Hello Everyone! After my weekend at Cascadian Farm in Skagit Valley, Washington, I couldn’t stop thinking or talking about Autumn. I love to see the trees – heavy with their colorful leaves and pumpkins in the pumpkin patch. Fall is one of the things that I miss the most about living in the West.
Surprise! Mr. Sweet Greens is taking us on a long weekend road trip to the mountains of North Carolina. We leave on Thursday morning! I am so excited to be able to experience Autumn again. The pumpkin patches, organic farms, colors, weather, a fall hike, caramel apples and snuggling next to the fireplace.
Isn’t the River’s Rest log cabin quaint? It was built using 150 year old logs and is nestled in the woods within walking distance of the river. Mr. Sweet Greens has an entire weekend of Fall family fun planned. He’s a keeper!
I will be sharing all of the fun with you when we return home next Monday!
Do you have any Fall family road trips planned? Where are you going? Where do you think is the best place to visit during Autumn?
Please join me in welcoming Sweet Greens’ newest sponsor: Tiny Prints. Tiny Prints has a collection of high quality, fashionable products including stationary, invitations, announcements, greeting cards, photo books, calendars and gifts.
Tiny Prints is a Bay Area Certified green business that uses Luxurious Eco Friendly paper with beautiful designs. What was started by three friends with big dreams and a passion for beautiful paper – has quickly grown into a booming online retailer with fabulous designs for every occasion.
There is still time to order your Halloween cards. I wish that I was having a Halloween party this year. If I were, I would order the Crow’s Nest Invitations. And wouldn’t this Sparrow Surprise – Persimmon card be perfect for an older child? Eben would get a kick out of this Night Watcher card – he loves owls.
And don’t forget the winter holidays are right around the corner – rush over to Tiny Prints to order your chic holiday cards in an assortment of fun designs, beautiful colors and sweet layouts – that will fit any budget!
A huge thank you to Tiny Prints for sponsoring Sweet greens. Would you like to learn more about becoming a sponsor? If so, please click here.
I am very excited to share my photos and experiences from my weekend trip to Cascadian Home Farm in Skagit Valley, Washington. I had a terrific time and it was a joy to get to know Don Smith (Art Director, Senior Designer for Small Planet Foods), Farmer Jim (Head Organic Farmer for the Cascadian Home Farm), fellow blogger Janice Croze from 5 Minutes for Green and Nicole Newville from Space 150.
On Saturday morning, I arrived a few hours earlier than I was scheduled to. I wanted to take my time and enjoy the scenery in the beautiful Cascade Mountains. The morning fog was still covering part of the mountain when I arrived at the farm and the air was cool and crisp. I roamed around the pumpkin patch, flower gardens and visited the roadside stand. I quietly watched children pick the perfect pumpkin from the patch and listened to them giggle with delight as they stuffed their own scarecrow – all part of the Skagit Valley Festival of Farms day at Cascadian Farm.
Once everyone arrived, our official tour with Farmer Jim and Don began. We jumped onto Farmer Jim’s tractor and toured the entire property. While we took in our beautiful surroundings, Farmer Jim shared his methods of crop rotation, composting, natural pest control, gravity fed watering and my favorite – his ingenious method for keeping birds from eating the best blueberries on the tops of the bushes. He has several kites fashioned to the bottom of helium balloons that glide above the blueberry fields – mimicking predator birds. This frightens the smaller blueberry eating birds, to stay on the ground under the bushes, eating only the berries that have fallen to the ground – leaving the best blueberries on the top in perfect condition for the harvest. Brilliant!
After our official tour, Don treated us with lunch from Cascadian Farm’s roadside stand, followed by our choice of dessert. A couple of us choose the fabulous Strawberry Shortcake – made with strawberries from the farm. And the rest of us choose the homemade Pumpkin Pie ice cream that was absolutely divine.
After lunch, Don took us on a walking tour of the farm where we were able to get up close and personal with the blueberry and raspberry bushes, miniature kiwi plants, pumpkins, strawberries and to the hoop house where we saw the largest tomatoes and peppers. Don was a great tour guide and was happy to answer all of our questions and encouraged us to try all of the different fruits and vegetables. Don was the perfect tour guide because he has been a part of Cascadian Farm since the 70’s. He met the founder of Cascadian Farm, Gene Kahn in the summer of 1974 and in 1978 Gene asked him to make a painting for the first full color jam label. He shared wonderful stories about the farm’s history and pointed out Mt. Chavel – the mountain that he painted for Cascadian Farm’s logo.
Later, Don took us for a tour of the local fish ladder, which unfortunately didn’t have any fish in it. FYI: A fish ladder is a structure that allows fish the opportunity to migrate upstream over or through a barrier. Why? If there is an obstruction in the river, such as a dam, the fish are unable to swim upstream to reproduce. Therefore, without fish ladders, we would see a decline or extinction of the fish in that particular area.
My visit to the Skagit Valley made me homesick for the West. I enjoyed my time living in the mountains of Utah and in the foothills of Colorado. In fact, I called Mr. Sweet Greens and jokingly asked, “So, when are we moving to Washington?” The Skagit Valley just has a way of making you want to stay there forever. I look forward to my next visit.
If you are ever in the Seattle area, I highly recommend spending a day at Cascadian Farm. You can see all of the pictures that I took on my weekend getaway to Cascadian Farm here or here.
Have you finished your children’s back to school shopping? Have you started? Of course you have, right? Ha. Either way wouldn’t you love to send your children off to school in high style clothing with an environmentally friendly statement? Barley and Birch is an environmentally friendly children’s clothing line that includes hats, pants, lap tees, one pieces, tanks and tees – and they fit this bill 100%.
The clothing will delight your children with its colorful, fun, and educational designs. Parents will be intrigued with the fabulous quality of the clothing, Barley and Birch’s excellent business practices and the environmentally and socially responsible statement that each piece of clothing has. Personally, I also love the cute quotes you will find on the website, like the one above with “Cole had plenty of energy. He questioned the need for fossil fuels.”
Barley and Birch is completely focused on their impact on the environment, every part of the clothing line is environmentally friendly. Barley and Birch offsets their carbon emissions, uses only certified organic cotton and water based inks and is a mostly paper-free company. Any instances where paper is used, the paper is 100% post-consumer recycled.
Barley and Birch donates 10% of their profits to a variety of organizations which provides assistance for everything from educating rural farmers on sustainable agriculture to providing shelter to victims of abuse. Barley and Birch also works with some of the leading environmentally and socially responsible groups including, Cocoda, Madre, Green America, 1% for the Plant and Carbonfund.org. I love this and I think that donating to wonderful environmentally friendly organizations is essential to the health of our planet, that is why I donate 100% of my sponsor fees to The Nature Conservancy: Plant a Million Trees campaign. You can help me reach my goal of 1,000 trees planted by donated $1 here.
I received the Bluefeet: Look at ’em grove tee shirt and it is fabulous. It is super soft and comfy and the design is super cute. The Blue Footed Bubi is one of Eben’s favorite birds so he was immediately drawn to the tee. I was very impressed with the high quality of the tee and the colors are great. I absolutely love the The Bridge: A bold, modern marvel and Octi: Tentacles, but without the slime.
You can send your little one back to school in high green fashion too. Barley and Birch has been so great to offer ONE of my lovely readers your choice of an animal print tee shirt.
How to Enter
1. Subscribe to Sweet Greens (if you haven’t already) and confirm the subscription in the email from FeedBurner.
2. Visit Barley and Birch and leave me a comment telling me which design you would choose for your little one.
Additional Entriesplease leave a separate comment for each thing that you do.
Share Barley and Birch on Twitter and follow @SweetGreens.
You can tweet this giveaway everyday, just leave me a separate comment for each time)
Please leave a way for me to contact you if you win.
Contest ends August 27th @ 12am EST. Winner will be chosen at random using a random number generator and will be announced the following day. (I will announce the winner, if I do not hear from you within 72 business hours, I will pick another winner.)
You must leave a comment telling me which item you love in order to qualify.
Good Luck!
UPDATE: WINNER:: Congratulations Jen! #30. Thanks again everyone.
I have talked about how important it is to make an informed decision about thepersonal care products that you use on yourself and your family. I really feel that this is one of the simplest green things you can do for yourself and the planet. I found a great company called Beautorium that will remove a lot of the guess work for you. Beautorium offers a fabulous selection of natural and organic beauty products form around the globe, each product that Beautorium carries has to meet a demanding criteria, where each product:
is natural or organic.
has NOT been tested on animals.
has effective ingredients with proven benefits.
is professionally and beautifully presented.
comes from a compelling brand with company personality.
Each product also comes with a full list of the ingredients, so you can make an informed decision for yourself. (This is super important to me and you can see the personal care ingredients that I avoid here.) Beautorium offers a try before you buy program – you can pick four samples from a collection of their most popular lines for only $10 and you also get $10 off your first order, so essentially there is nothing to lose.
The lavender bath is very relaxing and smells wonderful, best of all it is not oily or greasy – I could use this every single day.
The lip care stick is fabulous and is one of my personal favorite products since I am obsessed with lip care products. I love lip care so much in fact, that if I am without one, you will hearing me whining and this is when the mister will affectionately call me “Napoleon.” Dr. Hauschka Lip Care Stick is moisturizing and keeps my dry cracked lips hydrated all day. I love it so much, I want to share it with you.
1. Subscribe to Sweet Greens. 2. Leave me a note telling me what is your favorite personal care product. 3. Complete this form. 4. If you would like 15% off your first purchase, sign up for Beautorium’s newletter.
Good Luck!
Contest ends May 18th @ 12am EST. Winner will be chosen at random using a random number generator and will be announced the following day.
* Update: Winners:: Amanda, Mary C., Jessica, Kristen and Linda C. Congrats.
Hello Everyone! After my weekend at Cascadian Farm in Skagit Valley, Washington, I couldn’t stop thinking or talking about Autumn. I love to see the trees – heavy with their colorful leaves and pumpkins in the pumpkin patch. Fall is one of the things that I miss the most about living in the West. 
