I wasn’t sure the world of magazines really needed another slick devoted to the glories of organic living. Already a subscriber, by default, to Mother Earth News, Organic Gardening, Vegetarian Times,Country Living, and New Age, I don’t even know what others will be lurking in my mailbox. I admit sometimes I send for the free trial copy and then forget to send the bill back marked cancel. Pretty soon I start getting threatening letters about overdue accounts for magazines I didn’t remember ordering.
“We’re sure it just slipped your mind, but won’t you just send your check by return mail so we don’t have to sic the credit bureau on you and have you shipped off to debtors prison?”
Publications thrive on those of us who are too inattentive or preoccupied to cancel, even when the first copy triggers print-induced narcolepsy.
So it was with some trepidation that I opened what appeared to be the premier issue of Organic Style. (Is this not an oxymoron?) Good grief, I thought, I’ve done it again. Sure, I’ve gotten a lot of good information out of Organic Gardening (also published by Rodale, Inc.), but gardening is one thing that has little to do with style, in the fashion sense, at least.
So I’m expecting to find a fashion spread on hemp lingerie, recipes for bean curd pastry and, of course, ads for bazillions of Rodale book titles.
Instead, surprise, surprise. The fashion spread features organic cotton, soft as cashmere, kind to your skin and the environment, and even quite chic as modeled by actress, activist Amy Smart.
The health and beauty feature gives 50, count ’em, tips for looking good and seeing well. Now, I’ve had these bags under my eyes since I was 12, hence my skepticism that a slice of cucumber will shrink them. However, a product called Origins No Puffery, made from ivy extract, or Dr. Hauschka Eye Solace, with essential rose oils and extracts of fennel and chamomile, might be worth a try.
The business article features a supermodel and two Harvard MBAs who created a skin-care line based on Indian Ayurvedic healing. But even after reading the carefully written chart, I can’t figure out what my “dosha” is. I’m definitely not an earth-dominated kapha-large and strongly built with thick, wavy hair, oily skin and big brown eyes (sounds kind of bovine). But I might be either an air-dominated vata (read, airhead?) or a fire-dominated pitta (a sandwich, maybe?). This will take more study.
The food section was less about tofu and more about simple meals of pasta, veggies, fruit, fish and even meat – lamb curry, pan seared flat iron steak and sage chicken with roasted onions.
Garden lovers could not fail to be seduced by the gorgeous pictures of Chinese tree peonies accompanying a splendid article on care, feeding and finding the prized specimens. Cricket Hill Garden nursery in Connecticut is the only American supplier of the organically raised Chinese varieties with the intriguing names: Flying Swallow in a Red Dress, Green Dragon in a Pink Pool, Ling Flower Wet With Dew and Fire That Makes the Pills of Immortality. Drop-dead gorgeous, if not immortal.
But the article that really sold me on this new magazine was about, you guessed it, chocolate. The new health food? Music to my ears. I’d read that even Optimal Health guru Andrew Weil enjoys dark chocolate. But new studies report that it contains powerful antioxidants called polyphenols (like tea and red wine), which help prevent hardening of the arteries. And a Harvard School of Public Health study found eating chocolate could add at least a year to your life. Well, life without chocolate isn’t really living, is it, regardless of length, according to my own unscientific study.
Erin Bried’s story was mostly about Jim Walsh, who gave up a thriving Chicago communications business to found Hawaiian Vintage Chocolate on a 100-acre plantation on the Big Island 15 years ago. Today, he raises America’s only homegrown and organically grown cacao plants. The cocoa is made into chocolate in San Francisco. Fans include Bill Gates, former President Clinton and the Dalai Lama, who blessed two of Walsh’s cacao trees, saying they could bring “great joy to the world.” A man after my own heart.
Perhaps I’ll just forget to cancel the Organic Style bill. Maybe the next issue will extol the virtues of ice cream.
Now where did I stash that box of Godiva?