Organic and Safer for better health

Our family tries to live as healthy as possible. We have a little 8 acre hobby farm with lots of rescue animals, and a large vegetable garden in which we grow a lot of fresh vegetables for the people and animals in our family.

We also support local farms which grow organically to get some of the varieties of vegetables that either we did not grow enough of, or didn’t grow that season. We like to get the freshest possible by growing our own and supporting the local organic growers, when available. One local grower near us is Kalas Family Farm. They are at several different farmer’s markets in our area, and are wonderful! I will be sharing more about them next growing season, and also sharing some great sources for heritage seeds and plants, as well as organic gardening tips.

Living in Southern Ontario makes growing year round challenging, but we do extend the season with greenhouse covers for our 8’x3′ open growing boxes. And in off-season, more organic produce is becoming available in grocery stores and as the demand increases, more continues to be available at better prices. I have seen a number of times when organic or organically grown produce is the same price as the stuff with harmful chemicals sprayed on it!

And do you realize how bad products found in most people’s homes can be? An independent lung damage study was done several years ago that determined that using common household products like these are as bad for causing cancer as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day! This affects not only the people in our family, but our pets too!

About ten of the big businesses like PepsiCo, Johnson & Johnson, Proctor & Gamble, Unilever, Coca-cola, Nestle, etc. control almost everything you buy in the grocery store! Unfortunately they care much more about profits than the health of consumers or our environment. You may see some greenwashing articles about them supposedly spending money to help the environment, but just looking at some of the facts such as PepsiCo & Coca Cola pesticide and pollution issues in India and the recent lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson that won, because they knew their baby powder contained contained asbestos for 30 years, and did nothing.

This is why we choose products that are better for our health, our environment and actually save us money! You would think that higher quality products that are safer for us and the environment would cost more, but we found products that save time and money and aren’t supporting the businesses that are polluting our environment and negatively impacting people and animals’ health and well-being. In the past we tried using natural ingredients like baking soda, vinegar and other DIY solutions for cleaning and personal care, but found they just didn’t work as well, and many were more time consuming to make.

As an artist, I get paint on just about every item of clothing I own! I couldn’t believe when I got paint out of one of my sweaters that have been through the washer and dryer multiple times before with the old laundry products, and our clothing lasts longer now, saving even more money. So finding safer, healthier products and food is not only possible, better for your family, animals and the environment, but it can save you money too!