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Making your life greener - one bite at a time.

Traditionally, Mother’s Day gifts have included flowers, chocolates, toiletries or jewellery. Some of these conventional choices can have a negative effect on the environment and our health.

Modern life tries to replace time, connection and love with gadgets and gifts, believing this to be an acceptable alternative. But the reality is, that most people don’t remember the 'stuff' they are given. They remember quality time spent together.So give the best gift of all - spend time with your Mother and create some wonderful memories that she can carry with her for the rest of her life.

Come May 11th, celebrate Mothers Day with an eco twist. If you want to treat Mum to something extra special, search your soul, and ask yourself, “what would she really like?” There are plenty of green, eco gifts available to buy Mum. Instead of supporting the overconsumerism, how about showing Mum you love her with a truly sustainable gift.

Mother's Day is the busiest time of year for florists. The telephone networks and mail delivery services are also at their busiest at this time of year—even busier than Christmas. In 1973, United States mail delivery was delayed for over a week due to the overwhelming amount of correspondence that was sent for Mother's Day. It's easy to understand why people are so passionate about this day—it's the one formal day of the year when we honor and pay tribute to the women who made us who we are.

The earliest Mother's Day celebrations can be traced back to the spring celebrations of ancient Greece in honour of Rhea, the Mother of the Gods.During the 1600's, England celebrated a day called "Mothering Sunday".Celebrated on the 4th Sunday of Lent (the 40 day period leading up to Easter), "Mothering Sunday" honoured the mothers of England.

During this time many of the England's poor worked as servants for the wealthy. As most jobs were located far from their homes, the servants would live at the houses of their employers. On Mothering Sunday the servants would have the day off and were encouraged to return home and spend the day with their mothers. A special cake, called the mothering cake, was often brought along to provide a festive touch.

As Christianity spread throughout Europe the celebration changed to honour the "Mother Church" - the spiritual power that gave them life and protected them from harm.  Over time the church festival blended with the Mothering Sunday celebration. People began honouring their mothers as well as the church.

In the United States Mother's Day was first suggested in 1872 by Julia Ward Howe (who wrote the words to the Battle hymn of the Republic) as a day dedicated to peace. Ms. Howe would hold organized Mother's Day meetings in Boston, Massachusetts every year.

In 1907 Ana Jarvis, from Philadelphia, began a campaign to establish a national Mother's Day.  Ms. Jarvis persuaded her mother's church in Grafton, West Virginia to celebrate Mother's Day on the second anniversary of her mother's death, the 2nd Sunday of May. By the next year Mother's Day was also celebrated in Philadelphia.

Ms. Jarvis and her supporters began to write to ministers, businessman, and politicians in their quest to establish a national Mother's Day. It was successful as by 1911 Mother's Day was celebrated in almost every state. President Woodrow Wilson, in 1914, made the official announcement proclaiming Mother's Day as a national holiday that was to be held each year on the 2nd Sunday of May.

While many countries of the world celebrate their own Mother's Day at different times throughout the year, there are some countries such as USA, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Turkey, Australia, and Belgium which celebrate Mother's Day on the second Sunday of May.

Home made-cards

Cut out suitable pictures from old birthday cards, or use an old photograph of yourself (baby pictures are good to use, if you have some) and stick onto recycled paper to make a card.Or else make a home-made card using your very own artwork (and verse, if you are up to it). Even adults needing to send a card could do this, rather than head to the nearest supermarket, newsagent or stationers for an expensive and probably not very ‘eco/green’ mass-produced card.

An eco-promise

An eco-promise can be written or put in a home-made card. Here are some ideas -

reduce – for children - maybe a promise not to pester for toys, trainers or clothes for the next three months and to make use of what’s in the household already?

recycle – maybe a promise to sort out cans, bottles or newspapers for refuse collections or for taking to a recycling centre for the next three months? Or perhaps a promise to sort out (good quality) unwanted books from around the house; and sell them for example via green metropolis. Green Metropolis will also sell childrens’ books.

What about a promise to prepare a meal, using allotment, organic or local market produce?

Take care of some chore(s) around the house —  a promise to work in the garden, clean the windows etc, replace incandescent light bulbs with eco friendly options — simple stuff that will mean the world. If you live away from Mum, purchase gift certificates.

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A Dining In gift certificate, the perfect gift for Mom.
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Give Time

The best gift you can give on Mothers Day, is time. Mum will be delighted to be the centre of attention and pampered for the day. Why not cook a delicious, seasonal meal and then offer a hand massage or just spend the afternoon chatting and sharing time together.

Breakfast in bed, picnic in the park, visit the library, museum, art exhibition, movies etc.

Framing that great photo of you and Mum and top if off with a handwritten, heartfelt message, either in a corner of the photo, or on the back of the frame.

Make something and get the children to help - self-painted pottery, a photograph you took, hand-knitted socks, apron, lavender gifts, a self-composed song, a donation in Mum's name to a eco-oriented non-profit of choice.

Bake something special. Fill a little basket with small home-made treats. Decorate with ribbons and sprigs from the garden.

Be practical: an organic veggie box!

Give a unique experience - gift box of her favourite foods / drinks / photo album of past memories / write letters of all your favourite memories.

Long-lasting: pot plants or herbs?

Cut flowers- Fairtrade or Organic Local.
 
Did you know that over 100 million flowers are grown, flown and wrapped in plastic for your buying pleasure every year? Each one is trucked and jetted an average 1,500 miles. That's a hell of a lot of fossil-fuel-burning and greenhouse-gas-generating just to bring you that yellow rose. In Colombia alone that's one cargo plane full of petals every three hours. As with fruit and vegetables, it is always best to buy flowers that are - local, organic and in season.

The real eco horror show happens in fields and greenhouses, where hundreds of different pesticides are used that end up contaminating groundwater, sometimes not so indirectly. (Reports from Costa Rica document direct discharges into waterways, for instance.) In other areas, the use of groundwater in the cultivation of plants has led to dropping water tables. The quest for perfect, pest-free flowers often means that the super-toxic and ozone-depleting fumigant methyl bromide is sprayed (although an increasing number of countries have either banned or are trying to phase out the nasty substance).

But if your mum adores the bright blooms you bring her every year and you hate to break with tradition, don't fret – you do have options. Eco Flora  www.ecoflora.ca offers beautiful bouquets of wildcrafted, certified organic and organic flowers, although right now they mostly have non-organic fair trade mums and roses that are lower in pesticides and certified by Germany's green seal program ($20 and up for bouquets). As a general rule, Eco Flora's products either come from Canada or the U.S. or are fairly traded. They even come wrapped in compostable cellophane wrapping!

Hatcher Florist on Yonge www.hatcherflorist.com  sells roses, carnations and more from Sierra Eco-certified farms. Like green seal flowers, the buds aren't organic, but less pesticides were used, greener practices are in place, and farmworkers are treated according to International Labour Organization standards. Both florists deliver throughout the GTA, but only Hatcher has a storefront.You can always order from www.organicbouquet.com . All of our flower gifts are certified organic under USDA, Veriflora, and other international floral farming certifications. No other florist puts as much care into their flowers as Organic Bouquet. When you buy flowers online, you can be sure that your mother will be receiving the very best. Our gifts are healthy and completely natural, the perfect choice for a health-conscious mom.

Check out the soil Association http://www.soilassociation.org for details of approved organic flower growers in the UK.

Alternatively, you could plant your Mother a tree which will last for life.

Perfume

Most perfumes are made from a toxic array of synthetic fragrances in cheap alcohol and made from petroleum. These products can contain hormone disrupters - that’s not what Mum needs!
Farfalla from Switzerland use 98% organic ingredients and only pure essential oils in their perfumes.
But you could make your own ... make a blend of your favourite organic essential oils and  dilute it with a carrier oil. Put in a pretty bottle and label. Make a basket of home-made toiletries - lip gloss, hand cream, body lotion etc.

Day Spa

What better way to treat your Mother than with a trip to the spa, and then whisk her away to a fantastic organic dinner.
You can also be kind to the Mother Earth by supporting businesses that integrate environmental sustainability and quality service in their pampering practices.
DIY - Prepare an organic meal for your Mother and pamper Mum with organic skincare products.

Chocolates

If your mother's passion for chocolate is as strong as, well, my Mother's, stick to your annual choco-box practice – just know that the conventional stuff is riddled with eco implications. Nearly gone are the days when cacao trees were allowed to grow under the misty rain forest canopy, where they provided comfy homes to all kinds of creatures. The globe's $60 billion chocolate craving has pushed the plants into the full sun, where they sprout more beans but are much more prone to disease and bugs. And you know what that means: more toxic pesticides like the hormone-disrupting lindane (traces of which were found in 20 samples of chocolate tested by the British food industry). And just as with flowers, you see all the same threats to waterways, workers and wildlife. Luckily, maternal chocolate fixes can be satiated with tasty fair trade organic morsels.

Buying fair trade means that children can go to school to get an education and farmers are paid a fair wage for their crop. Buying organic means that the farmers do not have to be exposed to dangerous chemicals (and neither does your Mum).

Green and Black’s Maya Gold (the only fair trade chocolate in their range) or the Divine range of chocolates are easy to find in health food shops and most supermarkets.

Alternatively, you could do-it-yourself organic chocolates, and fill them with good nourishing centres.

Jewellery and Doodads

Most gold is mined by spraying the earth with sodium cyanide to leach out the gold. The toxins then end up in local drinking water supplies.Many diamonds are conflict diamonds.

If you're ready to branch out from the flower and chocolate combo, peruse a fair trade shop for teapots, jewellery and other doodads. Check out the fair trade wrapping paper and cards made with hyacinths that would otherwise be choking Thai waterways.Don't forget you can also go Thrift-shopping and make gifts from recycled material etc.

Don't sweat the gift-aspect just let Mum know that you’re thinking of her, and you love her. Enjoy the day, and celebrate Mum with your heart, however you know best.