Rain in the Garden

I always love to walk around the garden after a rain shower. Everything looks greener and brighter. On July 9, 2008 I snapped a bunch of photos of various leaves & flowers after the rain so I could enjoy them in the winter. Soon enough spring showers will be here again and this is what the gardens at Chiot’s Run will look like again.

Hosta Leaf

Balloon Flower

Red Maple Leaf

Day Lilly

Rain on Stem

Double Hollyhock

Easter Lilly

Petunia Leaf

What’s your favorite time to take a stroll around the garden?

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Free Burt’s Bees Lip Balm

This year one of my goals is to detox our personal care routines. It all started a couple months ago when I was thinking about what was in my chapstick as I put it on for the 15th time that day. I wondered what exactly my body was absorbing from it, so I started reading up on the toxins in shampoo, soap, lotion and other personal care products and the problems they can cause. Scary stuff I must say. The next time I was at the store I picked up a tube of Burt’s Bees Honey Chapstick. Now that I’ve been using Burt’s Bees for several months I noticed that it actually works, I’m not constantly putting on chapstick. I use it in the morning and I don’t need it again until right before I go to bed, unlike the other kind that I felt like I was constantly using.

So what are the ingredients in Burt’s Bees Honey Chapstick: beeswax, helianthus annuus (sunflower) seed oil, cocos nucifera (coconut) oil, lanolin, symphytum officinale (comfrey) root extract, flavor, honey, tocopheryl acetate, rosmarinus officinalis (rosemary) leaf extract, tocopherol. I know what each and every one of those ingredients is and it’s much better than the ingredients in my previous chapstick.

So what were the ingredients in the previous Chapstick I was using: Octinoxate, Octisalate, Octocrylene, Oxybenzone, White petrolatum, aloe barbadensis leaf extract, alumina, arachidyl propionate, artificial flavor, butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), cetyl alcohol, colloidal silicon dioxide, copernicia cerifera (carnauba) wax, ethylhexyl palmitate, isopropyl lanolate, isopropyl myristate, lanolin, medium chain triglycerides, methylparaben, mineral oil, octyldodecanol, oleyl alcohol, paraffin, phenyl trimethicone, polyhydroxystearic acid, propylparaben, saccharin, silica, titanium dioxide, vitamin E acetate, white wax.

Here are a few of the problems cause by some of the ingredients in my previous chapstick (and these are only the ingredients that I could find information on, who knows about the other ones):

Petrolatum: lung irritant upon inhalation; derived from petroleum; non-biodegradable environmental toxin.

Saccharin: suspected human carcinogen; causes liver, kidney, and bladder damage in animals, as well as reproductive damage and birth abnormalities.

BHT: endocrine disruptor, skin and lung toxicant at low doses; causes death, liver and stomach cancers, thrombosis, fibrosis and liver and brain damage in animals; strong skin and eye irritant.

Methylparaben: skin and eye irritant; endocrine disruptor linked to breast and ovarian cancer; environmental contaminant

Mineral Oil (liquid petrolatum): causes blood and skin cancer formations in animals; eye and skin irritant; derived from petroleum; non-biodegradable environmental toxin

Paraffin: petrochemical bleached with carcinogen acrolyn; releases carcinogens benzene and toluene upon heating; causes kidney or renal system tumor in animals; environmental toxin

Propylparaben: skin and eye irritant; endocrine disruptor linked to breast and ovarian cancer; environmental contaminant

Silica: linked to esophageal cancer, renal disease, pulmonary fibrosis, mesothelioma, sarcoma, rheumatoid arthritis, and bronchitis; strong nasal and lung irritant; wildlife toxicant; accumulates in the human body

So what’s wrong with putting all these chemicals on your lips or the any other parts of your body? First of all, your skin absorbs the chemicals from products you use (60-90% of them scientists say). If you don’t believe it think about those drug patches, one tiny patch and you body absorbs a weeks worth of drugs. Spend some time educating yourself on the ingredients in your personal care products and their possible side effects. Be careful because even some green, natural, and organic products contain many harmful chemicals. Where do you find information on these chemicals? The best book I have found is Julie Gabriel’s The Green Beauty Guide: Your Essential Resource to Organic and Natural Skin Care, Hair Care, Makeup, and Fragrancescheck it out of the library and read through it. You’ll be headed to the store to buy her non-toxic recommendations in no time!

She includes a glossary of many of the toxic chemicals often used in products along with a reference guide for non-toxic products to try. She also includes a bunch of recipes for homemade non-toxic beauty products, I’m excited to whip up a few. Head on over to her a website and a blog, for even more information and recipes.

In order to encourage you to detox your routine I’m giving away the Burt’s Bees Mixed Lip Stash Pack shown above. Just comment on this post and I’ll have a random drawing in a few days to determine the winner. Good Luck!

Here’s to a non-toxic 2009!

I’ve also heard many people love the Yes to Carrots brand of chapsticks as well. Do you have a non-toxic product you love?

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80’s tastic!

One thing I love about blogging is that I always have my camera handy in my purse, just in case I see something blog worthy. I’ve been able to capture some great things this year, including this gem. The 80’s never went out of style here in Northeastern Ohio, some people are still living the 80’s life and loving it, just like this guy. When we passed him I thought, “Wow, you don’t see many cars like that on the road any more.”


You know, I love it when people embrace something and go all out. Rock on 80’s man!

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Here’s to a Healthier 2009 for the Planet

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, I set goals of things I want to get better at each year. I usually make financial, health and environmental goals each year (and usually my environmental and health ones are the same, what’s good for the planet is also good for me).

Last year my environmental & health goals were:
1. To eat more locally & sustainably.
2. Replace regular items with more environmentally friendly alternatives when they needed replaced.
3. Reduce the amount of toxic products used to cleaning our home.
4. Grow some of my own food.
5. Reduce the amount of garbage we produce.
6. Become more conscious of our water usage and find ways to use less in the home and in the garden.
7. Reduce the amount of electricity that we use and find ways to do without electric items.

I was able to make great steps on all of these goals. We started buying food from the local farmer’s at the farmer’s markets, we started drinking raw organic milk from a local farm, and we purchased our poultry from a local farm as well.


We also grew a good amount of our own food, which is as local and sustainable as it gets! We probably were able to grow about 10% of our own food this summer.

This year started replacing items in the house with environmentally friendly items as they needed replacing and we will continue to do that this year. We were able to reduce the amount of garbage we were producing to 2 bags a month (we’re hoping to get that down to 1 this year). We accomplished this by trying to buy items with less packaging and by recycling and composting much of our waste.

We also built a rain barrel system to collect rain water for our outdoor water used. We were able to reduce our city water usage in the garden to almost 0 with this system. We also line dried our clothes this summer in our efforts to reduce our energy usage. We were also able to not use our air conditioner as much since it was a cool summer. Overall we were able to reduce our water and electric consumption by about 20% (our natural gas usage was down as well).


This year my goals are very similar:

1. To eat more locally & sustainably, particularly learning to eat more seasonally.
2. Replace regular items with more environmentally friendly alternatives when they needed replacing, paying particular attention to personal care products.
3. Learn to make my own environmentally friendly cleaning products and to find even better green alternatives than the ones I’m using.
4. Grow even more of my own food, hopefully around 20%, use more heirloom plants in the gardens.
5. Reduce the amount of garbage we produce to 1 bag per month.
6. Reduce the amount of water and electricity that we use.

I’m already working on a few of these. I have been reading a few books about green beauty products and I am replacing our personal care items right away (more on that next week). I have been researching making my own cleaning products and I already have used a few (vinegar works even better then my non-toxic toilet bowl cleaner). We are replacing our toilet tissue with Seventh Generation Bathroom Tissue, 2-Ply Sheets, 500-Sheet Rolls (Pack of 48)and we are trying to use more rags and towels instead of paper towels.

This year we’re also hoping to plant a few fruit trees and vines and to build a few more raised beds so we can grow even more of our own food. We’re also going to focus on using more heirloom vegetables and plants in the gardens.

We’re also going to keep trying to reduce the amount of garbage we produce by continuing to buy things with less packaging, buying second hand, or not buying things at all. We are going to switch to World’s Best Cat Litter because it’s compostable (you can compost the litter itself and the cat urine, all other goodies go in the garbage). This will not only reduce the amount of garbage we produce but it is a much more environmentally friendly product than the cat litter we currently use.

So what about you? Do you make resolutions or goals for the coming year? (notice the new poll today)

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For a Prosperous New Year – Eat Sauerkraut!

It is a Pennsylvania Dutch (German) tradition to serve sauerkraut and pork on New Year’s Day to ensure a prosperous year. Usually the sauerkraut is accompanied by mashed potatoes and dumplings. We have celebrated this tradition in my family since I was little (and for many years before I came along).

This tradition has been passed down from my dad’s side of the family, so naturally my dad is the chef for this special meal. Through the years he has developed his own special sauerkraut recipe. This year I made the sauerkraut in October with some cabbage I bought at the local farmer’s market and my dad added his special touch on New Year’s Day. He was also able to use some tomatoes that my mom picked green from her garden at the end of the season and was storing in the fruit cellar. I was hoping it would be good and boy was it!

For dessert I made a blackberry pie with all those blackberries Mr Chiots and I picked this summer. It was the perfect finish for a delicious meal!

In case anyone wants Dr Dale Meade’s famous sauerkraut recipe, here it is:

Spectacular Spareribs and Incredible Kraut
Guaranteed for prosperity

2 racks of pork spareribs (4 to 6 pounds of local pastured pork)
3 to 4 pounds of sauerkraut (preferably homemade)
4 finely chopped unpared tart apples (about 2 cups)
4 finely chopped or shaved (with vegetable peeler) large carrots (about 2 cups)
3 cups of home canned tomato juice (or V-8 Vegetable Juice)
1 cup of diced tomatoes
6 finely chopped dried apricots
1 cup of brown sugar
4 teaspoons of caraway seed

Cut ribs in pieces, season with salt and black pepper (approximately 2 teaspoons of salt and ½ teaspoon of black pepper); place in a large stock pot with olive oil and brown well. Combine the kraut (which can be rinsed to reduce production of gas) with remaining ingredients; spoon over ribs to mix thoroughly until well mixed.

Simmer covered for three hours at low heat making certain the liquid covers the kraut and ribs. Skim off excess fat. Then remove lid and allow the kraut to simmer until some liquid had simmered away, leaving top of kraut exposed. Then make dumplings and place on top of the kraut and over, allowing the dumplings to bake for about fifteen minutes. Makes approximately ten servings and will warm your house for days.

Fluffy Dumplings
2 cups of sifted all purpose flour
4 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
…
1 cup of whole milk
4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt together and make certain the dry ingredients are well mixed. Add the milk and oil and kneed with pastry blender until moistened. Drop onto the kraut and cover. Do not lift cover and let mixture return to a slow boil for 12 to 15 minutes. This will make 10 generous dumplings.

Does anyone else eat sauerkraut for New Year’s to ensure a prosperous year? Or do you have another family tradition you celebrate?

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