Where to... Organic, Fairtrade, Free Range.

Having appreciated other people's link lists, especially those that live somewhat near where I am, I thought I would do one in return.  A few people have asked 'where do you get xyz' and I thought this could be a good way to put a list of links together that I can add to as new stuff is experienced.

Thing to remember is it's not often that you can tick ALL the boxes.  Ie it might be organic but it's not local, local and free range but not organic, organic but the packaging isn't ideal etc... and of course there's always the other factors of accessability, cost, convenience... so I guess it's that ol' balance thing.  Do it slowly and work out what works for you and be okay to change things up as you need to.

Also, there are a HEAP more places to get things - these are just the ones I have been to and bought from and been happy with and that come to mind right now.  I'll keep adding.

• Meat - Redtail Ridge - fantastic (seriously awesome) beef (they do lamb, chicken, olive oil, honey etc as well but I my choice is the beef).  Previous posts here and here on quality and great customer service.  You can taste the difference.  Bulk order means you get a flat rate across the board - same price per kilo for mince and (very good) sausages right through to scotch fillet, rump and so on.  For example, it might be $15/kg for all your beef.  That means yes you pay $15/kg for excellent organic mince and sausages but you also pay $15/kg for scotch fillet, roast, rump, etc... pretty good I think especially when you think what the price per kilo is for reasonable (non organic) mince in the shop and then the price of rump and scotch etc
• Real Food Co-op - I have so far only done my fruit and veg with them (and was very happy with it) but they also do pantry staples, dish liquid, powder etc and they deliver/courier or you can pickup.  Sign up for a yearly membership and then orders are done fortnightly, with the order list options being released a few days before. Choose between organic or non-organic.  You can also find them on Facebook.
• Bulk - Springer Foods - organic flour 25kg bags + a heap of other stuff.  You do have to pick and choose as they are not an 'organic' place and supply to the general good industry.  However, bulk organic flour, WA made, is hard to come by so I get that and our other (mostly not organic but I'm working on it!) dry goods in bulk from them.
• Chocolate - Fairtrade/Organic Chocolate - Cadbury Dairy Milk Fairtrade (not all Cadbury varieties are Fairtrade), Green & Blacks (owned by Cadbury, I believe) Fairtrade organic available in Woolworths, Coles and an excellent range (above what WW and C offer) at Mr Fresh Carine.
• Barambah organic blueberry yoghurt - they have other varieties but I am hooked on this one!
• Grocery - Mr Fresh - good range of organic 'grocery' items ie coffee, most of the Green & Blacks chocolate range, cereals, coffees and tea etc  The little Carine Glades shopping centre also has a bakery that sells good sourdough bread (New Norcia and other) and a good little Health Food Shop.  The butcher there uses all their own-grown veg in their products.  The butcher looks fantastic and though I am yet to try it, I hope to soon enough!
• Milk (in glass) - see the previous posts here and here.  It's not just about us (plastic v glass, homogenised or not, organic or not) but about the animals too - the cows and their calves, especially if the calves are boys...
• Milk (organic) - IGA Nollamara sell Margaret River Organic milk in plastic and another brand I can't think of at the moment.
• Moo Goo strawberry lip balm - 'The Vitamin Outlet' at Stirling Central sells it and a good range of 'health food store' stuff.
• Biome - just a great place to find 'stuff' that's eco friendly and people friendly!
• Vege Spread (instead of Vegemite and the kids now prefer it, available generally), Anathoth jam (available Woolworths). 
• Organic Lollipops - Organic on Charles and most health food shops.
• Gaia soothing cream - great for bites, blemishes on the face etc. Available chemists, health food shops and sometimes in Woolworths.
• Organic Care shampoo and conditioners (including a dandruff one and a kids one) - available in Coles and Woolworths.  These are quite reasonably priced.
• Avalon Organics shampoo and conditioners - available health food shops
• Ecostore soap, dishwashing liquid, bathroom soap on tap etc available Woolworths (and maybe elsewhere).
• Drink bottles - Klean Kanteen especially the ones with the stainless screw cap - no plastic touches the water and you can taste the difference.
• lunchboxes - stainless steel, see my previous post with reviews, sizes and links here, here and here.
• Tea and Coffee - Nature's Cuppa Fairtrade organic tea and Nature's Cuppa Fairtrade organic coffee.  That's the instant one and I'm told it tastes quite good.  Plunger stuff we used to get another Fairtrade/organic one but haven't done the plunger thing for a while and I don't have a whiz bang machine so no idea on those... though I can't imagine that the 'caps' ones are very eco anything..?
• stainless steel cups by Ecococoon.  Have heard of troubles with the painted ones - paint peeling, so we have all stainless silver.  Anyway, they replaced all of our plastic drinking cups.

Then there's the 'drool' list - things I'd like to try but haven't yet/won't be for a while for various reasons!

• PlanetBox lunchboxes.  Check out the link and the video on their site.  Nuff said!
• Solar Oven see the video demo here.
• Cargobike or a Babboe with lid (not sure, can't decide - irrelevant anyway because the dream is as yet unfunded!).

We are definitely not completely organic/homemade household, far from it...  it's just trying to find that 'balance' that works on any one week or month.  It's also just a slow and mindful process of gradually finding the 'better' thing to exchange for the current thing.

That will do for the list for now, updates as I find 'em!  oh and PS... if you haven't donated blood in a while and if you're able to, please do book an appointment and share some of your good stuff for those who need it.

Cocoa beans grown in Australia making commercially produced chocolate!

I didn't even know that was possible! Well... to be fair... it wasn't until recently. Cocoa beans grown in Australia, and made into commercially produced chocolate IN Australia. There are of course other places in Australia that make chocolates, but the ones locally that I queried, are not Fairtrade certified.

Daintree Estate

how awesome is that! Of course, I've yet to try the product but I am keen. I found Daintree Estate after a comment on my post 'What Does your chocolate stand for?'. The comment prompted me to search and as it happens, Daintree Estate has only been up and running for a few months and it's the first of it's kind in Australia.

I then contacted Daintree Estate to ask them a few questions:

Hi there at Daintree Estate

After a comment by someone in the US on my blog, where I posted about choosing Fairtrade chocolate for Easter HERE, I did an internet search.

As far as I knew no one in Aus had grown cocoa beans to make chocolate commercially. Until very recently I would have been right but you guys are here!
Am I right in thinking you're the first and currently the only Aus-grown-cocoa-bean chocolate making people?

If so, first can I say that is very awesome and secondly, I'd love to know more especially on the sustainability side of things/carbon neutral etc
I will still support Fairtrade but am more than happy to equally share my support with Australian-grown and made, especially if it's high up in the sustainability stakes.

I see you don't yet have an Easter range but I am guessing that retailers do buy your chocolates and melt to make Easter products?
this was what I was planning to do if I couldn't get Fairtrade hunting eggs.
I am in WA and see from your website that no one over here sells your chocolate BUT I think that once word gets out, you'll be sending a fair bit of chocolate over this way, especially to the more 'aware' stores that seek to support local and/or organic where they can.

With Kind Regards and thanks
Kristy
(and family who just had a Fairtrade Easter)

and received this reply (and was given permission to share it)

Hi Kristy,

Thanks for your email and interest in our Australian grown chocolate.

Yes, Daintree Estates chocolate is the world’s first commercially made chocolate from Australian grown cocoa.

You’re right, we don’t make eggs or other novelty chocolates just yet. Having only just launched a few months ago, we are still working hard on getting distribution across more of Australia, and developing our product range. We are also actively seeking more farmers in Far North Queensland to partner with us and plant cocoa so our capacity can increase. I’m not aware of anybody making Easter eggs our of our chocolate yet, but it can be done using our 1kg Chef’s Packs of 3g buttons in dark or milk.

Fair Trade is slightly irrelevant for us given that we are wholly owned and based in Australia and are bound by Australian labour laws anyway. We are planning to branch out into other exotic cocoa origins in the near future, so it will be something we will be paying attention to as we do that.

One of our plantations is certified organic, but we have yet to launch our organic chocolate products.

...

Regards,

Tim

to which I replied:

Hi Tim

Thankyou for taking the time to reply and for adding me to your mailing list.

I realise being Aus-grown and made that Fairtrade doesn't really apply at this stage, but as you said if you branch out, it's something to pay attention to.

If I may, are you ok with my sharing your reply on my blog (or whatever parts of it you might like to share)?
I know there's quite a few people out there after a product such as yours and like me, they may not even know it exists.

Aus-grown&made is pretty awesome in itself. Local product, locally made from local products. Can't beat that!
I'm going to ask around and see who else might be interested in an order with me. A good product, fairly made and with an eco commitment, will become popular very fast these days.

If you ended up (after branching out) being Aus-grown and Fairtrade (from overseas) and Aus-made, that would pretty much score you top points all-round as well I would think ie not compromising to non-Fairtrade if you go overseas. Of course, that's my consumer point of view and there's much to go into any decisions to come, by people who know a lot more about it than me!

I look forward to seeing your product over here, but in the meantime will see about ordering online.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply.
Kind Regards
Kristy

and Tim replied:

Hi Kristy,

You’re welcome to use any of my comments in your blog J

Your ‘consumer point of view’ is precisely where we are headed.

Regards,

Tim

All up I think that's a pretty good response and I am happy to give them a go and try out the chocolate (hard task I know!). I think if my tastebuds enjoy the Daintree Estate chocolate, and if I am happy with their eco-approach and general customer service (in accordance with their values statements), I'll then split my support half/half and give half my custom to Fairtrade imported chocolate, and half to Australian made 'local' chocolate. That sits well with me. If you do get to try Daintree Estate please let me know!

What does your chocolate stand for?

Following on from my Easter post, our Fairtrade Easter Eggs came in time!!! yippee! Thankyou to those at the Heart of Chocolate that made it possible and yippee for APost that express post only took three days from post to arrival. For more information on Fairtrade chocolate click on the image below:

Easter this year - Fairtrade and Home Made

This year I decided that our Easter, at least in terms of chocolate that we buy ourselves, would be slave-free. So we are going Fairtrade and/or home made for chocolate eggs. We have one each of the Cadbury Fairtrade Eggs, and for the 'Rabbit Hunt' we have on the way some Divine Dark Chocolate Mini Eggs and some Divine Milk Chocolate Praline eggs. Just in case the express post doesn't quite cut it (and the lovely folk at Heart of Chocolate are getting the eggs in the post first thing Monday, thankyou!), I'm borrowing some chocolate molds from a friend, have some coloured foil paper and will get two blocks of plain Fairtrade milk chocolate and melt and make my own hunting eggs.

It is just to think that each time we buy chocolate that's not slave-free, it really doesn't taste as good - not literally, but in your mind.

this little hand made felt dragon was a birthday gift for one of the children from their friend (handmade by the Mum)

Because you can be pretty sure, that it wasn't good for the people who made it... especially children