What do you use to blow your nose?

I’m not sure which I’m more excited about: the really cool organic U.S.-made vodka in the striking, modern, reusable-as-a-vase bottle or the crazy “eco”-uses we have for that vodka (besides drinking it of course. I’ve long been a fan of its, uhm, MEDICINAL purposes, but now I have other reasons to stay stocked up. Yeah, that’s it, medicine & cleaning). We’ve all been inundated with the virtues of vinegar as a staple for green living. But you gotta admit, unless you’re clever with the essential oil add-ins, it’s kind of stinky.

The holidays are almost here and whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or something else, many people give gifts. Why wrap those gifts in wasteful wrapping paper when you could wrap it in a beautiful hand-sewn fabric gift bag that can be used over and over for years to come? You still have lots of time to make some! The idea behind the gift bag is that after you give someone a gift wrapped in a cloth bag, that person will use it again to wrap a gift for someone else or maybe they will even give it back to you someday….with a gift inside of course.

A friend was telling me the other day that she can’t believe how much ‘stuff’ people in Northern California buy for Halloween. She is from a small town in Southern California and they never bought costumes or make-up. They would just make their own from old clothes and maybe put charcoal on their faces. She has a good point. Our love affair with buying things for any occasion is out of control, and likely not just in Northern California. When looking at greener solutions to your typical Halloween Holiday, consider the basics and what you really need to have fun.

There were 13 moms and at least that many kids that day at Janice’s house. We picked organic apples and made a lovely and extremely simple dessert with the group: we used a hand-cranked apple peeler to simultaneously peel, core and slice the apples. Then we added a sweetener and cinnamon to the slices – that’s it! And it was gobbled up in not time by everyone. We tried different sweeteners (organic sugar and brown rice syrup) as well as using ascorbic acid (vitamin C) to keep the apple slices from turning brown.