Local Farmers Markets Signal Summer

You know summer is here when the first local Farmers Markets begin! I was excited Saturday morning to head out with cash and bags in hand to visit my favorite farmers. I allowed myself an hour before meeting my family for weekend sports games. Normally that was plenty of time but this was no ordinary Noblesville Farmers Market! To my surprise there were 97 vendors... the largest in the market's history. I talked to Ron Wilson, who was at the Riverview booth talking about the Cancer Service Hamilton County, LLC's 3rd Annual Walk For Hope on Saturday, October 16th, 2010. Ron started this local event and hopes to grow it to equal the recent Relay For Life event. Ron also told me how the market had started on the Noblesville town square many years ago when farmers would pull up and sell produce out of the back of their trucks and now it has grown into so much more. I was excited to see one of my favorite local farmers, Amy Spencer from Homestead Growers and took home some of their tasty organically grown shiitake mushrooms. Other favorites included Uptown Cafe & Catering offering local coffee and "from scratch" treats and lots of flowers and herbs for those with green thumbs. Many new vendors joined the market including Epicureans, a local catering company owned by Nancy Nearon. Nancy offered tasty strawberry shortcake samples and will have cheesecakes and other offerings to take home each week.

Here are some of the local farmers markets to visit this summer and the best part is that while we keep our families healthy, we can support local farmers and business, visit old friends and make new ones! I hope you will visit some of my friends at the Noblesville Market next Saturday and maybe I will see you there!

Noblesville Farmers Market - Saturdays May 29 - Aug. 28, 8 am - 12:30 PM, Downtown on Conner Street by Riverview Hospital.
www.Noblesville.biz/NMainStreet 317-776-0205

Westfield Farmers Market - Fridays June 4 - Aug. 6, 4 - 8 pm, Corner of SR 32 & S. Walnut Street. www.DWNA.org 317-867-5427

Fishers Farmers Market - Saturdays June 5 - Aug. 28, 8 am - 12 pm, 11601 Municipal Drive, Fishers www.FishersChamber.com 317-578-0700

Carmel Farmers Market - Saturdays May 22 - Aug. 28, 8 am - 11:30 am, One Civic Square, Carmel www.CarmelFarmersMarket.com 317-710-0162

Organic and Vintage Wear... Local and Independent

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to work next to Chris Karney, the Owner of "Organic and Vintage Wear" at Earth Day Indiana. I enjoyed learning about the company from Chris and his sister Megan (she helps at festivals and events) and was very excited to go home with several very cool shirts! I love the softness of the cloths but I bet you will be as surprised as I was to learn what they are made from! I love supporting local Independent business and since Chris is from Michigan (my home state)... that wrapped up a great package!

This is the first of several future guest posts I plan to feature. I hope you enjoy meeting some of my friends and I am really excited to begin with Chris! You can learn more about Chris and Organic and Vintage Wear online or meet them in person next weekend at the Green Festival in Chicago!


Why Go Green when it comes to clothing??
Did you know that conventional cotton alone is responsible for 16% of the worlds use of harmful pesticides and not to mention all the chemicals absorbed by the earth when it comes to the fertilizers as well. Plastic in our landfills is estimated to decompose roughly at around 1,000 yrs!! That is why we are finding more earth responsible means of taking care of our planet. The name of our clothing label is called Organic and Vintage Wear. Our clothes are made from recycled plastic bottles and organic cotton. You will be completely shocked and awed by softness and comfortableness of our clothing!! We are a Fair-Trade, Eco-Friendly Clothing Company from Southwest Michigan, that travels the country to festivals and arts and craft shows showcasing are clothing label. We apply our original drawn designs with non toxic inks by hand, and are as "green" as can be! One of the features at www.organicandvintagewear.com is called "Design your own." Here you can pick the drawing, location and even the color of paints!! It just gives it that extra feeling of UNIQUENESS!

Organic and Vintage Wear is currently in two stores and looking for more! Three Rivers, Michigan "Love Your Mother" and Denver, Colorado "Three Little Birds Salon". We have been a featured business in the Kalamazoo Gazette and also on Blogtalkradio.com . We are seeking all natural, organic stores, spas, salons, eccentric cafes, etc.

Cheers,
Chris and Katrina

Presidential Advisers Cancer Warning: Babies Born Pre-Polluted

Toxic chemicals, some linked to cancer, in our bodies and even in newborns. Researchers found 300 contaminants... industrial chemicals, consumer product ingredients, pesticides and pollutants from burning fossil fuels in the umbilical cord blood of newborn babies. The esteemed scientists and medical experts of the President's Cancer Panel called our newborn babies "pre-polluted".

This is an unprecedented report by the Presidential Cancer Advisers and they started their report with a strong statement directly to President Barack Obama saying, "The American people -- even before they are born -- are bombarded continually with myriad combinations of these dangerous exposures."

"The panel urges you most strongly to use the power of your office to remove the carcinogens and other toxins from our food, water, and air that needlessly increase health-care costs, cripple our nation's productivity and devastate American lives," they continued.

Also noteworthy was the warning by two members of the panel about the possible risks of cell phones since so little is known and rather than wait for science to catch up, they recommended it would be prudent to wear headsets and make calls quickly.

New Jersey Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg said he hoped the report would help boost support for a bill requiring closer regulation of chemicals... "My Safe Chemicals Act will require testing of all chemicals, and take substances off the market if the manufacturer cannot prove they are safe," he said. Approval of the legislation would take the guess work out of buying safe products.

According to the Presidential Cancer Advisers, our federal government is not doing enough to protect us from the numerous cancer-causing chemicals and radiation we are "bombarded" with every day, Reuters reports.

"Although nearly two-thirds of cancer cases are caused by lifestyle choices such as smoking, poor diet and lack of exercise, the two advisory members said many other cases are caused by pollution, radon gas from soil and medical imaging scans.
"The incidence of some cancers, including some most common among children, is increasing for unexplained reasons," wrote Dr. LaSalle Leffall, professor of surgery at Howard University College of Medicine in Washington D.C. and Margaret Kripke, a retired professor from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center."

The Panel also suggests these measures to reduce our risks:

*Choose foods, house and garden products, toys, medicines and medical tests that will minimize exposure to toxic substances.

*Filter tap water, and store water in stainless steel, glass or other containers to avoid exposure to BPA and other plastic that some studies have linked to health concerns.

*Buy produce grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers, or wash it well to remove them.

*Buy meat free of antibiotics and added hormones, and avoiding processed, charred and well-done meat.

The report is available at http://pcp.cancer.gov

Mother's Day - A Gift of Health

This past weekend Kristie Whitesell, the owner and chef at the Uptown Cafe in Noblesville, hosted a Women's Health Event at her cafe. Nancy Caniff, Publisher of Natural Awakenings Indianapolis helped us promote the event and Jeff Spencer, an organic farmer who is a regular vendor at the Noblesville Farmer's Market and Trader's Point Creamery Market, provided local/organic shiitaki mushrooms for our amazing dinner, prepared by Kristie. We talked about health issues that women face at every stage of life and how we can approach them naturally. When I was preparing for the event, I was really surprised at some of the information I came across. With Mother's Day approaching, it is a good time to remind all the women and Moms in our lives about the importance of taking care of ourselves... here are a few of the highlights we discussed...

4 of top 10 causes of death are chronic diseases with well-established links to diet…
Coronary Heart Disease
Cancer
Diabetes
Stroke

1 out of 3 women are estimated to get cancer
Psychiatric disorders... 26% of adults, 20% of kids
Depression: 20 million... Anxiety: 40 million
1 in 10 Americans takes an anti-depressant
Asthma affects 16 million adults …7 million children ...
Asthma causes 3600 deaths/year
From US Center for Disease Control, Ultra Mind Solution Mark Hyman MD

Give yourself and your family a gift that will last your life-time this coming Mother's Day... To often Mother's put everyone else's needs before our own so take time for yourself and prioritize your health by committing to at least one healthy lifestyle change this week.

A Prescription for Health...

A Good Diet … with “real food” (In Defense of Food … Michael Pollan)
Exercise
Adequate rest
Love and laughter
Quality supplements that help maximize prevention of disease and fill in the gaps

Please share this all the women and Moms that are special in your life.