Local green

Once there were only limited ways to gift people in an enviro-friendly manner. You might donate money in your friend's name to the Sierra Club, make a hemp plant hanger or create a lumpy coffee mug in a craft class.

But it's easier being green now that more manufacturers and retailers are leaping on the eco-consciously correct bandwagon.

Probably the easiest way to buy green in Wine Country is to hit the local wineries and farmers markets and fill a natural-fiber basket with pesticide-free vegetables and organic wine.

But we went looking for other responsibly chic items. The criteria were that they be locally made and also use organic, natural or recycled materials.

Or they at least come close. It's still not easy being pure.

If you poke around and ask, you can find some treasures, ranging from a $3 key chain bauble made by Joe Szuecs in Occidental out of a used wine cork (Renga Arts in Occidental) to $88 vintage bead and feather earrings made by Geyserville jewelry designer Morgania Moore (Arboretum in Healdsburg).

Szuecs, co-owner of Renga Arts, has also come up with garden art made from old LP records (Wayne Newton, Liberace and Herb Alpert vintage) that he turned into vinyl pinwheel flowers. There's even one made from a 1961 recording of the Napa County Senior High Choir.

"I think people feel good when they buy something that's been recycled," said Szuecs, whose shop specializes in functional items made from old typewriter keys, baling wire, road signs and other salvaged treasures.

Arboretum in Healdsburg is a clothing store that specializes in what it calls "ethical designer labels."

Many are Bay Area-made, such as organic cotton denim trousers from Oakland and T-shirts made out of bamboo cloth and handcrafted in San Francisco.

After that, you can get as down-home as you want. Holidays are a time when the local clever people are selling their wares at the crafts fairs that abound every weekend until Christmas. Plus, the county's vintage and antique stores are natural sources for recycled goodies.

Check out museum gift shops, too, for locally made products. Luther Burbank Home and Gardens in Santa Rosa is selling skin products for gardeners, including lip balm and bath salts made from local ingredients.

Consider, too, the new industry of bag makers inspired by the anti-plastic movement.

Vicki Kemp of Monte Rio, who makes big and small market bags out of vintage fabrics, said people have "finally gotten the message about plastic bags."

"You can't ignore what's happening. You see photos of a sea of plastic the size of Texas dumped into the ocean, and you get it," said Kemp. "I think people are feeling forced to be responsible."

Kemp sells bags, along with clothing and tableware, made from fabrics that look like your grandmother's bedroom curtains or father's favorite chair. She sells Wednesdays and Sundays at the Santa Rosa Farmers Market at the Veterans Memorial Building, which is open year-round.

Alma Vigil from Sebastopol is another regular at the Santa Rosa Farmers Market with her oilcloth tote bags and book bags in bright retro flower patterns. They're lined, and some have cell phone pockets.

Marjorie Wallace in Sebastopol creates her shopping bags out of recycled burlap coffee sacks. Wallace's bags and Christmas stockings, also made from coffee sacks, are on sale at the Taylor Maid Coffee outlet in Sebastopol.

Several places on Farm Trails feature gift items as well as food. Rock Hill Estates in Sonoma has a shop on the square in Sonoma featuring lavender products, including a lavender dog shampoo. Healdsburg Soap Co. has locally produced soaps for pets and people.

Westside Farms in Healdsburg sells blankets made from the wool of locally raised sheep.

Plaza Farms on the square in Healdsburg includes some local creations that have green purposes, including a compost crock made by Architectural Ceramic Designs in Cloverdale. The company also has a Cloverdale showroom.

Also at Plaza Farms, Supper, the upscale take-out eatery -- an energy-saving idea in itself -- has a Supper T-shirt that is an example of green bragging rights. The shirt is made from recycled fabric scraps of organic, sustainable cotton in a factory that uses solar energy and is sweatshop-free.

The Just Living store, in the newly remodeled Basso building in Sebastopol, has switched from hemp items to local and largely West Coast natural-fiber yoga clothes, undies, sleepwear, socks and bedding.

"Some people buy organic on purpose because it is environmentally friendly," said co-owner Eileen Kearns. "They naturally move from organic food into organic textiles."

But some people, she said, "get used to the quality and how real cotton or all-wool feels."

Tamberlane Gifts, also in the Basso building, features a line of pine furniture finished with salvaged antique window panes and doors made locally by Pine Country.

In Santa Rosa, you can find candles made from hydrogenated soy cake with hemp and cotton wicks, the specialty of Sandra Knight. She sells her scented candles at the Community Market and Oliver's in Santa Rosa and at the Santa Rosa Farmers Market.

There really are no limits to gifting green if you use your imagination. You could give a certificate for a bicycle rental. Present a packet of local flower or vegetable seeds or seedlings from a native nursery.

Give a dinner certificate from a natural-foods restaurant such as Peter Lowell's in Sebastopol or Ubuntu, the organic restaurant in Napa that has its own yoga studio.

Take the visiting relatives on a wine tour in an environmentally friendly vehicle. California Wine Tours in Napa uses Prius sedans.

Give your dad a gift certificate for a mechanic who will convert his car from regular to biodiesel.

Here's another idea: explore the sustainability section in bookstores such as Readers' Books in Sonoma, which focuses on local green authors. Find a book on local nature, such as Sam Keen's "Sightings," or on world travel, like Michael Shapiro's "A Sense of Place." Armchair adventures create very small carbon footprints.

You can reach Staff Writer Susan Swartz at 521-5284 or susan.swartz@pressdemocrat.com.