Filed under: Home, Shopping Guide

Festive patterned reusable bag makes great wrapping! Photo: Envirosax

The countdown to Christmas is winding down. Now you have a mountain of vegan chocolate, WWF t-shirts and a Soda Stream sitting on your dining room table, waiting to be wrapped.

Don’t blow your eco-friendly gift status now!

With a little creativity, you can make your gift even more special, and green. Try one of these wrapping ideas:

• The Gift in the Gift — tie a festive holiday dish towel (made from organic cotton, of course!) or a pretty scarf around a smaller box or item, or place some homemade goodies in a tin they can use all year!
• Bag it — anyone who’s been using her recycled shopping bag all year is probably due for a replacement. I’m hoping to see one of the stylish Envirosax prints under the tree this year. For a less flashy, even more eco-friendly choice, go for the recycled cotton Enviro-tote from EcoTech.
• Classic Paper Updated — gift bags are popular for a reason. Just as beautiful and twice as easy to use as traditional paper, you can pick from a huge selection of 100% recycled craft paper gift bags or handmade Lotka paper plantable bags that are embedded with wildflower seeds. Added bonus, you might even get the bag back next year!

Almost anything can work as a wrapper — a pillow case, funnies from the Sunday paper, a leftover scrap of wallpaper — the only limit is your imagination.

Wrap and Go Green originally appeared on Green Daily on Thu, 24 Dec 2009 12:02:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Food, Health, Shopping Guide

A fun and organic basket to share! Photo: globalexchangestore.com

How’s that last-minute holiday gift list going?There’s still time to make a sustainable food-preferring person on your list happy this holiday season!

From food baskets to books or movies or even a live ewe, there are loads of creative and delicious choices that will surprise, delight and stimulate.

Consider something that will appeal to his or her intellect:

• Food Inc. — the documentary that shows the many reasons why it’s so important to know where your food is coming from.
  
• “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan — published in 2006, this book is a classic exploration of the food chain, looking at industrial food, organic and even self-foraged meals get to your plate.
• “Fast Food Nation” by Eric Schlosser — even though it came out in 2001, this is must read for anyone who has ever been tempted by the drive thru window. The movie of the same title is loosely based on the book, and similarly thought provoking.

There are several green gift basket choices for that natural-eating loved one who is far away, or if you want to send an eco-friendly message with your business holiday gifts:

• The Fresh and Natural organic package from It’s Only Natural Gifts. For $49 you get a selection of gluten-free and vegan treats like Food Should Taste Good lime tortilla chips, Salpica natural peach mango salsa and Two Moms in the Raw snacking granola — all packaged up in a cute organic cotton canvas tote.
• Global Exchange Fair Trade online store offers a beautiful Office Gang Gift Basket, for $98. In a natural hand-woven kaisa grass basket from Bangladesh, you’ll send organic coffee, chocolate and nuts — perfect for sharing! And all of the packaging is 100% biodegradable and recycled — even the cellophane that wraps the baskets is bio-degradable!
• Diamond Organics offers a Sampler of the Month Program that delivers their most popular organic samplers on the first Friday of each month. You can choose from three to 12 months of samplers, at a range of $82-72 per month. The contents are a step beyond your usual “box of veggies.” The May Macrobiotic Sampler includes burdock root, daikon radish, fresh ginger, a selection of fresh-cut cooking greens such as collards, red russian kale, baby bok choi, and more. The December Organic Dried Fruit and Nut Sampler includes delicious dried fruits like bing cherries, black figs, medjool dates, and persimmons.

And if you want to combine the gift of supporting sustainable food sourcing and organic food, consider sponsoring shares of livestock on an organic farm. For example, for $500 you can “adopt a ewe” on Monkeyflower Ranch, home of the Garden Variety Cheese business.

Your adoption fee supports the care and feeding of the ewe during the dry season (dairy sheep only produce milk for six months out of every year, and spend the dry season pregnant, fattening up for the milking season.) In return, you or your happy foodie gift recipient, receives $600 worth of farm products, like cheese and yogurt.

Green Foodie Gifts originally appeared on Green Daily on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:02:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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