Update / Shire City Herbals

We celebrated our fourth birthday at Dottie's Coffee Lounge, in Pittsfield MA.  Dottie's was the first place that sold Fire Cider and four years later we are partnered with over 600 local shops, cafe's and co-op around the country.  Here's a fun video in case you missed the party- Big Thanks to all our friends, family and business partners that came out in a huge snow storm to celebrate with us, we love you guys!

 

I am always looking for ways to reduce, reuse and recycle.  At home and at work, I know how important it is to shop responsibly.  When it comes to the kitchen and our home environment in general, there are a lot of ways to save money and reduce our impact on the earth.  Fact: I have not bought or used plastic wrap in YEARS!  Same with paper towels and plastic bags.  Yes, you can live without those throw away products.  And yes, there are alternatives that are healthier for you and for the environment all while saving you money, check it out: Let's say you pay $2.49 for a 100 foot roll of SaranWrap.  So if you use 8 rolls a year, that costs you $19.92.  You will use all the plastic wrap, a few feet at a time, slowly throwing away the entire roll.  Yes, you just paid for garbage that will now spend decades not rotting in a landfill. Same goes for those sandwich bags, zip lock bags, paper towels, you get the idea.  It's all garbage, it's all going to end up in a landfill polluting the earth that we rely on for food, clean water, clean air, you know, life as we know it. [caption id="attachment_760" align="aligncenter" width="538"] Bee's Wrap - www.beeswrap.com[/caption] Now consider a 3 pack of Bee's Wrap for $18 which will last for a full year and when it's done keeping your groceries fresh, you can compost it and it will become part of next years garden.  Or use it as a fire starter in your wood stove.  It's a little less money and zero waste. Bee's Wrap is made from organic cotton infused with bee's wax, jojoba oil and tree resin.  Plus you get to feel really good about yourself by supporting a sustainable, earth friendly business instead of a mega corporation that produces trash.  Everyone wins! Paper towels and paper napkins are an even easier fix, instead of buying and throwing away toxic bleached paper products that are stripping our land of oxygen producing plants, you can buy some washable kitchen towels and napkins and turn your clothes that are too far gone into rags for messier projects.  And when you absolutely need to you can use bamboo towels that can be washed and reused as well.  Bambooee is the brand that I recommend.  On their site they state this: Trees are being cut down at an unsustainable rate and 3,000 tons of paper towel waste are produced per day. (According to the US Environmental Protection Agency). Here are my rules for shopping: is this healthy for me, is it made by a company that is in alignment with my values, is it earth friendly ie is the product and it's packaging biodegradable, recyclable or reusable?  If the answers are all yes, then buy it!  There are 313.9 million people in this country, if we each do a little, it will add up to a lot more resources for us all to enjoy for many generations to come.  So make the switch, save money and our planet, how's that for multitasking?!

[caption id="attachment_701" align="aligncenter" width="538"] Plush recycled paper wrapping and biodegradable food starch packing pillows - be the change you want to see in the world- one shipment at a time![/caption] We are celebrating another small step in the right direction: our new packing materials just arrived!  Every Fire Cider order will now be wrapped in recycled, recyclable and reusable cushioned brown paper.  Goodbye plastic bubble wrap.  We are still using compostable food starch packing peanuts, which you can easily compost at home.  Only now, the peanuts are wrapped in a biodegradable pillow so they are contained and easy to re-use or toss into the compost.  Don't you wish every business used earth friendly packaging?  It's never too soon to start or to at least start bugging your local haunts to make the switch! Coming later this fall: 100% post consumer custom Fire Cider boxes and paper tape.  Yeah,  paper tape instead of plastic, it's stronger and recyclable, how cool is that? In about a month everything from our Fire Cider bottles to our promotional material to all of our shipping material will be recycled, recyclable, re-usable and/or home compostable.  Oh yeah!  Love your Mother Earth and have a happy Labor Day weekend!

[caption id="attachment_543" align="aligncenter" width="538"] So much to taste test at the SoWa Farmer's Market![/caption] Mark your calendars- the Boston, MA SoWa Market starts Sunday May 4th!  Fire Cider will be back for our second year and this time we will be there every Sunday from May 4th through October 26th.  Sean, our Sowa Market representative will be happy to take your special orders for t shirts, half gallons, gallons, cookbooks, the works!  Rumor has it he may even bring his guitar and serenade you in between handing out samples of Fire Cider.  See you at the market!