The Audacity of Going Organic - Year One

My dear friend Gary sent an email over the weekend about some group that is up in arms because Michelle Obama planted an organic garden. The problem, it seems, is that this flies in the face of established convention. I find it puzzling (and a bit sad) that a garden planted and grown without chemical fertilizers or insecticides is seen as a bad thing [click here to read more on this topic], but enough about that crazy world, let's look at the world around us....

Last year, our small team started shopOrganic. Leveraging the experience and expertise of our tiny team, we boldly launched the site on May 8, 2008. At the time we launched, we had begun to see the softening of the real estate market and we assumed that the worst of it would be falling housing prices for a bit. Little did we know at the time that the coming year would be among the worst years (financially) in decades. We didn't see the banking crisis coming, we certainly didn't see the meltdown on Wall Street coming but BAM! there they were.

There were times in the past year that we thought the economy would collapse and take our little company with it. It's been quite a challenge - both professionally and personally. Having put all our time and a lot of our money into this company, there were many sleepless nights worrying that the company would not survive the cold economic winter. We worried that those seeds planted were locked in some frozen economic tundra never to be seen again.

Like Michelle Obama, we too rolled up our sleeves on a cold spring day... and planted the seeds of a new beginning. Like Michelle Obama, we may have planted our seeds a bit too soon - the cold days of early Spring can be harsh and can delay the appearance of those vibrant green shoots that indicate that winter is over and spring is in progress.

We've hung in there this year - sometimes by the barest of margins - because we believe powerfully in what we're doing. We believe that a world in which everyone has enough clean food and clean water is just the baseline, the barest minimum of an acceptable reality for us all. As we have said from the beginning, what we want for ourselves, we want for everyone - it's pretty simple.

We started shopOrganic because we believe in organic principles of sustainability and stewardship. We wanted to create a company that reflected our values of quality, honesty, integrity, cooperation and well, fun.

We have found building relationships with the small vendors we work with to be immensely rewarding. We have gotten to know the other small (sometimes tiny) business owners that are dedicated to the same sustainable and organic principles. As we have worked with them to help them find a market for their great products, we have benefited from being able to provide our customers with a wonderful variety of amazing new, small vendor products that you can't find anyplace else. We have had a great time sampling, testing and trying out products of all kinds.

We have enjoyed getting to know our customers, exchanging emails and phone calls. Perhaps more than anything, we have enjoyed providing the best customer service you'll ever receive. It may sound a bit dopey, but it really gives us immense pleasure to know that when a customer has a problem and it's within our power to resolve it, we just do.

People are often amazed that we answer emails within an hour or two (sometimes within minutes, even at night and on weekends) with a real response. People are often amazed that we take their word for it when they report a problem and we just fix it. People are often amazed when they place an order as a gift that we print out a small gift card with their message on it and pop it in the box - without being asked. We are often amazed that these simple acts amaze people. We love to delight our customers and sometimes just getting an order shipped out the same day it is placed is enough to make someone's day.

We hit a few important milestones in this past year in terms of sales and number of customers and number of orders - but the most important milestone we hit was that we are still here. We have survived to this point and we will be around to celebrate our first anniversary.

We are seeing those tender green shoots start to push through the damp earth. We are not yet fully formed but we are full of optimism and hope for the future. We have managed, somehow, through rolling up our sleeves and working hard, to plant our own organic garden and it is starting to grow.

We have been honored to be part of this new world that is emerging and we are honored to be a part of the lives of each of our customers. We thank you for your support over the past year and we look forward to growing bigger and stronger this year with your support and our hard work.

We took a leap of faith when we planted the seeds of this business last year and we're seeing that faith (and all that hard work) start to take hold. Join us on this adventure and let's see where this next year will take us!

Stop by and see us - shop with us if you're a new customer or a returning one - and see what a difference a small committed group of people can make - join us!

www.shopOrganic.com - For The Greater Goods

Now go out there and enjoy your day!

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Health Care vs. Sick Care

Americans spend twice as much on health care as European countries, but we are twice as sick due to high rates of chronic disease. Like other parts of our economy, it seems this 'disconnect' needs to be called into question and examined. Why are Americans suffering twice as much as Europeans from chronic disease? Is living in America inherently unhealthy? Probably not a geographic, but a psychographic problem - our behaviors and lifestyles put us at risk.

Well-known physician and author Dr. Andrew Weil suggests "Integrative Medicine can offer low-cost alternatives to pharmaceutical drugs and surgery for many conditions that now drain our health care resources." Dr. Weil directs a training program for medical students at the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine. Their approach emphasizes "proven, low-risk, low cost interventions, progressing to high-cost interventions only when the severity of conditions demand them."

Of course, like most problems, those we deal with early are easier to fix. If you wait until the oil in your car has solidified, you're more likely to have a serious engine failure. On the other hand, if you change your oil at periodic intervals, you can keep your engine running cleaner and longer. The human body is no different.

It's clear that clean food, clean water and clean surroundings contribute to our health. When we ingest food filled with pesticides and chemicals fertilizers, our bodies have to filter that out. When we ingest food that is free of artificial chemicals and full of nutrients, our bodies can run like the well-tuned engines they were meant to be.

Yes, you can head to the doctor if you have a serious illness, but head to the cupboard if you want to avoid illness. Choose clean, organic food. Choose healthy oils. Choose whole foods. Choose natural cleaning products for your home and surroundings. Give your body a chance to be an amazingly healthy being with just a little help from you. Read more!

Take A Risk - Remain Optimistic

The biggest risk you can take right now is not taking out a new mortgage or another limited time 0% interest credit card offer....it's risking optimism. Let's face it, it's a pretty bleak economic picture out there and people are losing jobs and homes and the very structure of their lives. Remaining optimistic that we can and will fix this, together, is probably the riskiest position to take, but in time, I think it will prove to be the wisest investment of all.


The economic models we've relied on for generations are crumbling. From my perspective, it was only a matter of time. I kept asking financial people I knew like accountants and financial analysts - "How is this sustainable? How can we keep spending ahead of our earnings and keep it going?" I'm not claiming to have seen this coming or to have been smarter than the average Joe. I just knew from my own personal finances that I had to reign in spending and debt accumulation so that I wouldn't tip over. I saw the same out in the world and wondered if there was anything about the model that I was missing....Nope. As it turns out, it wasn't sustainable. What made it take a crash landing, though, were the big boys in our political and financial institutions, but that's not the point here so I'll leave it at that.

So, here's the thing. We need to build sustainability into everything we do. No more wanton waste. No more mindlessness. Let's work together to create a sustainable world where we all have jobs and a roof over our heads, clean food and water. Sound crazy? I'm optimistic we can create that future together. As a species, humans are pretty clever. Let's take those brilliant minds who created Ponzi schemes and derivatives and set them to work on creating a brilliantly fair and sustainable economic model for the world.

In the meantime, I'm betting on the better side of human nature. Sure, we see the power struggle in our political system, but the days of "us and them" are over (though some have not yet recognized that new reality). It's time to work together to form a new economic model that rewards hard work, honest effort and the creation of sustainable value. Look for companies in your area that are already doing that - they exist. I, for one, am spending my hard earned dollars with companies that share those values so I can hopefully help them through this lean economic period. Over time, they'll become the very bones of the new economy - so get a head start and support them now.

Together, we can build a more sustainable economic model. So, take the biggest risk today and remain optimistic. Read more!

Going green? Try your local library

Growing up, we went to the public library on Saturdays. We'd go downtown to the only branch I ever knew about and browse for the morning. The building was old but well-kept. There was beautiful woodwork and I later learned a lot of the buildings in town, including my elementary school and the library, had been built by skilled craftsmen hired through public works programs. Woodworkers, masons and other highly skills craftsmen (back in the day, they were mostly male) built beautiful, functional, timelessly beautiful buildings. But back to the library part of this story. I can still see some of the tables and book shelves in my mind's eye. The regular visits to the library were a treat. No, I didn't grow up in Podunk - just outside of Manhattan, in fact.

I remember walking through the children's department almost like walking through a candy store - delighted by the possibilities on each shelf. There weren't many places my parents said "get whatever you like" but the library was one of them and it always felt like a treat to get whatever armful of books I wanted.

Fast forward to now. Over the last couple of years, I've cleaned out my bookcases at home a few times and marvelled at some of the books I had in my possession - books I was never going to read, books I couldn't imagine having purchased, books that once seemed compelling and now seemed boring, books on topics obscure and mundane that no longer held my interest and on and on. I'd sort them out, put them in boxes and bring them to the used book store or the donation drop off. I'd clear out space only to find myself doing the same ritual again a year later.

Then, I got an email from a friend in Ohio. She said she'd just come back from the library with her kids - and I remembered that I'd forgotten all about the public library. How it slipped from my everyday consciousness, I don't know, but slip it did.

I headed over to my local branch of the Pima County Public Library on Saturday. The choice of the day of week is apparently imprinted from childhood, but the library world has changed. I was happy to see computers in every nook and cranny (yes, I'm an admitted geek). There were books of every kind, of course, but now after getting my new bar coded library card, I could pull some books, zap them under a scanner and head out the door. Very cool.

Perhaps the best part of the library was realizing that I could go shopping for books anytime I wanted and best of all, when I was done with them, I could simply drop them off. Now, this might sound like a duh! moment, but it dawned on me that I didn't have to go buy a book, change my mind, lose interest in it and have it sit on MY shelf (after spending money on that brand new book), that's what the library is for. It's really the best of both worlds. I can check out any book (for free) and if I lose interest or decide I hate the book three pages in, off it goes back to the library.

This is not a new concept, I know. But in this economic environment when we're all re-thinking our spending habits, libraries become a new found green resource. Granted, there are still books I'll want to purchase and own, but most of the books I own are not 'keepers' and I suspect the same is true for many of us.

Libraries are green by design - reduce, reuse, reuse, reuse. The books purchased by the library are read by hundreds (or thousands) of people. When they reach the end of their useful life, the library sells them at a nominal cost to people who want to own them, then they buy more books and the cycle continues. That's the essence of reduce and reuse, isn't it?

So, you may want to go re-discover your local public library (while funds still exist to keep them open), show your support by joining and using your local branch. Funding is typically predicated upon usage, so be sure to support your local library whenever you can. Yes, I'm a renewed fan, but better late than never.

Any other local library fans out there? Let us know your thoughts! Read more!

Innovative Building Materials Absorb CO2

No matter how much you think you know, there's always something new that comes along and makes you re-think what you thought you knew. Did you know that the cement used in buildings emits more CO2 than the entire aviation industry? Who knew? Well, I'm guessing someone knew but that was news to me. Cement is made with limestone that emits CO2 as it cures, which is apparently something on the order of 99 years... This British firm has re-formulated cement using a magnesium silicate that, among its other positive and enhanced qualities, absorbs CO2 as it cures. So, it's not only zero emissions but might actually soak up CO2 emissions from other buildings. Sort of an urban CO2 vacuum.

It's innovations like these that make me truly marvel at the brilliant and creative human spirit. When we turn our attention to solving problems, it's amazing what we can do. I'm equally optimistic that other problems will be solved (ok, some may be just knocked down to smaller sizes) with the same creative efforts.

Where there is crisis, there is also opportunity. Personally, I'm looking forward to the creative solutions on the horizon.
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A Sign of Good Things To Come

Whether or not you believe in omens or signs, you have to be amazed at the landing of an airliner in the Hudson River this past week. The pilot and co-pilot both seemed to have remained calm and their training kicked in. Within three and a half minutes of the birds flying into the engines and losing all thrust, the pilot decided he could land the plane in the Hudson River. Now, the Hudson is NOT a river you'd like to take a dip in any time of the year... and certainly not on a frigid January morning. It's a miracle that the circumstances all came together perfectly to enable the plane to land (or to river, as it were) without loss of life and, it seems, without serious injury to anyone on the plane or in the river.

That, in itself, could be called miraculous. But to me, the real miracle is this. Within minutes of the incident, there were three boats (two ferries and a tug, if I recall correctly) helping passengers to safety who had been standing on the wings of the plane in the icy water.

To me, this is a metaphor for the situation the world is in right now. The global economy has frozen up, the high flying economies of the world have lost all upward thrust. A few quick thinking individuals are doing their best to steer the economy to a soft landing. You get my point.

But there's another part to this metaphor. The three boat operators who came so quickly to the aid of the airliner in the river. I'm assuming there are no emergency practice drills with boat operators in the Hudson River that encompass pulling frozen, scared, wet airline passengers out of the river. There may be new emergency procedures after 9/11, but it's hard to fathom it included this scenario. Regardless, those three boats saw a plane skidding into the river and headed over to help.

The lesson: There are a lot of unknowns in front of us, things we have never experienced and can't adequately prepare for. However, we can apply what we do know to new situations and create a successful outsome. More importantly, perhaps, is that when we work together, we can mitigate a potentially disasterous situation. Had those three boats not arrived quickly, there may have been more serious injury due to hypothermia or even drowning. Instead, everyone worked together to help those in need and the outcome became a shining example of what can go right when things go wrong.

Something to ponder in the days ahead. One by one and all together, we can make a difference.

Now go out there and have a great day.
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Sprouting for Beginners

This time of year, so many of us are looking for ways to get healthier. One easy way to freshen up your diet is to add sprouts to the mix.

Why Sprout?
The main benefit of sprouting is that it takes a seed or nut in a dormant state and brings it to life. During the sprouting process new and higher quality proteins and other nutrients are produced. Tests have shown that the nutrients in seeds and nuts are anywhere from 50% to 400% greater after sprouting or soaking.

In addition to the higher nutritional value, sprouts are highly digestible. Because sprouts are living, growing food sources, they have a rich supply of enzymes. This quality makes sprouts easily assimilated and metabolized by the body. Sprouts are packed full of nutrition in a form that your body can easily utilize.

Sprouts continue to grow slowly even after refrigeration and their vitamin content will actually increase. Compare this with store-bought vegetables and fruits, which start losing their vitamin content as soon as they’re picked and often have to be shipped a thousand miles or more in the winter.

Sprouting is so easy and fun…don’t let it intimidate you. The rewards are well worth the effort.

How to sprout

You'll need a couple of things:
A wide mouthed jar, (e.g. a mason jar used for canning), some cheesecloth and a rubber band. Oh, and some sprouting seeds, of course. Find some popular sprouting seeds here.

Instructions:

1. Measure an appropriate amount of seed, visually inspect and remove foreign matter and broken seeds.
2. Place seeds in jar
3. Add water to jar for soaking
4. Cover mouth of jar with cheesecloth
5. Soak for recommended time (see below)
6. Turn jar upside down drain at a 45 degree angle
7. Let the seeds sprout for appropriate time (see below)
8. Rinse seeds in jar as needed (2-4 times/day), returning jar to its upside down 45 degree angle position
   
9. When sprouts are ready, rinse and store in refrigerator, in jar or in another suitable container, until ready to use. If not used within 12 hours, seeds should be rinsed every 24 hours in refrigerator.

Sprouting times:

• Radish: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 1.0+ days.
• Sunflower: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 18 hours.
• Barley: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 1.25-1.5 days. Use only unhulled barley; "whole" hulled barley and pearled barley won't sprout.
• Quinoa: Soak 2-4 hours, sprout 12 hours. Very fast sprouter. Rinse seeds multiple times to get off soapy tasting saponin in seed coat.
• Wheat, including Kamut and Spelt: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 1-1.5 days. Hard Winter wheat is better than soft Spring wheat.
• Alfalfa, Clover: For greens: soak 4-6 hours, sprout 6-8 days.
• Garbanzo: Soak 12-18 hours, sprout 1.5+ days.
• Lentils, brown/green and red: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 1.0 day.
• Mung beans: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 18 hrs - 1 day.
• Adzuki beans: Soak 8-14 hours, sprout 1.0 day.

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