Whole Grain Momma

It's that time of the year where Farmers Markets are springing up all over. Want to know where you can find one close to you? Visit http://www.localharvest.org/ to find the nearest market.

Before heading out to your local Farmers Market make sure you know what's in season right now. Below is a list of the fruits and vegetables currently in season:

• Apricots
• Berries: blackberries
• Berries: raspberries
• Berries: strawberries
• Cherries
• Grapefruit
• Melons: cantaloupe
• Melons: honeydew
• Melons: watermelon
• Peaches
• Rhubarb, field

• Artichokes
• Asparagus
• Avocado, Haas
• Beans, fava
• Beans, green
• Beets
• Broccoli
• Cabbages
• Carrots
• Cauliflower
• Celery
• Celeriac / celery root
• Chard
• Corn
• Fennel
• Garlic, green
• Greens: arugula, dandelion, fiddlehead ferns, lettuces, mizuna, mustard
• Kale
• Mushrooms, morels
• Onions, fresh/spring
• Onions, sweet: Vidalia
• Peas: edible pod
• Peas: English / shelling
• Potatoes, new
• Radish
• Ramps
• Salad mix
• Sorrel
• Spinach
• Squash, zucchini

It's amazing how changing one small habit can have such a large impact on the environment. I have to admit I have been guilty up until recently of going through quite a large number of plastic water bottles a month even though we have a water filter at home. Yes I know it's a terrible thing to think where these bottles end up and the damage they cause to the environment which is why I decided to switch to a reusable water bottle instead.

There are many reasons to ditch the plastic bottles aside from their effect on the environment. Using and re using these bottles have some effects on your health as well. Plastic bottles contain BPA which leaches out during everyday use. High levels of BPA have been linked with infertility, heart disease, diabetes and cancer. You are probably wondering just how much exposure are you really getting from a water bottle. Does it matter? Even the smallest amount of exposure can create long term health issues so why risk it?

You have alternatives and you should definitely explore them. There are many reusable water bottles out there for sale. One alternative is a SIGG – Swiss Engineered Water Bottles . These bottles are made out of a single piece of pure taste neutral aluminum. Another option is the Wellness H2O bottle. This bottle is made of LDPE (low density polyethylene) plastic, which is BPA-free.

Here are few other suggestions:
Blue planet: www.blueplanetwater.com/q&a.html
Biota : www.biotaspringwater.com
Born free: www.newbornfree.com
Klean Kanteen: www.kleankanteen.com

So why not ditch the plastic bottles once and for all and do something good for yourself and the environment?

I am happy to say the deodorant is holding up pretty well. I had to re apply halfway during the day but it was mostly because I didn't apply it correctly the first time. The texture of the mix is very similar to the texture of actual deodorant which makes it pretty hard to spread using your fingers. I was given some great advice by a reader to pour the mix into an old deodorant bottle to make it easier to apply. I will be trying this with the next batch I make.

We started today on our pre detox regimen. We are cutting back on certain foods such as all dairy, certain fruits and veggies, meats, condiments and sweeteners. This was a lot harder than expected because a lot of things are excluded from your diet even while you are in the pre detox stages. We have two more days of the pre detox and then on to the real thing!

I came across a few recipes on how to make your own deodorant and I decided to give this a try. Over the years I have tried just about every brand of deodorant I can think of and after about 2-3 weeks it ends up breaking my skin. Even the so called natural and organic deodorants have caused my skin to break. I picked one of recipes since it seemed to be the most simple and less time consuming. The ingredients you will need to make your own deodorant are the following; baking soda, corn starch, shea

Normally around this time of the week I would've reached for my trusty bottle of shampoo and conditioner and begin my hair care routine for the day. Wash, rinse, leave in conditioner and sometimes mousse depending on the weather. Since I am embarking on the No Poo journey this morning I rinsed out my hair with just warm water and nothing else. I rinsed it out for about 4-5 minutes and combed through it while it was wet. I was removing any excess hair product and gunk that might be stuck in my hair from the previous wash. I finished rinsing my hair and paused for a second and thought to myself.. should I dare leave the house today with absolutely no products in my hair??? Not even the leave in conditioner??? I decided to go for it. I reached for the towel, patted my hair dry and that was the end of that. It felt nice to not have to stand there and waste 10 minutes putting crap in my hair. I left for work with my hair still a bit damp and with no idea how it would look once I got to the office. On my way to the office I thought about stopping to pull out the mirror just to check what was going on but I decided against it. I figured if I wasn't getting any funny looks from the people around me then how bad could it be? Then again this is NY and people are used to strangeness.

Welcome to my blog! I decided to start this blog because I realize my family and I need to make some lifestyle/health changes now that we have brought a little life into this world. We have always considered ourselves an earth conscious family who try their best to live green and purchase organic products. However I recently realized after having a baby that there is so much more we can be doing not only to help the environment but to better our health and our lifestyle. We want to make sure our little boy grows up understanding how to make the most out of the natural resources the earth provides for us and how important it is to have a growing respect for those resources as well. I realize this will not be an easy task due to the massive amount of non friendly overly commercialized products that are so readily available to us but it is something we have committed ourselves to following.

In this blog I will be documenting our experiences with organic foods, organic baby products, do it yourself concoctions and many other things. So feel free to join us as we embark on this journey to Walk With Mother Earth..