With the rise of Canadian patriotism in response to the threats from the south, it became an act of resistance to BUY CANADIAN and shun those USA products. What better response to that challenge than to support local businesses! Fortunately, our local grocers have been swift in stocking up on Canadian sourced and produced products. However, I did find that a lot of our usual cleaning products were manufactured by American conglomerates. Enter Turtle Green.
Turtle Green delivers a wide variety of cleaning products, in your own refillable containers, right to your door. Caledon’s own entrepreneur Betty de Groot is the proud owner of this refillery and carefully sources her products to ensure that they meet her “cradle to cradle” environmental standards. I visited Betty at her office and picked up as many products as I could to test.
I was mainly interested in Canadian made dish soaps and laundry products. Turtle Green dish soap passed with flying colours, as did the reusable dryer balls for laundry – three balls come with their own storage bag. If you wish, they can be scented with your favourite essential oil. The liquid hand soaps were also excellent, with the lavender scented version specially suited for the bathroom areas. 
Most spectacular was the hand sanitizer which left your hands feeling clean and smooth. A must for cold and flu season, but we use it every day now after dog walking.
Betty also stocks a horticultural vinegar (20% acetic acid) that works well by itself on all weeds. To kick it up a notch, take a large empty Mason jar, add 1/3 cup salt, add enough boiled water to completely dissolve the salt (usually one cup), add 1 tsp dish soap, and top off with the horticultural vinegar – best weed spray ever! Caution: make sure the salt is completely dissolved before putting the mix in your spray bottle.
Another reusable item that you can get from Turtle Green are make-up pads. Those who use make-up in our house have reported that they are great – right size, soak up remover well, and they wash clean. The users recommended that Turtle Green sell them with a little mesh storage bag.
I also tested the shampoo bar, a round disc of solid shampoo that I scented with tea tree and citronella oil for bug season – works like a charm and your hair is squeaky clean. The other item that will leave things squeaky clean is the Kitchen and Bath Degreaser/Sanitizer. Our counter tops have never been so pure!
The final product I brought home was a tube of Mountain Sky Foot Butter scented with tea tree and mint for my wife. She gave it ten toes up! I already had to get a second tube. And that reminds me … Betty, if you’re reading this, I need another jar of horticultural vinegar, hand soap unscented, and two tubes of Foot Butter.
Great products, Canadian, supporting a local business AND eco-responsible. You can’t go wrong shopping at Turtle Green. The way I see it. 
One of the cornerstones of environmental literacy is the ability to detect and analyse patterns and understand how those patterns connect. Those can be patterns in the behaviour of animals and plants, weather and climate change, and the physical processes and properties of Earth. It can also be applied to politics and responsible governance.
Let’s say, hypothetically speaking, that we observe a pattern of powerful monied people donating to politicians’ campaigns and fundraisers, and then being granted the fast track to their projects without regard for the rules of law. Let’s say that those politicians claim that they are only helping their constituents move the projects along, and show little or no remorse when accused of breaking the codes of conduct for their office. Let’s say that they then publish glowing media reports about how happy their constituents are while also attacking any citizens who expose their questionable integrity.
So the Queen and the Governor summoned the Nature Guard to supervise the clean-up and certify that the hole in the ground was rehabilitated. So it was written, so it was done! Over the years the hole in the ground became a beautiful lake surrounded by green fields filled with life – flying, fluttering, crawling, hopping, slithering and loping creatures of all shapes and sizes! And the people called It their Wildlife Sanctuary.
When he could walk, we hiked together everywhere, and worked together at the Caledon-King outdoor campus of the Toronto-Montessori School setting up gardens, orienteering courses and high ropes course challenges. My wife got us hooked on geocaching, so every family road trip became an adventure. We went on canoe trips, watched the whales spouting from a campsite in Cow Bay, canoe trips in Algonquin Park, camping on Pancake Bay, kayaking in Nova Scotia. It truly was the best of times.