, I feel a much more informed shopper and find myself making much healthier diet choices for myself and my family.
I am immediately attempting to eliminate High Frucose Corn Syrup from our diets.
While shopping yesterday with a whole new set of eyes I learned: Cattle from Wholefoods (at least the Wholefoods I shop at in River Forest, Illinois) is grass fed the first 2/3rds of its life and then the last 1/3 fed a vegetarian diet including grains but no antibiotics. Chickens from their store are raised the same as cattle. The butcher said the lamb and bison were 100% grass fed.
Deli guys didn't have info on Applegate turkey so I'll checked out their website and found this fun track your food to its source link. I also attempted to read as many bread ingredient labels as I could and the only one I found without some sort of sugar added was Ezekiel 4:9.

Green Business

Many thanks to Purple Asparagus for highlighting Hand Picked Pumpkin in their newsletter this week along side another great green shop Pivot. Here is the excerpt taken directly from the Purple Asparagus February 2008 newsletter:

Green Businesses
Two relatively new businesses that seemed interesting to us are Hand Picked Pumpkin and Pivot. Hand Picked Pumpkin is a clothing company for kids whose green efforts include contracting with local seamstresses, purchasing domestic materials, recycling, using non-toxic cleaning products and incorporating energy efficiencies in the design studio. It also has committed to donating a percentage of yearly profits to national charity organizations that specifically center their efforts on helping children. For adults, there's Pivot Boutique, voted recently one of Chicago's Sweetest Things in 2007, which is a clothing boutique that specializes in eco-fashion. Easy on the eyes and the environment.

The Purple Aspargus Newsletter is a great resource full of information on green issues, products and events.

Bringing families back to the table

My first introduction to Purple Asparagus was at Baby Loves Disco. Purple Asparagus was there to re-fuel all those dancing tots!

Their mission, "By sharing food, we strengthen family and community ties, support local farmers and producers, gain respect for the earth and for the diversity of cultures all over it, and pass important traditions on to the next generation," is multi-layered.

I know I need to be reminded of each important element of their mission. Visit their website to learn more about this inspiring non-for-profit and upcoming family events.

Fresh Choices

We received the cookbook Fresh Choices this holiday season while attending Seven Generations Ahead Annual Benefit dinner. I've just gotten around to reading it and have tried a few recipes. I highly recommend this book. Authors, David Joachim and Rochelle Davis do a excellent job at covering sustainable food production, breaking down organic terminology, and educating on pesticides and toxins. The recipes we've sampled are relatively easy and have all turned out great. Our favorites so far include Striped Bass Kabobs with Soy and Lemon and Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas.

Recycling our Christmas Tree

This weekend marks our first adventure in recycling the Christmas tree. I'm slightly embarrassed to say this is the first year it has crossed our minds to do so. We weren't even being lazy about it in previous years, just never thought about it.

To find a recycling center nearest you, visit Earth911.org. The site notes, "More than 35 Christmas tree varieties can be recycled into chippings (used for everything from mulch to hiking trails), beachfront erosion prevention, shoreline stabilization, fish habitat and sedimentation management."

This morning I also have found, for those of you in Chicago, on Saturday, January 12th, from 9am to 2pm, the City will be offering a gift or mulch in exchange for a Christmas Tree.