The RAnts of RA

With summer wedding season around the corner, many couples are deciding to go eco-chic with a green wedding by carefully planning ways to decrease the impact of their celebration on the planet.

Flowering Feijoa

Did you know that over half of the florists in the U.S. use imported flowers that are sprayed with pesticides and fungicides?

Not only can these chemicals be harmful to your health, they also contaminate waterways and drinking supplies. Using local, seasonal and organic flowers that are never sprayed with toxic chemicals, lowers fuel consumption and is often less costly than ordering exotic species, which must be shipped – an ideal choice for an eco-chic wedding.  

EcoFlowers is the largest online provider of eco-friendly and organic wholesale floral products. All flowers are grown in a manner that is not only environmentally friendly but also provides outstanding life enhancement programs for its farm workers and artisans.

EcoFlowers partners with select flower farms in California, Ecuador and Columbia. All of its wholesale flower farms follow stringent growing practices which are monitored by multiple certification agencies and associations. When you purchase a collection of flowers from EcoFlowers, you are helping to improve the life of a flower farm worker, their family and the local floral community while still planning the wedding of your dreams.

Selection ranges from roses, callas, tulips, gerbs, hyacinths, sunflowers, alstromeria and blue irises. All products are certified eco-friendly.

Related Links

• Organic Flowers
• Organic Flower Delivery: A Better Alternative
• Why Buy Organic Flowers?

As the popularity of green product claims continues to spread, it’s important to understand the claims you can trust and the ones that are fooling you. Since the kitchen is the hub of the household and is said to harbor more bacteria than even the bathroom, it’s seems to be the most obvious place to start to be more conscious about cleanliness and the environment.

There are conscious choices and products you can easily incorporate into your kitchen to make it a healthier, more eco-friendly environment for everyone. Below are some tips and trusted kitchen products for a greener kitchen.

Use cleaning products and dish detergents that are 100% free of chemicals to wash your dishes, countertops and all surfaces exposed to food

Earth Friendly Products

Earth Friendly Products is the leader in the development and production of environmentally friendly cleaning supplies for household use with over 150 products manufactured with only sustainable plant-based ingredients that are safe for people, pets, and the planet.

The company proudly adheres to its strict “Freedom Code”, a list of harmful and toxic ingredients that are not found in any its products.

Think Twice Before Using Traditional Non-Stick Pans

GreenPan

GreenPan’s Thermolon, natural surface does not have the same harmful effects as traditional non-stick pans that are created with PTFE (PolyTetraFluoroEthylene) so no PFOA (PerFluoro0ctanoic Acid) can be released into the environment. PFOA is classified as a “likely human carcinogen.”

GreenPan is trying to educate Americans about the harmful effects of traditional non-stick cookware. Less energy is used in the application of Thermolon coatings onto the GreenPan product itself. This results in a 60% reduction in CO2 emissions during the manufacturing process compared to the application of a normal PTFE based coating.

Eliminate Aluminum, Go for Recycled Parchment and Cook In a Bag

PaperChef

PaperChef, a Toronto-based company founded in 2010, developed a line of products that includes parchment rolls, parchment cooking bags and parchment baking cups.

Sustainability and cleanliness were highly important, resulting in packaging made of 100% biodegradable FSC recycled paper printed with vegetable based inks. Storing and cooking with paper-over foil and plastic-is more natural and better for both humans and the environment.

The French method of cooking “en papillote”-a parchment-style method steams food to perfection and enhances natural flavors, without synthetic sprays and high-fat oils for simple, healthy meals. Entire meals can be cooked in a bag, which can then be re-recycled or composted.

Have Beverages On Hand That Are Produced Without Pesticides

Teatulia

Harvested using natural farming practices, all of Teatulia teas are cultivated without the use of pesticides, machinery and unnatural irrigation. The Teatulia garden was started in 2000 in order to give back to the community in a meaningful way. With 50% of the population below the U.S.poverty line the company sought to establish a business that would both protect our environment and provide a means to a living wage for the surrounding community therefore establishing the garden as a cooperative open to the workers and neighbors in surrounding villages. Each tea has its own unique, health benefit.

Related articles

• Earth Friendly Products Eliminates Over 600,000 Tons of Carbon Dioxide Pollution (greenreview.blogspot.de)
• 10 Fab Eco-Friendly Earth Day Finds (fabsugar.com)
• Celebrate Earth Day – April 22, 2012 (localhs.com)

Is an eco-friendly burial for you?

Have you caught Forecast Earth by The Weather Channel? It’s an interesting relatively new show that – even as a non-environmentalist, I find informative and helpful. When the show first aired, I was expecting to hear more hype than substance but what I found was well researched, common sense segments that made me think. Not only was the show about how to preserve the earth – as God intended (not that they ever once mentioned God); the show could actually help me save money. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like to save money.

I saved the Forecast Earth episode entitled Amish Go Solar? to our DVR, which by the way in my opinion, no home should be without – no home with a television that is. The story I was most interested in was about an environmentally friendly cemetery. The informative piece about the Ramsey Creek Preserve was very helpful to me on a personal level.

My mother wants to be cremated, a practice I detest because of references in the bible and the representation of fire and it’s uses. My father’s entire family is buried at Sharon Hollow Cemetery, near Manchester, MI. A simple, yet quiet, dignified place, where I always felt welcome to come and lumber about, while talking to my brother, daddy and the others.

I recall how expensive daddy’s funeral was and the thought of putting my family through a huge expense like that is hard to fathom. Who can afford life insurance these days?

Ramsey Creek Preserve was everything good a funeral and death should be. It actually made me feel good about leaving this earth to meet my maker. Instead of embalming fluid, vaults and metal caskets, bodies are laid to rest in a natural state, in a nature park, surrounded by birds, trees, flowing water, and even music on occasion. What a beautiful place for a body to spend eternity.

In doing my research on natural burials, I located the Fernwood Cemetery in Marin County. The Fernwood property is 32 acres with part of it set aside for natural burial. They have sold one hundred plots in the natural burial area and have already had fifty natural burials. Natural burial appeals to many different people and faiths. Cassity and Campbell both report having worked with religious people to whom natural burial appeals because they say it is more closely tied to how burials were done historically.

This is an idea that just makes good sense. It’s a win-win situation all the way around. A natural burial makes good financial sense; it renews the land, provides more natural spaces and won’t fill up anytime soon. I would love to read comments on this subject for those who have buried someone using this method or are considering it.

Related Articles

• Eco-friendly Burial
• Memorial Ecosystems
• Ramsey Creek Preserve
• Honey Creek Woodlands
• Forecast Earth – A Green Burial
• Mark Harris Discusses A “Natural Way of Burial”