Art | Resources
St. Dalfour Rhapsodie de Fruits
“Gifts of nature elevated by French chefs into all natural ‘Rhapsodie de Fruits’…St. Dalfour ‘Rhapsodie de Fruits’ are made in the heart of the French countryside to an old recipe from the Loire Valley. They are pure fruit. No sugar is added. Only the natural sweetness of concentrated grape juice is used. This natural sweetness produces a taste which is much fresher and more delicious than the heavy taste of sugar.” Standard flavors plus exotics, including 4 Citrus Fruits, Fig Royal, Kumquat, Mirabelle Plum, Orange & Ginger, and Pineapple & Mango. Website does not sell the product, but it is sold in many natural food stores and can be ordered online through ShopNatural (type “St. Dalfour” in site search box).
St. Astier Natural Hydraulic Lime
A time-honored, old-world multi-hued exterior finish with a soft, rich, and velvety texture. No artificial additives. Is salt- and bacteria-resistant, and because it is a breathable material, it eliminates wall moistures, increases insulation, and reduces risk of mold and dry rot.
Strawberry Hill Farms
Certfied organic maple syrup, maple candy, maple sugar, and maple cream from Maine.
Sterling Planet Green America Program
Renewable energy certificates utilizing a blend of energy from solar, wind, and biomass.
Study Shows Which Water Bottles Leach BPA
We all know to avoid clear plastic water bottles because they leach endocrine-disruptor BPA into the water, but what about the alternatives?
A new study by the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine was done to find out whether or not water bottles claiming to be “BPA-free” really are. The researchers used old (but unused) polycarbonate and resin-lined aluminum bottles that they had put in storage several years earlier, along with new BPA-free “Tritan” plastic bottles (by Nalgene), stainless steel bottles (by Sigg) and new “EcoCare” resin-lined aluminum bottles (by Sigg). They also purchased some new aluminum water bottles.
Room-temperature water was storied in three bottles of each type for five days and another set of bottles was filled with boiling water (and then let the water cool to room temperature over the next day).
Levels of BPA were below the limit of detection for the new Sigg and Nalgene bottles.
The old polycarbonate bottles leached 0.17 to 0.3 nanograms of BPA per milliliter of water during the room temperature tests. The old aluminum bottles with an epoxy-resin liner leached 0.59 to 0.14 nanograms per milliliter.
Brand-new epoxy-resin-lined aluminum water bottles leached up to six times more BPA than the worst-leaching polycarbonate bottle and more than 10 times as much BPA as the polycarbonate-plastic bottle that had leached the least.
Hot water quadrupled BPA leaching over what occurred when water had been kept at or below room temperature.
The bottles that had been sold as BPA-free in fact did not leach the steroid-hormone-mimicking pollutant.
Stevia-Plant.com
Live stevia plants you can grow yourself, plus stevia extract powder from their plants, and certified organic whole and cut stevia leaves and stevia leaf powder.”These new Stevia plants are the result of 8 years cross pollination and selection to produce a crop with very low Stevioside content and a very high Rebaudioside A content…Thus we have eliminated the bitterness or after taste as well as improving the sweetness. Super Sweet Stevia has a cleaner sweetness.” The website doesn’t say that the plants are organic, but here is what the owner had to say about his growing practices in an email to me: “Our Stevia plants can not be considered “certified organic” because we use chemical fertilizers on them. The Stevia plants in our plant production cycle never get planted in the ground. They are grown in pots on elevated benches outside during the summer and brought into the greenhouse for the winter. Outdoors they are not bothered by insects so we have no need to spray. However indoors, during the winter, white fly is a problem and we do spray with “Pyreth-It”. This pesticide is made from the Pyrethrum Daisy and is approver for use on organic crops. We use Pyreth-It only as needed as our first line of defense is Lady Bugs and other beneficials that we have been selling for years. At no time would I ever stop one of my grand kids from going out to the greenhouse and eating a leaf from the Stevia plants. Of course they have been tough to watch out for Lady Bugs and not eat them.”
Upholstered Furniture Materials
Question from arobin
Hi Debra. I wanted to know what stuffing materials you used when you reupholstered your furniture. I’m very chemically sensitive and am going to use organic cotton, considering the Ultracel Foam from Green Lotus (supposed to have less offgassing), and considering natural latex. My reupholsterer wants to use dacron and foam without fire retardent along with cotton, and I’m afraid. Did you just use cotton? I want the furniture to last and be comfortable once I’m spending all of this money. I also want to tolerate it! Thank you.
Debra’s Answer
Please no dacron and foam.
I reupholstered a sofa and a wing chair. Both were old and had spring cushions instead of foam cushions. I had the upholsterer take all the old padding off the spring cushions and repad them with organic cotton batting.
For the covers, I used 100% cotton fabric and 100% linen fabric, both without finishes. I prewashed the fabric before giving it to the upholsterer.
Finding a Safe Place to Rent
Question from lss
Hello. We will be moving to another state within the next year and will be selling the home we live in. At this time, we will not be able to afford to purchase another home. I am very worried about finding a new place to live in, because of the toxic pesticides that could have been sprayed, fertilizers used, bug bombs, plug-ins, fresh paint, fresh carpeting (even getting the old carpeting cleaned). This will be a 1,500 mile move, and I don’t know how I am going to find a safe place to live! I have so many chemical sensitivities and am very sick right now because of some exposures to toxic chemicals in the last 9 months. I need help on how I can find a non-toxic place to move into. We hope we can move into a home, not an apartment. Thank you so much everyone for any help you can give me. We hope to be moving to the Boise, Idaho, area, or somewhere else in the Pacific Northwest.
Debra’s Answer
Perhaps some of you reading this could write about the process you used to find safe housing, and your success in doing so.
State Vacuum
“The World’s Largest Vacuum Cleaner Store — The Vacuum Cleaner Experts for Over 57 Years!” Since this store happened to be right across Tampa Bay from my house, I went there when I was looking for a vacuum cleaner. They have every kind of vacuum I could think of and helped me choose the best one for my needs. They are very friendly and knowledgeable about vacuums.
Staples
A general office supply store that carries hundreds of recycled office products. Type “recycled” into their on-site search box, and you will get pages of recycled products. If you want to search more specifically, type “recycled paper” or “recycled clipboard” or “recycled file folders” and you will get exactly what you are looking for. Staples has a commitment to the environment that goes beyond other warehouse office supply stores. They consistently have products with recycled content and have recycling, energy conservation and renewable energy programs throughout their chain. ” We now offer for sale more than 2,100 products with post-consumer recycled content, from 100%-recycled copy paper and recycled Post-it® Notes to remanufactured ink cartridges. We will continue to expand our selection of 30%+ recycled content products across all office supply categories.” More about their environmental commitment.
