Are you local, Honey?

Honey is high in calories, sure, but it also has lots of great benefits.  It contains B Vitamins and Vitamin C, as well as minerals like magnesium, potassium, calcium, sulphur, iron, phosphate, and even small quantities of zinc.  It's a great natural sweetener for drinks, yogurt, and cereal, it can help soothe a sore throat and cough, and in skincare, it acts as a humectant, drawing moisture to the skin.  But not all honey is the same.

And sometimes “Honey” isn’t even really honey. 

Honey Fraud – the practice of diluting honey with low-cost syrups like corn syrup, sugar beets and/or water, then adding flavoring  and labeling it as pure honey – is far too common.   (Florida recently passed a law, the Florida Honey Standard Bill, to prevent this, and other states are following suit.)  What's more, the AP recently reported that in early June, the FDA seized 64 drums of honey -- the labels said it was from the Philippines, but it actually came from China-- with detectable amounts of chloramphenicol, an antibiotic that can in rare cases cause aplastic anemia, which can be fatal.  Apparently, some beekeepers in China use the antibiotic, either knowingly to treat diseased hives, or inadvertently through the use of ‘mixtures’ to help increase yields of honey, which contain the antibiotic.  (The antibiotic is banned in the U.S. for use in food products, and also banned to treat sick bee hives.) Definitely not something I want in my Honey...

So how can we make sure what we’re buying is 100% pure honey?  Find a local beekeeper you trust – Farmer’s Markets are a great place to find local honey -- and buy it directly from them.  As an added step, I always buy ‘Raw Honey’ as it hasn’t been processed, but be sure to ask the beekeeper questions about his/her practices.  This way, you’re sure to get excellent quality honey at a great price.

 Photo courtesy of: m_bartosch / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Organic Cherries and the List

Yesterday morning my son, William, woke up and asked if he could have cherries for breakfast.  Unfortunately, I had polished off the bag the night before.  But, I like to think of myself as a good mom, so after I dropped him off to school, I drove over to the grocery store to pick up a new bag of cherries.  Sometimes I get chatty while shopping, and before I knew it, I was in a pretty engaged conversation with a guy who was also looking to buy some cherries.  I said aloud that I wished the store carried organic cherries, and as it turned out, he was wishing the same thing.  So, we started talking about organically-grown produce and discussing which fruits and veggies we like to buy organic.  We must have seemed pretty authoritative on the topic because before long, another shopper drove her cart mysteriously close to us and appeared to be eavesdropping while looking over containers of strawberries.  As I was ending the conversation with my new produce friend, whose name I never did catch, the women said, "Excuse me, but should I be buying organic strawberries?  Or Carrots?"
First, I told her that buying organic strawberries is a good idea, since they are one of the fruits known to have a high pesticide application.  And although carrots fare slightly better, it's usually not much more expensive to buy organic than non-organically grown, so you really can't go wrong.  Then, I told her that the Environmental Working Group puts out  list of ranked pesticide contamination for fruits and vegetables.  The methodology for this list analyzed produce contamination after the fruits or veggies had been washed and/or peeled, so, in my opinion, it's a pretty good guide as to how to reduce the amount of pesticides we're consuming.

If you want to look at the list, you can find it here: http://www.foodnews.org/walletguide.php

The School Lunch Project

As a mom, I'm pretty interested in making sure my kids eat healthful, well-balanced meals.  So much so, that I never let them buy school lunch.  The thought of my kids eating low-grade hamburg cooked into various forms, tasteless, canned veggies, and fried chicken twice a week turned my stomach.  Ava and William were always really happy eating the foods I packed in their lunches, and seemed to prefer them over what the other kids were eating -- not to mention that they had an extra 10 minutes to eat if they were spared waiting in the cafeteria line.  But midway through the year they asked if they could buy school lunch sometimes, "maybe on pizza days and turkey dinner day," and I said yes. 
Can you can imagine how excited I was when I stumbled across the blog, "The School Lunch Project."  It's written by an anonymous schoolteacher from somewhere in the midwest who is eating, and blogging about, school lunch.  I know there are only a few weeks left in the school year, but I wanted to share her blog with you in case you hadn't heard about it.  You can find it here:  The School Lunch Project.
Happy Reading!

Gardening Makes You Smart

I'm not making this up!  Apparently, there are certain bacteria in soil that have been shown to have antidepressant qualities, and new research suggests it can improve learning abilities, too.  Long story short, Mycobacterium vaccae is a naturally-occurring bacteria found in soil that we breathe in or ingest when we engage in outdoor activities like gardening, hiking, or simply playing outdoors.  Previous research has already shown that this bacteria increases serotonin levels and decreases anxiety.  And last week Researchers Dorothy Matthews and Susan Jenks presented their latest research about Mycobacterium vaccae at the American Society for Microbiology meeting:  mice fed this bacteria -- in a tasty snack of peanut butter -- performed tasks twice as fast and had less anxiety than the control group.  What's more, the effect lasted for a few weeks. (You can watch the full interview here, if you're interested.)   Now I have a scientific reason to give my husband when I make him spend his few free hours on the weekends digging holes in our solid clay yard so I can plant a new shrub or veggie plant.   (It's good for you, Tim!)  So, get out in the yard, get gardening, and get smart!

A few fruits and veggies from one of my gardens...

   

One of  our delicious blueberry shrubs.




 




Purple Passion Asparagus
against a  backdrop of Strawberries.                       

Smells like Cheese

I've been looking to add a few new lotions to my product line, and have been tweaking recipes for about a year.  I was pretty excited about my Goats Milk Lotion recipe.  Goats milk, as you may know if softening to the skin, and, in my opinion, when mixed up in a lotion with natural oils and waxes, has a soft, soothing scent.  For the past few batches, I scented the lotion with either Fragrant Almond or Orange Cream... both awesome scents.  But, last week I left my batch unscented, and was about to finally hand out samples to my customers.  Well, turns out, that's not going to happen.  Why, you ask?  Because both of my kids, separately and without the other's knowledge, told me that I smelled like cheese.  And being told that you smell like cheese is not as funny as it sounds.
I know what you're thinking here, but I put some of the Unscented Goats Milk lotion on both of the kids' hands, and they identified the lotion as the cheese-y smell.
Since I don't like the idea of having customers smelling like cheese, I'm heading back to the drawing board on this lotion. 

Wilava Coupon Codes

 I told Wilava customers a few weeks ago that I was thinking of deeply discounting a product for Mother's Day and asked for suggestions.  The overwhelming response was Facial Products!  So here's a coupon code, good through May 31, 2010, for 30 percent off of facial products, including Milk and Aloe Cleanser, Balancing Facial Toner, Aloe Facial Moisturizer, and my best-selling product, Vitamin C Serum.  And, shipping is currently free on orders over $75!

Use Coupon Code:  FACES                                  

Strawberry Spa Day

I went shopping at BJ's yesterday and scored a huge, 4 lb. box of sweet, delicious strawberries for $5.  This was pretty exciting for me because strawberries and bargains are two of my favorite things.  So, the kids and I have pretty much eaten the entire box of strawberries in less than 24 hours, and we're left with a bunch of strawberry tops.  Normally I just throw these into the compost bin (and soon I'll be putting them into my new worm composter -- stay tuned!), but today I thought I'd have myself a Strawberry Spa Day.  Strawberries contain natural fruit acids which help brighten the skin and gently exfoliate.  Here are a few easy recipes you can do yourself with everyday ingredients you probably have in your kitchen, just in case you came home with your own Strawberry bargain yesterday, too.  Please keep in mind that this may be too harsh for those with very sensitive skin, and of course, it's not suitable for those with a strawberry allergy.

Simple Strawberry Exfoliator:
Cut the top off of a strawberry.  Eat the bottom.  Holding the leafy part of the strawberry top, rub the cut side of berry over your face, hands, feet, elbows, knees, etc.   Then rinse with warm water and pat dry.


Fresh Strawberry Hand/Body Sugar Scrub:
Save the cut-off tops from  a bowl of strawberries (about 15-20).  Remove leaves and mash remaining strawberry pulp in a small bowl (or puree if you're feeling really motivated).  Add 1-2 tablespoons of olive or sunflower oil and 1-2 teaspoon sugar, depending on how much scrub you like.  Mix well to form a paste.  Massage onto wet skin.

Custom Strawberry Facial:
Save the cut-off tops from about 5 or 6 strawberries. Remove leaves and mash remaining strawberry pulp in a small bowl.  Add 1 tablespoon cream (dry skin), or milk (normal/oily skin), and 1 tablespoon rice flour (can sub cornstarch if you don't have rice flour), and add 1 teaspoon of honey.  Mix well. Apply to face and relax for 5-10 minutes, and remember to breathe deeply because it smells delicious.  Then rinse with warm water.