A Weekend in Sonoma

We did a mini vacation last weekend in Sonoma County California, an area known for its wine, beer, and food. We were not disappointed. I was looking for a trip where I could get to the ocean, do a bike ride, and some hiking – after all, you have to balance all that eating and drinking with some exercise, right?

 

Redwood Tree

 The weather was perfect, warm and sunny (I’d heard September was a great time to visit). We rented bikes in Healdsburg and took a loop through wine country, taking it easy on the wine since we were on bikes. This was definitely the way to see the valley and from now on I will look for a place to rent a bike on any vacation we take. I felt pretty safe on the loop we took but many of the roads in the area are very windy, hilly and without a shoulder – not a place I want to ride.

We drove to the Armstrong Redwoods Park and did a short hike through the tallest trees in the world. Hiking in redwoods is much different than hiking in Colorado because it’s dark! Not so much sun reaches the ground in a redwood forest. We also did a short hike in Annadel Park which was much more open but lots of moss and lichen growing on the trees.

coast line at Jenner

An afternoon was spent at the beach near Jenner relaxing, walking and watching the seals. We drove the classic California Highway 1 to Bagoda Bay and stopped for fish tacos and a wine tasting. This area is a beautiful rocky area but with nice sandy beaches too.

I hadn’t realized that the Alcohol, Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau defines various wine growing areas in the US calling them American Viticultural Areas (AVAs). These AVAs are distinguished by geographic features but also different growing climates and soils that define the types of grapes that grow best in that particular AVA. In Sonoma County there are 16 different AVAs and over 400 wineries. We didn’t try all of them, but of the one’s we tried we were not disappointed.

Sonoma County is also known for its Farm to Table fare (something we are well versed in coming from Boulder County). If you go make sure to seek out a restaurant that specializes in Farm to Table.

We also hit the big Micro Breweries; Lagunitas, Bear Republic, and Russian River for beer tastings. There doesn’t seem to be as many smaller microbreweries in Sonoma as there are in Colorado. In Longmont alone I believe there are 8 microbreweries. But we did find one small one; Cooperage, that had some good beers. 

Lagunitas Brewing Company for lunch

On the drive back to the airport we had unfortunately, just a few moments to spare and stopped at the Seed Bank Store which sells rare seed from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company. Wish we’d had more time to spend there, it was quite an interesting store.  Here is their website.

So there you have it - 5 days of wine, beer, food, beach, hiking, cycling and a few minutes resting at the pool. Oh, and one more interesting thing - we saw fennel growing along side the roads everywhere. Apparently fennel is considered an invasive weed in California! Wow, and I baby mine in the garden! You can read about fennel on BLM land here.http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/hollister/noxious_weeds/nox_weeds_list/sweetfennel.html

Beauty Benefits of Peppers

Beauty Benefits of Peppers

Peppers come in all sizes, shapes and colors and we love them all. This time of year many of them are ripe and you can find a wide variety at farmers markets. Peppers even come in different flavors from sweet to hot. But you’ve been wondering, haven’t you; what are the beauty benefits of peppers?

Nutrients found in Peppers:

Peppers are high in:

Vitamin A, a nutrient that is important in cellular turnover in the skin.

Vitamin C which is important for production of collagen. In fact, one bell pepper provides more than your daily minimum requirement for vitamin C.

Antioxidants such as flavonoids that help repair cellular damage in the skin.

Vitamin B6 or pyridoxine which is important in neurological health. Deficiencies in vitamin B6 are linked to dermatitis and some types of cancer.

Any of these properties not only make peppers a good food to eat for healthy skin but you can also use peppers mashed on the face for a food facial, a good farm to skin treat! To see more about how to use food in a facial see Farmers Market Peach Facial. I wouldn't use a hot pepper for a facial though.

Hot peppers contain capsaicin, and related compounds called capsacinoids.  This is the family of chemicals that cause the heat in a hot pepper. Capsaicin and the related capsacinoids are analgesic, meaning they have pain relieving qualities even though they are also an irritant. The capsacinoids appear to affect the nerves that signal pain. It has been used to relieve the pain of arthritis, psoriasis, diabetic neuropathy, shingles and more. You can find topical ointments that contain capsaicin, or you can make your own compress or poultice from hot peppers. However, do not use on broken skin, near the eyes or near mucus membranes.

To make a pepper poultice or compress for a sore back or joints follow these instructions:

Poultice

Grind one hot pepper (jalapeno or other) in a food processor. Add a teaspoon or so of oil (olive or other) to get a good consistency.

Wet a rag or cloth bandage in the hot pepper mixture and lay on skin or wrap around if it is a joint area. Leave on as long as necessary. You can also wrap this in plastic wrap to keep in place and keep off of furniture.

Compress

A compress is very similar but instead of applying the mashed pepper to the skin you are using more of a tea or extract soaked in the pepper extract. The most common way of doing this with hot pepper is to make a vinegar of cayenne.

Add 1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper to 8 oz of cider vinegar. For this you can use dried, powdered cayenne or a fresh hot pepper that has been mashed.

Boil, then simmer on low heat for 5-10 minutes.

Soak a rag or bandage in this vinegar and apply to skin. Again, you can cover this with plastic wrap to keep it from seeping out.

Remove if it becomes too hot or uncomfortable to the skin.

For more on the science of how hot peppers help with pain read this from Science Daily.  

 or

Capsaicin to Reduce Pain, Clinical Pain Advisor

Healing Herbs, Tina Sams

Healing Herbs, A Beginner's Guide to Identifying Foraging, and Using Medicinal Plants
Tina Sams
Fair Winds Press, 2015

Healing Herbs, Tina Sams

Tina Sams is a modern day Village Herbalist with a vast knowledge of herbs found in gardens, field and forest.  She is a teacher, mentor, and someone good at bringing people together to share information and educate others.  Many of her projects, such as The Essential Herbal Magazine, are collaborations that she encourages among herbalists as is Healing Herbs where you will find many contributions from other herbalists.

After explaining the various methods of using herbs, Tina has broken this book up into 20 different herbs; 20 different herbs that everyone should know.

For each herb Tina includes background information on the herbs, medicinal benefits and recipes for food, medicine, skin care and/or crafts. The book makes herbs easily approachable with its casual style and is great for both the beginner and experienced herbalist. A great one to keep close for reference.

You can get yours here.

Book Review: Harvest to Hydrosol, Ann Harman

Harvest to Hydrosol, Ann Harman

botANNicals 2015

Annie Harman is a distiller extraordinaire and I am happy to consider her a colleague as well as a friend. Her and I have talked back and forth alot about distilling over the years and I can attest that she is the best person to have authored this book - the first of its kind. This is a must have guide for distillers of hydrosols; either at home as a hobby or professionally.

As a bibliophile it is not surprising that she starts the book out with a history of stills and distilling. It is fascinating to read about the different types of stills used throughout history.  This is followed by advice on how to choose a modern day still to fit your needs.  Annie has the utmost respect for her stills and uses an analogy of the still being the Earth and the distillation process representing the earth’s water cycle of evaporation, transpiration and condensation.

As a scientist, Ann recognizes the importance of safety and keeping the work area/distillation area clean and sanitized. Being made typically on the farm, hydrosols/distillates are prone to being contaminated by airborne bacteria and fungus. She has great advice here.

Much of the book is about observations she has made during her distillations and its good that she has great record keeping skills. These observations dispel some common myths of hydrosols. The Appendix includes chemical analysis (GC/MS) of some hyrosols she has had tested.  I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in distilling, even for experienced distillers who want to learn how to make it more of an art.

Distillation is both an art and a science and very few ‘rules’ apply.  However you choose to distill, know that this is an evolving field. Nothing is written in stone  and there are many ways that you can choose to do your distillations. Make sure to make careful observations and document what you do so that you learn from every distillation you perform and find the right way for ‘You’ to distill.

You can purchase this book directly from the author at https://copperstills.com/products/

Personal Care Products Safety Act of 2015

It's happened again. A new cosmetics Safety Bill has been introduced;  the Personal Care Products Safety Act of 2015 was introduced on April 20 by Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine).

There are a few things in here that I am impressed with that are much different than previous bills. One being that rather than calling for outright bans on random ingredients they are asking that the FDA review 5 ingredients for safety each year. That first set of chemicals they are asking to be reviewed are diazolidinyl urea, lead acetate, methylene glycol/formaldehyde, propyl paraben, and quaternium-15.

The bill is being backed by many large companies including L'oreal, Johnson & Johnson, Proctor & Gamble, Revlon, Estee Lauder, and Unilever. It is also backed by the Personal Care Products Council, and of course the Environmental Working Group.

Small businesses are not so quick to endorse the bill, however, as it may have adverse effects to us. My advise to all who may be affected is to first read the bill - its only 98 pages. But only by reading it will you identify the issues that might affect your business. In the past many makers have jumped on the bandwagon thinking that any bill claiming to make cosmetics safer must be a good thing, but unless you read the bill you can't know exactly what someone else's opinion of a safe cosmetic is or what is required of the manufacturer to get one.

The Independent Cosmetics Manufacturers and Distributors (ICMAD) group and the Hand Crafted Soap and Cosmetics Guild has come out against the bill due to the repercussions it would have on small businesses.


Here are some highlights.
Anyone who makes cosmetics will need to register with the FDA (I think this is a good thing).
Ingredients and possibly formulas you use for cosmetics will have to be registered with FDA.

5 ingredients per year would be reviewed by the FDA.
Cosmetics companies will have to supply more information online if they sell online.


All adverse effects would need to be reported to FDA.
The FDA will have the authority to recall cosmetics.
Companies may need to supply safety information on their ingredients and formulas (but its vague).
The FDA will set up Good Manufacturing Practices that must be followed.

I am not supporting the bill because what they are asking of topical products is more than what is asked of food products that are ingested. Other questionable areas to me include Good Manufacturing practices. Currently, FDA has 'guidelines' for GMP. This bill states that the FDA will come up with mandatory GMPs. Again, this sounds good, but there are several things about the current recommended GMPs that make it impossible to be in business alone such as requiring that a second person check each measurement made. I hope that if/when the FDA writes mandatory GMPs it will take into consideration small businesses and those who work by themselves. A second concern is that product manufacturers must make some statement as to the safety of their product. What is actually required here is vague. Previous bills seemed to suggest expensive testing on final cosmetics products.

Getting safety information on specific ingredients also poses some concern. When I buy large quantities of ingredients I am typically supplied with safety information and MSDS from the supplier,  but for small manufacturers who may for instance buy a gallon of olive oil at the grocery store, they have no access to safety information or testing done on that bottle of olive oil. Another big concern of mine is always for those of us who use herbs from our gardens/farms. Most of us have not run safety tests on our soil or herbs and it would be very difficult to do so. Being able to make natural, sustainable products is a big concern of mine.

FDA will need money to carry out its part of this bill so collection of fees is a big part. Companies with sales less than $500,000 are exempt from fees and fees from companies selling from $500,000 to $2,500,000 will be just $250. After that fees increase dramatically.

Now if you make soap and no cosmetics this bill does not appear to affect you as it only addresses cosmetics.

Lawyers associated with The Coalition of Handcrafted Entrepreneurs reported on the Indie Business Success phone call (May 1, 2015) that they thought the bill would not go far. There just doesn't seem to be alot of interest at the Senate level and there are plenty of other more taxing matters to deal with. I hope this is true because I am having fun running my business and don't want to have to take time out to fight this bill.

Want to take action and write to your legislator about this bill? See instructions at the Coalition of Handcrafted Entrepreneurs website.



Here are a few additional blogs you can read that review the bill
Lucky Break Consulting
Indie Business Success Call  - When the recording becomes available it's well worth the listen.
FDA Law Blog
Manufacturers and Distributors (ICMAD)
Modern Soapmakers Blog