Dominica is a leading producer of Bay Oil; the West Indian Bay Oil is antiseptic and the scent is heavenly.

I have been using and promoting the use of bay oil as a cleaning agent for over 20 years.

I utilized this oil to make my own cleaning products for my business

 Pimenta racemosa. Indigenous to northern South America and the Caribbean, tropical bay is a sturdy, evergreen tree of the Myrtle family which has been cultivated for commercial purposes for 80-90 years in some West Indian Islands. 

Dominica is currently the main centre in the Caribbean for producing bay oil, which is exported to the USA and Europe for use in perfumes and cosmetics and also to Trinidad for making Bay Rum. Bay Rum was initially prepared by collecting the distillate from boiling bay leaves in white rum, but is now made from a combination of bay oil, citrus and spice oils, alcohol and water. The Bay tree grows throughout Dominica but production and distilleries are concentrated in the south east of the island. The oil is produced in several small distilleries, many of which are run as co-operatives, by distilling the steam from boiling leaves, a traditional process that gives Dominican oil its distinctive colour and sweet, spicy, aroma. Trees are also cultivated in Tobago, where a government-owned estate has been the site of research trials for recent attempts to revitalise the industry. The oil produced in Tobago is more highly refined than bay oil produced in other regions of the Caribbean as it is extracted from steam distillation of whole leaves. Possibilities for export are currently being explored for Tobago bay oil as well as adding value to locally produced items, such as soap, with the addition of the oil. Traditionally, whole leaves are also used as seasoning for foods, pickles and vinegars and as a medicinal tea to treat colds and flu. However, other niche markets for tropical bay extracts may also evolve as medicinal uses are further investigated. It is, for instance, an important ingredient, in a herbal supplement promoted for aiding stress associated with the withdrawal symptoms people suffer when quitting smoking.

Unlike some other plant extracts, it is not easy to produce an acceptable synthetic substitute, as bay oil is a particularly complex essential oil with over 20 components. It also has a very long shelf life. As the original oil is almost always preferred and the tree itself is extremely hardy and can even be grown on poor, rocky soils, more producers are being encouraged to take advantage of this natural Caribbean concoction.

Bay essential oil used for soap making and perfumery is produced from the leaves of the plant Pimenta Racemosa in the West Indies and South America. Dominica is one of the largest bay oil producers in the world. The West Indian Bay is different than the

 West Indian Bay is antiseptic and the scent is heavenly.

Since it’s discovery along the trade routes of the Caribbean several centuries ago it became a commonly traded spice and is used frequently in traditional french cooking. While the leaves are used for cooking spices and making the essential oil, the berries are also used to make fragrant waxy oil that is used in candle making for bayberry candles. The Bay and Bayberry plant referred to here is actually Wild Cinnamon or Pimenta Acris or Pimenta Racemosa native to the West Indies. There is a Bay plant native to Eastern America that has fragrant waxy berries that have a similar scent and was used by colonial period candle makers for scenting candles in the Lake Ontario and Lake Erie areas. 

locally antiseptic, useful in treatment of dandruff, Tropical bay should not be confused with the temperate, or ‘sweet’ bay, Laurus nobilis, the leaves of which are also used as a seasoning for food. A close relative of the Bay tree is the Pimento tree, whose seeds are used to produce ‘allspice’.

DIRECTORY OF NATURAL LIVING IN DOMINICA
(List your health or green business; or organization at Visit-Dominica.com)
Featured listing:

“The mission of Dominica Herbal Business Association (DHBA) is to develop the herbal industry towards international standards promoting sustainable use of natural and herbal resources while taking advantage of the business opportunities existing and promoting the healthy lifestyle and wellness benefits associated with traditional herbs in Dominica. ” ~ Dominica Herbal Association

The Dominica Herbal Business Association was formally launched in the Commonwealth of Dominica on the 21st June, 2006, to establish a forum for generating, developing and exchanging ideas, coordinating the efforts of herbal business throughout Dominica, and promoting a common interest through collective action and shared vision among persons involved in the herbal industry.

They have already done great things; Spa Products Workshop; Zeb Kweol are just a few I can think of

Contact them at

IICA office on 767 448 4502 or DHBA secretary, Sharon Jones on 767 275 1805
dominicaherbs@gmail.com

“We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.” ~Marion Wright Edelman

I am visualizing a world without such a strong reliance on plastic shopping bags. Slowly but surely an awareness of the environmental consequences of indiscriminate use of plastic bags is growing through out the world.

Dominica has not been using plastic bags like now for long. As little as 10 years ago if you went to the shop in my neighbourhood without your bag they sent you back home to get it! We went to market with baskets and cloth bags to carry our produce home.

Do we really need to receive a bag every time we go to shop? When calculated over a year it adds up rapidly; if we shop on an average of 3 times a week; get 2 plastic bags each time; that adds up to 302 bags a year! Multiply that times 30,000 (guessing that would be the number of active shoppers on island out of 70,000) - now that’s a lot of plastic.

We can recycle our plastic bags and that does happen a lot here. Clean intact plastic bags never go in the landfill they are always reused but still ….. imagine if there were none!

Europe’s biggest consumer of plastic bags, Italy, (they use more than 20 billion plastic bags annually) has banned plastic bags as of January 2011.

In 2007 San Francisco was the first city in the US to ban plastic bags and so far, that translates into 5 million fewer plastic bags every month. Long Beach California and join a host of other US cities who have followed

As of January 2011 Malaysia starts the process of banning plastic bags by banning them one day a week; this move saves

Dominica has always had a certain eco slant within the traditional culture.

The bags of today break after 1 or 2 uses.

“It is not only that we want to bring about an easy labor, without risking injury to the mother or the child; we must go further. We must understand that childbirth is fundamentally a spiritual, as well as a physical, achievement. The birth of a child is the ultimate perfection of human love.” ~ Dr. Grantly Dick-Read, 1953

“In an island so luxurious with growth it is ever more so shocking and disturbing when driving by a dead zone from herbicides.” ~ Trudy Scott Prevost

  On the left an organic farm whose main crop is citrus. This farm is shipping to other islands where the demand for organic produce is steadily growing. On the right a citrus farm using pesticides to kill everything at ground level. Considering that those who eat organic have much lower levels of chemical toxins in their body which oranges do you want to eat?

Just after the spraying at first you cannot tell the land and plants are soaked in a toxic chemical except for the smell. Then the plants get this dark black tinge; then slowly brown dry deadness appears in spots then overtakes the green. The final effect is ugly and knowing the side effects scary and horrifying.

From the first time I saw the results of gramaxone I was blown away that people were applying something that killed the foliage of plants almost immediately to the very soil they grew their food in. Even more shocking they were applying it around the food they were growing and soon eating.

I started researching this chemical – a chemical local people were told was “safe” – I talked to one farmer who remembered representatives of the agricultural companies coming out to the farmers fields in lab coats to tell them how “safe” it was.  A friend of mine remembers a UNESCO calendar advertising how easy life would be with gramoxone.

In Canada and around the world the same information was being disseminated and the results have been disastorous.

In the past only a few spoke out against this deluge of basically unproven chemicals being poured on our soil; those who did we soon silenced.

I spoke to a gentleman in the hospital the other day who felt his relative had been quietly released from his duties as an agricultural officer when he kept saying that these chemicals were not as beneficial as it seemed in the short term.

AFTER YEARS OF DENYING ANY RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AGRICULTURAL CHEMICALS AND DISEASE IN HUMANS; unrefutable evidence is showing that there is undeniable proof that agricultural chemicals do cause disease. Study after study is showing the links. Class action suits are gathering all over the world. If you or I caused this many people to get sick or die we would be jailed for life!

Farmers here are still using these dangerous chemicals many of them as in the case of gramoxone are illegal in other parts of the world. While “catching a ride” all over the island I find that farmers often say “Oh I don’t use those chemicals for the food I eat; just the food I sell!”

One way to encourage local farmers to grow organic is to request it; pay a little more for quality organic food and the farmers will address the need.

Nobody can deny the connections to disease now:

Canada

United States

The national birth defects registry shows the effects of agent orange on the next generation

THIS HIGHLY TOXIC CHEMICAL IS BANNED IN THE VERY COUNTRIES THAT SELL IT TO US!

2008 Report by Institute of Medicine – they have been selling a product known to cause the listed traumatic diseases to us and other “less developed countries” for over 15 years – capitalism at it’s best!

Yes Canada; the United States and European countries have banned this pesticide yet they sell it to us to use in our front yard instead of cutting the grass. Capitalism at its most dangerous level. If you can make money it is ok to still sell a chemical that is causes sickness and death all over the world; has been proven carcinogenic; in fact the marketing manager was likely applauded for getting rid of a product too dangerous to sell in the country it is made in.

Study Links Pesticides to Parkinson’s

Elevated serum levels of pesticides linked to Parkinson’s Disease

France

Epilepsy dangers caused by chemicals professor University in Vercelli

Japan

Nicaraugua

Amvac Chemical of Newport Beach will pay 13 Nicaraguan workers exposed to DBCP on banana plantations nearly 30 years ago.

Agricultural Chemicals

Not only do a lot of the cleaning agents we use hurt our health they hurt the earth.

to be continued

” All I have today are avocados and avocados and avocados! Lunch is avocados!” – Marie Fredrick; Indigo Art Studio

The day I heard the quote I had guacamole; avocado slices and avocado salad – delicious!

I meet avocado season with great joy each year. They are a nutrient dense locally grown food that added to a meal can enhance the absorbtion of nutrients in other foods!

Avocados are super foods we need to add to every meal when they are available!

Eat Local! Eat Healthy! Eat Avocados!

I have always believed that God never gives a cross to bear larger than we can carry. No matter what, he wants us to be happy, not sad. birds sing after a storm. Why shouldn’t we? ~ Rose F. Kennedy

Whistle Like a Bird 2011

Main Event

Speeches and Presentations

Guest Performances

I love how the winner looks like he is in a bird trance!

Whistle Like a Bird 2010

Barclays Cycle Superhighways (BCS) are cycle routes running from outer London into central London. 

As part of the Mayor of London’s cycle revolution the aim is to increase cycling in London by 400 per cent by 2025 (compared to 2000 levels).

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/11901.aspx

“It’s about recognizing that waste is fundamentally a design flaw (it does not appear in nature) It’s about re-thinking waste as a resource. It’s about cyclical ‘cradle-to-cradle’ philosophies rather than linear thinking when it comes to how we design our world. It’s about a better understanding of the lifecycle’s and materials used in our everyday lives. It’s about being curious and open, being prepared to let go of assumptions in order to undertake a new ‘Planet 2.0’ way of thinking and acting. It’s about acknowledging that we don’t have all the answers and that nobody is as smart as everybody. It’s about being collaborative and curious so to engage multiple perspectives, skills, opinions and organizations. It’s about constantly learning, unlearning and re-learning. It’s about re-integrating back into the web of life by recognizing and reducing our human fingerprints on the natural world. It’s about moving on from just articulating the problems and inspiring action of the solutions. It’s about encouraging the world to reduce, reuse, recycle and rethink more of the planets natural resources. It’s about delivering a spectacular global “Message in a Bottle”. ~

The Plastiki is a 60-foot (18 m) catamaran made out of 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles and other recycled PET plastic and waste products.

http://www.theplastiki.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastiki