Alaskagreenmomma's Blog

Silas takes a bath after his meal of Earth's Best sweet potatoes, to rid of any excess food that didn't make it into his mouth.

It seems like nowadays, everything I do and think about pertains to my six month old son, Silas. I know that’s probably the case with every mother. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how lucky he is to be born in an age where nature is starting to become important again. Natural products are the “in” thing and harmful chemicals and unnatural items are out.

It may be too late for my parents to enjoy a chemical free existence, and I’m a little late getting on the boat, but Silas can start fresh and enjoy most of the comforts of a more natural state. It’s a little (actually very) sad to know that there are still many harmful pollutants in the air, even in our house, roaming around for him to breathe in, but at least we’re making progress to a greener future, little by little.

I exclusively breastfed Silas up until five months. I know you’re supposed to wait to introduce solids until six months, but he was (and is) such a big boy. He never seemed to get his fill. So I started him on Earth’s Best baby food right around five months old. He’s now eating stage two baby food and he loves it. He loves fruits (especially bananas, bananas are his favorite), anyway… The veggies are still gonna take some getting used to.

Clearly, no one could give a better review of Earth’s Best than Silas, but since he can only babble at the moment, I’ll try to do my best at providing an accurate description. Earth’s Best is probably the best brand I’ve found for my money. Other things out there might be the same, or even better, but I’ve found them to be a bit more expensive, as well. If there are other companies that would like to dispute that, I’d be more than happy to try them out, I’m always looking for new things for Silas and I to try.

Earth’s Best is all organic and contains the bare essentials. When you buy apples, you get just that, apples. It’s amazing! The ingredients list contains two items: organic apples and vitamin C. It doesn’t get much easier than that, besides making it yourself, which I hope to do a bit sometime in the near future. No extra sugar, no added coloring or vitamins. Just simple apples. The back of the container states everything I need to know:

• Organic
• No artificial colors
• No artificial flavors
• No preservatives
• No genetically engineered ingredients
• No added salt or sugar
• Vegan
• Wheat free
• Kosher

Refreshing, right? I’m used to picking up a box of crackers and seeing a list a mile long full of things that I can’t even began to pronounce. Who really needs their food colored? Can’t we just eat it the way it was supposed to look? I can’t imagine that jelly has such a god-awful color to it originally that our brain would tell us not to eat it. High fructose corn syrup is another thing. It’s so hard to stay away from. It’s in almost everything… From ice cream to salad dressing. Those ads about high fructose corn syrup being good for you in moderation aren’t true, by the way. It’s the US government’s way of keeping up their program of subsidizing corn. They even feed corn to fish!

Anyway, I bit off topic and for another time, maybe? I’ve tried some of the Earth Best’s flavors and they’re yummy, as I’m sure Silas would agree. They’re good for you and they taste good. What you buy is what you get. Bananas taste like bananas. The cans that they come in can also be recycled and they ask you to “please recycle” right on the container.

I’ve also tried giving Silas some of the juices and he gulps them right down from the sippy cup that he figured out how to use just about as soon as it was put into his hand. All in all, a good product. In fairness, this is the only baby food that I’ve tried for Silas and in the future, I’d like to try a few other products, like Happy Baby, Sprout and Ella’s Kitchen. Maybe Silas will find he can like more than one kind of baby food. Maybe he’ll even venture into vegetables!

If any of you readers out there have a favorite organic baby food that you’d like Silas to try, let me know and we’ll give it a go!

This is my first ever post in my new blog! Get excited! I know I am. 🙂 Hopefully I’ll gain readers through my experiences and you all can join in with me. Even if that is not the case, I hope that this blog will help to push me along to reach the new goals that I’ve set out for myself and my family.

I’ll start off by saying that this is a green blog. I’ve been inspired by green and organic living and I want to try it out. I’m a new (or newish) mom and I want a better, healthier life for my family. Ideally I’d like to live off the land, which is very possible in Alaska, but not necessarily in the part of Alaska that I’m from…

We live in a small neighborhood in Wasilla. Yeah, I know… Land of the Palinator. I’m not too fond of her myself, but I enjoy the beauty of the area. We have our own house complete with pond, stream, and residential moose. This summer, we’ve even had reoccurring visits from a majestic bald eagle that apparently sees some tasty fish in our pond that he wants to sink his talons into. I’m ok with that. I could watch him (or her) all day.

I have a six month old son named Silas, who takes up most of my time. The rest of that time is filled with two spirited huskies and three cats (including two feisty kittens). We also have a friend living with us, who is our house chef and cooks us yummy foods. It’s definitely a full house, but I don’t think I’d have it any other way.

Lately, my husband and I have been watching what we eat more, trying to stay away from high fructose corn syrup, buying locally and organically and just generally trying to stay away from unnatural things. I’ve been buying household cleaning items made out of plant based materials, instead of yucky chlorine and other harmful chemicals and we’ve been trying to find ways to make our house more energy efficient, including solar power, wind power and compost. We’re trying to cut down on our carbon footprint little by little.

I’m by no means a saint and I’m really just starting out with this whole new lifestyle. I’d love for you to join me as I explore all the possibilities and adventures of living a greener life!