Making a Green Home

Also from Culinate, a link to Making a Green Home, focusing on small ways to green your kitchen.

I do some of these things already and would like to do others; however, ditching our many plastic storage containers for glass will require an investment and on our limited budget that's not going to happen right away. (In case you didn't know, a lot of people are rethinking their use of plastics, specifically #7/polycarbonate, because of concerns about a cancer-causing chemical compound, BPA, leaching into food and water. Canada recently released an official statement labeling it as dangerous.)

Environmentally-friendly dishwasher detergents and laundry detergents can be purchased in Mobile at The Fresh Market, which carries a limited selection of Seventh Generation and Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day products, and Virginia's Health Foods (across the bay at the sister store Fairhope Health Foods), which has a larger selection.

Shopping bags are becoming ubiquitous at sales counters in stores, if not yet being used by consumers themselves. While they didn't draw a second glance in the cities where I used to live, I still get surprised and admiring comments here about my large canvas shopping bags. That's from the customers, that is. Store baggers may raise an eyebrow about them, or worse, ignore them. It can be helpful to try to assist with the bagging to create a little goodwill. As far as remembering to use them, after unloading I put them on a door handle so I can take them on my next trip to the car, and keep them accessible so it's no trouble to grab them on the way into a store.

With regard to hand soaps and bath soaps, it's easier to find handmade soap than it used to be, and new at the Cathedral Square Market last weekend was Retriever Soapworks, selling wonderful handmade goat's milk soaps. Run by two women in Citronelle with a small herd of goats, Retriever soaps all smell wonderful, come in a variety of attractive molds, and are affordably priced. I'll definitely be buying some when my current soaps run out.

Bulk items, mentioned in the article, are a lot harder to come by around here. There's a limited selection of grains, nuts, and snacks at Virginia's/Fairhope Health Foods, and Fresh Market stocks bulk coffee, nuts, snacks, and candies, along with a selection of prepackaged 'bulk' products (seems counterintuitive, doesn't it?). Ever'man Natural Foods co-op in Pensacola has a true bulk section, with products ranging from Fair Trade coffee to organic flours and grains, nuts, granolas, and snack foods. If you make trips to Pensacola anyway (as we do), it could be worth be checking out. Suffice it to say you won't be getting anything local by buying bulk, but with the exception of a few items (e.g. pecans) you're going to be hard pressed to find local versions of these products anywhere around here.