baby steps

maybe every now and then I can submit a change, just a little prod of gentle encouragement.
Let's talk soap. You probably use it. Bodies, dishes, hands, clothes, it's all over us.
If you look on the label of most any commercially available soap today, you'll see "Sodium Tallowate" listed as an ingredient. Sodium Tallowate is the byproduct of mixing lye with tallow or beef fat. (Technically, tallow is fat (beef or other) that has been rendered.)Yup...the #1 ingredient used in most soaps is beef fat.
Yikes! It's true. I just checked my stock of body bars. Now I'm smelling beef on me...
So here's my submission for you to consider. Try a soap made without animal by-products and while you're at it, made without animal testing. While your on a roll, go for organic and fair trade, too.
Here are my top pics (though there are literally thousands of good options out there):
Dr. Bronners Magic All In One Soap This stuff is the best. Offers organic and fair trade. The label is pretty heavy-handed with scripture, but magical it is. It comes in a liquid concentrate, so a big bottle lasts forever and costs about $8. I use it, diluted, in our hand soap bottle, to wash my baby, to wash delicate clothes, I have washed my car with it, the floor, everything. I give the unscented kind as baby shower gifts. Peppermint is yummy. It's even at Smith's grocery store (in the health foods section).
Kiss My Face for body/face. They use olive oil for their fat, have some good scents, and comes in a nice, big bar soap.
Ecover or Seventh Generation for all household needs: floor soap/cleaner, dishwasher, liquid dish soap, laundry detergent, etc. These brands are big enough that most all grocers carry them and they are good, eco-responsible companies and products.
p.s. Here is a great post on the 7-Gen blog

OR visit your local farmer's market and buy soap from a local soap maker. You can ask them what fat they use in their soap!

consider eating seasonally, while the getting is still good

Bare with me through this one.
The end of summer is near; I feel it on the air. Two emotions kick in for me: squirrel instincts and dread of winter. I begin to build my nest up for the cold: freezer jam, canning tomatoes, apple pie filling, grape juice, and, later, cleaning house and garden from front to back--it's autumn fever for me, not spring.
When the dread of five p.m. darkness lurks into my thoughts, I remind myself that we are not so distant from our bear cousins. Winter is a good time for turning the furniture toward the fireplace, baking that stored-up apple pie filling, and consuming all the seasons of Northern Exposure (or whatever your fix may be). It's also okay to lay around for four months and gain ten pounds, as long as I come out of my cave running next spring.
ANYWAY, I want to make a huge plug here for canning, freezing, drying, or whatever method you can use to take year-round advantage of home or nearby grown produce. (Check out the ever-helpful and resourceful Utah State Extension for instruction on how to can/dry/freeze/store any foods). Eating in season is one of the greatest dietary decisions we can make to lessen our carbon footprint on the earth. Living in Utah and eating in season can mean a hell-of-a-lot of winter squash, beans and potatoes unless you have:

• done a little (or a lot) of preparation in the fall, and/or,
  
• purchased the greatest cookbook for eating seasonally and really liking it--Simply In Season
  

It is available online (click the title) or at Ten Thousand Villages in Sugar House. Not only does it have the most sure-fire delicious recipes for all the seasonal foods, but it has the best (I'm not exaggerating) brownie recipe ever. The cookbook comes from the Mennonite Central Community.

"Through stories and simple “whole foods” recipes, Simply in Season...explores how the food we put on our tables impacts our local and global neighbors. It shows the importance of eating local, seasonal food — and fairly traded food — inviting readers to make choices that offer security and health for our communities, for the land, for body and spirit."