Apprenticeship with Gaia Essentials

Gaia Essentials is seeking an Apprentice. This offers the opportunity to receive an in depth education in the proper use of Botanicals for Skincare & Aromatherapy. Including the professional methods of production with access to private recipes. Also you will learn the multi facets of creating and running a small “cottage industry” business. Included is a market based stipend.

In exchange you will provide “hands” to help with said production and marketing. This includes creations at the workshop as well as the retailing at the markets. You must be physical able to lift up to 65 lbs (weight of a tent), have a valid drivers license and a customer oriented personality as we work directly with our clients.

Gaia Essentials is located in Moss Beach, CA.

2011 Coastside Farmer Markets Kick Off

This year the Coastside Farmer Markets kick off on Wed. the 4th at Rockaway Beach, Pacifica 2:30 – 6:30, then every Wed thru Dec.

On Sat. the 7th, the HMB Market kicks off at Shoreline Station 9:00 – 1:00, then every Sat thru Dec.

With the assistance of my daughter Ann, Gaia Essentials products will be available there. Please enjoy the fresh bounty offered!

Would You Like Your Questions Answered?

During the coarse of a 4 hour Farmers Market I get asked an abundance of questions. As I answer these and explain the various facets of my business people are always suggesting I either teach a Course or hold Seminars. Well time constraints, we all have and understand these. So I thought, hrm, maybe make better use of this blog and set it up as a Q&A session. You ask and I’ll make a post answer. No question is too trivial. Ask away.

For example I have been asked more times then I can count “What is the difference between Fragrance oil & Essential oils?”.

Fragrance oils are synthetically produced and have an aroma, that’s all, they smell good.
Essential Oils are botanically derived, not only do they smell good they have medicinal properties, are active, and you can taste them.

How can you be assured you are getting what you pay for?

Nowadays it is a challenge. Even diligent scrutiny of labeling is not enough at times. All a manufacturer has to do is at least have .01% of an ingredient in the product to be able to market it that way. You see the enticing front label with a healthy picture of the ingredient and think it is made with it. Then you take the time to actually read the ingredient listing and see it is the last thing listed in a long line of “why is that in there” items.

Now we are even dealing with grades being played with. Take Olive for example. There are 4 main grades: Extra Virgin (first press), Virgin (second press), Refined (using chemicals to extract the oils, then refining to remove the nasty taste) and Pomace (using chemicals to scrap the oils off the machinery, not eatable). There are years of debates over the legality of the practice of diluting Extra Virgin with less expensive vegetable oils, bottling it as Extra Virgin and charging a premium for the product to unsuspecting consumers. But that is just one product that has fallen victim to this practice.

I see it a lot in my industry. A product lists using essential oils when in reality it is mostly fragrance oils with a smidgen of essential oils for marketing. Lotions listing a healthy botanical with a pretty picture of it on the label, only to then have a horrific ingredient list. You see soaps listing “olive” (if they list ingredients at all) and you can bet it is a small % of lower quality like pomace, but it is olive. After all pomace is collected for lamp fuel and cheap soap making, not eating. But do you think you are buying quality because it simply says olive? Think again..

Back to the topic question, what can you do to protect yourself from these unscrupulous deeds? Purchase your products directly from the maker/grower. Get to know these people that make the things you buy. Shop your local farmers markets. Talk to the product artisans. Shop your local butcher/baker. I find that the quality far surpasses regulations this way. They have avoided being pulled into mass consumption and are able to retain the original quality, not trickery for profits.

Gaia Essentials products are made from 100% certified food grade ingredients and alkali’s. I use extra virgin olive oil, not refined or pomace.

Welcome Back Tobie Ross!

After months of traveling about Nicaragua,

Tobie found her way back home for the season.
If you did not already know from a previous blog, she has been my apprentice for a couple years now and is definitely my right hand. Yes, I am left handed. She helps in making and packaging the whole product line and is very knowledgeable in the ingredients and functions.

We immediately threw ourselves into getting Gaia Essentials prepped for the Farmer’s Market Season. This year we are attending both Coastside Farmer’s Market every Saturday @ Half Moon Bay (Shoreline Station 9-1) and every Wednesday @ Pacifica (Rockaway Beach 2:30-6:30). And we have added a couple of the Agriculture Institute of Marin Farmers Markets, Sunday @ Stonestown (9-1) and Tuesday @ Novato (4-8).

Tobie will be presenting our products at the Tues, Wed, & Sunday Markets while I busy myself in the workshop and I will be present at the Sat. Market.

Table layout @ the North Bay Art Show, April 2010

Spring Time means the Farmer’s Market!

It’s time to get out and spend some time browsing what the local Farmer’s Market’s are offering. Not to mention heading to the Spring Art Shows.

Fresh Produce

Fresh, vibrant colored produce, bursting with flavors. Amazing foods, breads, veggies, fruit, nuts, homemade chocolates, spreads, cheeses, the list goes on and on. Local artisans with jewelry, pottery, and of coarse handmade authentic soap & skincare products. This is a wonderful way to spend a half a day, not to mention get great ideas for your meals.

The Coastside Farmer’s Market opens in Half Moon Bay May 1st, with Pacifica starting the 5th. I am stocking up and will have a booth at both for the season. (thru mid December)

Also on April 11th there will be a Gaia Essential booth at the 1st annual North Bay Art Show with an amazing line-up of talented artists.

Winter hibernation is over, get up and get going!

In Pursuit of Healthiness

It is happening all over. People are getting educated and understanding that we need to change course to live healthier. We see it more in the foods we choose to consume. We know that the mass-produced convenience items that are bulked up with god knows what and processed as cheaply as possible are harmful. Years ago we reached for them not even thinking about anything but it’s “fast & easy”, now we know better.

There is a strong movement to be more selective with our food purchases. Read those labels and set aside anything full of filler and non-nutritious, bleached, over processed ingredients. Buy from local farms and farmers markets. Be conscientious with our decisions about what to consume. This needs to be done with all products, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the skincare products we use.

Skincare? Yes, anything you place on your skin, you are essentially consuming. And if you would not eat it, you should not be using it on your body.

Food is not the only thing that got caught up in the mass-produced consumables. Skin and body care products are right there as well. A huge majority of manufacturers followed suit and found that to be more profitable, bulk it up with non-nutritional filler and focus marketing on the 1% good ingredient inside the product.

The labels are attractive, it says “organic” or “natural” or “essential oils”, but further investigation shows the fine print and all the other stuff in them. (extracts, fragrances, synthetics, filler oils & fats, ect.) Look for products that are 100% wholesome ingredients, not just 1% for marketing purposes.

Read the fine print on your skincare products, think. Would you eat it? Here is a common horror ingredient in most Soaps, Shampoos, Toothpastes “Sodium Laural Sulfate” Oh there are more, enough to make you shudder, a good place to check the safety of the skincare products you are using is here at “Skin Deep” But what about the small business’s that make skincare? The ones not large enough to get in the database? There are some conscientious small local business’s that offer safe alternatives to skincare.

All skincare product’s need close investigation. Let’s start with soap, what is it exactly?

True soap is simply saponified vegetable or animal oils/fats. The alkali used is a derivative of wood ash, the residue left over when rainwater washed through it. Most commonly known as Sodium Hydroxide or Potassium Hydroxide and now clinically produced to provide a more reliable formula. Is there a difference in soaps? You betcha!

The best is “Made from Scratch” (cold process) where you control every ingredient. Look for the benefits of 100% food grade vegetable oil based soap, A “Soap Maker” that utilizes certified food grade alkali for saponifying. Make sure the aroma & beneficial botanicals are from 100% essential oils. (not extracts that are processed with alcohol) and especially steer clear of synthetic fragrances. This creates a highly superior soap you can both feel and taste. Yes taste, that is the true test of a soap claiming to be made with botanical essential oils, you should be able to taste them!

There are quite a few “soap crafters” out there. Those that use pre-manufactured soap bases and then enhance them, re-mold and market. This is an entry level type of home-made soap. One that is faster, easier and less expensive than from scratch. However you are not in control of the ingredients in the base you are using. This is the kind that you can find at hobby shops or wholesale suppliers.

I am not saying that all pre-maufactured bases are poor quality, there are some good ones out there. But lets be honest, most are not going to spend the money for them and go with the bulked up ones with ingredients you really do not want in a pure soap, or any skincare product.
This type of soap crafting is called “melt & pour”. You do not have to actually make the soap, do not have to know and calculate the alkali needed to saponify. You can get away with a fraction of the essential oils, toss in goat milk powder and call it goat milk, make it in pretty molds, it is easier for sure. These are mostly used as decorative soaps.

I chose to be a Soap/Skincare maker, one that does everything from scratch for the control of every ingredient. Does this make my products more expensive, perhaps, at least to create. I use superior food grade oils & alkali, 100% pure essential oils, and wild harvested herbs. Never a pre-manufactured base, no extracts, no synthetic fragrances. You can feel, smell and taste the quality.

Commercial Soaps or Anti-bacterial Soaps. Just eewwww. We assume because they are stocked on shelves in the “soap” isle of the grocery store, they are safe soap, not the case. Most ALL commercial soaps have been so over processed and had so many unnecessary bulking ingredients added, they are now detergents. So much so they cannot even put “soap” on the label and use the more popular phrase of “bar” FDA ruling (beauty bar, cleansing bar, deodorant bar”) These are simply disgusting for your skincare and health. Cheap? sure. Healthy? No.

Now that we have gotten into the habit of healthier eating, we need to take the next step for healthier Skincare.

Refreshing a Website’s Pictures & Content

Scary, when you do not know what you are doing or know enough to be dangerous. My husband is dabbling in Photography and graciously took all new pictures of the Gaia Essentials product line for me. One by one I placed them on my website and this took 3 days. I am very happy with the results. Gaia Essentials

The Farmer Market Season is coming to a close and the Christmas Season around the corner. For the first time we participated in the Pacifica Fogfest, opening another door to display and offer the product line.

Being a conscientious consumer, I cannot educate enough about simplifying your life while taking care of yourself by using high quality skin care. My philosophy is “If you would not eat it, you should not be using it on your skin”. We honestly do not need a multitude of different things for cleansing and moisturizing, providing you select the right things to use.

Casual Blogger Confession and Retribution or “I am not a good blog writer”

Nine months have gone by without a peep of a post here, yep this is proof that writing is not my calling, or even in my blood. Yet I’ll try….

Short Summary:

Beautiful Grandson born in October to my middle daughter, her first. So I spend a wonderful couple weeks there helping her learn the ropes and get back on her feet. which also allowed me to visit with my other grandchildren and oldest daughter.

 My husband and I managed to take a few road trips, which are always good for the soul. (Santa Barbara, Reno)

Fantastic Coastside Farmer Market Season finale is December. Many thanks to my wonderful customer base for their support. Without your patronage Gaia Essentials could not exist. Many of Gaia Essentials recipes are inspired by the needs of the community and created from these requests. Some remain custom products and some are produced as consistent inventory. All great ideas!

 This spring found me enrolled in San Mateo Community College and taking Conversational Spanish with my friend and apprentice Tobie. Yes, Spanish is a complicated language and will take years to get affluent, so this will be a continued part of my regime. Homework waiting on me as I write this.

Let me open up a chat about a on-going hobby of mine, that spans 9 years now. MMORPG or conveniently called MMO’s now. What? That is a acronym for Multi-media Online Role-playing Games. This is something that gobbles up a few hours a day of my time, at a minimum. First one I ever created a character in was Everquest. From then on I was addicted to them. Pictured is the first character I ever created, my druid Klailie.

 

 
Most of my adorable computer creations are healer types (Druids, Clerics, Priestess’) due to nurturing nature, these appeal to me. As I have traveled thru this cyber arena I have made some of the best friends anyone could be blessed with. So close have we become that physical get-togethers are the norm now. Our guild Reverence was formed withing the game of Dark Age of Camelot and has continued in its unity since. It is wonderful to be a part of a guild, club, society, whatever you label it, with friends that enjoy the same recreations.

Can I explain more about these computer games? Not really, it is a complex society that without actually experiencing it on your own, it is hard to understand what I am babbling about. Just know that it is socially addictive, it is real, and it is fun!

Thrown into my schedule this past month has been a move. We found a beautiful home in the Seal Cove area of Moss Beach, CA with fantastic views of the Ocean and the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve. The Gaia Essentials Shop is now its own unit in the beautiful backyard.

Even though I have never had a green thumb so to speak, last week I planted 4 Herb Gardens. I will hold back on chattering about this until its fruition.

That sums up the activities in my life since my last post.

Blessings, Debby

Where did February disappear to??

Wow, talk about a month zooming by, I barely caught a glimpse of it.   My loving husband brought home a pet germ and put us down on the couches coughing & hacking for 2 weeks…. that could account for the loss of time as well.

It has been unseasonably warm the past week and this has triggered an innate drive to clean.  Guess that is where the cliche’ “spring cleaning” comes from.  Last week I added to my head stuffiness by jumping onto a whim to thoroughly dust the house down and clean out corners. Sneezing is my breathing now.

This month also juggles me into getting ready for the “Certified Coastal Farmers Markets” that are just around the corner. You will find Gaia Essential products in my booth at both the Half Moon Bay & Pacifica locations. So I start the printing process of all my brochures and literature this month in preparation.

I also plan on developing a “Gardener’s Grit” Soap for those that have a green thumb. It was requested quite often last year so it will become a staple thru-out the summer months. Look for it by the end of the month.