October Wrap-Up

It's time for our October wrap-up. And once again, it's been a busy month at Really Natural. The FDA lifted its ban on fresh spinach. And we spent our time thinking about the really important stuff - namely, shoes, pumpkin pancakes, and hemp underpants. (Lindsay Lohan may not be wearing them, but quite frankly, we think she should be.)

We had reviews of Crispy Fruit, Tazo Chai, The Ginger People's Ginger Soother, and Uncle Sam cereal, and shared our recipes for a Hot-Toddy-To-Cure-What-Ails-You (do not operate heavy machinery after polishing off a batch of these ones) and Bee Pollen Popcorn.

If you're grinding bee pollen to make the popcorn, look into our solutions for grinding flax seeds. If you'd rather mash up something bigger (say, your recyclables), check out the Eco-pod. And if recycling is really what you're into, check out Tree-cycle recycled seatbelt bags from Harvey's Boutique, Ecoist's movie poster bags, some funky new uses for your old vinyl records, and Deborah Lindquist's recycled cashmere dog sweaters. Not to mention her bustiers.

Yep, it all comes back to underwear. Keep it clean with Planet Delicate laundry wash. Or better yet, don't even get out of bed. And to feather your nest, check out Nest, a new nonprofit micro-loan fund that supports women entrepreneurs around the world by selling crafts and designs by women artists and designers.

What else was on our brains this month? Babies. Alexis and Todd gave birth to baby Stavros, inspiring us to wax euphoric about organic cotton baby toys. Laura launched Super Cool Baby, and sent us a note about organic cotton onesies. And since baby's bigger sib needs something cool as well, we recommended a visit to JoMamaCo, a mom-run Southern CA outfit selling hipster toddler t-shirts. Finally, just under the wire for October, out came baby Ewan, which made us wax nostalgic for Obi Wan Cannoli and the cast of Store Wars.

Weekend reading, anyone? We're reading The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and may never be the same. Equally life changing (but in different ways) was Tracy Kidder's Mountains Beyond MountainsThe Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer. Also on our list: Grub: Ideas for an Urban Kitchen, and yep, we admit it, The Sonoma Diet, which, among other things, encourages lean protein (see our article on "Which Fish is Safe") and a healthy amount of red wine. (May we recommend a bottle of organic Civatella Rosso?)

Last but not least, we offered up tips for a healthy Halloween, from Whole Foods and Bodybuilding.com. (We're guessing this is the first time those two appeared in the same sentence.)

Yep. It's been a full month. Can't wait for November.

October 31, 2006

October Wrap-Up