The Winter Blues Begin

Winter is by far my all time favourite season.  Why?  Because I love the severity of it.  Survival during the harshest of seasons.  Large bundles or cords of wood for the stove, canned and preserved food stocked up, and lots of warm clothes.

I love how Earth goes to sleep for a few months into hibernation.  I also love autumn and watching animals stocking up themselves and preparing for the long cold winter ahead.

One of the most beautiful sights to me is a fresh layer of snow on the trees, hanging off the evergreens and covering up the muck in town.  Sand, salt, dog poop (I had to say it!) and litter.  We have some EnviroMelt here at the Green-Up Store if you're interested.

This is my second winter in the city and I just pine for a nice falling of snow as often as possible.  I want it to cover up the waste that people throw to the ground, and the waste that owners don't pick up after their pets.  I can say that I have mixed feelings for spring.  I love it when I'm out in the country, but I dislike it when I'm in the city and the melt bears it all!

Complaints of the cold weather and snow have started and it isn't even the first day of Winter Solstice yet.

If you get the winter blues, I encourage you to get outside and do some winter activities that aren't shovelling the driveway, or being miserable in the cold.  Dress warmly and get a pair of skis, snowshoes, or a good pair of winter boots.  Go for a nice walk on one of the many nice trails in Peterborough.

Get out of town and go for a walk.  Look at all of the wildlife action happening.  My favourite place to walk during the winter is at the Petroglyphs Provincial Park just North of Stoney Lake.  I love looking at the deer and wolf tracks and all other animal tracks, listening to the birds singing, and loving the warm low winter sun.

Greenwashing

Have you seen the new Wendy's commercial?!

"Natural cut russet potatoes with sea salt".  Give me a break!  "Natural cut", what the heck does that even MEAN?!


Good for you Wendy's, you're cutting your potatoes in a factory with the skin on, rather than having them peeled in a factory.  I guess that means "natural cut".

I can't even find a video on the internet to show you, but I will post it when I do.

Beware of buzz words.  They are all over the place.  Some are quite obvious, others aren't. 

Rather than going into great detail, I am going to post an article that our communications coordinator Matt Higgs recently wrote for the Peterborough Examiner.

Shoppers Should Beware of 'Greenwashing' of Products by Matt Higgs

Have you seen Wendy's new commercial?  What do you think?  Have you spotted any greenwashing that we should know about?

100 + Locals Attend Our 1st Anniversary Event!

Hey, what a great success!

As I mentioned earlier we were having an Anniversary Event on Saturday November 27th to celebrate the opening of Peterborough Green-Up's storefront on December 1st 2009.

We had a number items on sale in our store, our local producers visiting the store to chat with our customers about their products, Kyoto Coffee set up a cafe in our store and offered free coffee throughout the day (Peterborough Green-Up's special blend 'Alternative Bio Fuel' of course), treats from Stickling's Bakery, and a reception for our new executive director Axel Tscherniak to boot!

We also had a sale on our new featured product; Swish's 'Clean & Green' cleaning products.

The reaction from the public was wonderful as they referred to our store as similar to Grassroots in Toronto.

The Peterborough Examiner newspaper wrote a really great article about the event.  You can find it here: 'Moving Foward, Staying Green' By Dale Clifford , Examiner Staff Writer

Thank you to everyone who came out for the event!

Supporting LOCAL

I personally have been thinking about Christmas (or giftmas, however you want to look at it) since the end of September!  I love the holiday, I love winter and I love my friends and family's company.

Each year I try a little harder to source my gifts LOCALLY or as close to home as possible.  I even knit one blanket each year to give as a gift.

My partner really out did himself when 90% of my gifts from him were purchased in our hometown, made by him, or purchased really close to home.  I had all kinds of yummy preserves including honey, maple syrup (both sourced from Tall Tree Farm in Havelock), he made me a cutting board, wooden salad utensils, an amazing wooden serving platter with a brie baker (LOCAL goat's milk brie of course), a Wood Duck box, a canoe paddle and more.  You're probably starting think that I was spoiled last Christmas and I can honestly say that I was!

Not everyone has the ability to have a wood shop accessible, but the ideas were fantastic.  The gifts were all things that I can use.  The Wood Duck box was especially thoughtful because we put it up together and every winter when the creek freezes we can check to see if it was occupied and put fresh wood shavings in there.

Sometimes you just have to look a little harder or ask around to source things LOCALLY.  It makes you feel good distributing your money into our LOCAL economy and most of the time you get a conversation at the register.

Here's the part where I try to wheel you into our store.

We have just received LOCAL earthenware pottery made from a woman North of Port Hope, and dried flower/herb wreaths and potters made from a woman here in Peterborough.  They are so gorgeous, believe me!  We have LOCAL jewelry and other bits and bobs.

There are some neat and thoughtful gift ideas here.  For our one year anniversary event (on Saturday November 27th 10-4pm), we're showcasing a cleaning 'kit' from Swish that includes spray bottles of all purpose cleaner, glass & surface cleaner, bathroom/kitchen sanitizer, dish detergent, wood & laminate floor cleaner and cream cleanser . There's such a buzz about them in our store/office that I think staff have already called "dibs" on a lot of them, because they are great gifts and sourced in Peterborough to boot!  Make sure to get yours on the 27th because they will be on sale.

You should really come and check us out.  Surely you will find something to take home with you if it's our wares, a book or fact sheets from the resource centre.

bioDEGRADABLE - Full Circle

We have some really great kitchen scrubs and brushes in that are bioDEGRADABLE.  They are made out of bamboo and bioDEGRADABLE Bonterra which is a plant based plastic.

The scrubs all come with refillable brushes so when your brushes or scrubs are nattered and ready for the bin (remember they're bioDEGRADABLE), you can keep the one you have and just get the refills.

There's a really great write-up about the product on manufactures website: About Full Circle

These also fit very well in stockings!  

Third Post

Alright, our third post... let's see how it goes!

Ok, so what if the store opened a little late today, it wasn't because I was running late, but because we all gathered at Confederation Square in Peterborough for the Rememberance Day parade and ceremony.

It was a beautiful sunny morning and it was really nice to be surrounded by our community.  Thank you to everyone that showed up!  Strength is in numbers.

Back to store stuff.  Things are really coming along here.  We had Karen from Porcupine Creek Farm stop in to re-stock her amazing culinary herb blends (herbes de provence, poultry blend and Italian blend).  She grows all of her own herbs and they are certified organic.  Porcupine Creek Farm is located just South of Marmora.  Talk about supporting our local farmer!

With the herbs she grows, she also has a few tea blends in our store.  It's been so nice to walk to work in the frosty morning with a nice travel mug full of hot fragrant yummy tea.

She also dropped off a new product; it's "Kiss Winter Away!" lip balm.

If you want more information about her farm, please check out the website: Porcupine Creek Farm  maybe drop her a line and tell her how much you are enjoying her teas, herb blends and that new lip balm!

Cobi Zevenhoven 

New Store Hours!

We have extended our store hours!

Monday 10am-5pm

Tuesday - Friday 10am-6pm

SATURDAY 10am-4pm

Come and check out our new stock.

Welcome to Our New Blog