A carefully curated crate made especially for you.

Heard about our Lost Crates partnership yet? Every month we bring you a curated crate of green goods (that you can subscribe to), and for August we’re excited to be featuring a selection of goods from one of our favorite eco-friendly, design savvy brands, Flip & Tumble. Beyond making products that are meant to be reused, and from sustainable materials, Flip & Tumble is also a carbon neutral business, using their carbon credits to support environmentally friendly projects.

What’s in this month’s crate?

24-7 Bag
The bag that’s fit for just about anything. Roll it up into a ball, keep it with you at all times and you’re always ready to say no to plastic. (Pictured above)

Produce Pouches
Shopping for bulk almonds, fresh nectarines and a bunch of kale? Stash them all with this set of reusable (and washable) produce bags.

Felt Pod
Add a bit of color to a room with this little pod, made from recycled felt and perfect for storing your favorite succulent.

All this for $38 plus shipping and handling.

We caught up with Flip & Tumble to learn a little bit more about what they do.

What inspired the launch of Flip & Tumble?

It all started with the 24-7 bag, please see our story here.

Beyond making reusable and sustainable products and being carbon neutral, your business is committed to doing “the little things that matter”. What are some of those things that you do on an everyday basis?

We are very conscious of the materials we use in every step of our business from recycling paper in our office to the amount of packaging we use on our products. We really keep this in mind for all the things we do as a business.

If you could give just one tip for living a more conscious lifestyle, what would it be?

I think it can be overwhelming to think about all the things you can do to be more environmentally responsible. I find it really helpful to try and introduce one new green initiative into your life at a time and really figure out a way to make it work for you so that you keep doing it.

Sign up for a subscription and get your Flip & Tumble crate now.

The post This Month from EcoSalon + Lost Crates: A Selection of Flip & Tumble Products appeared first on EcoSalon.

Exclusive green goods shipped to you monthly.

What’s better than getting a letter in the mail? A package in the mail!

That’s why we’re very excited to announce our new partnership with Lost Crates, sending you a package of exclusive green goods monthly or quarterly. It’s like a wine of the month club except with a box of curated products, all with a conscious theme, whether it’s something that’s made from recycled materials, eliminates the need for a disposable item, or is handmade by an independent designer committed to their craft. It’s all items that you will use and love.

Think of it as a special gift from the team here at EcoSalon, sent straight to your doorstep, every month. You can keep the goods or give them away, we’ll leave that up to you, but no matter what you’ll have a nice monthly (or quarterly) surprise.

We love the concept behind Lost Crates, a company that believes in good design. They started out offering crates of notebooks, writing instruments, desk accessories, and stationery, but they soon expanded their offerings, and we’re excited to be the exclusive partner for the green themed crates. We take care of choosing products that you’ll love, and they take care of shipping and making sure your crate gets to you. A perfect combination.

That means that every month we’ll be selecting goods that get sent straight to you. What are you waiting for?

Sign up now to start receiving your exclusive crates.

The post Enjoy Exclusive Green Goods From EcoSalon + Lost Crates appeared first on EcoSalon.

“You could consider me the goddess of organic wine because of my longevity,” says a tres enthusiastic Veronique Raskin of The Organic Wine Company in San Rafael, Calif. “I’ve been at it for 30 years so I should know a couple of things.”

The French native and head cheerleader for the benefits of organic helped uncork the notion of drinking naturally-farmed grape back in 1979. That’s when she brought the first shipment to the U.S. from her family’s 200 year-old vineyard, Bousquette, located in the Languedoc region which borders Provence in the south and produces one-third of France’s grapes.

“Back in the 60s, people with small family properties handed down from generation to generation took notice of the damage done by pesticides and herbicides and began looking for alternatives. We decided non-organic had no future and conventional wine was damaging to the earth, the people working the earth, and down the stream to the public.”

Much has changed since those days in 1979 when she shopped her Chateau Bousquette to wine merchants in the Bay Area, singing the praises of its purity.

“I remember I took a bottle into a store called Mr. Liquor. I was this idealistic 30-year-old, and so excited to share the only wine I could drink without getting a headache,” she recalls. “The owner looked at me and said, ‘Lady, my customers don’t give a s…t what is in their wine!’ I stood there gasping and didn’t have a comeback. I was so stunned someone would say even if wine contains poison, people don’t care.”

Now that people do care, Veronique Makes it her mission to get the public to seek out wines that are Certified Organic, which guarantees the producer is following strict organic regulations for farming without synthetic chemicals.

She warns us to steer clear of empty references: sustainable practices, ecological development, long term planning and reasonable farming. These are frequently dictated by the greenwashing of the business to keep up with marketing trends.

This wine expert also says the sulfites in wine issue can be extremely confusing and blown out of proportion in a way that can cause public hysteria.

“Sulfites are naturally occurring in wine as result of fermentation, so it’s about adding a minimal amount to supplement what is there already,” she says, sighing about this overheated topic.

“A small part of the population, mostly asthmatics, are allergic to sulfites and should be warned with labels,” she explains. “But the majority of unpleasant complications are not due to sulfites but the other chemicals added. People should be concerned about pesticides that kill us and cause diseases. Focusing on sulfites is just a distraction.”

Apres the fine education comes the fine selection. I’m toasting this part because the woman knows from organic reds.

She has been carefully selecting labels for the past 20 years, importing and selling only those wines certified in their country of origin. In terms of the vintage, Veronique finds this mostly applies to rare wines that are generally out of our reach, unless you’re a collector with big bucks and a cellar.

“There it can make the difference between a simply good wine and a fabulous one,” she says. “This is very much the case in the Bordeaux region where the weather can radically alter the growing conditions from one year to the next.”

In guiding the rest of us (those without big bucks or a cellar), Veronique has created a virtual organic wine 101 course at her website – with information based on the great depth of knowledge gained over the years.

Her mission is to foster a community that sees the importance of drinking and enjoying organic. “We’re not just merchants, but passionate, idealistic people who happen to be running a business,” she says.

I asked her to get down to business and give us the dirt on the best organic reds for sharing with friends over dinner or giving as gifts.

The list comes with these savvy tips:

1. Let the bottle breathe. “It’s like stretching your body when you are in tight clothing.”

2. Drink red wine with food. It’s how Europeans do it, and for good reason. The more you taste the food, the more you taste the wine, and they enhance each other. “Wine is nourishment to me. I drink two glasses every day,” she says. “My family drinks with lunch but I don’t because I’m now part American.”

3. Share red wine with friends. “It is meant to help us relax and partake of each other’s company, to open up the heart and enjoy sharing. That’s why the typical visual of wine is around the table with friends. Jesus did that with his disciples all of the time. Wine comes from the depth of the earth and grapes are the quintessential symbol of transformation.”

Veronique Raskin

Here is the goddess’s guide to delicious and affordable organic red wines, some of which can be purchased through her site.

Languedoc Region

Chateau Bousquette, Prestige $27

Chateau Bousquette, $18

Chateau Veronique, $15

Mas de Janiny Cabernet, $30

Mas de Janiny Syrah, $20

La Marouette Cabernet, $13.99

Rhone Region

Domaine des Cedres, $15

Cotes du Ventoux, $10.99

Burgundy Region

Bourgogne Pinot Noir, $24

Spain

Navarrsotillo Rioja Tinto “Noemus”, $15

California

Sky Saddle Sangiovese, $24

Le Vin Winery Hillside Estate Organic Vineyards 2002 Merlot, $28

The post The Trail to the Tastiest Organic Red Wines from a Certified Grape Goddess appeared first on EcoSalon.