Baresoaps

I’ve learned lots in my first year flower farming with . It may look idyllic but one thing that keeps me busy is figuring out how to combat pest pressure without any insecticide, organic or chemical. Tonight, I will be trying a brown sugar mixture foliar spray to hopefully help microbial activity and attract beneficial insects.

One thing I’m a bit disappointed in is how regenerative farming practices haven’t carried over into the flower farming world. Florists require the most perfectly aesthetic stem. I’m willing to let an entire row “go to waste” if it means building my soil health by not spraying. But the pressure for farmers to grow stems without insects and bugs means people are spraying- sometimes spraying organic things like neem oil without realizing that neem has led to a decrease in bee and bird colonies. And when you kill the bad pests, you kill good insects too.

If you buy flowers and bouquets, one thing to recognize is that if we want the floral industry to operate more sustainably, we HAVE to be able to accept some bugs in our flowers and be ok with it. Actually, we have to learn how to accept bugs as marvels and not get freaked out over everything crawling. Believe me, I was deathly afraid of ants and still shirk at thrips, but it’s a work in progress. We cannot want to live a sustainable lifestyle but separate the “yuckiness” of the outdoors from sustainability. They are deeply intertwined

Have you ever heard of Petro Pete?

If you live in the state of Oklahoma and have a young child, chances are you have.

This illustrated series was created by the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board, a state agency funded by oil and gas producers. The board has spent upwards of $40 million over the past two decades on K-12 education with a pro-industry bent, including hundreds of pages of curricula, a speaker series and an afterschool program—all at no cost to educators.

Petro Pete wakes up to find that his toothbrush, hardhat and even the tires on his bike missing. Abandoned by the school bus, Pete walks to Petroville Elementary in his pajamas whereupon his teacher explains, “It looks like you are missing all of your petroleum by-products today!” Obviously our lives are embedded with petroleum products but clearly this book isn’t telling the whole story….

In certain states across the country, lobbyists employed by the fossil fuel industry make their rounds at schools to advocate for fossil fuels and dispel climate change science.

If you’re a parent who cares about climate change, you may want to ask your child whether they’ve discussed this topic at school and whether that discussion is based in science.

Rain or shine, we are at today selling soap, shampoo bars, candles and blooms. The soap sat tucked away for a bit due to the rain but has come out now that it’s a drizzle. We are impressed that people are still braving the rain to come out and support local!

Do you have a…
✔️Large appliance such as an oven, range hood, dishwasher that isn’t functional or you can’t sell?
✔️Piece of scrap metal such as a post, pipe, or tubing?
✔️Aluminum pots, pan, old faucet?

Rather than throw them away, did you know that you can take them to a scrap yard and get some 💰?

We recently had a very old range hood and an old mailbox that sat on an aluminum post. We took them to a local scrapyard and got $10. It’s clearly not going to make us rich, but it’s good to know some parts of those items will get a second life rather than sitting in a landfill! You can Google “scrap yard” to find the nearest location to you!