sierraclub.org - sierra magazine - january/february 2010 - enjoy
Enjoy | The Green Life
By Avital Binshtock
Low-Carbon Cupid
When buying a Valentine's Day gift for your sweetheart this year, show a little love for Mother Earth too
Artist Sima Gilady crafts bespoke necklaces and rings with a rough-hewn quality and any words or symbols of your choosing. Based in Boulder, Colorado, Gilady works with recycled metals and limits her use of oxides, patinas, and other potentially harmful chemicals. Prices start at $25.
For a low-carbon splurge, book a getaway at Post Ranch Inn, an upscale eco-resort in Big Sur, California (non-Californians can find refuges of similar caliber closer to home). If vertiginous views of the Pacific don't turn you on, you can spend a romantic afternoon gawking at the hotel's massive array of solar panels, beneath which deer and wild turkeys graze. The on-site restaurant, Sierra Mar, serves an ever-changing menu of seasonal organic dishes.
If your sweetie has a sweet tooth, bypass that heart-shaped box of dubious nougats and instead go DIY with the Organic Superfood Chocolate Kit ($10), from California's Navitas Naturals. The two of you can get messy making your own dulcet treats; all you'll need is an ice-cube tray and the kit's waxy cacao butter, flourlike chocolate powder, and your choice of goji berries, cacao nibs, or golden berries.
Cuff links are no longer the last-resort choice of witless gift-givers. These three designs, made from (clockwise, from top) a fountain pen barrel, a basketball, and a computer motherboard, show your appreciation for creative reuse. The basketball and pen cuff links ($130 each set) are available from cufflinksdepot.com; the repurposed motherboard set ($135) is from ecoartware.com.
Even tree huggers like to get risque sometimes. Urban Fox makes ecofriendly lingerie that's dainty, sexy, and colorful. (No more burlap-sack beige!) Its underwear, camisoles, and 1940s-style stockings are handmade from sustainable materials sourced not far from the company's St. Louis and Chicago offices. The hand-dyed Lacey bikini-cut bottom ($40) is made of organic linen and lined in organic lace.
Gift guide photos: Lori Eanes (6), Post Ranch Inn photo courtesy of Kodiak Greenwood