BlogHer - green_living - Comments

Hellish heartburn

Beth Terry — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:26:34 -0600

@blueberryjunkie There are so many recipes available on the web for DIY cleaning products that don't cost a small fortune, and they are non-toxic. I often wonder why so many of us are duped into believing we have to use all these chemicals and special preparations to have clean homes.

@Leighbra I hear you. My dad and I have heartburn too. The only reason I didn't add it to my list is because of the high sodium content and danger of people taking too much. I didn't realize it was used for that purpose in hospitals. Still, I like my Wintergreen-flavored Rolaids. :-)

Beth Terry
www.fakeplasticfish.com
@fakeplasticfish
FaceBook

Heartburn from hell...

Leighbra — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:20:01 -0600

I inherited my father's super fantastic acid reflux, and since we're out in the middle of nowhere, if I have no antacids, I've used baking soda for heart burn.

It works, but you have to be careful about injesting baking soda because of all the sodium. Read the directions, consult your doctor, yada yada nurse CYA.

We actually still use baking soda in the hospitals at times. Sometimes you can't argue with the old methods.

Great tips

blueberryjunkie — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:52:37 -0600

Thanks for these great tips. Ever since I became pregnant with my first child I ditched a lot of toxic products in favour of "green" products. So, I have been buying, and spending a small fortune on anything from laundry detergent, all purpose cleaners, shampoos, etc. I will definitely give baking soda a try, especially for household cleaning applications, and save some money.

Carla

Blueberry Junkie Blog

Blueberry Junkie Studio

FaceBook

@beany, I'm glad the baking

Beth Terry — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:50:04 -0600

@beany, I'm glad the baking soda "shampoo" is working for you this time around. I am impressed, though, that you found a bottle of shampoo that would last an entire year. That's a good second choice, compared to most bottles that last a month.

@midnightbliss, if you do try the baking soda shampoo, please be sure and read the Guide and the Forum at the links I provided. Many people find that their scalp takes a few weeks to adjust if they have been using conventional shampoo and conditioner for a while. You may find you have a case of the greasies for a while until your scalp stops overcompensating for the lack of artificial moisturizers.

@LisaLaGrou, hope the baking soda soak works for you. I think it's a far better alternative than the chemicals in Efferdent. One person I spoke to said she adds vinegar to the solution to make it bubble like Efferdent. But after reading Melanie's post about not mixing vinegar and water, I don't think it's such a great idea.

@kazari, I do think the bubbles from the baking soda/vinegar can help to loosen baked-on yuckiness. However, it's not a good idea to mix them together in a bottle, as you'll end up with nothing more than salt water. Hope the deodorant works out for you! Please feel free to contact me at Fake Plastic Fish (http://fakeplasticfish.com) if you have questions.

@mashadutoit, I'm so sorry to hear about your poor dog, but glad the baking soda helped with the odor at least. That tidbit about little white dogs with the red around their eyes is very interesting. I've certainly noticed it but had no idea what it was from.

Beth Terry
www.fakeplasticfish.com
@fakeplasticfish
FaceBook

Doggy Uses

mashadutoit — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:31:22 -0600

That tip about dog urine burns on the lawn is interesting. Going to try that out.

But here is my baking poweder tip - its the only thing that removed the smell of dog urine and vomit from my carpet.

My Anna was incontinent for a while, poor girl, and would leave big wet patches wherever she was lying. Stank like you would not believe.

Nothing worked. Not enzyme cleaners, not vinegar. But sprinkling a very healthy layer of baking powder on the carpet and working it in - leaving for a while and then vacuming it out completely removed all the smell.

Also worked for the time both my dogs vomited fish liver onto the carpet. That was a bad, bad moment.

I need to look it up, but I believe its also good for removing those red stains that white dogs get around their eyes and lips. The red is actually a kind of yeast that grows in the hair.

I didn't know about deoderant...

kazari — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:50:44 -0600

But I've been using bicarb to clean my kitchen for ages. I'm asthmatic, so most of the nasty oven cleaners make me cough. Bicarb works great, though.

I do combine bicarb and vinegar to clean the stove - sprink bicarb, spray with vinegar, and the 'fizzle' cleans it for me!

http://myrope.wordpress.com

Thanks for the Soaking Retainers/Mouth Guards tip

LisaLaGrou — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:43:18 -0600

I, too, have to wear retainers at night to keep my teeth (which are somewhat loose) straight, and to help me when I grind my teeth as well. I use Efferdent to clean them and kill the bacteria. I can't wait to try the Baking Soda. Thanks so much for the tip!

wow i didn't know that

midnightbliss — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:11:36 -0600

wow i didn't know that baking soda has a lot of uses, I like to try is as a deodorant and as a shampoo. thanks

I first began using baking

beany — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:48:57 -0600

I first began using baking soda instead of shampoo in 2008. It was a failure. My hair was sticky, gooey, and smelled very unpleasant. I had switched straight from evil shampoo to baking soda. I gave up and switched to Giovannis after reading Crunchy Chicken's post. It worked remarkably well and I used very little shampoo and had one bottle last me nearly an entire year.

4 weeks back I decided to give baking soda another go, and it works now! No ickiness, no smell, no nothing. I think the crap that was in my head from using conventional shampoo (even the so called organic brands from Whole Foods) is all gone. I wash my hair about once or twice per week and my hair feels as soft as baby hair.

Cheap is not always a bad thing

Beth Terry — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:20:47 -0500

Hey Lisa. Glad your Blogher bag is getting some good use. Unfortunately, they had run out by the time I dragged my sorry ass down to the registration table, so I missed out.

Beth Terry
www.fakeplasticfish.com
@fakeplasticfish
FaceBook

No Bags at All

Condo Blues — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:14:19 -0500

My summer farmer's market doesn't offer bags at all so we skip the plastic bag problem all together.Although I think they do it because they are cheap, not because they are trying to be green.

I keep a bunch of reusable shopping bags in my car at all times but most of those bags are too heavy to weigh items in. Fortunately I found a great alternative to buying a reusable shopping bag just for tiny produce. My BlogHer09 conference tote is light enough that it doesn't change the weight of the produce scale when I use it for small things like green beans.

Condo Blues Green living and money saving tips http://condo-blues.blogspot.com/

I guess we're lucky in the Bay Area

Beth Terry — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:14:13 -0500

@Chitra I'm surprised that there is so much non-organic food at your farmers market. Where I live, most of the farmers sell produce that is either organic or at least pesticide-free. What if all farmers market patrons got into the habit of asking the vendors for organic produce each time they shopped. Do you think consumer advocacy would make a difference?

MC, I actually put most of my produce onto the scale and into the bag directly with no additional bags. The only time I need any kind of extra bag is for small things... berries, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, etc. I just use small organic cotton EcoBags produce bags for those.

Cheese... I have been trying to get No Impact Man Colin Beavan (http://www.noimpactman.com) to give me the name of his farmers market in NY City because in his film, it seems that the cheese vendor sells in bulk and cuts whatever amount the customer wants. Hey, maybe you could email him too. He keeps promising to find the name for me, but he's so busy he keeps forgetting. I just want the name so I can contact them and find out how they do it so I can use them as an example for my own local cheese vendor which shrink wraps everything in plastic.

Seriously, leave him a comment and ask about cheese. It would be kind of funny if I got everyone to do it. He might even laugh.

Beth Terry
www.fakeplasticfish.com
@fakeplasticfish
FaceBook

First off, I miss Berkeley!

chitra — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:34:33 -0500

First off, I miss Berkeley! I also bring cloth bags to my farmer's market now in Brooklyn. I have spent much time in India with my parents where we would always bring a cloth or some other kind of bag from home when going to the markets. I just don't understand the obsession these days with plastic bags. Maybe it is just a force of habit.

What surprises me though is the amount of food that is not grown organically though. I guess it is that dilemma of choosing what is local versus what is organic but grown farther away.

/Chitra/

http://abcdsofcooking.blogspot.com

What we did long ago

mcmilker — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:17:49 -0500

Great Post Beth-

Ever since you first started talking about this I am vaguely uncomfortable at my Farmer's Mkt. I keep trying to think what people did before plastic.They used cloth bags or just dumped the vegies/fruits in a cloth bag or basket

As I recall, cheese was wrapped in....cheesecloth, I think perhaps what comes next would be bring a wooden or metal bowl in which to place the cheesecloth wrapped cheese. The open question is...what did we do before Tupperware and plastic containers for prepared food?

MC Milker - The Not-Quite-Crunchy Parent

Soft cheese in compostable package?

Beth Terry — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:42:44 -0500

Just a thought. I don't know the answer to the goat cheese packaging dilemma, but I do know I don't want my cheese wrapped in plastic, which many times contains hormone-disrupting phthalates. I just don't think it's worth it.

Amber, please let me know what your market society has to say. There are plenty of examples now, and the Berkeley farmers market, run by the Ecology Center, is willing to help and give advice.

Beth Terry
www.fakeplasticfish.com
@fakeplasticfish
FaceBook