The Daily Green

Today I have a cold, so I feel the need to share the only home remedy I know with you.  I got this soup receipt from my acupuncturist, and it’s tasty and makes me feel better!

Use either water or Veggie broth as a base and add ginger and garlic.  Then put in whatever veggies you have available, I use celery, cabbage, carrots, potatoes and stewed tomatoes, or if I don’t have a lot of fresh veggies I raid my frozen organic ones.  All the veggies are organic of course.  After the soup has cooked for awhile and the ingredients are turning a little soft add the final ingredients, a green onion.  

Serve the soup hot and make sure to drink as much of the broth as you can.  You can save the soup and eat for the next few days, although it’s never as good as the first day.  If you make the soup personal sized, by cutting up all the ingredients and saving them, you can make the soup for the next few days.

Here’s hoping you don’t need this organic cold remedy

Also if you have a great at home remedy please comment and share!

A Day in the Sun

Yesterday was amazing, the perfect spring day, sunny & warm but with a light breeze.  We spent the day at a little kids park watching ducks swim, fly and run away from the crazy geese.  The turtles spent the time sunning themselves on rocks.  While we wandered around the pond we figured we should start our garden, so that’s what we did today.  We started the day off by cleaning out our planting beds and adding organic fertilizer to them.   Planning what we would get and how much we really needed, is always a helpful step for us otherwise we have been known to buy one of everything.  Once that was done, off we went to the plant store.  Berlin loves the plant store she likes to search for animals, usually there’s at least a dozen birds flying around looking for a good spot to stop.  Today was a little different there was a bird that had actually built it’s nest in one of those hanging plant displays.  That mama bird was flying like crazy in and out of the nest grabbing all sorts of random objects and then darting back into the nest.  Berlin sat there for at least 10 minutes, which is a long time for a 2 year old to do anything, enthralled with the whole display.  Needless to say it took us 2.5 hours to get out of the plant store.  We left with 5 tomato plants, 2 cucumber plants, 2 squash plants, some seeds and a splash of color to add to the yard.

Know remember the day before was amazing!  So when we got home I took Berlin inside to change her shoes and back out we went.  The second we stepped into the yard a wind came up.  Not just any wind, but the wind that took Dorthy to OZ.  We managed to get the plants in the ground and sprint back to the house.  So much for our fun day in the sun.  We are lucky our house is still in the same spot!

 This is just the start to our garden, hoping everything will be there tomorrow, we still have corn, carrots, lettuce and sunflowers to plant.  For anyone that is just beginning to garden here are a few of my favorite things to plant, because no matter how badly you treat them they always seem to grow.

Tomatoes, there are hundreds of different varieties and they all seem to handle neglect really well. 

Carrots, these are fun to grow mostly because they turn into the oddest shapes depending on how deep the soil is.  Make sure you plant them in at least 6 inches of soil.

Sunflowers, I really like growing sunflowers not only because they are pretty but they grow so fast and kids always seem to get a kick out them.

Squash, when planting squash be prepared to give it to every person you know.  Depending on how well you water it you can end up with enough squash to supply your local super market or so it seems.

These are all plants that grow well in my area, so double check with your local nursery for plants that do well in your climate zone.

Happy Planting

The Daily Green

It’s never to early to start thinking about ways to keep your house cool during the crazy hot summer months.  Now is the time to install today’s green tip, before your attic becomes the sauna you never knew you had.  My green tip is attic fans.  If you don’t have an attic fan, and you have an attic, you need one.  Attic fans are designed to turn on when the temperature in the attic reaches a preset temp.  This pushes the hot air out of the attic which helps to cool the living areas below.  My husband and I have had an attic fan for years and don’t use A.C. during the summer.  We live in California, about 45 minutes east of San Francisco, the weather here is pretty nice year round but we did have a couple of 115 degree days last summer.  Our attic fan was running from almost 11am until after the sun went down, but our energy bill was well below $80 a month.

Using an attic fan is a way of making your AC work more efficiently if you need to turn it on, or a way to make it through the summer without using the AC.  Without using AC or making it work better is a great way to save energy.  Saving energy, is also known as saving money and helping cut CO2 emissions.

I hope you take a look at attic fans and see if they might work for you.

The Daily Green

ICE CREAM!!

 The reason I am writing about ice cream, is that I never really thought about organic ice cream as being an important organic buy.  Really a silly thought since I buy all organic dairy products, but ice cream. I was talking with my husband one day about getting dessert and we decided on ice cream.  I was searching at the store and looked at the ingredients of Alden’s organic ice cream.  I knew how to pronounce everything listed and what it was, never had that happened before usually I can’t pronounce anything after sugar and milk.  Alden’s came home with me that day

I love ice cream and I’m very excited to share my new favorite Organic ice cream brand.  Alden’s ice cream is all natural and organic.  The flavor is amazing and the texture is fantastic.  My husbands summed it up perfectly the night I brought Alden’s home.  ”This ice cream isn’t going to be in the freezer for very long, I’m going to hoove it”

Happy Hooving!

Green Fun

For some this might not be under the category of fun per say, but helpful, very Eco friendly and with the right group a lot of FUN!  

Beach Clean ups!  There are groups that put these types of events on.  Simply look up beach clean up in your state.  

What is it?  People get together and clean up local beaches of trash and debris that comes in from the ocean or that people just leave.  It’s amazing and shocking how much trash is left at the beach.  Doing this as a family is a good way to teach children about recycling and cleaning up our environment.  If you don’t live near a beach, look into groups that clean up local rivers, streams, creeks or parks or try organising your own clean up “party”.  This party doesn’t take much to get started, good green friends, garbage bags, gloves and you!

If you really want to make it a party, plan to stay around after and have a BBQ in your newly cleaned spot, just make sure you pick up after.

Happy cleaning maybe we’ll see each other at a local clean up!

The Daily Green

Today’s challenge, hand soap.

It seems like a simple enough thing, go to the store buy soap for the kitchen & bathroom to wash your hands with, but is it?  Most hand soaps are made with harsh man made chemicals that strip your hands of natural oils and cause havoc to our bodies and the environment.  

 Don’t worry there are a lot of soaps out there that aren’t using these types of chemicals to make soap, but my favorite happens to be Dr. Bronner’s.  I love the refill bottles that you can get in sizes up to a gallon, but most commonly 32oz.  My personal favorite is the peppermint, it gives my hands a lovely tingly freshness!  Dr. Bronner’s also uses fair trade practises and organic ingredients.

Things to watch out for when buying soaps, anything that ends in paraben, contains either Sulfate/Sulfonate, most things that you can’t pronounce usually aren’t that great for you.     Things to look for biodegradable, vegetable base, vegan and natural oils.

Dr. Bronner is available at most drug stores.  Start switching!!!

The Daily Green

Healthy quick eating.  Quick green tip for eating on the run or in a rush.

Looking for a quick lunch?  Looking for something tasty, but healthy and organic?  Sounds like a joke, right?  Not if you find Amy’s natural and organic foods.  Amy’s meals come in Eco friendly packaging that go right in the microwave.  They are available in organic, vegetarian all natural options.  The type of foods vary from Mac N’ Cheese to Tofu Stir fry.  I have loved every meal that I have had from Amy’s.  When I am in need of a quick lunch I always head straight for the frozen aisle and pick up an Amy’s meal.

The Daily Green

Today’s small change is all about smelly clothes.  I know a lot of people who don’t feel their clothes are clean unless they smell like Bounce, Snuggles or Downy.  Unfortunately these smelly, soft products are an Eco no-no!  

Here’s something to make you green and smell clean!  Method fabric softener.  My personal favorite is fresh air, ahhhh the smell is clean and lasts on your clothes for days.  Method fabric softener also gives your clothes a super soft feeling.  Now I know your wondering why is Method a great company?  The main reasons are that they use natural, vegan, biodegradable ingredients and are 100% cruelty free.  Method can be found at Target and also on line at  http://methodhome.com/

The daily green

A Green Start

Green as Wee Grow has been a few years in the making.  My husband and I consider ourselves pretty “green” .  We buy organic food, clothing (when available), our cleaning products are all plant and water based etc, etc.  We are trying to leave the earth as we found it or hopefully a little better. 

Green as Wee Grow is an organic baby & toddler clothing and bedding company that was thought of in 2003.  Then it was just an idea that I was always toying with, but never thought it would amount to anything.  In 2006 my daughter was born and things changed. I was searching, hard, for organic everything for my new baby.  I wasn’t finding what I wanted or needed.  During this time  I came back to my “idea”,  I thought if I am looking this hard for organic clothes other people are too.

Our goal at Green as Wee Grow is to bring organic baby & toddler clothing a little closer to main stream we want people to look at our shirts and say “those are amazing & they’re organic”, not “oh, at least they’re organic” .  We want our clothes & bedding to be affordable so that everyone can benefit from organic cotton. 

Welcome to the adventures of Green as Wee Grow!