From time to time The Humble Bee runs a feature with five items about one topic we think is relevant to your health or well being (…or, something funny; or a swath of info you shouldn’t live without). Called 5 From The Hi5e, our hope is to give you the skinny on stuff you’ll find rad. This month?
For all you likeminded bees who do your best to recycle, to put your money where your intention is and just be a good worker-bee renter on this planet for your time here, in honor of Earth Day on 22 April we discuss the ways that TJS gives back to the universe through mindful practices we employ at our three stores. Hopefully, learning a little more about what we do will make you even happier that you choose to juice with us. Beecause remember: #ItTakesAHive.
To The Juice Standard, every day is earth day.
That’s not to sound trite; but our simple juicy truth is that the environmental practices that TJS employs to stay kind to Mamas Nature and Earth are so important to this company, some of ‘em are written right into our standards. (Need a refresher? Click here.)
To us, that there is a day dedicated to global awareness of the actual globe is as good a reason as any to wax poetic about some of the high-fiveable things our company does to help our corner of Nevada—the world, really!—tread as lightly on this earth as possible.
1) We Know How To Pulp, Pulp It Up.
We’re extremely proud that from the get-go, the produce TJS has pressed into pulp has been donated to our local farmers’ and home gardeners’ composting collections to the tune of about 40 gallons a week. (Hooray, desert farming!)
Hooray for desert families that farm!
We have families come in on the reg from places like Pahrump to get buckets of compost for their chickens—carrots are a big winner, so we hear—and as the spring unfolds, we’re even more proud that we’ll be actualizing a long-held hope of co-founders Jamie Stephenson and Marcella Williams when TJS partners with Glen Taylor Elementary School (go, Titans!) and its garden club by donating pulp and peels to help feed the club’s “red wrigglers” (worms!) through worm tubes that Glen Taylor’s girl scout troop built and implemented throughout the school’s five-bed garden. (The school also sports an herb spiral and hummingbird habitat.)
TJS is eager to infiltrate neighboring local school systems to support kids’ gardening programs just like Glen Taylor’s…one compost donation at a time. And since each of our 16-ounce glass Singletons hold the juice of roughly 2-3 pounds of produce, you bet yer sweet bippy we have a lot to share!
All of this pulpy stuff brings up a tender point: People sometimes harp about the waste with juicing (like this old article from Modern Farmer did a year ago). But the truth is, there’s waste in pretty much all corners of the culinary world, from the citrus we peel to the fat we trim to the chaff we separate from wheat. As our bees know, TJS holds environmentalism near and dear. Hopefully other areas of restaurantdom will, too, as media shine a light on mindful topics like composting and how much more can be done to reduce waste in this world.
2) Our Glasses Are Always Full AF.
Last fall, Jamie and Marcella made the choice to end TJS’s 3-and-a-half year program of accepting back our bees’ empties, sanitizing them, and re-bottling TJS’s juices and nut milks into responsibly recycled 16-ounce glass “Singletons.” (Get the full down-low here.)
So why’d we stop? Keyword in that above sentence was “responsible,” as in it was no longer responsible to use so much water to complete our Singletons’ #CircleOfLife. We are in a desert, after all. So, yeah: Not responsible.
Two good things came out of shifting TJS’s environmental perspective from recycling to water preservation: Singletons dropped in price by a buck, and since our neck of Nevada started curbside recycling pickup, there were still options for our bees to do the right thing. Cuz remember: #ItTakesAHive. #AndSimba.
3) Like Sands From The Juice Glass….
Speaking of Singletons, did you know that when our glass bottles break down, they turn to silica? Dasright: Glass is basically silica. So even if bottles weren’t recycled (which we know you bees would never dream of not doing), our Singletons will someday become, yaknow: a beach.
This point really goes back to Jamie’s and Marcella’s choice to not bottle in plastic…opting for the vessel that keeps on giving for, like, ever. You can do your part, too: bee like us and choose glass whenever you can.
4) Feed The Bees, Feed Thyself.
File under advocacy: You can help increase the bee population by planting shrubs and trees that attract our little fuzzy-bodied friends. With the bee beeing TJS’s mascot (and the underlying reason for being for Jamie and Marcella), we care hella lot about the plight of the bee (click here for more on this topic in this month’s newsletter). Thanks to organizations like The Honeybee Conservancy, we can learn how to help attract them so they can bee all they can bee, too.
5) Feed Thyself, Heal Thyself.
Think that food can bee a first line of defense in how we care for our WHeatlh™? Earth Day is the perf day for thinking about the choices you can make about where you shop, and what you get once you’re there. And ultimately, how you stock your kitchen, pantry and medicine cabinet is how you’ll stack your gut against disease, malaise, and all kinds of other words that end in “se.”
Tomatoes at the Charles Square Farmer’s Market in Cambridge, Mass. (aka, near Hahvid Yahd).
So what can you do? Hit a farmers market; grow container herbs; plant a garden; buy organic when possible (or consider sacrifices in other areas of life to feed your organics habit). And what about once you get all that goodness at home? How can you feed thyself to heal thyself…from the inside out? Drink water! Or, donate to a water conservancy; volunteer at a food pantry; serve food to the homeless; replace something in your med-cab with an essential oil that came from a source that takes good care of its farmers; buy fair-trade coffee; hell, buy local coffee (like what we get).
From what you eat to the doctors you seek, a thousand little choices about where you shop, what you buy, who treats you, and what you do with with your knowledge adds up to a WHealthy™ handful of things that not only support the people you love…but they support the people who provide the things you love. There’s positive power in that on Earth Day, and it’s positively powerful to pepper these elements (and more!) throughout your everyday life.
(Can you feel the love tonight or what?)