We’ve had a facelift and we are finally ready for our close up Mr DeMille!

It has been a busy time at Soapnuts HQ and we’ve been a little quiet. We have been so busy transforming ourselves and working on new products and we wanted to give you guys a little taster!

Our new look is inspired by the fact that Living Naturally Soapnuts are chemical & especially phosphate free, so when your waste water enters the water system and goes back out into the environment, you can be sure that no fragile ecosystems are being harmed. We wouldn’t any of our froggy or fishy friends to be harmed and have been long-running supporters of the LOVE YOUR LAKES campaign. It is also very important to us that our products are VEGAN and  ORGANIC and that we are transparent about what our product labels say.

We want everyone to benefit from using soapnuts, including our collectors! Our soapnuts are collected by local families and farmers who are able to have a better quality of life because they get a fair wage and also get taught a trade as well.

We want to make sure we are doing all we can to reduce landfill and so our new packaging is 100% recyclable! And because you don’t need to use any additional softener, you will be  saving twice the space in landfill!

But that’s not all! If you haven’t been using them for more than just your laundry, we have included a handy soapnut liquid recipe so you can make your own chemical free cleaner or organic pesticide.

Our new look packaging will be out in March so keep an eye out! We will also be launching our new-look website in March so make sure you don’t miss a thing! Keep up to date …

Sustainable Palm Oil? Is it really ok?

Twitter seems to be alive because of the noise palm oil is making. So I wanted to break down the issue. Is it really sustainable? Should we still be using plam oil?

The problem with palm oil?

The problem is not with palm oil itself, but is actually with the way the palm oil is produced. In West Africa, palm oil has been used for centuries as a cooking oil with no problem at all. The problem is that with the discovery of how amazingly well palm oil grows in the Far East, and that it is a very useful and cheap ingredient in commercial food production, palm oil is now in huge demand. Palm oil is now the most produced and traded oil, and now accounts for at least 75% of all the vegetable oil traded internationally.

The biggest use of the world’s palm oil is in food production, and at least one in ten products on supermarket shelves contain palm oil. Approximately six percent of the global supply is used in the cosmetic industry and palm oil is also increasingly being used as a fuel source.

This demand for plam oil is fueling deforestation in countries like Indonesia, forcing the indigenous people off their land and pushing animals like orangutans, elephants and tigers to the brink of extinction. The deforestation is so horrendous that Indonesia’s forests could be gone by 2015. Another huge impact on the environment is the amount of C02 emissions that are released when forests and peat land are destroyed to make way for these plantations.

So Let’s Stop Using It?

Well if it was only that simple. Unfortunately the palm oil production is a huge part of the economy of the countries that produce it like Malaysia and Indonesia. And as well as big businesses, there are also smallholders who produce a minimal amount of palm oil and rely on it to help support their families. The Rountable on Sustainable Palm Oil RSPO member and founders WWF have been campaigning about the fact the buyers (from companies right down to consumers) should insist on the buying and using of only sustinable plam oil. But what is not being talked about are the deals that go on alongside these campaigns that continues unsustainable/unethical plam oil production, so as a consumer what do we do?

Take Action

As a consumer this is what you can do:

1. Be aware of the issue
2. Add your voice to the campaign on palm oil
3. Buy Responsibly

What are we doing about it?

We only stock and/or make products that have RSPO certified palm oil or use alternatives to palm oil. And we have clear label ingredients so you know what you are buying.

Our Very First Festival Of Life

Shambhu Tasty Vegan Food

We were at the Festival Of Life in Holborn on the weekend. The day was packed with so much that we didn’t actually get to experience a fraction of it. There was loads of music going on in Red Lion Square and people were being fed by Shambu’s. The workshops going on in Conway Hall were quite popular, and featured interesting topics like The Zeitgeist Movement , Lots of stuff about Raw Food, Healing and even How to make a flourles Chocolate cake, not to mention the conscious dance party that started once the stall holders were all kicked out.

From what we did see…here is what we liked…

We met Zenith Milner who was raising awareness about Palm Oil and how unsustainable palm oil is so bad. Zenith is doing a talk on Wednesday this week if you are interested. Zenith has a list of thing to do to be part of the solution: Write to your MP, lessen your use of palm oil, spread the word…For more info email zenithtoday@yahoo.co.uk

Gina Panayi @ The Raw Greek

The Raw Greek! We bought some raw honey from the mountains of nortehrn Greece from these guys (very tasty!) and only after the show realised that we should have bought their raw cookbook! They also had Tahini, dried tomatoes, and amongst all the treats I also saw some toothpaste! For anyone who likes greek food and their health – have a look at this cookbook for healthy raw greek recipes. www.therawgreek.com

Amaaazing Choc cake at Inspiral!

We also got to taste the amazing treats at the Inspiralstand…but even more amazing was their Raw Chocolate Cake. There was a queue for it and I thought I missed out on it until one of the very lovely girls at the stall produced a brand new box. This was by far the tastiest chocolate cake I have ever had and best of all it was raw, vegan, sugar free and gluten free!

In fact I would say it was worth going to the Festival Of Life just for Inpirals’s choc cake if nothing else! Or you can just check them out in Camden :0)

Soapnuts at London Vegan Festival 2011

Anastasia Jakovleva at our Soapnut stand

A huge thanks to all of you who came to visit us at the London Vegan Festival this year on Sunday 21st August 2011 at the Kensington Town Hall. It was a great show! Very busy and we met lots of cool people and drank lots of fresh coconut water straight from the nut!

It was a great day and we were sharing it with some great neighbours! We had Paris Vegan Day organisers, SHAC – Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty , Secret Society Of Vegans (great clothes and they also had some tasty treats on offer) , and Shea Alchemy with Sally and her lovely daughter.

Sally & her lovely daughter @ Shea Alchemy

Needless to say the food was amazing! Rainforest Creations fresh coconut water in the nut were extremely popular (not to mention sooooo tasty!) and so were their wraps. There were vegan cupcakes everywhere from Ms Cupcake and the Sheese cheeses were incredibly popular as usual (yummy!), and Fry’s Vegetarian had some really tasty chunky strips, braai herby sausages and spicy burgers on offer.

Living Natrally Soapnuts also took part in two giveaways with Vegan Body Building and Beacon Life and Learning .

There were loads of talks and entertainment for the kids and also a speed dating hour! Now that would have been entertaining had I taken part . So if you missed it this time round, remember to put a reminder on the calendar for next year…

Pictures of the event are going up shortly so keep a look out for them… http://www.vegancampaigns.org.uk/festival/

Would you like a Grant to make a woodland for your farm?

The rise in fossil fuel prices has also helped a rise in firewood prices recently. This has largely been helped by an increasing number of folk turning to firewood as a source of heating and this trend is likely to continue in the future. Planting your own woodland can secure your own supply of fuel as well as providing another source of income. The benefits don’t stop there. New woodlands can provide shelter to stock and buildings as well helping to stabilise soil and mitigate the effects of flooding.

Obviously your best land needs to be reserved for agricultural production, but a well designed woodland can suit the needs of your farm without compromising its viability.

Grants of up to £3800/ha are available as well as Farm Woodland Payments which can be claimed for 15 years. These can be claimed on top of Single Farm Payments. The money doesn’t stop there! A growing number of companies are keen to offset their carbon emissions and are always on the look out for Woodland Creation projects that they can help fund.

If you would like to know more about the grants available for planting new woodlands, you could attend one of three planned open days (see below) on farms that have already taken the plunge. The farm owners will be on hand so you can talk directly to them about the “pro’s and con’s”

Peter Fox from the Forestry Commission will be on hand to explain the grants, demonstrate good practice and explain different establishment techniques. A free lunch is also provided. If you would like to attend, please contact him on 07768 142942 or peter.fox@forestry.gsi.gov.uk

 

Dates

23rd  August – Marron Leys Farm, Rowrah (meet at the Stork Hotel)

24th August – Wampool Grange, Kirkbride, Wigton

30th August – Colby Laithes Farm, Appleby

 

For details of other grants that may be of interest please check out the Green Grants section of our website http://www.nurturelakeland.org/green-grants/green-grants.html

Or get in touch with Sarah Caley from Nurture Lakeland: sarah@nurturelakeland.org

Can soapnuts really get out stains?

Chemically whitened clothes or natural cleaning?

Soapnuts are as good as if not better than Ecover at washing clothes (believe me I have done a lot of testing and we have had a lot of feedback from customers to vouch for this fact), but just as with all laundry detergents soapnuts has its limitation. The limitations are due to the fact that it is completely natural! No fillers, harmful chemicals or bleaching agents to aid the 100% organic natural chemic-free cleaning action.

To put it into perpsective, consider that the same factory that makes detergents like Bold and Ariel also make stain removing agents like Ace and Vanish. Why? Because they know the products have limitations too!

So what do you do?

As consumers we want the best product for the best price. So lets weigh up the benefits…

Soapnuts vs. Detergents

So what about the stains?

The best way to deal with any stains regardless of your laundry detergent is to pre-soak if necessary, pre-treat if necessary and if really necessary add some extra power into the wash.

For soapnut users this is what we recommend:

Pre-soak: Use bicarb of soda and white vinegar to soak clothes before washing them

Pre-treat: Use a stain remover ( like Bunchafarmers Natural Stain Remover) or your preferred stain remover treatment before you wash.

In-wash stain remover: Make your own oxygenated cleaner by using a mix of bicarb and vinegar and put it into the drawer. Or use your own preferred stain treatment.

Your choice?

We have been using soapnuts for years and won’t use anything else ever again, we have messy clothes and lots of stains (two boys!) but everything gets clean. And on the very rare occassion that it doesn’t (and after I have tried everything I can to get the stain out), I say ‘so what!’, I’m saving the environment and my family! I’m committed to doing it because I believe it makes a difference.

So make a better choice today…Join the revolution!

Soapnuts vs. Detergents

Save the frogs and use soapnuts!

Save The Frogs Use Soapnuts!

One of our new soapnut users asked a question about whether the surfactants in soapnuts affect amphibian skin, I was sure it didn’t but needed some science to back it up…and I found some

How do synthetic surfactants kill frogs?

Synthetic surfactants and all the other harmful chemicals in normal laundry detergent are really destructive to natural aquasystems and can cause eutrophication. Now there is also some awareness of certain chemical / synthetic surfactants actually doing more than just causing an overgrowth of algae. Some chemical surfactants have been shown to actually break down the abdominal skin of frogs. The list of these surfactants are (worst ones at the top):

cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)
sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS)
sodium—linear alkyl benzene sulfonate (LAS, C₁₂)
sodium alkylethoxy sulfate (Neodol 25-3EOS, AES)
nonionic Neodol 25-7EO

Source: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ba-1980-0188.ch026 *

What’s the alternative?

Now, the surfactants in soapnut extract (liquid made from the shells) are:

“…glycosides of hydrophobic alcohols that provide surface activity and form soap-like, foaming solutions in water. Saponins occur in many plants and in some animal products.”

They are actually linked to naturally occuring sugars like natural glucose and fructose. So there you go, soapnut saponins are a little bit like soapy sugar…but please don’t eat it! Now go and buy some and help save the frogs!

For some other ideas on how to save the frogs visit www.savethefrogs.com

* Source Report:

Bioelectrochemistry: Ions, Surfaces, Membranes

Chapter 26, pp 445–459

Chapter DOI: 10.1021/ba-1980-0188.ch026

Advances in Chemistry, Vol. 188

ISBN13: 9780841204737eISBN: 9780841223707

Publication Date (Print): June 01, 1980

Copyright © 1980 AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY