This past weekend Judy, Geoff and I were in California to promote our CobraHead garden tool at the San Francisco Green Festival.
Judy and Geoff at the Booth
If you’re not familiar with Green Fest, it’s a very fun and inspiring event that features eco-friendly and fairly traded products, organic and vegetarian food, renowned speakers and various other environmentally and socially responsible exhibitors. The Green Festival is sponsored by the non-profit groups Co-op America and Global Exchange.
There are lots of great things to see and do at the Green Festivals, and there is always plenty of neat stuff to buy. Our friends from PurrfectPlay were there with dog and cat toys made from organic cotton and wool, and Tara and Winnie from NearSea Naturals (who I met at the Chicago Green Business Conference back in April) had a booth to show their organic fabrics and yarns. I’m turning into a bit of a yarn junkie, so when I saw that another exhibitor had hemp/wool blend yarn for sale right there, I bought a couple of skeins to try it out. I brought the yarn back to the booth to show off to Geoff, and his response was, “Cool! What are you going to make for me?” Which sent me right back to buy another skein since I certainly hadn’t planned on making anything for him. This yarn (along with 100% hemp yarn and other organic and natural fiber yarns) is available online from NearSea Naturals. If it turns out I like working with it, I know where to get more.
Hemp/Wool Yarn
It’s difficult to go to a Green Festival and not leave with a lot more than you brought. There are just too many great things that unfortunately aren’t available just anywhere. Some very nice folks from Seeds of Change came by our booth and gave us generous samples of some of their great organic chocolate. From the vendor across the aisle, I picked up some organic cotton socks. Geoff found a natural anti-pest doggy shampoo for his newly acquired puppy and a pair of hemp pants that are actually long enough for his legs. Judy found an organic cotton baby sleeper for an upcoming baby shower. We all tried lots of tasty vegetarian and vegan alternative foods, including Coconut Bliss, a coconut frozen dessert and a hemp milk based frozen dessert from Judahlicious, a San Francisco restaurant.
Everyone enjoyed themselves quite a bit, unfortunately, the weekend was marred by the tragic oil spill in the San Francisco Bay. As we were flying out, my excitement over my first ever glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge was severely dampened by the fact that I could see discoloration on the water. I certainly hope the cleanup is swift.