Shop local also includes gas

Forget the vegetable oil, this local crude hits the mark
It’s been almost a year since I wrote a column on a particular brand of vehicle that particularly annoys me with it’s conspicuous consumption and lousy gas mileage. I won’t name names, except to say it rhymes with “Bummer,” and let’s just say I got a few angry letters to the editor over it.

But that’s ok. I don’t mind spurring some debate and I like to make people stop and think, and I also don’t mind for others to express their opinions. It’s good for ideas to be challenged and for new information to be put out there that maybe we didn’t realize before, so I appreciate hearing other points of view.

A few months after the Bummer story, which by the way, had a larger focus of sharing about “greasecars,” that is, cars that are converted to run on Waste Vegetable Oil, (awesome, and I found out there are several greasecar owners around here!) the disastrous Gulf oil spill occurred. I vacationed at the ocean around this time and wrote about how distressed I was about it and, again, got some disagreeing letters to the editor.

In a follow up article where I addressed some of those comments I also offered some proactive ideas—one of which was to buy gas at the CountryMark station on S. Allisonville. Why? Because CountryMark is Indiana’s only American owned oil refining company, using 100% American Crude Oil.

Ever since I learned this about CountryMark over a year or so ago, and I had never gone there previously, I have made every effort to only purchase gas at CountryMark—not only is it a local company but it’s Midwestern oil too, and that fits in perfectly with my ideals of shopping local and supporting local businesses whenever possible.

CountryMark has locations all over the Midwest, including one here in Noblesville. If you are traveling out of the area, check out www.countrymark.com for other locations.

My Green Gift Guide

See the Current in Noblesville story here.

Want a savings tip for Black Friday? Don't shop

As Thanksgiving and the frenzied countdown til Christmas approaches, here’s a radical thought: I’d like to institute a Noblesville Buy Nothing Day.

Instead of falling prey to the Black Friday ads, grabbing credit cards and heading out in the middle of the night to wait in insanely long lines to score some crazy deals and spend too much money, how about doing the opposite, which is to reject consumerism and vow to not get sucked in to the commercial hype? All of that is ultimately empty anyway.

Buy Nothing Day, which is celebrated internationally, was first organized in Vancouver in September of 1992 as a way to reflect on over-consumption. Five years later, it was moved to the day after the American Thanksgiving, one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

Admittedly, it’s pretty easy for me to avoid the Black Friday feeding frenzy, because a.) I am cheap and don’t like to spend a lot of money at one time b.) I don’t like to shop c.) I don’t like to waste my time in lines d.) I don’t like crowds, especially shopping crowds and most especially holiday shopping crowds and e.) I try to reject over-consumption every other day of the year anyway.

Plus, all of that plastic bag consumption makes me crazy!

I would much rather stay home and be with my family, or visit friends and neighbors, or do something otherwise meaningful. (I’m sure I’ll be working in a little post-thanksgiving running and hooping in there too.)

Now, I’m willing to bend a little bit on the Buy Nothing Day concept, because I would be willing to venture to the downtown square or elsewhere in town  in order to shop the local businesses.  I will always choose to shop the independents before the chains if I can.

Eating local—become a ‘locavore’ this summer

Last spring I read a book that challenged my thinking about the food we eat and where it comes from--Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Barbara and her family committed to eating locally (meaning food grown within a 100 mile radius of their home) for one year. Wow, a novel concept isn’t it? I have always tried to eat food that remembers where it came from, but to consider eating local foods as much as possible and eating seasonally was a shift in my thinking.
So that summer I shopped the farmers markets in Noblesville and Fishers a lot more, with a new appreciation for the farmers and their hard work. It felt great to support them by buying their food and to be consuming food grown here. So, instead of spending $20 here and there in occasional jaunts to the market, I regularly went home with fresh produce, eggs, honey, and meat, having spent a big chunk of my weekly food budget at an open air market with the people who grew my food. As I began questioning where (and from where) we buy our food, it felt weird to be in an artificially lit grocery store in July buying produce shipped from California when I could buy food at the market, as local and fresh as it gets.

Eat local, shop local, live simply, dry your clothes on a clothesline, get back to the Earth—these are definitely worthwhile pursuits. See www.goinglocal-info.com for info about eating locally in Indiana. The Noblesville market opens Saturday, May 22nd from 8am-12:30pm in the parking lot east of Riverview Hospital. PS—ask the farmers if their produce is organic since local AND organic is ideal.

The Wild just couldn't weather 'perfect storm'

I have mentioned the bookstore on the square, The Wild, in this space several times. It is a place I feel a deep connection with, as I was there at the beginning. My husband Rob and I helped to start the store together with Jane and Ernie Mills. In the planning stages, I was the leader of the so called ‘Board Meetings’, keeping those goofballs on task with my running ‘to do’ lists as they threw back Barley Island Dirty Helens and went off on irrelevant tangents. Though we parted ways with the Mills later on, we are friends and have seen the good it has done in this community since 2005.


The Wild is for sale. If no buyer is found by February’s end, the store will close. I recently sat down with Jane to discuss her decision to make The Wild available for sale. She referred to the Perfect Storm of circumstances that lead to the decision. She cited price wars over books among big chain stores like Wal-Mart and Target, increased competition with Hamilton Town Center and Amazon, lack of support for the Square from city government, a slow economy, corporate pay cuts for Ernie, and staggering out-of-pocket heath care costs.

The store (www.gotothewild.com) has always been profitable and could have taken on half of these circumstances, but not all, thus leading to the decision to sell or close. This would be an amazing opportunity for someone looking to have a meaningful, creative store with loyal customers. Thank you, Jane, Ernie and Fritz Mills, for your many contributions to this community. We love you.

3/50 project easy way to save the independents

I found this website recently and was completely intrigued by the oh so simple concept that is doable and makes so much sense. Ready? Here it is:
What three independently owned businesses would you miss if they disappeared? Stop in. Say hello. Pick up something that makes you smile. Your purchases are what keeps those businesses around.
If half of the employed population spent $50 each month in locally owned independent businesses, it would generate more than $42.6 billion in revenue. Imagine the positive impact if ¾ of the employed population did that.

That's the 3/50 plan.
When I started thinking about this, I realized that this project encompasses so many businesses, not just retail. Businesses such as: movie theaters, restaurants, coffee shops, hair salons, barbers, grocery (though there aren’t any independents around here, sadly) and health food stores, car washes, and more. Basically, as long as they’re independent (ie, not a chain) and brick and mortar, they count. When you look at it that way, a conscious decision to funnel $50 a month away from chains and into your local businesses and how many ways you can do this, it’s easy to see how it can make a huge impact for them.

I am going to commit to doing this project, will you? If you can’t do $50, how about $25? There would be large holes in our downtown and throughout Noblesville if these businesses closed up shop. They work hard and need our support. I want to say a great big thank you to each and every one of them for their dedication and commitment. And a plug for myself—if you’d like a ‘shop indie’ magnet, see my shop at http://www.cachet.etsy.com/.