Warnings, and more warnings,it never ends

My new issue of Mother Earth Living has a paragraph I want to share. " Watch out for Tertiary Butyhydroquinone. The preservative tertiary butyhydroquinone is a petroleum derived preservative, and a suspected carcinogen. The FDA allows TBHQ to compose no more than .02 percent of the total oils in a product. A good thing as ingesting a gram of this can cause nausea ,vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation and collapse. Ingesting 5 grams is deadly. It is sprayed on many processed foods including Cheeze-its, crackers and potato chips, pop tarts and most fast foods including chicken nuggets to extend shelf life. It is also found in some cosmetics. Hungry? Youch. If you have knoshed down a bag or box of this stuff then felt horrid, guess why? And on the news this week we found out that our toothpaste contains polyethylene. Which dentists say can cause all kinds of problems, tiny little beads of it get under your gum line and make all kinds of bad stuff happen. It is not biodegradable so is building up in rivers and streams. Crest will be removing it from their products by next year. Buy Brown, look for paper products like coffee filters, paper towels parchment paper and waxed paper that is brown, otherwise it has been bleached with chlorine, a product containing dioxins, which affect your immune system. endocrine system and nervous system. If you want sparkling dishes look for plant based products to wash them with. Most of the ones we use contain triclosan, which is a harmful antibacterial agent. Fill a shot glass with white vinegar and put in the rinse aid compartment of your dishwasher to make dishes super shiny. Anti bacterial anything is not a good thing to use, harms your immune system. We are still harvesting, pears are everywhere, neighbors, help yourselves. Spent Tuesday making more pear butter, sauce and a few cans of minted pears, cooked with Moroccan mint tea. Should be good with cottage cheese this winter. Still see tomatoes on son's plants up the mountain side, nice to still be eating fresh ones. I have a few in my garden, plus okra and now the chard is finally getting started, and looks like kale is pushing up. Hate to see the growing season end, we had a brief cool week but should warm up again next week. Winter is not my favorite season, not fond of cold since I am old now, my feet never get warm. Going to try a heater that should give 15 extra degrees to your room, two flower pots that fit inside each other, a nickel duct taped over the hole in the inside one, set over a glass meat loaf pan on a heat proof base, and a lit couple of tea lights candles inside. Folks who have tried it swear it works, and that 15 degrees would make a nice difference. This has been a great week, temperatures just right! Cool nights and just warm days, mid 70's. The low humidity has been great too, not sweating for a change. Best get moving, still a lot to get done tonight, and tomorrow I need to put in about 8 hours on my new job. Have a great week!