Stock take sale on selected items

Hi

Welcome to winter if you are in the Southern Hemisphere!

We are in Melbourne and we have had a pretty ordinary day weather wise.

So to cheer us all up I wanted to tell you about our mini winter sale - YAY!

You can see our specials here:

http://betweenskyandearth.com.au/store/pc/showspecials.asp

So, come and check out what we have to offer - if what you want is not on sale you can always ask us for a slightly better deal - we can't promise anything but you never know your luck!

Ok I will keep it short & sweet tonight.

Here's the page again:

http://betweenskyandearth.com.au/store/pc/showspecials.asp

Thanks for reading - please tell your friends & family about the sale.

Peace to all,
KISS for life,
Miriam.

Eco Mum Deals

We are excited to announce our new bulk buy deals - Eco Mum Deals. We have uploaded four (4) deals so far. Please check them out (see link below) as they are really great deals.

http://betweenskyandearth.com.au/store/pc/viewCategories.asp?pageStyle=h&idCategory=202

We want people to change their lifestyles to be as sustainable as possible and we are willing to help you out as much as possible.

We have lots of products on our site that we can potentially offer to you via our Eco Mum Deals facility. More deals will be added over the next fortnight.

All you have to do is buy in bulk. You may not always get a choice of colour. So, get your friends, relatives, colleagues, and/or club members together and SAVE, SAVE, SAVE while you GO GREEN!

If there is a product on our website (or not) you would like to see with an Eco Mum Deal, please contact us

http://betweenskyandearth.com.au/store/pc/viewCategories.asp?pageStyle=h&idCategory=202

and we will do our best to help you out.

KISS for Life,
Peace to all,
Miriam.

Human and planetary survival and climate change are intertwined

Climate Change is doing severe damage all ready (latest example in my country is Cyclone Yasi).

The way we operate broadscale agriculture is one thing that urgently needs to change. It is doable, it is not so difficult, it is rewarding for those doing it and it can be applied practically anywhere.




How we all live our lives - especially in the West - needs to alter quickly.

Reduce your carbon footprint NOW. Even if you all ready do and you don't think you can any further, reflect on it and how you live. Try helping others to reduce their footprint by at least 10-20% over the course of 2011. Explore ways you might reduce your own further if you were able to form groups or partnerships with others to accomplish various things - share garden/farm for fruit and vegies; car share/pool; cargo bike share; share composting and worm farming facilities (have a larger system, collect scraps from local business); create biofuel communally - lots of things are possible.

Want a hand? http://betweenskyandearth.com.au/store/pc/viewContent.asp?idpage=3

KISS for Life,
Peace to all,
Miriam.

Give Me Some Sugar

There is a lot of mixed information about sugar and sugar substitutes. If you are diabetic or pre-diabetic you are told to use sugar substitutes if you wish to have "sweets" or sweet baked goods and the like. There is mounting evidence that artificial sweeteners are deleterious to health too.

This is not really surprising. It seems that anything that is a processed food is not good for our health and no matter how you sweeten it, our bodies are not designed to eat such things. (The same can be said for all other species. In fact, studies have been done with cats. Those kept on unnatural diets had increasing health problems with each subsequent generation. Each generation was given the same diet. It only took three generations for the cats to become sterile, amongst other problems. Do you see similarities with humans? We are far more adaptive, but eventually we suffer similar difficulties. )

If you can, I strongly recommend you read Sugar Blues by William Dufty. Unfortunately, it is out of print.

You may be wondering why I've chosen this topic. Well, it's due to, amongst other reasons (like being passionate about your health), an article in the current issue of Nexus (see http://www.nexusmagazine.com.au/ ) about high fructose corn and agave syrups. (One of the most frightening claims in this article is the ability of agave syrup to cause miscarraige.)

It is interesting that, in Japan, one of the most popular sugar substitutes is banned - aspartame. Diabetic products tend to use Stevia or Xylitol over there.

Beware of foods advertised as "low fat" as they often are loaded with sugar. Sugar will put weight on you more easily than fat (you've heard of "carb loading" haven't you? - increasing simple & complex carb food intake in order to gain body fat, usually for some sort of endurance physical activity - note that an endurance athlete doesn't "fat load" in order to put on weight).

Many fats are actually healthy to consume and some are essential fatty acids because our bodies cannot manufacture them. You probably have seen articles or tv reports on them - Omega 3 fatty acids. How do you get them? Wild fish, wild game, and Oganically/Biodynamically reared animals are your best sources. Some seeds are good sources too - hemp (in Australia, you cannot get the unprocessed seeds but the oil is widely available), flax, and chia are your best options.

Make certain not to consume trans fatty acids. This, togeher with genetically modified foods, is probably the worst thing to ask your body to process. If you are concerned about GMOs or want information, contact Gene-ethics and/or see http://www.madge.org.au/.

ALWAYS READ LABELS ON PROCESSED FOODS AND PERSONAL AND HOUSEHOLD HYGIENE PRODUCTS.

If you can't understand the words, it's a good bet, it may not be good for your health. Also, beware of the "greenwash" tactics that are widely used to market products as "natural" or "organic" or "degradeable" (as opposed to biodegradeable).

Firstly, look for organic certification on anything claiming to be organic - no certification number = not organic. (Some certifying bodies have much better criteria than others - OCA and BFA and NASAA are some of the better ones.) Also beware of organic junk food - it's not any better than other junk food in the long run. But in the short run, it doesn't have certain chemicals for preservation or pesticides.

Raw food, minimally processed foods, organic foods, wild/wildcrafted foods, simple personal care and household hygiene products are the best options for you, me, our families and the planet.

That's our specialty at Between Father Sky and Mother Earth - we care about you.

On a closing note, I'd like to recommend the film Dirt! the movie.

KISS for life,
Peace to all,
Miriam.

The story of bottled water - part of the Story of Stuff project

Here's the latest from Annie Leonard, creator of the Story of Stuff, about bottled water at http://www.thestoryofstuff.org/.

Remember, the best way to avoid the problems associated with too much stuff, ie. waste materials used to make products that companies convince us that we need, is to ignore the marketing and don't buy the stuff.

If something is called or marketed as "take-away" there is probably packaging involved that is bad for the environment (eg. plastics and polystyrene) or it's a very poor nutritonal choice or it cost hundreds if not more times what it would cost you to take from home in the first place or all of these things!

Recycling is not always a good option either. Some plastics are recyclable but they are generally downcycled - the new product is inferior to the original.

Here endeth the lesson for today.

If you are interested in these sorts of issues and/or products and services that can help you live more sustainably, or you would like to make a comment, please contact us:

info@betweenskyandearth.com.au

See our website:

http://www.betweenskyandearth.com.au/

Thanks for your time. Enjoy the rest of the day - plant some seeds and see what happens.

Miriam.