FAREWELL FOR NOW

Welcome back everyone,

Well there is nothing like late summer here in Southern Ontario. It really is a beautiful time of year. It's a bit of a sad time for me as it marks the end of my favourite season. Late summer though, is really beautiful. There is a crispness in the air that hints at the arrival of autumn. The apple trees start to look full and ripe. The corn stalks are tall and ready. The colours begin to shift, getting softer. The sky takes on a pastel blue hue. The shadows get longer. The noon sun isn't as sharp. The morning air is tinged with a chill. I do have a few bittersweet moment throughout the calendar and this is definitely one of them. Another would be the end of the school year in June, saying goodbye to the high school graduates who are going off to live their lives, many of whom I'll never speak to again. Compare that with the emptiness and dreariness of post Boxing Day Christmas season and I'll take the bittersweet stuff every time. 

The late summer sky from our back yard. Yup, it's slightly edited but this is an accurate view of the late summer sky in Southern Ontario. The sky doesn't look like this in mid summer. 

THE TEA TREE

Today I wanted to get into tea tree oil. It is also known as melaleuca oil. It comes from the melaleuca alternifolia tree found in New Zealand and Australia. The Indigenous tribes of this area used to boil the leaves into a tea, which would then be inhaled to treat coughs and colds, or applied to the skin to treat cuts and blemishes. When British sailors saw this practice they called the tree a tea tree. 

Tea tree oil is found in all Legit Raw hand soaps. We use it for very good reason. Keep reading to learn about the incredible benefits of tea tree oil.

Legit Raw Blissful Balance hand soap with tea tree oil.

Here then are some of the benefits of tea tree oil:

1. Kill germs-tea tree oil has been proven to kill E. Coli, S. pneumoniae, and H. influenzae. These are the germs responsible for colds and flus among other ailments.

2. Insect repellent-tea tree oil has been proven to be more effective than deet at keeping mosquitoes away. Studies have used cows to prove the effectiveness of tea tree oil. Cows that had tea tree oil rubbed onto their skin had 61% fewer mosquitoes on them than cows rubbed with deet. I bet those cows were happy.

3. Fight B.O.-yes, tea tree oil is an effective deodorant. Did you know that human sweat doesn't actually smell? Underarm odour comes from sweat mixing with the bacteria on our skin.

4. Antiseptic for minor cuts and scrapes-yes minor cuts and skin abrasions can be disinfected with tea tree oil.

5. Fight Acne-a 5% solution is just as effective as any acne drug on the market.

6. Soothe Skin Inflammation-skin can become itchy and scaly from dermatitus and bug bites. Tea tree oil has reduced these symptoms by 40% in some studies.

7. Treat athlete's foot and nail fungus-no I don't have athlete's foot or nail fungus but I have tried Legit Raw hand soaps on my feet and they work great. Maybe we should advertise it as hand and foot soap? Seriously your feet will feel and smell great if you scrub them with our soap. Tested by yours truly after a sweaty game of tennis. 

These are just some of the benefits of tea tree oil. As you can see, it is an important part of our hand soap formula. It fights germs, heals the skin, and smells wonderful. I've said this many time and I will say it many times in the future. My hands have never felt better since we developed this hand soap formula over a year ago. No more dish soap detergent for this guy. 

Go to this article to learn more about the benefits of tea tree oil:    https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/tea-tree-oil#11.-Control-Dandruff

A Garden Update

With the conclusion of summer comes the slow decline of the garden. Just a few short weeks ago our herb garden was at the height of its lushness. The garden was healthy this year. The grass required frequent cutting. Everything we planted took nicely. Our patch of wild chives looks healthier than ever. I say wild because I think we scattered some seeds in that spot a year or so ago. It's really a poor place to try and grow anything since it is underneath a tree. Not much soil there for anything to take root. Yet here we are a year later and the chives have shot up from this bare patch of earth and look terrific. We've cooked with them all season. I would call it a successful growing season. However, I've noticed the garden slowly diminishing and shrinking. Leaves are wilting and turning a touch brown as we near the end of the growing season in Southern Ontario.

As mentioned earlier, the apple harvest is upon us. Ontario apples are truly the best you'll find anywhere. Other places may make that claim but don't listen to them. Once you've had an Ontario apple, all others don't measure up. I'll say the same for Ontario corn, peaches, raspberries, strawberries, apricots and pears. Forget about Georgia peaches. And Ontario corn can be eaten straight off the cob without any cooking. In fact, the best corn I've ever had came right off the plant in the ground, no cooking required. 

Speaking of apples, our crabapple tree is also ripe and ready. Unfortunately those are not so good for eating. Some people do make jams and preserves from crabapples but I'm not one of them. They are small, hard and sour. If you want a bellyache, indulge in a couple of those and you'll be all set. The squirrels love them though. They are stocking up for the winter. A cute little guy was on our window ledge snatching them off the tree. He had one in his cheek and on between his little hands...or are they paws? Feet? Claws? What do squirrels have? I need to look it up. 

 This is the crabapple tree in our yard. The window ledge in the background is where the squirrels perch themselves to get at the crabapples. Crabapple trees are also very bee friendly, so don't chop them down if you can help it. 

More bee news...

One final update for you. I learned a bit more about bees this week. I've always wondered what happens to bees in the winter. Do they die? Do they fly south? It turns out that bees gather in their hive and huddle in a winter cluster. They move to keep warm and huddle around the queen. They will use only a small area of the hive, the inner most parts, and leave the outermost sections of the hive to the winter cold. So if you see a bee hive in the winter, please do not destroy it. The bees are alive and well in there. They eat the honey they produced to stay alive. No wonder they are so busy during the spring and summer. I've really come to love bees this year. I've learned so much about them. To learn more about the fight to protect bees please visit: https://foecanada.org/the-bee-cause/

Legit Raw supports bee health and bee activism. 

See you next week. Thanks for reading.