All-natural, biodegradable beauty products from Rocky Mountain Soap Company!

Women of Victoria raise your make-up brushes! I am so impressed by how many women are searching for more natural options to cosmetics and bath products. After learning that my favorite go-to drug store cosmetic line includes mercury (horrors!) in their mascara, I too, am on the hunt for better, greener, more natural products.

Rocky Mountain Soap Company has an amazing selection of bath and body products from foot butter to a complete skin care line. Their company is based in Canmore, AB and is a completely Canadian company. Their products are all handmade and natural and, as such, contain no parabens, pthalates, petrochemicals or sulfates. Rocky Mountain Soap Factory provided free lemon grass hand soap for use at the festival. The lemon grass hand and body wash (called “Alpine Air”) has a very fresh, clean scent, perfect for both men and women. (Mayfair Mall also uses this line of soap for their public washrooms, so next time you are there, head to the loo and try it out!). The friendly staff at the booth let me try out some of their fabulous Foot Butter which is their number one seller this summer. If you have dry heels, I definitely suggest picking some up! You can find Rocky Mountain Soap Company in Mayfair Mall, or at the Sidney Market on Thursday nights if you like your shopping to be outdoors.

Nezza Naturals also has a great selection of personal, household and cosmetic products. The hottest seller at the festival was their all-natural sunscreen. I tried a quick sample and am definitely going to head to the store (#101-3 Fan Tan Alley) to pick up a higher SPF (so popular they ran out – what a great sign!). All natural sunscreen is a great option as many people, especially children, are allergic to the chemicals in commercial lines.

An eco-friendly, all natural hand sanitzer from Nezza Naturals

All of Nezza Natural products are hand made locally on Galiano Island. And, becuase they are natural products you don’t have to worry about parabens or pthalates. I was really excited to see an all natural hand sanitizer, tea tree oil face wash and aluminum free deoderant. Also, for all you make-up lovers, Nezza Naturals carries a full line of cosmetics including eye-liner, mascara, eyeshadow and lipsticks in their store in China Town.

If you aren’t convinced your make-up is bad for you, check out Environmental Working’s Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database which rates your favorite brand on a hazard scale of ten – I was shocked to learn what my old products contained. Once you’re convinced your cosmetics need a green-haul, swing by Rocky Mountain Soap Factory and Nezza Naturals to stock up your new favorite bath, body and cosmetic products!

Ambrosio Markets & Deli - photo taken by Eric Leong

People often become excited once they learn some of the benefits of eating locally; however, all that dissipates when they start thinking about all the effort they would have to go through in order to fulfill their weekly grocery needs.  Cucumbers are no longer an aisle away from the dairy section.  In some cases, purveyors of local food find themselves driving from one farm to another, guzzling litres of gas only to pick up a couple of pounds of vegetables.  The thought of all this inconvenience may cause some to turn away from pursuing the idea of eating locally altogether, but I encountered one exhibitor at the Festival who rightfully has become the middleman between Island farmers and Victoria residents.  Ambrosia Markets & Deli is a distributor that helps deliver the produce of 45 island farmers to people looking for local produce.

I heard about Ambrosio’s name before I even had met them as I spoke to some of the local farmers at the Festival.  Several of them distribute to Ambrosio, which has a loyal following of foodies in Victoria for having one of the largest selections of local produce and all natural island meats.  Their popularity was evident when Jodi, one of the co-owners, told me that they developed a whopping list of 60 restaurants and caterers (including the Legislative

Beautiful local strawberries - photo taken by Eric Leong

Assembly), to distribute local produce, all within 4 months.  As a city dweller myself, I was excited to learn that they also had retail branches in Oak Bay Village, Cook Street Village, and James Bay Village.  Since I only have a bicycle, it would’ve been otherwise difficult and cumbersome to  travel to all the farms I needed to go to in order to fulfill my weekly diet.

I was more than happy to discover such an initiative here in Victoria. You can find out more about their contact and location information by checking out the Organic Islands Festival Exhibitor Directory.

So, what was all that banter about not eating locally because it’s inconvenient?

This beauty is one of the most user-friendly composters out there!

Going green isn’t as hard as it might seem. The idea of composting might seem daunting, but it can actually be just as easy as throwing something in the trash. If you are itching to get started but feel like you don’t have a lot of time or money to invest in composting – have no fear! The Greater Victoria Composting Education Center provides a you a ton of information so you don’t have to do a bunch of research and offers resources at very affordable prices.

Just throw your organic waste into The Green Cone Digester (which you plant in your garden) and let nature do everything else. The lower black basket allows worms from your garden to enter the compost and break down the organic waste into a mulchy, nutrient rich substance that naturally disperses into the rest of your garden or yard. This is pretty much the most user friendly compost you could ever find! You don’t even have to worry about balancing out the nitrogen and carbon based elements like in other compost systems.

The center of course offers many other types of composting (from Vermi Composting to the Earth Machine) for anyone who is advanced or has more time to learn the ropes. The center also offers a variety of community classes for children and adults about composting.

What if you live in an apartment? If you are like me and the idea of Vermi Composting makes you cringe, Pedal to Petal is the perfect solution. This local grass-roots organization provides you with a 5 gallon clean plastic ice-cream bucket for you to throw your household organic waste. Once your bucket is full, they will pick it up by bicycle and leave you a clean one for a small $5 fee. Your organic waste is taken to their big compost bins and eventually given to local veggie growers as nutrient rich soil.

No need to worry, the bucket doesn’t smell as long as you line it with paper, and you can leave it in your kitchen! An average household of two adults will only need their bucket emptied about once a month (give or take) and, of course, Pedal to Petal will come as frequently as once a week if you like. My household waste has literally been reduced by half since I started using this service!

The best thing about composting is that it does drastically reduce the amount of garbage going into our landfills (by about 30% as per a recent CRD study). Composting directly improves the quality of our soil which impacts plant health and water conservation. If you are on the fence about composting, hop off and grab yourself an easy starter like the Green Cone Digester or a bucket from Pedal to Petal. Composting the easy way makes a huge impact, and you don’t even need to get your hands dirty (unless you want to).

Small Feet Inc.

The Organic Islands Festival is aiming for carbon neutrality – And you can help! Tell us what kind of changes would help you get to the festival in future years – is it a shuttle bus, a carpooling system, cycling maps, or other?

Small Feet Inc., a small company that helps other companies reduce their environmental footprint, is helping the Organic Islands Festival become carbon neutral. They were founded by three Royal Roads graduates in a combination of environmental science and business disciplines and have been operating for two and a half years. You can give us your input right here on the blog or stop by their booth on your way out of the festival.

SunTrio tomatoes - photo taken by Eric Leong

I feel extremely fortunate that there’s many local farmers here at the Organic Islands Festival, as I’m learning so much about the food that our Island has to offer.  The fact that our island can grow anything from Dragon Fingers (Thai peppers) to French galisse lettuce immediately eliminates the notion that a local Canadian diet can only be as plain as, well, potatoes.  Aside from all of this, though, I’m also getting to know the growing seasons of the food on our plate, which is something that not many are aware of (read: city dwellers) since we live in an era where it’s possible to buy broccoli and tomatoes from supermarkets even in the dead of winter.

I got to know a bit more about tomatoes when I visited the exhibit of SunTrio Farm, who’s a member of the Islands Organic Producers Association (IOPA).  The growing season for tomatoes on the Island is between mid-July to the end of August.  So what about those tomatoes that you can buy in March or May?  Well, they’re probably from California, or maybe Mexico.  With the typical  supermarket perpetuating the idea that we can consume nearly any type of food all year round, we start to lose touch with what’s the real availability of food, especially those that are also grown locally.

So if you want to stay committed to local eating, does that mean you’re only limited to consuming tomatoes for a mere 2 1/2 months of the year?  Not really.  After talking to SunTrio Farm, I found out that their tomatoes have an extended growing season from April to November.  Their tomatoes are grown in a special greenhouse which allows them to flourish for several months beyond the typical growing season.

Clearly, Island farms like SunTrio are developing innovative methods to deliver  produce locally due to an ever-increasing consumer demand for local food sources.  While it’s great that farmers like SunTrio are working hard to ensure that we can get our local tomato fix during months like October, getting to know these local farmers is also helpful to get yourself acquainted with the diverse food options readily available here on the Island and, perhaps more importantly, the actual growing season of the food on our plate.  You can find a list of these local farms, including SunTrio, on the Organic Islands Exhibitor Directory.

Sea Cider products - photo taken by Eric Leong

My next local food adventure brought me to Sea Cider Farm & Ciderhouse, who came to Organic Islands from Saanichton.  They specialize in producing apple ciders, and all their ingredients are sourced locally.  One really neat thing about them is that one of their main sources of apples comes from Life Cycles, a Victoria-based organization dedicated to developing the local food economy and cultivating communities of food, health, and sustainability.  What’s even neater is that a portion of their proceeds from selling the Kings & Spies Cider is donated to Life Cycles.  It’s great to see how groups committed to local food are working together as a sustainable community.

I soon found myself talking to one of the staff, who brought up the point that she was using their apple cider vinegar as a health tonic for some digestive problems.  I found this quite intriguing, since I’ve never heard of cider vinegar being used this way.  Well, turns out you can’t do this with simply any type of cider, as only organic ciders that

Sea Cider Vinegar and other products - photo taken by Eric Leong

‘contain the mother’ are effective.  Luckily, their ciders are exactly that, and can definitely be used for digestive and inflammation problems.

Sea Cider Farm & Ciderhouse will be here at the Organic Islands Festival until the end of today.  If you can’t make it, then perhaps think about going on a tasting tour at their location in Saanichton for a short day trip.  They’re located right by Lochside Trail, so if you want to try local organic ciders while helping to shape the change in transportation, here’s your chance.

The Green Building and Development panel

The Green Building and Development Forum heated up this morning, with Gord Baird, JC Scott, Doug Makaroff, John Gower, and Elke Cole, as panelists. Each of these speakers brought a unique perspective to the green building debate but all of them universally emphasized one thing: make your house a home – not an investment. Make your house beautiful. Love it and it will last for a long time.

JC Scott explained 100 mile design and using local products. He asked the audience to consider if building materials are made from renewable resources, if they are extracted responsibly, if they can be recycled or are recycled and if they are energy efficient. Gord Bard followed with a personal experience of building an eco-home, explaining that a house should be in harmony with its surroundings, and resources should flow between the house and the local ecosystem. Elke Cole and John Gower both explain that natural building is about conscious decision making and that sustainable design will involve new measures of what it means to be happy. Doug Makaroff spoke of building with forests, rather than building over them.

Lastly, the panel advocated that green building isn’t necessarily about cob, earthen homes, or even solar panels and wind power – it’s about making a difference with what you have.

After the Sustainable Transportation Forum, I thought I might look into some of the alternative forms of transportation parked right here at the festival. I set out to investigate Dr.Bjorn’s car, run almost completely on vegetable oil, and the CHFCA’s  fuel cell car, parked just outside the entrance. Both, as it turns out, can be fueled by waste.

Dr.Bjorn's Auto, showing a car that has been converted to run on vegetable oil

Dr. Bjorn showed me that a diesel engine can easily be altered (or in some cases, does not need to be altered) to be fueled by vegetable oil. The best part of this is that the car can be run on waste oil from restaurants after a simple straining procedure. This is not the same as biodiesel – the oil does not go through a chemical conversion process as it would for diesel. A vehicle that is run on vegetable oil rather than diesel can reduce particulate matter emissions by 30 – 50 % and these cars are simultaneously 30 – 40 % more efficient than a gasoline engine.

A few minutes later, I had the chance to jump in the back of the fuel cell car as a back seat driver in a test run. The fuel cell car can be fueled on hydrogen that is the byproduct of other chemical processes; Canada produces over 200 000 tonnes of this waste hydrogen per year. Alternatively, the hydrogen can be produced from a number of renewable energy sources including solar, hydro, wind, wave, or geothermal. Hydrogen is carbon-free and non-toxic; a fuel cell car emits only water and heat. The particular model at the festival can get roughly 300 km for a tank filled to 5000 psi.

I asked the test driver what he thought of the car. He answered, “Feels great to drive! Reminds me of driving a hybrid.” The car nearly seemed to float on air with only a gentle refrigerator-like hum.

Both Dr.Bjorn’s Auto and the Fuel Cell Association of Canada are available for questions at the Organic Islands Festival or you can visit their websites below:

http://www.drbjornsauto.com/

http://www.poweringnow.ca/