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Rosehips from Raintree Nursery
While you are busy planting those blueberry bushes…consider what to place in the planting bed with them. How about a rose variety that produce rose hips? I did the same thing as I did with the blueberry bushes. I planted them and forgot about them…until they began to bloom! Move over “knock out” roses! (they might be pretty but they don’t produce these beautiful rose hips!) I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have beauty AND purpose in my planting beds! The most Vitamin C you’ll find is in rose hips. It was recommended to me several years ago to plant a certain kind of rose bush that produces…
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Klean Kanteen just in!
After reading Crunchy Domestic Goddesses Blog post “Getting kids on the bottle – water bottle, that is” and then doing a little bit of research for my own blog post “Plastic Recycle numbers, do you read plastic labels too?“, I found that my beloved Nalgene water bottles could be causing harm to my family! ACK! Bisphenol A, a compound in hard, clear polycarbonate plastics that mimics the effects of estrogen, has raised particular concern because it interferes with hormone levels and cell signaling systems. While it is important to mention that Nalgene no longer sells water bottles with BPA, they were not diligent in contacting customers to let them know…
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Plant those Blueberry bushes in the yard and forget them till summer!
This Blog post in inspired by an article that I found from Chelseagreen’s blog “Grow Berries in Your Low-Light Urban Space“ I found the article on twitter and retweeted the link also adding that I have 2 bushes in my yard. @Chelseagreen requested a picture of my blueberries. I was not in a place where I could go find the good pictures of the bushes. In the article, it talks about how low light is not a problem with these bushes. My spot where I planted them gets direct sunlight for most of the day. To offer the lovelies a little bit of shade, I have Canna Lilies that sprout…
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Mars and Seeds of Change
Seeds of Change is quite a mouth full when you realize that they have in fact CHANGED! (company was bought out by Mars) If you read the about us on their website, It’ll tell you about their long history of being organic sustainable…what it won’t tell you is that Mars bought Seeds of Change in 19xx. Since then, It’s been lanched in the UK and in this article on The Ecologist it details the money made and this little tidbit: ” In 2004 Mars failed to respond to an international petition urging it to include Fairtrade chocolate in its product range. “ I’ve written about chocolate before in regard to organic companies…interesting…
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High Fructose Corn Syrup contains mercury, scare tactic or fact?
To cut to the chase, it’s both. It’s fact and an alarmist view point of the sky is falling. From my contacts on twitter, I was made aware of this article posted on the Washington Post’s Website. (here’s the article) In it detailed how traces of mercury were found in High Fructose Corn Syrup. I just shook my head as I read what I thought was another reason to avoid the stuff. I already do try to steer clear of it. There are many good reasons to avoid HFCS with mercury question aside. Diabetes, early childhood obesity, etc, etc. I’m not advocating there aren’t good issues for avoiding High…
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Need help eliminating catalog mail in your mailbox?
When my parents came for an extended visit several months ago, I was in the position to get their mail for them. I was AMAZED at the amount of catalogs in the stack of only 3 days of mail! If your parents are in their upper years and have a bit of trouble getting around, they may have this same problem. Who could even if they had all day, have enough time to go through ALL of those catalogs? When the mountain is that big, it’s a bit daunting on how to reduce the number of catalogs. Yes, you could tackle calling to cancel each and every catalog company but…
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Energy Lighting – Part 2 – LED Lighting
LED Lighting is going through a metamorphosis. Take a look at the following link to see what I mean. (here) “German scientists have discovered a method of hydrogen doping that allows the production of higher-performing LEDs and other semiconductors.” This process evidently requires zinc oxide. If you are interested, there’s a deeper explanation at this link from Science Daily here. What is really means is that our concerns for the fluorescent bulbs that have mercury may not be our new standard of light bulb. It’s possible that as these breakthroughs continue, we will be on our way with a green energy love affair with LED technology as it becomes stronger,…
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Energy Smart Lighting, what about the fancy fixtures?
Using the energy smart flouresent light bulbs in your average lamp or fixture is an eco-friendly, energy saving idea. What if your light fixture isn’t exactly set up for one of those spiral bulbs without looking like an eye sore? Maybe you are concerned about the small amount of mercury in the bulb anyway. And maybe you’d rather something that would save you on your energy bill that much more! Well here is my suggestion. LED technology is getting snazzier by the minute. We aren’t the first ones with these type questions. It does not contain mercury and it’s energy consumption is even less than that of the flourescent bulb much…
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Peanut butter – Salmonella detection
Hey there! This is a quick post. I’ve posted my recipe for handmade peanut butter when the outbreak first began here. It seems that the contamination is a lot more far reaching that anyone anticipated. I happened on an easy article to help you determine if you’ve been exposed. It’s very much worth the read! 4 Ways to Detect Salmonella Posioning Happy Washing! ~Regina
