Re-engineering animal based products

Source:  GLiving

Legend has it that thousands of years ago, in the deserts of Arabia, a nomad carrying milk in a sack made from sheep intestine produced the accidental first batch of cheese curds. Her movements agitated the amalgam of milk and intestinal enzymes and, under the hot sun, produced what we call cheese. Rennet (or Rennin), an enzyme that is a product of calf stomachs and sheep intestines is a key ingredient in typical cheeses – not only making most cheese undesirable for vegans, but also for vegetarians – many of whom imagine that cheese is somehow produced without harming animals. Some veal with your cheese?

They are pioneering a new cheese in New York, and there is no reason that any food lover shouldn’t take them seriously.

Enter Veronica and Pablo of Dr. Cow, a small company that got its start making granola. They use raw, organic tree nuts like cashews and macadamias as the base of their cheese products. They apply different cultures and molds, and age it like any udder cheese. The final products are irresistible, delicious, and obsession-worthy artisan cheeses that are not only amazingly savory and versatile, but they are 100% raw, vegan, and full of probiotics, enzymes, protein, healthy fats, and omega fatty acids.  While conventional cow’s milk-based cheeses are laden with cholesterol, chemicals, hormones and a host of other objectionable attributes – not to mention the ethical and environmental concerns of animal agriculture and dairy-collection, Dr. Cow’s cheeses are an anomaly; Healthy and deviantly indulgent.

In Chicago, Dr. Cow can be purchased at Karyn’s Fresh Corner, 1901 N Halsted St.

How to throw the best vegan wedding ever.

In Chicago, Spring seems to have sprung.  The Ides of March are upon us and our minds, as well as the Solar Powered Studio, is consumed with the yearly wedding readiness.  In working with the planners we're currently finishing up an order of 75 Chicago Flag Soap Bars, destined for a beautiful Georgia wedding.  150 will shortly be ready for Melbourne. 

 

So with these thoughts of weddings and romance; I thought it a good time to re-post some tried and true suggestions to consider while planning your vegan wedding:

1. Maintain a sensible tack;  Friendly but firm: Make your decision to hold a vegan wedding clear and be up front about it.  Help the unfamiliar by making a list of products that contain animals. Caterers often think they are being sensible and helpful when offering to make some items for the omnivores.  Ford them no quarter and nip it in the bud by making your stance clear.  It will help to avoid akward moments during the selection process.
2. Prepare yourself with Recipes: If you don't have access to an all-vegan caterer in your town or city; having some favorite recipes is a good start.  You may have to contact caterers that usually prepare carcass for weddings and ask if they would be able to prepare a vegan reception. Use this guide, or look at the VegNews 2008 feature on vegan weddings for hints and help.
3. Don't let the caterer take the easy way out: Doesn't this sound amazing: marinated vegetables, grilled vegetables, raw vegetables, and stuffed vegetables. Vegan does not mean they get to simply prepare a bunch of simple side dishes; nor should you let them charge you the same. There are so many resources for vegan options that please everyone.  Comfort food, gourmet food, and mainstays are all available if you keep the caterer on point.
4. Don't lose focus on the cake: In Chicago we are fortunate to have a bunch of vegan wedding cake experts but in your city; maybe not so much.  As with the caterer you may have to contact traditional wedding cake bakers to ask them if they are able to make a vegan cake.   It's not as hard as you would think.  Many bakers are willing and more than able to do this. Short of making those call there is a good resource: Jolinda's guide to vegan wedding cakes.
5. The power is in you: Facing limits in your area?  Vegan roadblocks can occur and that's when you cowgirl-up and do it yourself. Again, the vegan wedding menus feature includes recipes for almost any budget, and many of them can be sized up to accomodate large and hungry crowds. Almost any vegan cake recipe can be turned into a wedding cake. Just take a decorating class at a local bakery or college, and you'll be set. However, remember to check with the wedding venue about self catering.  It may, in some areas, be a health code issue.  If they are good with it and only have a few managable requirements to ensure safety; why not go for it and pull off the best vegan wedding ever!

Are Girl Scout cookies killing orangutans?

Source:  Grist

Please take a look at the article above from The Grist.

Below you will find my reaction to it's over simplified reporting.  In reading this article from The Grist one can easily be outraged at palm oil, cookies, The Girl Scouts, or all of the above.  However, it's once again, economics to blame.  Well, economics and the global affects on agribusiness.

Palm oil is the problem?  Girl scout cookies are the problem?  Really?!?!  An ingredient produced by the planet and little girls are to blame?  C'mon; the growing practices are to blame.  Look...I make products with sustainably grown/sourced and fair wage palm oil from a Columbian Co-op and have for a few years due to their bio-sphere positive agricultural practices.  Never once did I say to myself that the ingredient is to blame or that little children were to blame.  I just switched to a better, and more ethical producer.  

Nature or nurture?  It's not me.  It's how I was raised.

Look; it's just plain bad reporting to say things like "palm oil, the No. 1 culprit behind deforestation in Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia and Malaysia."  Palm oil is not an evil to stamp out.  The GROWING PRACTICES are!  Support the users and producers of ethically grown and bio-diverse palm oil.  Don't just make statements, out of hand, that encourage consumers to blame a product.  Go the extra step and tell them to look for ingredients and growing cooperatives that do not contribute to rain forest deforestation, invest in adult education, build evaporation awnings to protect valuable irrigation water, and protect animal habitats.

Look I understand it's easy to vilify and tear down a product like palm oil; but if you really understood how much good this product does in our daily lives; from common baked goods to Soaps and detergents, Candles, Cosmetics, manufacturing and transportation lubrication, biodiesel, glue, printing inks, textile industry just to mention a few.

In addition to oils extracted from the oil palm fruit, other parts of the tree can be used in industry. For example, leaf fibers and empty fruit bunches are used to produce chipboard and plywood. After plantations are cleared out, the trunks of old palms can be used to make furniture.

Look, I'm all for bringing the attention to problems a affecting change but oversimplifying and demonizing a great product from the earth like palm oil is not the way to do it.

Tell your readers to look for sustainably grown products and to support businesses that "get it".  Tell you readers to vote with their dollars.  Put down the candy and cookies made with deforestation palm oil.  Sure, it's the cheapest.  Pick up the products that may cost a little more due to organic (reduced yield) farming, vegan, fair wage or fair trade, carbon neutral, or chemical free (no parabens or petrochemicals or toxins that harm the grown water or bioculture and travel up through the food chain).  Then email the Girl Scouts of America and tell them that you will buy more when they switch ingredients and that you are willing to pay for the extra cost.  Sustainable agriculture practices, humanity, species and the planet are worth it.

Winters' biggest bloopers: Common seasonal moisturizing mistakes

It's cold outside and during this time of year the streets of Chicago are bone chilling.  Perhaps it's cold in your neck of the woods as well.  Below you'll find a few tricks to fix winter dryness.

The common issues are parched frizzy over dryed hair, itchy or flakey skin, and cracked lips.  Most of the common mistakes we commit trying to fix or ward off the cold.  Each day I see commuters applying salves while waiting for the El, passing lunch breakers skirting into gleaming buildings with scorched hair and itchy and dry skin.

Most of the dryness is caused by our need for quick warmth and many of us are from the More is More School of heat.  Not so; easy does it with is the rule.   Who doesn't enjoy that steaming hot shower, comforting radiator, and the hot air of a dryer.  But these are over used sources of quick heat that we pay for later.  The cure?  Moderation and some good sources of moisture to rapair.

Hair

Your scalp produces fewer oils in the winter.  Shampooing every day is not necessary so be kind to your hair.  Naturally, if you skip a day or two it's going to feel unnatural.  Hey, it's a change to your process and you may even think that your hair feels dirty.  But don't worry.  Rinse with warm water and use an organic conditioner.

Static is often the biggest hair problem in cold weather. I recommend using a dime sized portion of vitamin E or Camellia Oil immediately after getting out of the shower, then drying your hair on a medium setting or air drying if time permits.  Careful, a little goes a long ways and be careful to avoid over moisturizing.

Lips

Ever heard the urban myth that you can be "addicted" to lip balm. Not true, but you may be addicted to a routine that is not working for you.

The solution is finding a hydrating balm with lipids that will give the barrier layer time to heal. Stay away from long-lasting lip color formulas and balms with menthol.  These items can dry and open the lips natural moisture layer to attack.  Finding and using natural lip balms with lipids is an easy trick.

Most commercial brands, including the so-called medicated lip balms, have a petroleum base. Petroleum jelly, petrolatum, white wax, paraffin wax, and mineral oil are all synonyms for petroleum or petroleum by-products, used to hold moisture against the skin – but these may be toxic.

Add to that aluminum salts, preservatives, artificial flavors and sugar or artificial sweeteners and you've got a potentially dangerous combination of chemicals that natural health experts say should not be used anywhere on the skin, and certainly not near the sensitive mucus membranes of the mouth.

But the real culprits, as far as dry lips go, are additives like menthol, camphor, phenol or alcohols that are used as counter-irritants to give lips a cool, soothing sensation as lip balm is applied.

Hygroscopic ingredients are your moisture loving friends.  Look for lipid rich hemp oil based balms, those with aloe and organic ingredients as well as good old glycerin, sorbitol, and glucose or sucrose.  These Ingredients can maintain a high level of moisture in the upper layers of the skin for several hours and can reduce the rate at which water lost.

Skin

Ceramides, lactic acids, peptides and glycerin are the best ingredients to look for in skin moisturizers.

What does that mean? Skip the anti-aging aisle (the chemicals designed to stop wrinkles can be drying) and check for vitamin E.

What happens in the shower matters too. First, pass on the boiling water. You can douse your whole body in cream but if you totally stripped your body of that protective barrier, it's going to take a lot to get it back to that natural balance.  Then switch your soap for a creamier body wash that will add moisture as it cleanses.

Cheap fix: A humidifier for your bedroom will replace the moisture that your heater sucks out of the air, stopping the problem before it starts.

A perfect wet shave with less waste

At Ethically Engineered, Joe and I get great questions about how to achieve the perfect wet shave:

Andy - Chicago

"For years, I’ve been using razors with disposable cartridge blades but lately I feel like between the fancy shaving creams and those expensive refills (I go through a cartridge a week), I’m spending a pretty penny and generating quite a bit of waste. Dry shaving with an electric razor seems like the more eco and economically sensible choice. Any thoughts on which would be best shaving tool for a hirsute guy like myself, my wallet and for the planet?"


EPA Fact:  The U.S. throws away 2 billion disposable razors each year.

We'd like to suggest the humble safety razor that our Dads and Grandads have used for great wet shaves every time.  Ethically Engineered has started to carry a line of low cost double blade safety razors that won't hurt the wallet too much; while saving the waste of plastic razors in the landfill or even worst -- contributing to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.  Yikes.

Simply use the twist and release handle to access, remove and replace your disposable shaving blades.  When used in tandem with the vegan shaving brush you'll find that a traditional wet shave is as quick and efficient as using a foam can and plastic razors but with much less waste.

You'll remember from our previous postings that the shave brushes have a two part affect.

A vegan shaving brush, when quickly run under hot water and rubbed over your Razor's Edge Shaving Puck or Tin, will produce a mug full of lather in less than ten seconds.

The lather will sit on top of the nylon hairs of the brush rather than being absorbed which happens with animal hair brushes.  Running these fibers over your whiskers acts to set up your beard for a better shave every time with a straighter and truer cut leading to less irritation and ingrown hairs.

Did you know that Pogonophobia is the fear of beards?

Handling Flu Season In Eco-Friendly Ways

A Look at Cloth Handkerchiefs, Tissues and Antibacterial Gels

Cotton handkerchiefs can be more absorbent than paper, as the fabric can expand when moist, and dry off. There is also less friction, as paper is coarser, and often chaps noses when blown frequently. Using a soft flannel hanky for those with runny noses can ease the burn on peeling skin.

While it is debatable whether washing a load of handkerchiefs and air-drying them on a rack saves money or is less energy efficient than buying a box of paper tissues, there are some considerations. Cloth handkerchiefs reduce the toll on our forests, and with a cold water wash and minimal detergent, a load of 40 hankies is roughly the size of two double-sized bed sheets: a small- to average-sized load when all are washed at once.

Having re-usable hankies for use at home will cost less and be easier on your nose and wallet.

Full Story by Naomi Szeben

If you have a cold you will produce more mucus and might want to rinse your hankie in warm water and hydrogen peroxide to keep it naturally fresh and white.  Check out these handmade gems from our friends at banoo.

The Chicago Bar travels to New York

Every so often Joe and I get a nice email from a fan who wants to take The Chicago Bar to different parts of the country or the world.  From weddings in Jamaica, to holiday gifts in Amsterdam or just for gift giving to a misplaced Chicago-an who is missing the thrum of the city ; we really enjoy getting photos of our humble little high lather emissary on the road.  So it was nice to receive this little request from Kelly.

"Hi! I've been sending your amazing Chicago bar soap to friends/family in NY and I'm heading over this weekend and wanted to bring some! I went to XXXXXXX and XXXXX and both are out. Is there any way I could get some before tomorrow?"

Kelly C. -- Chicago

We are happy to report that she was able to drop by the studios to pick up a couple of bars before heading out and we hope that mornings will be a little bit brighter in Syracuse with a shower full of rich moisturizing suds and our invigorating RX of coffee for the senses;  peppermint.

Send us your pictures of  The
Chicago Bar travelling and joining you on your adventures wherever they may take you.