Gardening 101: Week 3

Six weeks ago we had a patch of grass next to our pool that we converted to an organic vegetable garden.  Click here to read all about my lack of skill in the gardening department and all the help I required to get this project off the ground.

We were a little late getting the plants in the ground… I was worried the heat would prevent them from getting established, but fortunately it’s been a cooler June in LA so most of the plants survived.

Not only did they survive, they thrived.  When I took the family to away to the Evolution of Women in Social Media conference in Park City, Utah we were gone for a total of 5 days.  We came home and all my itty bitty plants literally exploded!  I knew the tomatoes would need staking as soon as we got back from from the trip, but was shocked to come back and find the plants falling over only days later.

Tonight we made our first salad out of lettuce, radishes and basil harvested from the garden.  The tomatoes and cucumbers are close behind!  I’m also SURE before I know it the butternut squash, zucchini are going to be overrunning my pantry.  What will I do with them all!

To give you an idea of how tall the tomatoes have gotten – I staked them on 4′ Bamboo U-Stakes – if you can’t see from the picture I’d say they are easily 2′ tall already.  And there are baby heirloom tomatoes sprouting all over the place!

More Photos from my gardening adventures to date:

This little pepper plant has been the same size since the day I planted it!  It hasn’t died, but at the same time it refuses to grow.

This pepper is growing on a plant that is almost smaller than it is!   How is that possible?

I think it’s almost time to thin the lettuce – not sure what that entails – but I’m sure google will be happy to help guide me through.  I also think it’s about time to plant more lettuce seeds… they say to sow every 3 weeks or so for continual harvest.

I’m pretty sure this means I’ll have more cucumbers than I know what to do with very, very soon!

Our first Salad from the garden – Basil, Romaine Lettuce and a few radishes – or pink & whites as I called them in an attempt to get lil diva to like them! No luck BTW.

So far so good, but my gardening adventure has just begun… I’m sure there will be more stories to come!  And… if you need any Basil… I have a lot, let me know I’m happy to share!

Kabana Organic Sunscreen: Sunscreen Review

Kabana Organic Fragrance Free Tinted Sunscreen SPF 22

Planning a getaway for some fun in the sun this winter? You’ll want to protect your winter white skin from the sun with sunscreen, but you’ll also want to be sure the protection doesn’t care it’s own set of concerns.

Kabana Skincare offers a selection of ultra pure sunscreens, baby care products, soap & bodywashes that offer light UV protection for everyday protection, moisturizers, lip balms and sunscreens.

To learn more about the importance of careful sunscreen selections read the Diva Guide to Safer Sunscreen.

Kabana offer’s sunscreen in both Tinted & Untinted.  Many of the safer sunscreens contain a high amount of zinc, as does Kabana’s.  Many people don’t like the white pastiness you end up with from the zinc.  Tinted sunscreen provides a solution to this problem.  I’m very fair and the tint disappeared into my skin.  Those with darker skin my find the tinting a little pale.

Sunscreen is an important part of a skincare regime.  Not only does it prevent skin cancer, but wrinkles too.  Let’s face it, most of us are more motivated by vanity then our health.  According to the American Academy of Dermatologists – 90% of wrinkles are caused by sun!

What I love about the Kabana line is their streamline approach they take with their products.  Their Tinted Sunscreen has 8 ingredients.  Eight!  They focus on high quality, effective ingredients.  I was initially concerned that they didn’t offer a SPF 30.  Their founder,  Eric Kreider believes that an SPF 20 is all the protection we need and equates to absorbing 95% of UV, while an SPF 45 only gives you 2.8% more protection while exposing our bodies to more chemicals that typically carry a %300 increase in associated health risk along with a higher price tag.

With a Diva Total  13.7 of out of 15 points this product is: Divaliscious!

CLICK HERE for review criteria:

8 Points Skin Deep Low Hazard Rating ~ 1
2 Points for being Organic – The Tinted Sunscreen comprised of %86 organic ingredients.

1.8 Points for effectiveness Worn at the Beach in Sunny California and on a Palm Springs getaway, my fair skin didn’t get burnt. I did get a bit of extra sun on my nose – I should have reapplied after 2 hours as per the instructions.

.8 Point for Texture This product was very smooth and creamy. For a zinc based sunscreen I found it absorbed in more quickly than other products I’ve tried.

.7 Point for Fragrance The Kabana Sunscreen is unscented and doesn’t contain any fragrance to mask it’s natural scent.

.3 Points for Packaging Appearance The packaging is very sporty in appearance. Royal Blue with Bright Yellow and Green Writing accents.

.1 Points for Packaging SustainabilityThe Sunscreen is not packaged using any additional boxes, but there was no information on their site or the tube.

Overall:

With a nice texture, effective sun protection and ultra pure ingredient list, this is a great sunscreen option for your entire family.  If whiteness from the zinc bothers you, choose the tinted option.  Otherwise I didn’t notice a difference between the two offerings.

Note – Don’t forget to shake the tube well prior to application as it separates when it sits.

Gardening 101: PND Style

I am not the gardener in my family.  To keep my yard looking remotely presentable a team of people show up for one hour every Wednesday mornings and presto flowers.  Attempting to grow  food – other than my citrus trees – is monumental for me.

We live in one of the best growing climates in the world and I have a weekly gardener coming to tend to my yard, sprinklers to water it and NOTHING to show for it… ever.

This year I decided that it was time to try to grow some food.  My mother is an avid gardener, as are both of my sister… I could do this.

The initial idea was to plant in an amongst my regular plants.  That didn’t work out very well… turns out our team of expert gardeners is not very adept at steering around newly sowed seeds and the soil wasn’t very good.

Not to be discouraged I pitched Dude on the idea of turning a thin sliver of our yard into a garden.  By some miracle, not only did he agree – he also said “why not make it bigger”!

So I set to work – which in this case required a meeting with my gardener and we set a time to tear up a section of our yard, put in a drip watering system and import some compost.  Now, after a few hiccups in the execution I have a lovely raised bed garden.

I’m still not sure we found the best soil.  I searched high and low in Los Angeles for organic compost and ended up going with compost that is made from clippings from Griffith Park and zoo doo – yep exotic poo!  The city calls it TOPGRO – they say it’s organic, it’s free for the taking and well tested to ensure that it is ready to be used.

In the LA area you can also get compost from the Green Recycling Center – 2649 Washington Street, Los Angeles.   Fri/Sat/Sun from 9-3.

Once we got the compost in the fun started.  My family had set up a rough plan for me that I tried to follow… and I’ve been trying to companion plant using this guide.  There are many moments of confusion… will this lettuce really work in full sun, I need a taller plant that will work in the shade here… and so on.

The children are over the moon excited.  I bought them each their own watering can to avoid the ongoing battles that would have come with one.  I also faced an interesting dilemma at the garden store when purchasing a watering can of my own… Buy the plastic can that is made in the US or the Metal Can made in China?  I opted for plastic – I think it will hold up much longer and not need replacing.

So far we have planted: Strawberries, heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, red & green peppers, butternut squash, melons, cucumber, snap peas, lettuces, spinach, basil, broccoli, leeks, basil, chives, beets, carrots and grapes!  Still to come are parsley, oregano, zucchini, beans and baby pumpkin.

We did a couple other things to help create a natural good growing environment:

• Worms – The kids went crazy over the container of worms I bought to get my worm population started… never thought I’d use those words together in a sentence!
• Ladybugs – Apparently ladybugs eat aphids and other undesirable pests… We’ll see because I set at least a hundred of them free one night.  Releasing them at night, they don’t fly away.  Instead they look for food and will hang out and lay more eggs.  We’ll see!

I’m still noticing that some critters are munching on my delicate fresh plants, so I need to determine what is doing the damage to find the right natural predator for the job.  I’ve also planted nasturtiums throughout the garden to help.

The gardener got me up and running and I’m doing the planting myself.  For the gardening purists this may seem wrong, but for this Diva I’m going to call it a happy starting point.

Once I get this plot going – I’m going to go through my landscaping and see where we can find places to add raspberries, blackberries and blueberries.

Please VOTE for my Oprah Audition!

Natural First Finger Foods for Infants

During the finger food stage of feeding your little one my favorites are (Organic):

Puffed Wheat

Puffed Kamut (related to wheat) – larger and easier for little hands to grasp

Puffed Brown Rice

Puffed Corn

Brown Rice Cakes – Unsalted

* Don’t forget the fruits and vegetables.  You can cook and chop into small pieces any vegetable or non soft fruit that you might feed them at meal time.

Conventional vs Organic Meat Supply: I’m Buying a Cow

I’m not going to pasture a cow in our backyard, but have I decided that I need to opt out of the mainstream meat production as much as I can.

The first step in “buying our cow” is acquiring a deep freeze.  If you aren’t going to get your meat from the market, you’ll likely be buying it in larger quantities and that will require a freezer.

In an effort to ensure anyone could do this -  I found our deep freeze on craigslist in the free section.  It took a few weeks of steady checking – but one day there it was – an upright, clean, free deep freeze.

I don’t think we’ll buy a whole cow, we don’t eat that much meat – a share will do us nicely.

So why am I doing this?

It’s my belief that the food system in our country is very broken and one of the areas that is of particular concern is the meat industry.  It’s no wonder so many people turn to being vegetarian. About 70% of ground beef in America contains a filler product that is washed with ammonia in order to kill e-coli – it’s time to for a change.

For me and my family that means eating less meat,  higher quality meats and whenever possible – supporting local farmers and ranchers.

Recently, I had an great discussion with a farmer named Xenia, from Rainbow Ranch Farms in San Bernadino, CA.  She used to be a vegetarian – now she has a farm, and on her farm she has  chickens, goats, cows, and 2 dogs.  She raises these animals in the manner that we imagine all the farm animals are raised.  Unfortunately meat we are getting from conventional grocers isn’t raised in this fashion.

Xenia can’t sell to any stores, she can’t sell to whole foods, she can only sell to folks who are shared owners of her farm. The good news is anyone can become a shared owner of her farm or many of the other CSA farmers around the country!

More good news – there are farms that are licensed to sell without requiring a CSA share.  Farms like Lazy 69 Ranch in Central California.  They will ship anywhere, but see if you can’t find a  great ranch like this one close to you.

Don’t think you have a small farm in your area – you’d be surprised.  Spend a few minutes with google or www.localharvest.org.

You can also find  local farmers who sell meat and eggs through the Farmer’s Markets.

Miessence Organics: Diva Review & Giveaway

Congratulations to the winner!

I was introduced to Miessence Organics by Erin Ely an Independent Representative who has been following PND and knew that I had to check out their line!

What I love about Miessence Skin Care products is that every ingredient in the skin care line is certified organic to food standards by the Australian Certified Organic (ACO).

They also ship all of their products fresh from the factory and suggest their product be used within 6 months to ensure you get the full benefit of the active ingredients.  Miessence also uses cold pressed formulations – this ensures that heat will not kill the active ingredients during processing.

They have a full line of body care products,  skincare and makeup that you can use with confidence – the entire product range scores from 0-2 in the Cosmetics Database.

I wish I could go to the store to try all these fantastic products, but they are only available through independent distribution.  The line prices out with  cleansers at $42, shampoo & conditioner that are $22 each, and at $40 their facial serums are a bargain.

Erin did send me their Rejuvenessence Facial Serum to try – it was  little too rich for daily use on my skin, but I adjusted to using it 2 or 3 times a week and that has been just right.  It has a rich botanical fragrance and absorbs quickly into the skin.

Lucky for us, Erin has agreed to give one lucky reader a $50 gift certificate to try Miessence for themselves!  Use it for toothpaste, sunscreen, shampoo, make up – it’s your call – but use it with confidence because this company prides themselves on being 100% organic and natural.

Win a $50 Gift Certificate for Miessence Organics

HOW TO ENTER:

There are a few ways you can enter, leave separate comments for each entry.

Mandatory

Become an Email Subscriber to PND using the form in the sidebar. Leave a comment with a name I can print in our newsletter if you win. Winners are only announced in our newsletter – so don’t forget to check!

• The subscription must be confirmed. You will receive and email that you must reply to for your entry to be valid.
• Already a confirmed Subscriber. Complete any one of the additional entries options – Leave a comment letting Diva know you’re subscriber name and the entry option you selected.

Additional Entries

1. Go to ElyOrganics and share what you will use your $50 to buy!
2. Stumble, Digg, Kirsty, or Technorati favorite this post. Leave a comment with your name and the link.
3. Follow @purenaturaldiva (use link on the sidebar) and @erinely on twitter. Leave your twittername in a separate comment.
4. Become a Fan of Pure Natural Diva and Miessence Organics on Facebook. Post this giveaway as an update, leave your FB Name or Name with a copy of your update in a separate comment. One entry for each.
5. Tweet this giveaway. Copy and paste “WIN a $50 Gift Certificate for Miessence Organics, make-up, skin care… Diva Giveaway http://bit.ly/bhvrJ8 @purenaturaldiva #ElyOrganics”. Leave a comment and link in the comments.
6. Write a post on your blog linking to my blog and to the – Good for two entries. Leave this comment twice so you get both entries!

This giveaway will run through midnight on May 22, 2010 PDT, with winner being announced May 24, 2010 in the PND Newsletter. Winner will be chosen using Random.org from all valid entries. Winner will have 24 hours to contact me before the contest is re-opened until the following weekend.

Giveaway is open to residents of the U.S.

alt=”MckLinky Blog Hop” longdesc=”http://www.mcklinky.com” />

target=”_blank”>Click here to see the entire Blog Hop List….

4 Tips For Choosing Baby Formula

If You Are Formula Feeding – How do you choose the safest option for your Baby?

Use these 3 tips to steer you in the right direction.

1. Choose Organic Formula

If there is ever a time to spend the extra money on an organic, pesticide free options – this is it.  If you need to use formula – choose organic for the safest option.  The trickier part will be finding one.  To my knowledge there are only a few of brands on the market: my favorite Nature’s One, Earth’s Best, Similac Organic, and Walmart’s Parent’s Choice Organic.

2. Avoid Ready Made Formula in Cans

A toxic chemical called bisphenol A (BPA) can leach into liquid formula sold in metal cans. Canadian tests show no BPA leaching into powdered formula. The same brands are sold in the U.S., making powdered formula a low-risk for BPA contamination.

Some liquid formulas are sold in plastic, mostly polyethylene and polypropylene which do not contain any BPA. Avoid any plastic containers that are rigid and transparent, marked with “PC”. All liquid formulas sold in metal cans are lined with BPA-epoxy, which has been shown to leach into the product. If you buy formula in metal cans choose the concentrated type which is diluted with water prior to feeding. Avoid ready-to-eat formula in metal cans, which has the highest BPA leaching potential.

3. Select Powdered Formulas

Powdered formulas are the best choice for parents who want to avoid bisphenol A in their baby’s diet. While powdered formula has not been tested for BPA, it is diluted with much more water than liquid formulas which reduces the amount of BPA that the baby consumes in each feeding. Nestlé has made unsubstantiated claims that they don’t use any BPA to line their powdered formula cans. Nestlé, Enfamil and Similac use a mixed metal and cardboard package with less BPA-coating. Second best are Earth’s Best Organic and PBM’s store-brand powdered formulas that use a fully metal can.

4. Soy vs Milk Based Formula

Of course you’ll want to consult your pediatrician, but unless your baby has a sensitivity to milk proteins and requires a soy formula – stay with milk based formulas.  The most significant reason to avoid soy unless you have no other options is because soy can mimic the effect of estrogen when consumed in large quantities.

If you do need to use a soy based formula – be sure to use an organic option to be sure you are getting non GMO soy.  Soy is one of the largest GMO crops.  Given how little we know about the long term effects of consuming GMO foods.  We would be wise to avoid experimenting with our infants!

Organic Wine & Wine Making: The Basics

Grapes are near the top of the list of produce to buy organic. Wine’s number one ingredient is grapes. So, it seems logical to put wine on the list of product that we strongly consider buying organic.

Until a recent visit to my sister in Santa Fe, NM, I hadn’t actually purchased any organic wines. One reason – my husband is the person in our home who buys the wines.

He still hasn’t grasped the concept that at the most basic level organic only means something was grown without pesticides. Not that it’s healthier for you, better for you, worse for you – just grown without pesticides. In his mind it means it tastes bad and I keep trying to remind him that is a result of a recipe he doesn’t like and not the absence of pesticides.

The likelihood of me asking him to select organic wines and not having him stomp out of the room is low.

In Santa Fe I found myself with 3 hours to kill in the Whole Foods (waiting for a hole in my car windshield to be repaired – I digress). While I spent most of the time in beauty section, I did carve out some time in the wine section. I managed to select a couple of decent organic wines (with some help) priced from $8-17.

 

This experience compelled me to come home and do a little research on Organic Wines.

Organic Wine labels can be a little confusing. The source of the confusion stems from Sulfites.

You’ve probably heard of them before, but what are they and what’s the big deal? Sulfites occur naturally in the wine making process. They are also be added to wine to help the wine age better in the bottle, give the wine better color and prevent the wine from oxidizing (going bad) once the bottle has been opened. Reputable wineries use them minimally and they are not know to be linked to cancers or other health risks.

So, what is the problem with Sulfites? Some people are allergic to them, that is about 1 % of the population. Consequently people that are allergic will want to avoid them.

What do sulphites have to do with Organic Wines?

Well, in order for a wine to be labeled Organic in the US, it must not have any added sulfites. This is a problem for wine makers. There is no “better” substitute for sulfites in the wine making industry, leaving winemakers with fields of organic grapes out of organic wine making.

Wines made with organic grapes will be labeled “wine made with organic grapes”.

Digging deeper we could look for how organic the wineries process is, are they manipulating the wine with reverse osmosis, using excessive filtration? Are they using Oak Chips to flavor the wine (as a flavor additive)?

Yeast is used in wine making too. Many organic wineries will choose wild yeast for fermenting their wines.

Ideally winemaking techniques would be organic as well; little or no manipulation of wines by reverse osmosis, excessive filtration, or flavor additives (such as oak chips). Many organic winemakers also prefer wild yeasts for fermentation.

Other areas to consider would be the sustainability of the wine making practices, but there are not standards in place for measuring this, so if you encounter it on a label, you’ll have to take their word for it.

Any time you really delve into the wine making process it can feel overwhelming very quickly.

Start out by looking for wines made with organic grapes. Chances are those wineries are looking at all the areas they can improve upon on their own and at the very least you know the grapes are grown without herbicides, fungicides or pesticides.

More Information:
Organic Consumers
Wines and Vines

Coming Soon:
I’m hoping my longtime friend and Wine Maven Antonia will create a nice wine list for us to sample from. Cross your fingers that she’ll say yes.

Vapour Organic Siren Lipstick: Diva Review

Vapour Beauty is a New Mexico based company that joined forces with renowned make-up artist Erik Sakas.  They created a line of organic beauty products that is made using food grade organic ingredients.

Vapours shares many of the values that we embrace here at PND.  Acknowledging that as our largest organ; care should be taken with what we put on our skin.  Topically applied products will be absorbed into our bodies!  Adding toxins and chemicals will unduly burden our system, contributing to illness and disease.

They recently sent me a sample of their Siren Lipstick to review.

With a Diva Total of 14.8 out of 15 points this product is: Divaliscious!

Click here for review criteria:

8 Points for Skin Deep Low Hazard Rating of 1 - Excellent!
It should be noted that PND input the product ingredients and one item was not found in their database.

2 Points for being Organic – 95% organic content

2 Points for effectiveness – I was concerned that it wouldn’t have very good staying power and while it may not rival those in the extended wear lipstick category it’s certainly surprised me.  It nicely made it through lunch with the girls.  I also enjoyed the conditioning properties in the lipstick.  These days most lipsticks feel very drying on my skin, but the Siren felt hydrating.

1 Point for Texture – The texture of their lipstick was really nice, not sticky or heavy.

1 Point for Fragrance -  The fragrance is delicate and just a little fruity.

.4 Points for Packaging Appearance – Their lipstick comes in a tube and twirls out, much like chapstick.  Part of me missed the conventional twirl out of a more traditional lipstick.  However, when Lil’ Diva got her hands on the tube and I was able to “save” the tube by compacting all the lipstick back together again, I was VERY grateful!

.4 Points for Packaging Sustainability – Vapour uses wind power for all of their manufacturing.  Packaging is either recyclable or made from recycled materials.  We’d love to see all packaging made from post consumer materials, but they’ve made some great choices and hopefully will strive toward that goal.

Overall:

Vapour delivers a high quality organic lipstick using food grade ingredients.  This is fantastic because we wear it on our lips which means we’ll likely be ingesting a little of it!

Siren lipstick is available in 5 colors, desire, hint, knockout, ravish and tempt and retails for $19.

Ready to try Vapor for yourself… find it on www.ShopNBC.com and www.VapourBeauty.com.

“Safe” Mascara: Ask Diva

Dear Diva,

Help – what is your favorite “good-for-you” mascara?

Twitter follower @at1968media

Dear Twiva,

Good question.  Mascara is a product that we wear right next to our eye, so being careful with this selection is a prudent idea.

My  approach to converting to”safer” cosmetics and bodycare products has been to use up what I own, then replace that product with a safer product.  With Mascara I must have hit a good sale one day because it took me a long time to use up what I had, I finally switched to natural mascara earlier this year.

Part of switching to natural products has been to change buying patterns, my old habit of buying a few of one item and keeping them until I needed them no longer works.  Better for you products don’t contain as many preservatives, so they often don’t last as long.  I digress…

Very randomly one day I was at the drugstore (a rare event these days) and happened across Physicians Formula Organic Wear Mascara.  They were offering a rebate making the mascara free, cool deal and a win – win.  So I picked one up to try.  The mascara rates a 3 in the Skin Deep Cosmetics Database.

This is an improvement over my longtime favorite L’Oreal Voluminous Mascara, which rates a 6 and the always mentioned Maybelline Great Lash Mascara which scores a 5.

For those who are really committed to purity, check out Coastal Creations Mascara, which scores 0.

Another brand I’d like to try is 100% pure fruit pigmented mascara which scores a 2 in Skin Deep.

There you have it, 3 different natural or organic options for you to try out!  Let me know how it all works.

Love,

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