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3rd Edition
Your organic lifestyle away from home
By Linda Moss. Published by Green Books
Revised and updated edition, now including Ireland
Are you looking for a bed and breakfast, guesthouse or hotel that serves organic food? Would you like to self-cater in a cottage on an organic farm and have an organic vegetable box delivered? Or would you prefer to camp on an organic smallholding where you can buy their fresh produce?
This completely revised and updated edition, with over 175 new entries,
including a selection of organic places to stay in Ireland, gives
you all the information you need for an ‘organic holiday’.
It includes:
There are four new symbols in the the third edition of the book, so you can see at a glance if meals containing organic produce or fresh organic produce to buy is available either on-site or within five miles of your holiday accommodation.
The Author: Linda Moss created www.organicholidays.co.uk ten years ago, and in 2004 her website won an Environmentally Friendly Website Award. She is married with three grown up children and two grandchildren, and has lived in Guiseley, West Yorkshire all her life.
Final Reductions at Purity
With up to 70% off some items, grab a bargain from the last of the winter stock at www.puritystyle.com
* All trousers and jeans are half price or less, People Tree Boyfriend trousers were £59 now £19
* All dresses half price or less People Tree Bora Aksu Drape front Dress was £84 now £39
* All dresses half price or less Bora Aksu Drape front Dress was £84 now £39
* All knitwear is half price or less e.g Giggle Organics Tara Cardigan was £59 now £19
* All Trevarno organic body care now half price
Beautiful clothes shouldn’t cost the earth
Sustainability fayre
Cardiff University in the Great Hall
12 March 11.00 – 15.00
Open to all sectors of society
The aim of the event is to show visitors how they can make small changes in their business or home life to achieve a more sustainable future. Visitors to the event will be have the opportunity to interact with local suppliers, councils, businesses and research organisations in order to change the way they approach issues of sustainability in their everyday lives.
The organisers hope that the public will be inspired to apply some of the knowledge they gain at this event and realise how even the smallest changes can make a big difference to our environment.
For more information please see www.brass.cf.ac.uk or email thomasc5@cf.ac.uk
Show you love your Valentine – and the planet – with ethical gifts from Boutiko!
Though Christmas is barely over, the tree packed away and the cards (hopefully!) recycled, buying gifts and presents is back on the agenda!! With Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and even Easter fast approaching, not to mention birthdays and weddings galore – it’s now time to look for special gifts which are not only beautiful and express your emotions, but also come lovingly hand-made, ethically and environmentally produced and packaged, and even gift-wrapped for free!
Specialist on-line ethical gift store Boutiko – www.boutiko.co.uk – has a range of stunning gifts perfect for up-coming special days for Valentine’s and Mother’s Day – all made to the highest possible environmental standards. Boutiko offers free giftwrapping and next day delivery.
Great for new mothers on Mother’s Day – as well as loved ones for Valentine’ Day:
Chiming Heart Earrings (£20 – £18 till end January) – ideal for a First Mother’s Day – as these enchanting balls create a particularly soothing sound for babies. These handmade silver-plated earrings on sterling silver hooks resemble Mayan music balls following a tradition of several centuries. They are used for relaxation and in meditation or simply carried for their enchanting sounds! Each music ball is made by hand and no two will sound the same.
Perfect for lover, mother – or even a wedding gift!
Handmade Wooden Signs (£25) – four designs, saying Dream, Home, Love or Mr & Mrs
New to Boutiko – these gorgeous, unique signs are handmade using reclaimed wood and water-based paints, and distressed for an age-old vintage look.
Women of any age will love these:
Daisy / Dragonfly Jewellery Roll (£11.99)
Gorgeous hand-embroidered silk and satin jewellery rolls made in Vietnam under fair trade conditions, small enough to squeeze into a corner of a suitcase or overnight bag, they contain three internal zipped compartments and a ring holder. Boutiko also stocks matching Coin Purses (£6.99) and Bags (£29.99).
The perfect gift for weddings or Valentines:
“Love” Porcelain Tealight Holders (£25)
Handmade by a British artist using offcuts of porcelain from other projects, these exquisite tealight holders spelling out the word L O V E in tiny holes to give a magical flickering glow, are a beautiful present for the one you love.
A practical, ethical gift for EVERYONE….
You’ll never want to use hemp or jute bags again – Boutiko’s ingenious One Less Plastic Bags are handmade from Indian saris with every single bag unique in its design! These bags fold away to a tiny pocket size but can carry up to 2kg – plus are machine washable, £10 – £8.99 until end January.
For these, and other unusual ethical gifts, please look at www.boutiko.co.uk
DivineLifeFest
17th Jan 2009, 10am – 11pm
Shiva Health, 52a Old London Rd, Kingston
Celebrating universal love, creation, synergy, energy & community
*creative & healing arts
*workshops, talks & classes
*uplifting music & spoken word
*organic food & stalls, kids workshops
*special fire ceremony for universal health
Enjoy organic cakes, smoothies & juices yoga classes, health talks & healing…
Browse stalls & buy fairtrade, handmade & holistic goodies…
Have a card reading, get your face painted…
Chill out with evening rhythms, words & inspired performances…
….all of this, whilst supporting Sponsor a Mum charity, making motherhood safer in remote communities around the world
All proceeds go to Sponsor a Mum charity www.imet2000.org/sponsoramum
£5 day | £3 evening | £7 day & evening | kids up to 12 yrs free
View the full program here: www.shivarooms.co.uk/divinelifefest.htm
James Purnell, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, to Launch a New Coffee Social Enterprise on 16th January 2009
The Lorna Young Foundation is hosting an event to launch a new social enterprise – a new brand of directly traded coffee by resident Oromo Ethiopians in Greater Manchester with smallholder coffee growers in Ethiopia.
With the support of the Lorna Young Foundation, Tameside Council and Bolling Coffee, this exciting social enterprise will assist the Oromo community into meaningful employment with all profits going to the community in Greater Manchester and ensuring an excellent price for the coffee growers in Ethiopia
On Friday 16th January in Stalybridge, James Purnell, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions will launch this exciting new business venture. The Bishop of Manchester and Afzal Khan, former Lord Mayor of the City of Manchester will also be attending and backing the initiative.
The Lorna Young Foundation has initiated this new ‘Beyond Fairtrade – community to community’ social enterprise, named ‘The Oromo Coffee Company’ which will cut out the middlemen in purchasing, importing, branding and selling a new Ethiopian coffee within the UK. The new company is owned by the Oromo community who are now in the process of creating and selling their own brand of roast and ground coffee, sourced directly from smallholders in Ethiopia. By shortening the supply chain involved in the sales and marketing of coffee, a greater level of profit – even than achieved by Fair Trade – will be generated for both the social enterprise in Greater Manchester and the coffee growers in Ethiopia.
The venture is being backed by Tameside Council, with commercial support coming from Bolling Coffee, West Yorkshire based coffee company who are experts in importing and roasting coffee from around the world; Bolling will assist the enterprise in importing and processing the new product.
Ian Agnew, Director of the Lorna Young Foundation said “This is a totally unique project. Fair Trade is a brilliant development and is now quite rightly, entering the mainstream. But Fair Trade prices are still limited for most growers. The Lorna Young Foundation wants to go beyond this and It’s excellent to see that the Government here recognise that this kind of initiative needs to be supported. We are so pleased that Bolling Coffee are lending us their assistance and we would like to invite other businesses to come forward to offer support, sponsorship or mentoring to help the enterprise to become a big success when we come to marketing the new coffee”.
The Rev Ian Stubbs, vicar of St George’s church, Stalybridge which has been instrumental in supporting the project idea said “Its been a real privilege to meet members of the Oromo community who came to Tameside as refugees and to see how they are willing to work together on this venture. By supporting this exciting initiative churches and faith groups will build even further on their excellent record in promoting Fairtrade. We hope that by producing a smashing cup of ‘Beyond Fairtrade’ coffee we can also educate people about the exploitation that all too often occurs in the supply chain of commodities that we buy from abroad”
Garedew Yadessa, one of the Oromo community members involved in setting up the enterprise said “It is very encouraging that local people are supporting us to set up this business. It’s important to us to be independent and it’s even better if we can help the coffee growers in Ethiopia to get a better deal because sadly, the coffee market has been famous for its exploitation of smallholder farmers in the past”.
Ian Bamforth, Managing Director of Bolling Coffee said; “Bolling Coffee were really impressed by this initiative. We take the issue of ethical trading very seriously and believe that we have a corporate responsibility to assist marginalised groups. This is an excellent way of doing both – helping out the communities here in the UK and also abroad – whilst providing a high quality cup of coffee”
About the Launch
Friday 16th January at 3pm at Stalybridge Civic Hall, Trinity St, Stalybridge, SK15 2BN. Food and drink will be available.
About the Oromo Ethiopians
The Oromo Ethiopians are a group of around 250 households living primarily in Manchester, Ashton under Lyne, Stalybridge, Bury, Bolton, Oldham, Sheffield, Stockport and Salford as legal refugees with full residential status. They were resettled in the UK during 2006/07 following persecution in Ethiopia.
How Can YOU Help?
The Lorna Young Foundation are looking for corporate sponsorship for the project, both prior to the coffee product being launched later on in 2009 and during its first year of operation. In particular we are seeking to work with businesses or community groups/ faith groups who can:
• Provide monetary donations to support the project
• Produce a design label in order to market the coffee
• Provide a premises or equipment to assist the initiative
• Consider placing an order with The Oromo Coffee Company
• Act as a sales point/ retail outlet for the coffee
• Provide business ‘mentoring’ for the company (i.e. marketing, sales, business planning, publicity etc)
If you feel that you can contribute in any way, please contact the Lorna Young Foundation (below)
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About the Lorna Young Foundation (LYF)
The Lorna Young Foundation was set up in 2003 in memory of the late Lorna Young, a social entrepreneur and a pioneer of fair trade in the UK. As one of the founders of Cafédirect, Lorna was the first person to secure supermarket listing for their products thereby launching the brand from its niche market to the mainstream.
LYF is a UK registered education charity and NGO. Its aims are:
• To reduce poverty and assist sustainable livelihoods by providing business and marketing education for communities in the developing world
• To reduce supply chains and add value to products, enabling fairer competition for farmers in national and international markets places
• To work with communities in the UK and in developing countries in order to promote greater awareness of ethical trading and to empower groups to be able to carry out direct trading and ethical purchases
LYF currently carries out projects with smallholder farmers in Kenya, Uganda, Malawi, Ethiopia and Palestine and with the Greater Manchester Ethiopian community. LYF’s ‘Entrepreneur’ programme matches successful businessmen and women with smallholder farming communities in order to share skills and to provide ongoing mentoring within developing countries. LYF is based in West Yorkshire.
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The Lorna Young Foundation
47 Lea Lane, Netherton, Holmfirth, Hudds, HD4 7DP
Christina Longden: 07951 362068 Ian Agnew: 07944 979721 Email – projectmanager@lyf.org.uk
Registered Charity No. 1112895 Registered Company No. 4788426 www.lyf.org.uk AND www.lyfe.ac
Image courtesy of nkzs
Beautiful skincare from Latvia
The whole So Organic team absolutely love this new brand from Latvia. The aromas and textures of the Madara products make them a joy to use.
The whole range is fresh, yet luxurious and comes in simple but elegant packaging with the ECOCERT stamp of approval. More about Madara
Why Madara Organic Skin Care Products?
• Highly effective formulations for no compromise organic beauty
• Certified by ECOCERT, the international organic standard
• Based on pure, natural, flower and herb extracts from the Baltic region
• Free from Synthetic fragrance, SLS, parabens and others and irritants
• No animal testing
• Many of the products are Vegan
Buy the complete range of Madara Eco Cosmetics at So Organic, the original organic lifestyle store.
A brand new range of organic skin and body care by Raw Organic is launching this month at So Organic, and you can save 20% off the entire range until the end of the month. Every product in the range is certified by the Soil Association and the performance is quite wonderful.
Click here to see the Raw Organic range.
We test all of the products thoroughly before we put them on sale at SoOrganic.com and the whole team completely fell in love with Raw Organic’s new range. Everything is under £10, everything is Soil Association Certified and it all works beautifully.
The packs are very generous 250ml tubes which are great value, perfect for those looking to switch to organic toiletries but who are cost conscious too, given the current economic conditions.
The Raw Organic range consists of the following:
Juniper & Bitter Orange Moisturising Bar Soap (125g) – £3.50 (now £2.80)
Apple and Elderflower Refreshing Body Wash (250ml) – £8 (now £6.40)
Bilberry and Juniper Conditioning Shampoo (250ml) – £8 (now £6.40)
Apricot and Rosehip Warm-up Massage Oil (100ml) – £8 (now £6.40)
Frankincense and Sandalwood Massage Oil for Delicate Skins – £8 (now £6.40)
Honey & Barley Moisturising Liquid Soap (250ml) – RRP £6 (now £4.80)
Organic Baby Oil (100ml) – £8 (now £6.40)
Spearmint and Eucalyptus Cool-down Massage Oil (100ml) – £8 (now £6.40)
Wild Chamomile and Olive Organic Hand and Body Lotion (250ml) – £8 (now £6.40)
Ylang-Ylang and Neroli Relaxing Massage Oil (100ml) – £8 (now £6.40)
Parents can help children “learn in disguise” at home with national curriculum matched educational games and online paperless books from Keen2Learn.
Recent research shows that 80% of a child’s academic success is a direct result of support learning at home from parents, but before tired mums and dads across the nation groan in despair at the thought of sitting down with grumpy children and dog-eared homework books – there is a fantastic educationally-approved solution!
At the click of a mouse, Keen2Learn’s (www.keen2learn.co.uk) website reveals an extensive range of educational games and toys to provide the whole family with a huge amount of fun whilst learning through games, DVD’s, activities, worksheets, puzzles and online links about literacy, numeracy, science, ICT and other subjects. Used by teachers nationwide, as well as parents, these educational fun games are matched to the national curriculum’s Key Stages, and encourages proactive play and learning which makes a significant difference to the child’s understanding and learning retention.
Intel award-winning website Keen2Learn’s resources are geared from foundation stage through to Key Stage 4 (age 3 to 16), as well as resources for parents and teachers especially designed for children with special educational needs, including gifted and talented, learning difficulties, and hearing and visually impaired children.
The Mighty Book paperless online book service on the Keen2Learn site is a fantastic way of parents reading regularly with their children in a fun, educational way without the need for expensive books – it’s much better for the environment too, and at just £16 for a year’s unlimited access subscription, is absolutely the most cost-effective way of enjoying regular reading with your child.
Reading is encouraged through highlighted scripts and animated stories, which engages the child’s imagination and allows them to learn to read at their own speed accompanied by their favourite adult! The books are written mainly by schools, teams and individuals and Keen2Learn is currently running a competition to write a 2000 word minimum story which will be judged by a children’s author and turned into a Mighty Book by the end of January 2009.
Keen2Learn’s online shop maintains the highest ethical standards – quoted costs include VAT and delivery is free.
