CONSUMABLE AND COMPOSTABLE GIFT IDEAS FROM YOUR EVERYDAY GREENIE
If you didn’t know the term ‘greenie’ existed, neither did I until recently. It fits the bill perfectly for the way I’ve evolved from desiring minimalism, for my mental health to realizing that being absent from nature, for a lot of my life, was the main reason my brain and body was suffering. Not to mention trauma that I had been holding onto, but that’s a story for an entirely different blog. Nature — it’s where our creative energy lives, our souls find peace, mental clarity abounds and all because our biophelia drives us here. Our bodies feel that taking breaths near trees offers our lungs the kind of air it needs. Because when we breathe in gasoline residuals, because we live on a busy road or have been in an airplane for too long, fresh becomes the fuel to feeling better. An innate need, nature is, it’s a means to our survival & yet, trash miles wide lives in space. With each passing day naturescapes that offer health & wholeness are being replaced with homes and shopping malls.
So what can we do today to offer the Earth its best chance of survival? Bring nature into our backyards by planting native seeds and nourishing our own soils and souls, so we can in turn offer our energy to others. We can become more conscious of our purchases, recycle our own food waste, but mostly — live counter to culture and the be the examples, in our homes to our children, grandchildren and beyond.
So as I preach, I realize that I am in fact the choir. I feel so passionately about environmentalism and yet I struggle with consumerism and keeping up with the Joneses, but I also realize I have come so far! I used to spend 1/4 of our income on toxic cleaners and plastic cutlery. I jad ni idea that lights deterred birds from their migration schedules. I also thought buying things used was a complete waste of time and might I mention — gross. I can celebrate because I’ve changed & although, I don’t consume 100% zero waste, I use my time to research brands, look for things second hand and buy less than I used to. Being in nature has raised by level of awareness and I’m grateful. Spending time outside actually offers less time inside. When I’m inside, I’m overstimulated, my sympathetic nervous system tends to be activated and fight or flight can easily send me into shopping mode. When we go to nature, our parasympathetic nervous systems become activated and we can rest in the grace that we have all we need and more.
Let’s talk gifts — in the minimalist groups I’m in on Facebook, I see a lot of people with similar dilemmas — they’re feeling compelled to gather gifts for people who have ‘everything’. I understand this dilemma, because I have people in my life like this too. So I’m offering some gifts ideas for people who have everything, but also these gift ideas are consumable and/or compostable. If you have any ideas to add — please leave them in the comments at the end of this post!!
#1 — Homemade baked goods or home cooked meal :: Using our hands to think of others and create something for someone else is a gift for them, but it’s also a gift for us. If we have kids, we are teaching them that the skills that we possess can be used as gifts for others. Also, we get to choose the ingredients and hopefully we can give the gift of organic baked goods!!! I love gifting bread to our neighbors, on occasion.
#2 — Loose leaf teas with compostable tea bags or a reusable steeper :: If they have the ability to compost, then I would go with the tea bags, because I’d hate for the steeper to eventually end up in the trash. We bought one and it broke shortly after a few uses.
Not only are the herbs and flowers of tea mostly medicinal and therapeutic, they smell wonderful, taste delectable and are so pretty to look at. So this gift offers them a full sensory experience.
A plus if these flowers and herbs are grown locally and organically or in your own backyard bungalow!!
I also live gifting local, raw honey along with the tea as the pollen in the honey is quite medicinal & you can find the research on Google Scholar — here.
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=raw+honey&btnG=
#3 || A compostable journal and rock crayons or pencils. Here are some rock crayons that are made of soy wax. I buy journals similar to these and my kids have made some pretty cool books out of them. These I won’t compost and will try to save until they’re grown, to gift back to them.
Hopefully the crayons become well loved. The rock crayons are really sturdy, in my opinion, so they last a really long time. We’ve had them for a year, with no end in sight. I have big and small kids, so the crayons will hang around until are no longer used. Then we may make them into paint or something else. These are made of soy wax, so I might even make a candle out of them!!
Here’s a really cool blog post on how to reuse your old crayons.
#4 :: Sourdough starter and our favorite recipes — written down!! My daughter started writing down recipes, in one of the journals we had lying around and this is what gave me the idea!!
#5 || Farm food :: We have a local, organic, regenerative farm less than 5 minutes from our home!!! This, to me, is a gift in itself!! When my in laws are coming into town, I buy extra meat & we eat. This is a gift, for all! We aren’t big Christmas gift givers, but will feed you organic, grass-finished!! beef when you visit. We’ve also gifted this to friends who are ill or just had a baby.
#6 — Homemade anything. My kiddos have taken to needle felting and gave away bookmarks for Mother’s Day. This felt really special and I enjoyed watching the joy my kiddos experienced from giving. I make beeswax fire starters out of egg cartons and they basically smell like a doug fir forest! I plan to share how I make these, in a separate blog post — so sign up for my newsletter!!
#7 :: SEEDS. My daughter & I watched a documentary about seeds and the indigenous cultures believe that every seed has life in it. I thought this was so amazing and realized that the flowers’ life is in turn, giving life to us. You are gifting life & once again, a sensory experience to others, by allowing them a growing opportunity. My favorite seeds are Snake River Seeds. We saved seeds for the first time, last summer season and although we didn’t save as many as we’d like, we had enough to host a seed exchange! Here are the seed packets we decorated and used!
#8 — SOIL. What are seeds without soil?
#9 :: WORM CASTINGS. And what is soil without worm castings? You’ll soon be able to purchase our worm castings. You can sign up to be a subscriber and I’ll notify you once our castings and our apparel becomes available.
#10 || TIME. A day date to nature. A phone call. A tea time story telling hour. It all counts and time can never be exchanged with gifts.
For gift wrapping, I like to use these muslin bags. They’re cotton, so they’re compostable. They’re also washable. But your friend, child or family member can use them as a snack sack, storage tote (loose-leaf tea, tea bags, fruit, herbs, seeds, journal and crayons, travel companions, etc). I use them to cover my sourdough starter, store & sell worm castings, crafting supplies and so much more!!! They’ll be in the shop to purchase soon!!
I hope you enjoyed this post. There are affiliate links in this post and if you make a purchase through one of the links, it may result in a small commission to me.
Happy gifting!
Waynna
