Giveaway The Allergy Fighting Garden Book

While we are still in the winter months it may be time to start thinking about what is in our yards in the way of bushes, shrubs, trees, and other plants. This is important especially for those who suffer from asthma and or allergies. It is a good time to educate our selves on what is in our yards and how they effect our health.

About the Author

In the book The Allergy Fighting Garden author Thomas Leo Ogren teaches us about the various plant life and how it effects our health. Thomas has a degree in agricultural science, is a horticulturist, and former landscape gardener instructor, nursery owner, and gardening radio show host.

His Why

It was his wife who brought him on his journey of 30 years of research. She suffered from allergies and asthma and he witnessed the pain and misery it brought to her. Upon purchasing a new home he decided to do some research into which plants, trees, and shrubs were least likely to aggravate allergies. As Thomas searched for materials on the subject he realized none existed. That led him to do his own research one plant at a time where he learned more about botany, medicine, pollen, and the plant flowering system. This led him to create the Ogren’s allergy scale which rates plants, shrubs, and trees on a scale from 1 – 10.

This book is a wealth of information and everyone should have a copy in their collection of books.

The First 8 Chapters.

1. Botanical Sexism, and our current allergy crisis
2. How to Fight Allergies close to home
3. Understanding Plant Sex and its importance in allergies
4. Allergy – Blocking Hedges
5. Eliminating allergy-caing mold spores
6. Fighting Allergies in your neighborhood and city
7. Understanding OPALS (Ogren Plant Allergy Scale)
8. Using the A to Z Plant Listings

After Chapter 8

After chapter 8 there is an extensive list of shrubs, bushes, trees, and plants with a rating of how they rate for causing allergies. It is listed in alphabetical order according to the scientific name. There is also a glossary of horticultural terms, recommended reading, useful websites, pollen calendar, and a plant hardiness zone map.

Giveaway Time

This giveaway will run from Monday January 25, 2016 through Monday February 1, 2016.

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Giveaway! Mary's Heirloom Seeds

We are THRILLED to sponsor another Giveaway for Mary's Heirloom Seeds.  This is our largest giveaway opportunity yet.  You have a chance to win 1 of 3 organic gift packs from Mary's Heirloom Seeds.

 
-Organic Garden Gift Pack ($39 value)

-Grow Your Own Herbal "Medicine" kit  ($25 value)

-Mary's Organic Sprouting Kit w/ 8 ounces of organic seeds ($25 value)

A total of 3 winners will be chosen!!!

This giveaway is live and ends Sunday, November 15th at 11:59pm

About our prizes.... 

-Organic Garden Gift Pack ($39)

 An excellent starter pack!  Includes 10 varieties of organic, non-GMO seeds (25 seeds per pack), Coconut Coir seed starting pellets,  Plant Markers, organic plant food and detailed growing instructions

Organic, Heirloom, Non-GMO Seeds: St. Valery Carrot, Tom Thumb Lettuce, Roma Tomato, Black Beauty Eggplant, Blue Lake Bush Beans, New Jersey Wakefield Cabbage, National Pickling Cucumber, Early Scarlet Globe Radish, Yellow of Parma Onion and Black Beauty Zucchini
8 ounces Mary's Organic Plant Food 3-4-4
Options: 24 Coconut Coir Pellets

-Grow Your Own Herbal "Medicine" kit  ($25)

Many of the most common herbs found in the garden can be beneficial to your health while adding flavor to your favorite dish.

This combo pack includes 7 herb varieties!  This includes 1 full pack of the following varieties:
Genovese Basil, Calendula, Echinacea Purpurea, German Chamomile, Mugwort, Oregano and Yarrow
*Mortar and pestle not included*

 

-Mary's Organic Sprouting Kit w/ 8 ounces of organic seeds ($25)

This one quart sprouting jar is everything you  need to learn the basic aspects of sprouting.   A perfect way to get started. Grow your own sprouts for a delicious and nutritious meal or snack for just pennies!!!
Each Kit Includes:   wide-mouth glass sprouting jar (quart size),  lid & screen, organic SEEDS and detailed sprouting instructions.

About Mary's Heirloom Seeds,
Mary's Heirloom Seeds is a "mom and pop" small business created out of a desire to help people become more sustainable and self-sufficient. Our customers know that we are a simple phone call or email away

We currently offer over 250 varieties of open-pollinated, non-gmo & non-hybrid, non-patented,  untreated, organic, heirloom garden seeds.   Mary has signed the Safe Seed pledge.  

Most orders place Monday-Thursday ship within 48 hours, except for Holidays.

Order herb and veggie varieties together and get an extra free seed pack!
*$10 Order Minimum on all seed orders*

From our seed pack envelopes to our labels and packaging material, all of our paper comes from post-consumer recycled material. We hand-pack, print and label all of our own seed packages. Our website is hosted with a wind-powered, sustainable company. 


Are you ready to enter the giveaway?

Giveaway is open to all Residents of the US and Canada.
Giveaway opens 11/12/2015 and ends Sunday, November 15th at Midnight.

All giveaway entrants will be added to Mary's Heirloom Seeds mailing list.

Your information is never sold and we never send spam emails.

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Giveaway Paleo Mug Muffins E-Book

 It's Your Life magazine is proud to be one of the blogs offering this giveaway from Heather Resler of Cooking It Up Paleo! This is not the first e-book we have since from this teen blogger and something tells me it won't be her last.

I've got a great giveaway today for you guys; Heather Resler of Cook It Up Paleo is writing another e-cookbook, and she want to give YOU the chance to win a pre-release copy! What's this cookbook? It's called Paleo Mug Muffins - 25 fast recipes for all your muffin cravings!

Teen blogger at Cook It Up Paleo, foodie, health nut, paleo baking enthusiast and muffin lover

What's a mug muffin, you ask? It's a single-serve, protein-packed, nutritious muffin that is baked in the microwave and only takes a couple minutes from start to finish! Heather's been obsessed with mug muffins since she first found out about them because there are
endless ways to make them!

This beautiful PDF ebook includes:

25 single-serve paleo muffin recipes

Nut-free muffins
AIP-compliant muffins Guide to ingredients 24             exclusive, cookbook-only recipes

 
Heather's absolute favorite recipe in the cookbook is the Single Lady Brownie; it's so easy to make and it yields a delicious brownie that is perfect to serve one or two people! And the texture is just like a regular brownie!

See that soft and delicious apple muffin below? That's completely AIP protocol compliant!!

Carrot cake, anyone? Me please!

Heather went to great lengths to accommodate food sensitivities, too. Most of the recipes are nut-free, and a few are even egg-free! And of course everything is grain-free. Heather's favorite thing about mug muffins is that they rise really well to create muffin that is truly on par with the muffins you find at the bakery or the coffee shop.

10 ways to enjoy mug muffins:

With breakfast

For dessert

As a snack

Serve as personal-sized birthday cakes

Serve slices of the savory muffins with dinner as bread

Make a sandwich

Make croutons from the savory breads

Make french toast

With a cup of coffee

With a cup of tea

 Want to be notified when this ebook is released? Sign up below:

Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway below to win a pre-release copy of Paleo Mug Muffins!

This giveaway starts Monday, August 17 and closes Saturday, August 22ns at midnight EST

Giveaway is open to everyone!

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Mary's Birthday Celebration Giveaway!!

Welcome to Mary's Birthday Celebration Giveaway!  

I'm participating in a HUGE bash to celebrate and YOU 

get a chance to win one of 3 prizes from Mary's Heirloom Seeds.

That's "Auntie Mary" on the right!

2 Winners will receive an assortment of Heirloom, Non-GMO seeds as well as organic gardening supplies totaling over $60 in value.  Each prize pack Includes (but not limited to) Radish, Golden Beets, Squash, Chinese Cabbage, Culinary and Medicinal Herbs, Beans, Peppers and Tomatoes as well as Coconut Coir Pellets for seed starting made simple AND Organic, Vegan Plant Nutrients.
**Seed Varieties will be tailored to the winner's planting region*

1 Winner will receive the Baker's Dozen heirloom seeds variety pack. 
Easy to grow and wonderful to eat.  This pack contains a large variety of seeds  for a very low cost.  13 seeds from 13 varieties.  Includes:  Calabrese Broccoli, 5 Color Silverbeet Swiss Chard,  Black Beauty Eggplant,  Waltham Butternut Squash, Tam Dew Melon, Bloomsdale Spinach,  Cal Wonder Bell Pepper, Marketmore Cucumber, Pink Oxheart Tomato, Atomic Red Carrots, Self-Blanching Snowball Cauliflower, German Giant Radish,  Detroit Dark Red Beet.

At Mary's Heirloom Seeds, all of the seeds listed are open-pollinated, non-gmo and non-hybrid, non-patented, untreated, heirloom garden seeds.  All of are seeds are sourced from small, family farmers and seed growers.  

Mary has signed the Safe Seed Pledge!

Mary's Birthday Giveaway opens 9/12/2014 and closes 9/20/2014 at midnight EST.  

Open to residents of the US and Canada.

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Creating Shea Butter Naturally

Recently I had the pleasure of doing some freelance writing for Wayne Dunn owner of Baraka Supplies. He sells Shea butter along with Bolga baskets and accessories. My job was to create a write up about Shea butter, what it is, how it is made, where it comes from, you get the picture. You know one thing I love about freelancing? Not only do I make money, and get to write about topics I love, but I also gain knowledge.

Did you know that Shea comes from a fruit of a tree in both Western and Central Africa? I learned that the best Shea butter is created by the village women. They gather the fruit from July to August and there is a process of drying, which is done in the sun. Using a very large mortar and pastel the seeds are gently cracked open, separated from the shells by hand, and once again left to dry. The majority of the process is done by hand except for the grinding of the nuts.

Everything has to be washed before they start making the Shea or it will be contaminated. You should always wash your hands before touching your Shea for the same reason. The women in the villages spend up to two hours gently separating the Shea from the oil. This is all done by hand as they gradually add water to it. Once that is done they have a beautiful slightly yellow butter which is packaged up and sold. Wow!!! I could not believe it, it was amazing. Of course the Shea contained in store lotions goes through a more industrialized process which removes the healing properties from the butter along with bleaching.

Another interesting thing I learned is that when Shea melts and solidifies again it becomes gritty. Once it has melted it will not go back to having that smooth butter like texture. The ahhhh moment when I learned why the Shea butter I have is gritty and harder to apply then the Shea Wayne sent me. You should store your Shea butter in a dark cool place and it will last up to a year.

Oh yeah I almost forgot not only did this wonderful man pay me to write for him he sent me 4 kg of Shea butter. I almost died when I found out that is 8 lbs of butter!!!! I have been using the one from Baraka, which by the way means thank you in Wali a Ghanaian language. That is where they get their Shea butter from, Ghana, and let me tell you it is awesome. It is so smooth and creamy with no gritty texture, angels singing, I'm in love and will get all my Shea from him. Oh and I noticed it has just a hint of smokey fire, I love it thinking about all the work these women do to create it. I would love to visit with Wayne some day during the season and help them create this amazing butter.

I have not used it to create any homemade products I feel like it would be an insult. What I have decided to do is giveaway the other 4 lbs. So, Thursday during Real Food Fridays we will be giving away 1 lb of Shea butter. We decided to split up the happiness, so this will be one of three giveaways to come. What about the fourth lb, hey gotta spread the love to my Real Food Friday hosts.

Uses for Shea butter include.

• Reduces wrinkles
• Prevents peeling from sun burn
• Helps to heal surgery wounds quicker
• Reduces stretch marks
• Heals cuts quickly
• Great for various hair types
• Moisturizer
• And more

I have included two of the videos I watched while doing my research together they are about 20 minutes long, but worth it in my book.

Real Food Fridays #29 Link Up & Giveaway

I'm so excited for this week's link up, we have a giveaway from Kelani Organics. Here is a little about Kelly the owner and her business, Kelani Organics.

 I'm a one woman small business. My Hawaiian Heritage makes the ocean, soil, and Aloha run through my veins. 3 years ago a mentor changed the way I live my life and I now strive to help make the world a better place with organic and natural products. 

Handmade to Order using sterilized recycled containers when possible to do my part for the environment. Natural Remedies, Organic Beauty Products and more, and Natural (Non-Toxic) Cleaning Supplies. Mahalo for visiting, please enjoy browsing my different shop sections.

Kelly has generously donated three items to be given away to one lucky winner.

The first is an Anti-fungal Athlete's Foot & Rash Oil.

                     Next up we have Organic Sore Muscle & Joint Rub. 

                                     Lastly Natural Hand Sanitizer. 

Can't wait for the giveaway want to purchase something now. Well today is your lucky day Kelly is offering 10% off all orders until April 1, 2014 with promo code GIVEAWAY032014.

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Deadline for giveaway is March 20, 2014 at midnight. 

 DO NOT LINK UP UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THE RULES.
Rule #1  If your ingredients do not have the following labels on it, or the ingredients are not listed as organic, filtered water, or cane sugar, you are using genetically mutant ingredients, sorry to burst your bubble.

Rule #2 However, if you list your ingredients as just sugar, pepper, flour that is exceptable.  Images that include non-organic brands will be deleted. That means if you have a picture of what you used, and I see Kraft, McCormick, etc the post will be deleted.

Rule #3 Bloggers only.

The purpose of this link up is to help others change from genetically mutant foods to real foods. If you are not eating organic, you are consuming GMOs that are void of vitamins and minerals.


<a href="http://yourlife7.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a627/greenmary_smith/REALFood1_zpsb7242283.jpg"/></a>

Your hosts are Mary from Back to the Basics, and Mary's Kitchen along with Joyce from It's Your Life.

                     Your co-hosts are

• Lydia from Lydia's Flexitarian Kitchen,  
• Deborah from Kneaded Creations,
•  Janine from My Lamp is Full 
• Marla from Organic 4 Greenlivings

I love that we are growing, and thanks to those who post every week.

My Version -  Good Girl Moonshine from Deep Roots at Home.

Feeding an Adopted Baby Without Commercial Formula from Mindful Mama.

How to Feed Your Dog (Better) for Free from Modern Vintage Housewives.

Going Organic on a Budget: Coupons from Back Home Again.

Check out the new Facebook group for Real Food Bloggers, join us and share your posts. If you have been featured on any of the blogs hosting/co-hosting this link up your post will be shared on the Facebook group and pinned to the Real Food Fridays board on Pintrest.

Feel free to link up your real food posts, bloggers only please, family friendly posts pertaining to anything related to real food, or health related link ups/blog hops.

Party runs Thursday night through Sunday at midnight.

Please grab the button, and put it somewhere on your blog so others can find us.

If you would like to be a co-host, for a week, a month, or whatever, email me at edjumpoff@yahoo.com.

Celebration Giveaway!

My online friend and fellow blogger has reached her 600th post on Back to the Basics. She wants to celebrate, and wants all of you to be included in her achievement. I have offered to join her in her amazing giveaway, which includes more than what is here. So, I invite you to get to learn more about Mary, and please indulge your self in her giveaway.

GOOD MORNING!!!!!!

Can you tell I'm excited this morning?  It just dawned on me several days ago that I was inching towards post #600.  I decided to  get together a super fun giveaway for YOU and share a bit about me and what's been going on.

Who is Mary?

I'm not your average "Martha."  I love cooking and creating although my "crafting" is a bit more Mad Scientist than Suzy Homemaker.

My husband Doc is a Chiropractor and together we own a wellness-based chiropractic office.  We have 2 sweet fur babies Rocky and Lucy who make the occasional appearance on the blog.  I have worked in chiropractic offices for 12 years as of this month!

The garden is my stress relief and at the moment it's a mess!  I created Back to the Basics as a way to share health information when I became more interested in health and GMOs back in 2009.  I also blog over at Mary's Kitchen.  After a break from blogging I came back in full swing with Mary's Heirloom Seeds and the fight against GMOs.

Mary's Heirloom Seeds continues to grow with the awakening of people around the world to the dangers of GMOs and the disgusting chemicals and pesticides used in conventional growing around the world. If you're looking for rare seed varieties or REAL Heirloom, non-GMO varieties Mary's Heirloom Seeds has got you covered!

In August this year I decided to take the next step and opened up a super cool booth at the Yellow Green Farmer's Market as well as offering Workshops in our office in Hollywood, FL.  The first 2 workshops have been such a success that I have 2 more planned for October.  I'm really excited for the future while enjoying the present!

The Giveaway

I have decided to offer several different prizes for the 600 Celebration.  There will be 4 different winners!  Prizes include:

Garden Gift Basket
Basket includes 24 peat pellets, 1 pair women's size medium gloves, plant markers and4 packs of heirloom, non-gmo seeds
 
"Basil 3 Ways" Seed Combo Pack
 Get all 3 varieties we carry of organic, Non-GMO, heirloom Basil Seeds.

 

Mary's Organic Sprouting Kit 
Includes: wide-mouth glass jar (quart size),  lid with screen, 2 oz.  Organic sprout seeds and detailed sprouting instructions.

 

Mary's Real Food Cookbook
"To me, real food means homemade.  It's simple, healthy food with an occasional decadent dessert.  The book would not be complete with out Great-Grandma's 14 Karat Cake.  Recipes include a mix of traditional, exotic, light and sinful all in one compact book."

 
1 Month Ad Space @ Back to the Basics

And More!

Over the next few days I'll be sharing Product Reviews, Guest posts and DIY Projects to celebrate.  Also, World Food Day is Saturday, October 12.  Do you know where the nearest event is taking place?  I do!  Stay tuned!

The giveaway is LIVE and will end Wednesday, October 16th at Midnight.  The Ad Space is open to ALL countries but I reserve the right to refuse ads based on content. The rest of the prizes are open to residents of the US and Canada.

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