Fair Trade My Home Photo Contest

Win Fair Trade prizes!
Show us the funny, beautiful
and meaningful ways you use
Fair Trade goods at home.

Send or bring photos to Small
Planet Trading and we'll include
them in our Fair Trade My Home
Photo Exhibit and enter you
in the photo contest! 

PRIZES! 
$25 Gift Certificate for
most beautiful
$25 Gift Certificate for
most funny

Submit photos to:
Small Planet Trading
202 Cascade Ave.
Hood River, OR 97031
info@smallplanettrading.com

Winners will be announced on
Saturday, May 8th - at the
World Fair Trade Day Event!

Photograph captions should accompany
all submissions, and should include the
subject of the image, the location the
image was taken, and photographer contact
details.

By entering the contest you grant to Small
Planet Trading the right to use your photo
and caption in promotions and other
publications, both specifically related to Fair
Trade and World Fair Trade Day.

Hail to the Kale (& Broccoli)!

Thoughts on an apple core

A customer came in the store the other day eating an apple.  As he finished, he asked if I had a trash can he so he could toss the core.  When I opened our little BioBag compost pale for him, he got a funny look on his face.

"Is that for compost?" he asked.  "Sure is," I answered.

Still holding the core, he took his time looking at the contents of my food waste bag-- so I looked too.  Coffee grounds, filters, and tea bags from our sample table, an avocado peel from Karen's lunch the day before, my own latest apple core poking out below-- pretty typical for a Small Planet week. 

"What do you do with it?" he asked.

"Oh, take it home to my compost pile," I said.

He tossed the core in and gave me a big smile, "I could do that too."

I must have looked amused, because he continued.  "No, I mean, I compost at home but at my office we just throw all of the food stuff in the trash.  We make coffee, have snacks or lunches.  I never thought about taking it home."

At Small Planet we usually take home two small bags of food waste a week plus a large bag of recyclables.  That means that what is left to go to the landfill is usually a very small bag once a week or less.  Every office or workspace would be different, but adding a food waste container in the break room or near the coffee maker is an easy start.  Our Biobag compostable bags make this easy and mess-free too. 

Earth Day is coming up-- why not green the office today?

Oh, and BioBags are the April Special on our webshop-- email us if you also need us to send along the handy food waste bucket too.  --DeLona

Watch Our Veggies Grow...but hold the Brussel Sprouts

There are veggies growing in the window of Small Planet Trading.  They are tiny little spurts of green at the moment, not really much to look at, but I find myself checking on them several times a day.  They have the most wonderful names:  Rosa Bianca Eggplant, Space Spinach, Packman Broccoli, Green Zebra Tomato, Cherokee Purple Tomato, Winterbor Kale and more.

When the Hood River County Historical Museum asked if downtown businesses would like to feature a local farm in their window to promote the Farm Life exhibit and series we thought it would be fun but had no idea what we could put in the window that would represent Farm Life.  Luckily Nick and Kristin Walrod at Dancing Moon Farm knew exactly what to do.  These plants really do say it all.  Growing.  Food.  History.  Newness.  Soil.  Risk. 

I am grateful to live so close to where my food is grown.  To get to know the people who make it their life passion to bring amazing vegetables and fruit to my table.  Being a part of a CSA has allowed me to try new foods and meet new people.  I like that my boys understand where their food comes from and what it means to eat with the seasons.  It has also given them a unique sense of food choices too.

My youngest son Mateo, when asked what food was his least favorite recently said, "Brussel Sprouts."

"Um, have you actually eaten Brussel Sprouts?" I asked.

"No, and I don't want to.  Please don't buy any."

I had to smile.  "OK," I answered.  "I won't, but if we get any in our farm box, we'll have to try them."

He looked at me for a minute and then smiled.  "I'll just ask Lucy to tell her dad not to plant any." 

I had to laugh and felt a deep gratitude that at 8 years old he has such an easy connection to his food.  I hope it's one he'll always have.    --DeLona

Come on by and watch the veggie starts grow.  Or check back here for more photos.

Time to Sprout!

Recently I attended a gathering celebrating the Spring Equinox.  A farming friend shared an update that inspired the following thoughts. 

Out in the fields, orchards, and gardens it's a time of rebirth, green sprouts, and new growth.  It's also a time of cold nights, final frosts, and hardening off.  In short it's a risky moment!  New growth is bursting forth yet without any guarantee that it will survive.  In fact there's a good chance some of it won't.  A call for vulnerability with very little security.  Apparently that's what being vulnerable is all about; choosing to sprout, jump in with both feet, launch out into the river without any attachment to what the outcome or ultimate destination will be.  Kind of like Easter eggs that  kids love to dye and decorate and then remain uneaten in the fridge for weeks.  Apparently being vulnerable is more about the process than the product. 

For you too the time for conserving your energy and hibernating is over.  This is a moment to get out there. Pursue something fabulous that has been calling to you.  Take action on that possibility that has been marinating over the winter.  Be emboldened by the germinating seeds and bright green buds to expand out regardless of what cold nights or set backs may come.  Trust in what the seeds know; while not all will survive, many will.  The important thing is to open up and allow life to flow.  Let go of knowing when, where, or how long.  And in the words of my friend, Anne Key, ". . get ready to be swept into the heady and glorious flood of new life!"

Karen

BALLE in the Gorge!

This week, Becky Brun, editor of Sustainable Industries magazine and Hood River resident, is presenting the possibility of establishing a BALLE Network in the Gorge to the Downtown Business Association! Becky, along with a group of local, independent business owners has been exploring the logistics of forming a local chapter of the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) for the past several months.

What the heck is BALLE, you ask?

BALLE has more than 80 chapters throughout the country (including 2 in Oregon and 6 in Washington), representing 21,000 independent business owners. Each chapter has its own unique characteristics and goals, but they are all focused on helping strengthen local economies while preserving the ecosystem on which they depend for raw materials, employees, clients and more.

As the co-owner of a local small business guided by principles of economic and ecological sustainability we've often felt like salmon swimming upstream - traversing the direction we must go but often wondering why it has to be so hard. BALLE aims to support small business on the journey to increased outreach, innovation, and local connection. We fully support the opportunity to create a BALLE chapter in the Gorge. Establishing a structure for collaborating with other independently run businesses on issues of sustainability, education and marketing, and long-term community vibrancy would be an amazing opportunity that would benefit all local residents!

Becky is currently forming a Steering Committee, which will help determine the geographic focus of the organization, its initial goals, its membership structure, and more. If you are interested in learning more, email Becky at becky@sustainableindustries.com.

Stay tuned for an update this Spring!

Karen

Love and Retail

Love and Valentine’s Day, Valentine’s Day and Love—For the last few weeks I’ve been bombarded with a wide variety of thoughts on the upcoming holiday: Friends on Facebook feeling lonely or sad this season. Grade school age boys at home making 24 valentine’s cards to share at school, complete with traced hearts and barely legible names. My middle school aged son carefully making a duct tape rose for his first sweetheart. My Auntie’s emails organizing a family dinner of extended cousins, just a few of the descendants of my great-grandmother Goldie Valentine Huffington Hattenhauer, to remember Grandma on her birthday. And of course, red and pink hearts everywhere I turn.

Growing up with a great-grandmother who had Valentine’s Day as her birthday and a mother who taught grade school and loved all things holiday—Valentine’s Day for me is a sweet, family affair of a day. I enjoy continuing the traditions with my kids and seeing cousins I wish I kept in better contact with throughout the year.

Now as a retailer, I also have to see Valentine’s Day as a way to get the February bills paid. Yep, I need people to shop—and so you’ll find a Valentine’s Day display right in the entrance to Small Planet and red and pink strategically placed throughout the shop. We even have a chocolate sale going on this week. The constant pull in my psyche of wanting to help people live lighter and easier on the earth, and frankly needing them to spend money to be able to keep going can leave me feeling ambivalent about holidays all year round.

So what’s a reluctant retailer to do? Well, at Small Planet Trading we make it a practice not to buy things just because they are for a holiday—you won’t find things in the shop this week that we wouldn’t be willing to stock year round. The Good Clean Love oils make a sexy gift for that special day, but also can increase sexual health all year through. Kisii soapstone hearts from Kenya, Olivewood hearts from Bethlehem, heart earrings from Honduras are each lovingly handcrafted by an artist who benefits from you enjoying their work any day of the year.
 
Come in on Saturday and get creative on our DIY card table-- if you've never made yourself a Valentine's Day card, maybe it's a good year to start.  Not giving any gifts this particular holiday, don't worry, you can still pick up a new toothbrush or enjoy some Spicy Hot Cocoa on a cold February day.

--DeLona