By Jennifer Baldwin

If you’re thinking of going green with gifts this holiday season, but don’t want to blow your budget, this guide is for you.

Bakersfield Express has searched out locally offered, affordable gifts that are either made of recycled materials or natural, organic ingredients. We list them below by store, website or farmers’ market location in no particular order.

If you know of a product or shop that should be listed, please add it to the end in the comments area. We’ll be sure to research it for the second annual Green Gift Guide next year.

Green Shops
7737 Meany Avenue, Bakersfield
888-222-9420
www.greenshops.com

Jennifer Jordan and Sasha Windes launched this store and website in 2008. They research every product before stocking it to make sure it reaches their green standards of being made from a renewable or recycled resource, or from 100 percent natural ingredients. For example, their skin care products have no synthetic ingredients. And all children’s toys are made from non-toxic materials and dyes.

Jordan recently gave a tour of the shop and pointed out several gifts under $25.

“The myth is that going green is more expensive,” she said. “But then you look around and you see that the prices are no different (than conventional products).”

Their entire line of Green Toys are under $25. The toys are

made of durable plastic from recycled milk jugs and include a chef set, tea set, recycling truck, dump truck and sand play set.

Other gift ideas include oh-so-soft bamboo scarves for $19, flower rings repurposed from estate sale jewelry for $18, and backpacks and messenger bags made from recycled plastic bottles for $18 to $20.

Green Shops is predominantly a web-based business with a physical shop that is open on Saturdays. But during December, they are open six days a week through Dec. 24. Their holiday hours are from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and from noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays. For online orders, Jordan recommends purchasing by Dec. 17 to receive shipped items in time for Christmas.

Greater World Gifts
5 Real Road, Bakersfield
327-1609
1stcong.weblogger.com/greater-world-gifts

First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ has been running this fair trade store for about two years. Store manager Vicki Philips says they buy from vendors who travel to foreign countries to help communities sell their crafts and wares at fair market prices. All profits benefit the church’s mission work.

The shop’s goal is to “provide a place for promoting understanding among cultures and also of fair trade and green living,” Philips said.

Gift items range in price from under $5 to about $50. One new item in stock is the Zimbabwe Twin Doll, a small handmade doll with a note in its pocket that says “My twin is in Zimbabwe.” Each set of dolls is made by a mother of a

disabled child and the doll’s twin is given to a girl with HIV/AIDS.

All of the gifts in the shop come with special stories from foreign countries, such as Vietnam, China, India and The Philippines. Some of the gifts include baskets, handbags, wind chimes, candles, soaps, holiday decorations, coffee and chocolate. There are colorful bowls and plates made from recycled magazine pages and decorative vases made from recycled glass.

The store is open from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sundays after church services and, during December, from 3 to 6 p.m. Wednesdays.

Green Bags
www.greenbaggingit.etsy.com

Bakersfield graphic designer and craftswoman Shauna Lofy started making her own reusable shopping bags a couple of years ago when she couldn’t find any that she liked. Then people liked her bags so much she started selling them on Etsy, a website for crafters to sell handmade items.

Her bags are decorative and big, two unique attributes today when, even though tons of stores now sell their own bags, they come with corporate logos and not enough room to fit your purchases.

“The site says they hold up to 30 pounds but I’ve filled them entirely with cans and carried about 50 pounds,” Lofy said.

At $35, these bags are not your average chain store reusable bag. But the craftsmanship shows, all the way to the interior lining and embroidered stitching. And although the material and prints may change, Lofy is always sure to include one common theme:

“They all have (the color) green in them in some say,” she said.

Greenbees Shoes
Available at Fashionista, 2001 H St.
www.shopgreenbees.com

Irene Clancy and her cousin Janel Garcia love fashion. They also happen to be descendants of a leather shoe making family that goes back generations in Leon, Mexico. The shoe factory is still in production today, making mostly men’s and children’s shoes. But now, starting in early 2009, the factory is producing a new line of women’s shoes designed, marketed and sold by Clancy and Garcia out of Bakersfield.

What makes these shoes green? The pair repurposes used tires for the soles of the shoes.

“For every tire we save from the landfill, we produce four pairs of shoes,” Clancy said.

Furthermore, the leather is naturally dyed, formaldehyde-free, and salvaged as a byproduct of the meat industry.

The Greenbees line includes three styles of boots and three styles of sandals, all handmade and stitched in the family’s shoemaking tradition. Prices range from $45 to $79 for the sandals and from $198 to $298 for the boots.

Clancy said she and Garcia create classic designs with a bit of a contemporary spin so the shoes will outlast trends as investment pieces in their customers’ wardrobes.

Greenbees Shoes are available in seven boutiques in California, including Bakersfield’s Fashionista at 2001 H Street. They are also available for purchase online.

At the Farmer’s Market
Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon
Golden State Mall parking lot, 3201 F Street

Autumn’s Eve
www.autumnseve.com

This line of body care products sounds good enough to eat – but for the real thing you’ll want to head farther down the row at the Farmers’ Market to the produce sections. But with scents like pumpkin pie, peppermint cream, cranberry fig and honey oatmeal, the soaps certainly smell delicious.

Cheryl and Richard Misener have been making soap under the Autumn’s Eve label from their at-home workshop for five years. They use natural ingredients, and buy organic whenever they can, although not all ingredients are available with organic certification. Organic ingredients include hemp oil, olive oil, sunflower oil, rose hip seed oil and avocado oil.

Cheryl Misener says she came up with the idea for the Autumn’s Eve line when, as she reached the “autumn” of her life, she rekindled her knowledge of making her own

natural body care products to appease her maturing skin. In the 1970s she first dove into making her own soap when her infant daughter suffered severe allergies to chemicals.

After a career as an interior designer, Misener now blends her design and handcrafting skills to make high-quality soaps, lotions and scented soy candles made of natural ingredients. Her husband also helps as the soapmaker, mixing, pouring, imprinting and cutting the bars.

One of her best-selling products is the Dead Sea Mud soap bar, which is made of mud from the Dead Sea and imported from Isreal. It sells for $9.

“Dead Sea mud is renowned for its healing properties,” she said. “The mud draws toxins from your body … and it is full of wonderful minerals.

Another unique ingredient in some of the products is emu oil, which she says travels deeper into the skin than other types of oils.

The soaps range in price from $7.50 to $9; candles from $10 to $19; and lotions from $14.50 to $21.50.

And, for $13.50, you can give a gift of cocoa butter bath truffles, which dissolve into warm bathwater and come in 11 scents such as “strawberries and champagne.” Just don’t eat them.

Moessner Farms
Moessnerfarms.com

Mike Moessner’s family farm in Tehachapi started as an apple orchard. And while apples are still their biggest crop, add to it tomatoes, cabbage, pomegranates, plums, berries, rhubarb, apricots, pears and peppers and they’ve got quite the variety.

At the Farmers’ Market, you’ll find all of this produce and more – but not in baskets. Rather, Moessner specializes in jarred products, which he and his family make in their certified kitchen, and which make great edible gifts.

“Most of this stuff we grow except for citrus, and we do get some from other local farms,” Moessner said.

His biggest sellers are tomato sauce and sauerkraut, for $5 per jar. Then there are the jellies: pomegranate, plum, boysenberry, strawberry rhubarb, apricot, pear butter and tomato jalapeño, to name a few. Jars of jelly are $4.75 each or two for $8.50.

At this time of year, some of the jars come with decorative covers for holiday gifts. Products are also available for order online.

Reed’s Ranch & Farm
661-872-3800

Yvonne Reed and her husband Raymond are certified organic farmers not only as a hobby and side business but also out of necessity.

“I have leukemia,” Yvonne Reed said. “I cannot eat things with pesticides or preservatives.”

For about five years, the couple has been operating their farm in northeast Bakersfield near Hart Park. Much of their produce is turned into jams, salsa and pickles in their certified kitchen.

Their pickles are unforgettable.

“Are these the pickles that have a little kick at the end?” asked Farmers’ Market shopper Judy Buchanan.

“Yes they are,” Reed answered.

“These pickles are the best,” Buchanan said as Reed bagged two jars for her. Actually, one was for her and one was a Christmas gift for a friend, she said.

The pickles range in price from $6 for a small jar to $25.65 for a large jar. Also available that day was strawberry jam for $6 to $22 depending on the size of the jar.

Flossie Faye Farms
661-703-4004

If you have someone on your gift list who loves honey or olive oil, Sandy Brown’s stand at the Farmers’ Market is a great place to visit. At Flossie Faye Farms in Lindsay, they press their own olive oils in three varieties: mission, manzanilla and blood orange. Blood orange? To infuse the citrus with the oil, the olives are squeezed with blood oranges, Brown explains. The olive oils cost $10 for the small bottles and $18 for the large.

While her farm is not certified organic, Brown says they do use organic practices.

Brown sells four varieties of raw honey: sagebrush, buckwheat, orange and wildflower. The bees are placed in areas where those plant varieties are in bloom, which lend to a range of light to dark honey and mild to strong flavors.

When one customer asked if the bees were happy, Brown replied with a chuckle, “Yes, they are free range bees.”

Jars of honey range from $3.50 to $9 with small jugs selling for $12.