Top 10 eco friendly ways to say I love you

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10 eco friendly ways to say I love you || cityhippyfarmgirl

I was sent an email a little while ago, asking whether I would like to spruik some Valentines Day products. Although I generally feel lucky to even be asked, I did feel they hadn’t thoroughly researched their target market particularly well.

Stuffed small toys, toting love hearts, smiling bear faces and large ‘made in China’ tags, has never been my thing. Ever. It seems unlikely that’s going to change any time soon. In my eyes it also seemed unlikely that a space with the name cityhippyfarmgirl would be likely to encourage the purchase of said items, but it’s true, you don’t know unless you ask.

I did however say a polite no, and instead thought about some alternative ways to say I love you, for the most heart filled day of the year.

thinking green on valentines day || cityhippyfarmgirl

Top 10 eco friendly ways to say I love you

1/ A big beautiful bunch of kale, rosemary or any other seasonal greenery you might have in season. A bunch of red roses it isn’t- it’s better, way better!

2/ Rediscover the lost art of whispered sweet nothings.

3/ Bread. If you thought the heady combination of flour, water and salt wasn’t romantic, you haven’t thought about it in the right fashion. Soft and pillowy, rounded shaping and hot, HOT oven. (See, your loved one will be lusting after your rolls in no time.)

4/ Lingerie- If impressive underwear is your thing, take the time to research it and make it ethically made.

5/ Switch that bunch of flowers for a pot plant. Indoor, outdoor it doesn’t matter. Even if your green thumb is frequently the colour of squid ink black, a potted plant will last far longer than a bunch of flowers ever would.

succulent valentines day gift || cityhippyfarmgirl

6/ Poetry. No texting, no spell check, just a pen and some paper.

7/ Heirloom vegetable seeds, now stay with me. This is long time love. The kind where together you get to sprout those little seeds to become seedlings, and then watch them cared for, nurtured and loved as they grow, and grow. Ready to be plucked and eaten, preferably over an intimate candle lit dinner for two.

8/ A lovely bottle of organic or biodynamic local wine.

9/ A picnic. You don’t have to be a young couple to enjoy a late afternoon picnic on a grassy hill top. While couples with young kids, don’t quite get to do the gaze into each others eyes so much, kids do generally run off and leave you alone for 2.5 minutes longer than they would if you were eating dinner at home. That’s two and half minutes you could be gazing lovingly into each others eyes, or perhaps a quick pash before the kids run back and trample sand through the sandwiches again.

10/ And finally. Nothing says I love you quite like butter and sugar does, (well in this household anyway.) I have posted these biscuits before, but here is the slightly tweaked simple recipe again.)

coconut strawberry heart || cityhippyfarmgirl

Coconut Strawberry Hearts

250g softened butter

1 cup (220g) sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1 beaten egg

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

3 1/2 cups (525g) plain flour

strawberry jam

Cream butter and sugar together in a mixer until pale. Add vanilla and egg, then mix through rest of ingredients. Lightly knead biscuit dough – if mixture looks slightly too dry, knead with dampened hands. Roll biscuit dough between two sheets of baking paper to about 5mm –  Pop into the fridge for an hour or so until firm, and cut out into shapes. If the dough comes back to room temperature while you are still cutting, being tricky to handle, just pop it back into the fridge for a bit.

Bake at 170C for approximately 15-20 mins, until a very light golden colour. Allow to cool and then add half a teaspoon of strawberry jam in between the two biscuits.

44 thoughts on “Top 10 eco friendly ways to say I love you”

  2. You have some lovely ideas, Brydie and I particularly like the bunch of green ‘roses’. I can’t believe you were approached by a company hoping to sell things that would appear to me to be quite vile. This is a much better approach xx

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  5. I could use a little romance in my life. Frank brought home a package that a local company (Smucker’s) put together to celebrate the Olympics,(Jiffy peanut butter, Folger’s coffee , and Smucker’s strawberry jam) and tried to pass it off as a Valentine’s gift. His client is a CEO in one of their areas- and I said, “no, not buying it, darling”. He got a good laugh- but that isn’t going to make my Valentine’s day any more loving.
    I will be making the bread and some chocolate cake – maybe that will get the whispered sweet nothings going?!

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  8. Oh dear…lingerie?!!! Ethically sourced? The only kind of lengerie that I would wear that was ethically sourced would be reminiscent of Victorian ladies underwear and would extend from my neck down to my ankles and would be made of stiff calico with added horse hairs (you can NEVER have enough discomfort! 😉 ) and no spell check on the poetry?…NO SPELL CHECK??? How on EARTH is my dear darling “intended” going to understand anything contained within…even an haiku created by narf7 would be more amusing and less endearing if not passed through a spell check first

    I can do green thumb, so long as the reciever has the thumbs and you can’t get much more organic and biodynamic than mums rhubarb champagne made from our own rhubarb and blackberry wine that has been ruminating since last years harvest and picked from hedgerows in our immediate vicinity (on foot, by nubian narfs 😉 ).

    I fear a picnic would probably end up with us both having derierres full of grass seeds from the dead grass on the hill and with our food full of tumbleweeds. Gazing deeply into each others eyes loses something when at least one of you has to squint myopically in order to isolate ones partner/intendeds eyes in the first place

    Love the bickies and am going to pin them so that other clueless penniless middle aged hippy types can make something gorgeous for their beloved 🙂 Cheers for the share ma’am and for NOT trying to sell us “Made in China” red bears 😉 Please note. There are 7 spelling and grammatical errors (including the word gramatical that spell check just automatically changed for me 😉 ) in this comment. I resisted the urge to use spell check and am going “naked” for this post and this post ALONE!

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  9. Agree on all your thoughts above. I am not really into Valentine’s Day as I feel we show our love every day in lots of ways…and to be honest I’m not the most sentimental girl. But I have woken to a heart made of strawberries on my computer, a huge heart made of hydrangea flowers on my lounge floor, vases of roses picked from the garden….and I loved all those things. No price, no commercialism, no little bears made in china!

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    • I love all those little things too. I don’t mind Valentines Day in that sometimes it can be a lovely subtle reminder to think of your loved one and do a little extra something. I do have a problem with the commercialism of it all though. Simply not necessary.

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  13. Great list! You did make me laugh, though and not that you intended it . . . #5. 😉 On the west coast, a ‘pot plant’ is not what it is in England, Aus, New Zealand and other more civilized places. Especially to country hippies . . . (I do know what you mean, though, as I have quite a few English friends, even here in Alberta and a lot more on the ‘net).
    That recipe sounds good; I might make some for my Mum, time allowing. She used to make cutout and sandwiched with jam cookies (biscuits) when we were young.

    It’s so nice to see people being creative with days like Valentine’s. I keep what people give me, so prefer not to receive the sort of tokens that are made in China and a bit on the too-cute side.

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  15. Can you be my Valentines?! a beautiful bunch of greenery would make me smile ear to ear. Said made in china items would turn that smile up side down:) Really great ideas. The picnic with kids is perfect for us. Thank you!

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  16. What a lovely post. The cookies look great – I always want to make these at the holidays and never seem to get around to it, so Valentine’s Day would be a great less stress time to do it. I’m with you on the bread – there are few things that can top a loaf of soft, warm, hot bread! (Chocolate cake with peanut butter icing is one of them.) And I’m all for the indoor succulents. With 4 cats in the house that make it a mission to eat any type of greenery, the only thing I can grow are cactus, aloe, thick leaved plants like that.

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  17. Oh, and I’ll have to check out the ethical undies. It is something that I haven’t been able to spend the money on, but that I think about. We try to live the rest of our life in a sustainable manner, but then buy cheap under wear. Considering the parts of the body it is touching, you should only be wearing organic cotton.

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    • Have a look into it Katie. They are more expensive BUT they should last a hell of a lot longer due to better fabric and just the way they are made. (And you are right about the bits they are touching, doesn’t make sense to put as cheap as possible undies on.)

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  18. My partner was flying from LA on the red eye, arriving around 10am Saturday. Everyday is Valentine’s Day, so I baked a batch of home made organic chocolate chip cookies, half cooling on the tray, and half still in the oven when he walk in the door. Big time win! Don’t wait for Valentine’s Day. Do something for your love every day.

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  19. I saw recently someone getting tied up in knots about pot plants coming in plastic pots and how they weren’t ethical and I sighed just a little but I like the idea of a splendid bunch of greens and locally grown anything. Maybe I will pick the chard in the garden and present it to Brian. I am gearing up to making him some chocolates, but haven’t quite managed to do it yet. I might go for the less stressful option and make him biscuits. Lovely post Brydie, really enjoyed it xxx

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  20. What lovely ideas! And it doesn’t have to be Valentines Day. My husband turned up one afternoon with a tin of paint that I had been wanting for ages…. it’s good when they know what makes your heart soar.

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  21. What a beautiful list! We don’t tend to do very much/nothing on valentines day, J even waited until 15th Feb to propose 3 years ago, because he knew I’d say no if he asked on valentines day.

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