Green Options

Herbs and spices like thyme, rosemary and mint, usually used to flavor food, can also offer a green alternative to synthetic pesticides.

Research has shown that oils derived from the herbs interfere with insect nervous systems, causing them to spasm haphazardly until they die. Best of all, these all-natural pesticides are inexpensive to produce.

For anyone looking for the health-boosting benefits of red wine, but don’t want the tipsy result or the morning hangover, embodi says it’s your perfect beverage:

Specially designed to give you all the benefits of red wine without the alcohol, all-natural Embodi is the only healthy drink to take advantage of the full antioxidant power of the red wine grape.

Source: Ode Magazine and embodi

Photo: embodi

I had the opportunity to visit my very favorite food shopping spot - the Berkshire Coop Market. It is in Great Barrington Massachusettsand if you haven’t been to either Great Barrington or the Coop, I recommend planning a visit on your next trip in New England. I have to drive 150 miles to go shopping there, but I make the trek from time to time, under the guise of ‘visiting friends’, but there is always a trip to the Coop as a priority.

When I used to live up there in the 1980s and we were the experiential ‘green’ community, I not only became a member of this burgeoning food coop, I ended up as president of the Board of Directors for a year or so. I was young, energetic, enthusiastic and still unmarred by realities that can make a person cynical about such things.

Back then, the Coop was in the basement of an old granary. It was cold, damp and full of love (and spiders). We dreamed of a store where we could have a cafe and freshly baked products and room for lots of locally grown produce. I helped build up the membership significantly back then, but I moved away and left the dreaming to those left behind. I visited of course, but essentially lost track for quite a number of years.