Limited choices, and you know something big is happening when it happens here

We have limited options at our in-town grocery and Wal*mart stores. You can find pretty much whatever you want, or at least what you need, but the selection isn't what it is at the larger (or smaller stores) in the town where we work.

It isn't so much the products that we can find (juice, soda, canned goods, frozen stuff, deli, produce, all of that), but rather the types of said products offered. Finding an organic brand of nearly anything at the local grocery is nearly impossible. But there are a few options for "natural" peanut butter. I think there is one barbeque sauce in the whole store that doesn't have high fructose corn syrup. And that says nothing of my poor uncle who has a recently diagnosed soy allergy: out of  wall of salad dressing, there were maybe 5 bottles he could eat. One was a spice packet where you add your own oil and vinegar. The others were locally produced brands.

Since I've just started making the leap to baking soda/vinegar for some cleaning needs (certainly not all - yet), this has presented a challenge for us.

What has been exciting as of late, is the emergence of more eco-friendly brands and variants on the shelves, and at prices that are at least comparable to the conventional ones. For example, dishwasher detergent. I picked up one of 2 bottles that declared itself eco-friendly with no phosphates and my husband rolled his eyes. "Are we really that rich that we can... oh, it isn't that expensive." True, a smaller bottle of the store brand was much cheaper, but every other option was within 50 cents of the bottle I picked. Some were even more expensive. Score!

Then, at Wal*Mart (groan if you must) Tom's of Maine is being stocked. I've read a few places (can't remember now, so apologies for no links) that some people are upset as a result of changes since they were bought by a larger company, but I'm still very happy to see 2 different toothpastes (one with and one without flouride), and at least 2 different Tom's deodorants (plus a Crystal liquid roll-on). As we needed toothpaste, we got some. Still using the deodorant I picked up at Trader Joe's in California while on a business trip. (Really, my checked bag on the way back from these trips is hilarious now - shampoo, deodorant, all sorts of organic and natural personal care products I can't find easily in my small town.)

Small victories, I know, but I get a small thrill buying these products at my local grocery and Wal*mart because I know that somewhere in the vastness of information and reporting, another ping is going towards the more eco-conscious shopper.

In an attempt at full disclosure, I initially wrote this in June 2011. I tweaked a few tenses here and there, and it is up-to-date.

Adventures with Baking Soda

So, a bit ago, I mentioned something about having more personal experience with the uses of baking soda. A day or so before that, I had eeked out the very last bit I could from my deodorant. I had been using a liquid crystal roll-on. For years, I have used deodorant, and not antiperspirant, avoiding ingredients like aluminum. (Briefly, deodorant deodorizes and antiperspirants prevent sweat.) This proved difficult to do, at times, with several stores carrying only antiperspirants. Even when I found a deodorant I liked, I would discover that several stores didn't carry it, or we'd move to an area where the stores that did have it didn't exist. I've also been paying twice as much, it seems, for deodorant-that-isn't-antiperspirant for several years.

I had had enough.

Trolling around my blog circuit, I had found different alternatives, from simply going without (I sweat a lot, and for me sweat = smelly. Remember, I do work in an office, so I do need to look and smell professional.) to making your own from various ingredients. Crunchy Chicken has a recipe that one applies very much like the regular-old store bought stuff. I remembered this fact, but not the recipe. On top of that, I don't have coconut oil or cocoa butter at home. (Or the sandalwood essential oil, but that is optional.)

I also remembered reading about people using straight baking soda, or baking soda cut with corn starch as deodorant (with varying levels of effectiveness). As I was standing there, needing deodorant, the 6:1 cornstarch:baking soda ratio stuck in my head. I don't have a nifty little jar to put it in, and think I threw out the only make up brush I had (from when I was... let's just say that it was easily over 10 years old). I did have corn starch and baking soda (I did know it was going to come down to this at some point), a small Pyrex dish and left over cotton balls.

To the kitchen I went, and mixed up a corn starch-baking soda mixture with a ratio closer to 3:1. Then, found the cotton ball, and got out some plastic wrap to cover the dish. (Honey I'll leave out, uncovered for a bit, but if baking soda absorbs odor, don't want to leave it out, then apply to my body.) Taking advice from those who went before me, I made sure my arm pits were clean and dry, then applied my new deodorant.

Between the honey, tea tree oil, jojoba oil, and now this, I have a very interesting daily toilette.

Overall, I am happy with the results. It does a good job for a normal day for me. Even on a slightly more active day, I remain relatively dry and odor free.

I did go to an outdoor wedding in the heat, and then danced indoors. The baking soda failed there. I was just sweating too much for it to keep up. I smelled pretty bad, and went to the car to put on my husband's deodorant (out of town wedding, and yeah, it was that bad).

Using the corn starch/baking soda mix, I have not experienced irritation. When this batch runs out, I think I will try the 1:1 ratio suggested in Life Less Plastic. I will also need to get a poof or make up brush, as cotton balls don't hold up for too terribly long, I'm almost out, and I don't really want to buy more.

Have you ever tried this? What were your results?

The Miracle Product that is Baking Soda

I've tried to lay off the article posts, but this one about uses for baking soda made me excited.

While I knew about some of these uses, like a deodorizer, cleaning scrub, even toothpaste, my own usage of baking soda has been somewhat limited to cooking and baking. (until recently, that is, but more on that in a later post.)

I'm not sure if it is the actual tips in this article, or the fact that it was one of my Yahoo! headlines today that makes me more excited. The uses aren't new. The knowledge isn't new. The packaging of said knowledge into an easily accessible and understandable bundle is. (somewhat) At the very least, such succinct lists are new to me.

I'm just happy that the resources are out there, and seem to be so plentiful. And I'm glad that I've been doing a bit of research into such matters. As we run out of things and are unable to make it to the store, I find myself reaching back into my memory banks to see if I can remember an alternative. Sometimes, I can. Other times, I vaguely remember something but not the entire recipe, or find I don't have a crucial ingredient. At any rate, moving and limited store-access has really helped to stretch my imagination, and helped us be a tad bit greener as a result, I think. (broken water heater helps, too. No long, hot showers when there is no hot water...)