Tag Archive for 'Whole Foods'

With what shall I wrap all these gifts?

niki published on December 22, 2008 in build. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , .

Good Morning!

We all know how wasteful wrapping presents CAN be. I always tend to go for the obvious newspaper or paper bags to wrap gifts, but there are more creative ways to make a gift fun to open. (I mean, is that the purpose of wrapping paper? Just so you have a few minutes to be curious about what is inside? Silly, but necessary, I guess.)
What I have been doing this year is making little drawstring bags out of excess fabric and putting the gift inside, which can then be used as a purse for little girls. I have been making a lot of gifts for kids so the little purses will definitely be reused. (I wish I took pictures to post, but I keep forgetting to and I already gave them away!)
The above video is via Whole Foods Market who advocates reusing their store bags as gift bags since they are made of 80% post-consumer recycled PET bottles. They are now being sold in small gift sizes.
Then, on Inhabitat today, I noticed that they posted about a company in the U.K. called Represent that started a project called Future Present:
“Every year in the UK we use more than 8,000 tonnes of wrapping paper for our Christmas presents, equivalent to 50,000 trees. And sticky tape, being non-biodegradable, prevents us from reusing those mountains of wrapping paper.”
They put together 20 great ways to wrap gifts from various designers, without using conventional wrapping paper.
Here are a few:


I really love the scarf idea and the hot/cold bags. Any other ingenious ideas you want to share?
Happy Gift Giving!
Niki

Organic vs. Local Food Debate

niki published on June 9, 2008 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

Good Morning!

I have had this topic stirring in my mind for weeks now, trying to figure out my stance and how to communicate this debate. I had no idea how hot of a topic this is in the food community. This topic came up because I buy a lot of fruits and vegetables at a farmers market upstate, which is not an organic farm and since I have a baby, I want to be aware of what I am giving him.
I have now done a decent amount of research and I still don’t know what to write. I found this great article in Time Magazine, that I have read over 3 times.

The writer clearly outlines all the issues.

If you have this same decision making crisis between “conventional” and “organic” when you are at Whole Foods this week, I recommend reading this article.
To sum it up, he discusses not only the environmental impact of transporting organic foods from far away countries, but the impact it has on the taste of the foods, which to John Mackey (the CEO of Whole Foods) is the deciding factor in this debate. I totally get that and of course, in the North East, if you only ate organic local foods, your choice of vegetables would be very limited, since it is nearly impossible to grow organically when it is 10 degrees outside.
Of course, it is so important to support our local farmers. This is undebatable.
But, is it better to give a one year old baby an apple that has been grown using chemical pesticides or fertilizers, but tastes better because it hasn’t been refrigerated?
For me, I thought it was interesting to note that there have been several studies that suggest that some types of organic foods contain more vitamins than the conventionally grown foods. But this fact is also debated and local purists say that the fresher it is, the more nutritionally complete it is. Is that the answer then? Is that the most important factor?
Ok. Maybe I’m obsessing, but does anyone else have an opinion? I wanted to open the discussion and I’m sure I will post about this in the future, as I formulate my opinions, but for now I thought I would encourage everyone to think about it, share your thoughts and read this article.
And just as a side note:
Stay Cool! (it is 98 degrees in NYC!)
Niki

Clean your dishes with these sponges!

niki published on April 22, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

What an odd thing to blog about, Sponges?? How boring. I know.

That is because, to me, all sponges are basically the same. Until now.

I just bought these at Whole Foods. I admit, I bought it because I liked the packaging. I am a bit of a sucker when it comes to well designed products and that does influence what I buy. It may be pathetic, but it’s the truth.

When I got home and started using it, I really liked it. Here’s why:

#1: It is white. Why do we always try to disguise the filth on a sponge? When it is black or green you can’t really see how dirty it really is and you are probably using it way past when you should be. Now, I can see more clearly when it is time to replace it.
#2: The loofah makes for a great scrub.
#3. The cellulose used in the sponge (which is tree fiber) is sourced from renewable tree farms. #4. 99.7% of all of the company’s waste is reused in their production.
#5. It is biodegradable.

Enough said.

If you are bored with your old sponges, go to your local natural market for these Twist sponges, or to buygreen.com.

Happy cleaning!

Niki