The Blog
I’ve been wanting to start this blog for a while now. I was inspired to make changes in my own life and thought it would be fun to document what I’ve been doing. I hope that by doing this I might inspire someone else, or help someone else, go a little more green. I really wanted to make my environmental/hippy side a bigger part of me.
I decided that January seemed to be the perfect time to start this. With all the New Years resolutions going on, I thought this blog idea was perfect. It will help me stick to the green things I already do, and make me do more.
The Shop
Growing Green was born from my combined love of zero waste and beekeeping. My grandpa’s friend is a beekeeper and had hives on my grandpa’s farm. My mom and I went for a hive tour with him and loved it. He became our mentor and three years later he still helps us out. We started off with two hives and we are now up to six. I love beekeeping. You always learn something new and bees will forever fascinate me.
At the same time we started Shamrock Apiary I started getting into zero waste. The two just fit perfectly together. My first product was lip balms. I started making them because I wanted an all natural and zero waste alternative to traditional lip balm, and I had beeswax to use. I then made candles for family and friends, and moved on to soap making. I wanted to make a shampoo bar because I couldn’t find a store bought one that didn’t leave my hair a mess. Making soaps is so much fun, even when it goes wrong.
I started off just making things for myself and then as gifts. People liked them so I started selling them. I’ve expanded my line over time and I love experimenting with new recipes.
The Writer/Soap Maker/Beekeeper
Hello! I’m Amanda. I’m the creator of this blog and all its posts, images and pages. I’ll just tell you a little about me. I’ve always been interested in going green. When I was about 8 or 9 years old I (with the help of my mum) called a yogurt tube company to ask them why they use so much extra packaging. From then on my greenness came and went. I worked at an organic, fair trade, sustainable, local coffee shop when I was younger which brought out the environmentalist in me. University also added to this. I have a BAH from Trent Univeristy, which is well known in the area for being the “hippie” school. Taking English lit and gender and women’s studies definatly added to my hippie vibe (from an environmental lit course, to learning about environmental feminism). I’m currently doing my MA in Public Texts (English lit) at Trent, and started this blog as a way to be creative while prograsinating my thesis.
More
Find me on Instagram @growinggreengirl
Find Growing Green Co’s Instagram @growinggreenco
Find Growing Green on Facebook here
Follow my zero waste and ethical Pinterest board here: https://www.pinterest.com/amandaedgley/ethical-sustainable-zero-waste/
Growing Green 