A few years ago I needed to use the garden space at my home to put up a shed to store items that were in storage and costing me money each month. Since then I have not had a garden and I missed having fresh food and the joy of helping plants grow.

When the store moved to the new location I had a shed built in the alleyway. It was built so that I could install a green roof (or a roof top garden) on it. Last month I planted basil, mint, pole beans, and several other items.

Unfortunately I did not obtain a permit and the city wants me to demolish the shed. Pity since the garden is growing well.

I created the roof top garden as a means to provide myself a space to produce food for myself and as a demonstration of what could be done on top of roofs – typically wasted space. If I owned this building I would make the whole flat roof a roof top garden space since it is an ideal space for that.

The invasion of the mosquitoes is making being outside not as enjoyable as it should be. The city of Edmonton could put more pesticides into more ponds, spray fields with pesticides and do several other damaging actions. People can rub on more insect repellent but many of these have toxic ingredients like DEET in them and are not recognized as safe for young children.

There are lots of things that people can do to reduce the number of mosquitoes in their neigbourhood – cut grass a little shorter than usual, remove standing water around the house, add a little bit of dish liquid to your rain barrel (plant based liquid to deter insects laying eggs in the water, or you can build/buy a bat house and put it up somewhere on your property.

Raw food is extremely good for our bodies. Many people are exploring this type/style of eating and living. Earth’s General Store is providing more and more products, tools (appliances like juicers, Excalibur dehydrators, nut milk bags, slicers, spiralizers, etc) for people that choose this healthier way of eating. Some people say it is in fact the healthiest diet for humans and other animals.

Today we received from one of our suppliers more Coconut Secrets Coconut Aminos, Coconut Secrets Coconut Crystals, Coconut Secrets Coconut Nectar, Hurom Slow Juicers, Nama Shoyu (unpasteurized soy sauce), Sea Spaghetti, Raw Sushi Nori Sheets, and Kelp Noodles.

Many of you will know that Earth’s General Store created a unique financial arrangement with our customers. The way I set it up was that people would provide money (capital) to help us create a new phase of the store (one that included food) and we would repay them over time through their purchases. It is best explained through example.

If a person provided $100 to the store we would provide them with $105 of in-store credit (a 5% appreciation gift is added to their initial amount). When they come into the store and make a purchase of $100 of product they will be given a discount of 15% which will be applied to the money we owe them. $100 less 15% ($15) equals $85 owing by the customer to the store for this transaction and the store owes this customer $90.00 ($105.00 - $15.00 = $90.00).

It is sometimes easier to think of the money people provided as pre-purchasing 15% of their future purchases at the store.

Salt – it is one of the basic tastes. We need a small amount to have our bodies work well.

Earth’s General Store has recently expanded the variety of salt we offer in our bulk seasoning area. We now carry NINE different salts in bulk:

• Coarse Grey Sea Salt from Brittany
• Fine Grey Sea Salt from Brittany
• Fluer de Sel Sea Salt from Brittany
• Purified (table Salt)
• Kala Namak Fine Sea Salt
• Himalayan Pink Rock Salt
• Yakima Applewood Smoked Salt
• Hawaii Red Salt
• Hawaii Black Salt

There is a lot of variety out there and over time I intend to offer a larger variety of salts since I am sure there are people out there that would like to try something beyond the usual ‘table salt’ – striped of any flavour beyond salt and no minerals. Perhaps you could try some salt that has the works – more complicated flavours than straight sodium chloride.

I really like the Vega products as part of my diet. I think they are good for my body and they taste great.  The sales representative for Alberta dropped by and I placed an order with him – greatly expanding the product line being offered in the store.

The sales representative also mentioned that our prices were ‘really good’. Yes – we do offer the best prices that I know of in Edmonton for the Vega products (I have been told this several times).

The added items are:

• Vega EFA Oil Blend (no Fish oil – just plants)
• Vega Sport Performance Optimizer (Lemon Lime and Acai Berry Flavours)
• Vega Sport Protein – Chocolate Flavoured (we had the Vanilla before)
• Vega Shake and Go (I am taking some of these for our road trip this weekend) Smoothie mixes – Vanilla Almond, Tropical Tango, Bodacious Berry, and Choc-A-Lot

Enjoy!

- Posted June 17th, 2011

I was searching the Internet for information regarding rain barrels calculations this morning and I came across a webpage on the City of Edmonton website. This is good local information and I thought I would share it with you:

http://www.edmonton.ca/environmental/programs/rain-barrel-water-collection-calculations.aspx

Rain Barrel - Water Collection Calculations

The purchase of a good-size rain barrel to which a hose can be attached or a watering can filled can eliminate outdoor use of drinking/tap water. This will save you money and help reduce GHG emissions.

What you pay on your monthly water bill goes towards the cost of current water and wastewater treatment and toward the ongoing creation and maintenance of treatment facilities. The water you use everyday requires large amounts of electrical energy to treat, deliver and remove wastewater/sewage from your home.

The Green Rewards programme is being very well received by customers and the non-profit groups that are the monthly recipients. By the end of May we had created over $1,400 in donations going to the diverse groups.

The following is the update for May 2011 when we collected $249.79 through this programme: