Botanical Earth

It’s been freezing here in Missouri the last few weeks.  Temps never going over 25 degrees is not for a person that loves heat.  But I received the best package on Friday from another Missouri business - Goods from the Woods. Upon opening the box, it felt like spring.  Penny sent me a box of 3 different hydrosols to try out and the quality is amazing!  There was a bottle each of their Yarrow, Wild Plum and Elder Flower.  We wildcraft yarrow here at Botanical Earth on the property, and Goods from the Woods had the distinct smell of fresh, young yarrow herb.  Besides calendula, yarrow is my favorite herb to work with, so the fact that Penny added yarrow was a treat.  If you want to try some hand harvested, quality hydrosols check out their offerings at PineNut.com/shop.  They are out of a lot of stock for the season, so put your name on their list for this coming spring/summer’s harvest - I will.  Creating new bedding sprays for pets or facial tonics with these certified organic hydrosols will be an inspiration.  Thank you Penny!!!!

Also, this busy Ozark herbalist is quite the Pine Nut expert.  If you are looking for certified organic nuts such as hickory and pine nuts, you’ll find lots of information on Penny’s site at PineNuts.com

No Comments yet »

Believe it or not, but spring is just around the corner and people are calling about our plantings and vegetables.  There’s still snow on the ground, but gardening catalogs are arriving in the mail and it’s time to find new heirloom varieties for this year.  One of the places I find some of my seeds is through Local Harvest’s Seed listing.

If you aren’t into growing so much yourself, you can find farmers in your area by going to LocalHarvest.org main site.  It’s a directory and on-line shop for your local area family farms.  You’ll find naturally grown and certified organic produce, meats and more.  In fact, I have Botanical Earth products listed there too.  You can check by zip code or state to find someone close, or browse their on-line listings for farms across the country.

They just put on-line a Valentine Gift suggestion list and catagories like Sweet Treats, Little Luxuries and Something Cozy, you’ll find something for that someone special or yourself.

No Comments yet »

It’s always nice to find out that someone, unsolicited, likes our products and thinks we’re working in the right direction.  Customers will sometimes email me and tell me they found us through a friend or on a listing for eco-sites - that’s great and I always appreciate it.  But for the last year or so, I have had people mention they found us listed in a book.  I always ask, and the answer was “Oh it’s a book on green living”.  I’ve never paid to be listed on anything like that, nor hunted every down every book on green living - there’s way too many to search- so I just let the mystery go and not wondered. Then…

One of my New Year traditions is to order books.  I always order my Moon Sign book for planting dates and one book on something to learn more about.  I had heard of good things about E/The Environmental Magazine’s Green Living - a handbook reference guide so I ordered it.  Imagine my shock as  I read their body care section on finding companies that use non-paraben, non-phlatate ingredients and saw Botanical Earth listed!!  We are right there in mix with the likes of Dr. Bronner and Burts Bees - our little business.  Is that great or what?

The book is filled with ideas on reducing, reusing and recycling, along with listings for non-profit, governmental and environmental agencies to help find out what’s in your area.  I found out about different options in investing and some valuable sources on land management.  It’s a wonderful reference book for anyone starting out wanting to learn how to have a lighter footprint on the earth’s resources, or those just wanting to learn more. Green Living is written by the different editors of E/The Environmental Magazine so you have people with detailed knowledge of each subject writing - not just one person thinking they have the answers.  You can buy the book directly from E/The Environmental Magazine.

No Comments yet »

“What’s your favorite soap?” is a question I am asked quite a bit.  It’s simple, really simple….the Calendula Herb Unscented Soap.  Fragrance-free, bright cheerful color and large bubbles - it’s my favorite everyday facial soap.  Being around essential oils and herbs all day long, it’s nice not to smell anything first thing in the morning. 

The Calendula soap is the first one of Botanical Earth’s soaps to undergo the change in formula to eliminate palm oil.  Palm oil is a highly popular soap making oil for hand made soap.  It’s a realitively inexpensive oil, and many soap making books consider it a filler oil….I don’t view it as that.  Palm oil has a great syngergy with other oils and creates a wonderful hard soap. 

The problem I have found in my search of knowing our ingredient sources, is that I can not find a verifiable source of palm that does not damage rainforest land in either South America or Asia.  It’s the palm oil controversy.  As the saying goes “all actions create a reaction” so while organic palm oils is great to use in handmade soap, damaging Malaysian and Indoenesia rainforests to plant organic/or non-organic palm trees in order to jump on the organic band wagon, isn’t what I want to use.  There’s been a campaign going on for a while to stop the destruction, and when I asked my suppliers all said, yes, we care and don’t buy from sources that are in that region….but none of the suppliers that I could afford to buy from would put it in writing….so if you aren’t willing to do that, do they really know?  Or are they just talking the talk?

Some of the worlds top Orang-utan researchers have complied a report, The Oil for Ape Scandal, on the effect of palm oil plantations have caused. Quite a bit of the debris from these plantations is tossed in rivers, While one would think it’s “organic” and would be fine trash, it breaks down and throws off the natural eco-systems of very fragile native lands. 

Now there’s two sides to every story and I understand these plantations offer local people jobs and that is vitally important in developing countries.  Here’s an article (in pdf) on the American Palm Oil site from one Mayalasian doctor’s view on people and palm.  There’s also a section on their site about sustainablity which is good to read.  I also realize my stopping the use of palm until I can find a reliable source isn’t going to change much…but it makes me feel I am keeping to Botanical Earth’s policy of “simply be”.  When I can find a source that respects people, animals and land - I’ll use them - I love working with palm oil, I just need to find better verifiable sources. 

For those that wonder, because soy bean oil is another one that is reputed to harm Asian land - we source our organic soy bean oil from beans grown here in the United States.   

No Comments yet »

Everyone has probably seen the FDA notice about bagged spinach possibly having e.coli, and you’ve probably seen it removed from your local market.  Updated Info on 9/18 - find out more on the recall at http://www.vegetablegrowersnews.com/pages/news.php?ns=210 )

People were all over that notice, but today I received my bi-weekly newsletter from the Organic Consumers Association….

Did you know the US rice supply could to be contaminated with an illegal, gentically altered rice seed?  Japan has banned US rice imports and the countries of the EU are finding US imports contaminated. These are things that you don’t hear about on the regular evening news broadcast.  If you are interested in the subject, you can read the full article here at the Organic Consumers site.

If you want to read the Organic-bytes issue from Sept. 15th and see what you think, go to http://www.organicconsumers.org/2006/article_2399.cfm

Sometimes you just want to ask the people in charge “what are you thinking…..”   UGH.

No Comments yet »

No Comments yet »

I try to use the minimum of ingredients with all of our products - I’m not big on lotions because they need binders like waxes or synthetic preservatives because of the water in lotions. Now I will state I am a FIRM believer in properly preserved, safe products and believe that synthetic preservatives are the only way to go for water based products. No one wants to end up with an eye infection or rash because of a natural occurring mold or fungus in your body cream. Improperly preserved creams can be a moist environment in which mold and fungus may thrive though you may very well not be able to see them.   

There are lots of options today in the use of preservatives, not just one or two. One of the least expensive synthetic preservative blends is made up of parabens (methyl, ethyl, propyl and butylparabens). There is on-going research being done, in both the USA and Europe, that shows possible negative side effects from long term use of parabens. Parabens are in quite a few items, not just a leave-on lotion. They are used help preserve medicines, toothpaste and foods. And depending on what research you read, the results can vary on what scientists think. I just figure, if I can make a safely preserved water base product without parabens, then that is one less place for contact with them. What if they are right about a link to breast cancer? People use to think spraying DDT on your counter tops was ok to stop bugs in 1949.

Botanical Earth signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics a while ago - I wish the list would increase and more companies sign on. It’s really not hard to reformulate products to make parabens and phthalates less of a concern, it just takes an effort. Hopefully more people will read the research and make a decision for themselves as to what is best for them. Besides the effect on people, what happens to the environment when all these things are dumped down the drain?

I know there is interest in the subject of Safe Cosmetics! I was interviewed a few days ago by a local CBS affiliate station, KMOV Channel 4′s Health reporter, Lisa Manzo. She asked some great questions of me as a manufacturer and also interviewed a local doctor to get different views - funny I think both the doctor and I felt the same way - if you can do without parabens and phthalates why use them.

Phthalates are found in PVC piping, which is one of the reasons I will not use PVC molds for our soaps. They are in SOME fragrance oils. Fragrance oils are compounds made up of both natural and synthetic ingredients to produce most scents. If you like the smell of cucumber, bubble gum, or your favorite commercial perfume - chances are it’s a synthetic fragrance. While synthetic fragrances are not terrible, some of them are made with phthalates. Scents like musk tend to contain phlatates - therefore I won’t use them. All of the fragrance oils from the suppliers I use for our sister stores (remember Botanical Earth do not contain any synthetic fragrances), are documented as phthalate free. It’s not easy getting the documentation, but worth the effort. Most fragrance houses will not give their ingredients as it is a trade secret, but I believe they should state whether their fragrances are phthalate free or not.

Check out some of these sites to read what others say:

Think Before You Pink - Breast Cancer Concerns

Organic Consumers - Concerns regarding children

No Comments yet »

No Comments yet »