Our bodies need oils (and fats) for a variety of body functions. Unfortunately our industrialized food system add inferior oils and fats into the manufactured foods they provide and we end up consuming more oils and fats than we require and typically processed food contain some of the worse foods for our body – transfats for example.

The majority of the oils that we stock at Earth’s General Store are certified organic – except for a few exception (we cannot get certified organic versions of walnut oil and toasted sesame oil, and peanut oil).

So you have put lots of time and energy into your garden over the summer and had fresh produce for the past few months but it will soon start cooling down and the garden season will be at an end. What are you going to do with all that zucchini, kale, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, corn, etc?

So that you and your family can enjoy the fruits (and vegetables) of you labour you will need to preserve them. There are several ways to preserve them so they will keep until you need them – canning in jars, cold cellaring, freezing, and dehydration.

Earth’s General Store provides many tools to help people to preserve their harvest though I believe the best way is to have a friend or family member give you a hands on training session so that you learn all the little tricks. We offer the largest selection of food preserving books in Edmonton and possibly in Canada.

We also offer Excalibur Dehydrators at the same prices you will find on the internet (but your purchase from us would be supporting a local independent store right here in Edmonton rather than sending it out of the local economy).

In our society we like to smell clean and most people achieve this by bathing once a day. This tends to be a habit and a mindset rather than a necessity to achieve cleanliness. One of the ways that we can reduce our ecological footprint is to use less water. Water and sewage can account for 21 percent of GHG emissions in municipalities. The average Albertan uses about 330 L of water a day and about 30% of that usage is for showers and baths. Many countries in Europe use about half this amount and live and operate in much of the same western living lifestyle as we do in Edmonton.

Are we smellier than Europeans and have to shower more often – I don’t think so! I think it is mostly a habit – get out of bed, put on the coffee, go to the toilet, shower, shave, dress for work, eat breakfast, brush teeth, rush off to work – or some other mixture like that scenario. Of course if you have children the routine changes things quite a bit. 

Well another first. Several months ago Earth’s General Store started to offer a limited variety of essential oils in bulk. I figured this would reduce the price for people AND eliminate all those pretty but small bottles – like 7.4mL, 10mL and 15mL.

I was right about the price savings. Though the price on our decanting bottles looks kind of scary ($399.00 per kilogram for certified organic Lavender essential oil) when it is put into a 10mL bottle the price works out to about $4.00. Elsewhere in the store we offer organic essentials oils in small bottles from a couple of suppliers. To give you an idea about the saving that you would make if you refilled your own bottle a bottle of one of our brands of bottled lavender would cost you $12.45 for 7.4mL. Most people feel this is a good price. This works out to over $1,680 per kilogram. So if you refilled this same bottle when it became empty you would be charged about $2.95.

Do you want to save 75% on your purchase?

WOW – 20 years have gone by already. I did not know when I opened the store on September 3rd, 1991 whether it would work – having an environmental store in Edmonton. People told me that Edmonton was too conservative, too red-necked, not interested in issues, etc and that the store would not survive.

Well here we are 20 years later and not only are we still here but we have expanded, have more people supporting what we do, and contributing to our collective community. We are part of many people’s sustainable lifestyle. We are where many people come first for products and information when they want healthier, more sustainable, more fair, and honest choices.

On September 3rd, 2011 we will be having a small sale of products to mark the occasion and I hope to find the time and energy to coordinate some kind of party to mark this remarkable event. 20 years is quite something. I am unsure whether I thought that I would make it this long – I just did it (with the help of many supportive people – customers, staff, financial donors, friends, family and the media)

Many people ask me at the store about Miso. Though I have only been using miso for about 15 years I am certainly not an expert on it. I sometimes use it in stews, soups, pasta sauce (I use a Gado-Gado peanut butter concoction), rice bowls, and sometimes in stir fries.

When the store evolved to include food I of course added miso as one of the products in the limited cooler space. I consider miso a healthy food product. Miso is a fermented product and is recognized as a healthy product for our bodies since it introduces flora to our lower intestinal tract.

Miso is based on fermented soybeans but then other grains are added and this develops more complex flavours. This fermentation is due to the introduction of a starter culture called koji.

There are several misos but they are considered either sweet or dark.

Sweet miso is lighter in colour and milder in flavour. It has been aged for a lesser period of time (the longer a miso is aged the stronger the flavour becomes).

Dark miso is aged more than 2 years.  It is higher in protein, stronger in flavour, and has a higher salt content.

A word of caution is needed in reference to miso and it’s salt content. It can be high! The darker misos have higher salt content than the sweeter misos.

Years ago the consumer was faced with the dilemma at the checkout counter with the decision – paper or plastic?

Each one had its advantages and disadvantages.

Plastic bags use a very small amount of petroleum to be created, can be used several times, and the end product takes up a very small space in the landfill. When people recycle the plastic bag the city is faced trying to find a customer to purchase all this waste material – there is not a high demand for this recycled material and usually at a very poor price.

Paper Bags made from renewable resource and can be recycled with paper products. When they go into the landfill they breakdown and will form methane (a Greenhouse gas that has about 23 times the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide).

Plastic bags can be used many times before they are too weak or damaged but like paper bags are rarely used more than once.

Biodegradable or compostable bags are options and work quite well in some situations. Compostable bags are made from plant based materials that bacteria can access and break down the bag – entirely into compost. Compostable bags Biodegradable bags 

Results of July 2011 Green Acts Reward programme:

Boyle Street Coop-- www.boylestreet.org: $

• Yellow Tokens (for reusing bags) @ 2 cents each – 501 tokens
• Red Tokens (for refilling containers) @ 5 cents each – 260 tokens
• Green Tokens (for green commuting to or from the store) @ 10 cents each – 178 tokens

Waldorf Independent School of Edmonton - www.wese.ca: $