Today's guest is Marissa McClellan, a full-time food writer + canning expert at foodinjars.com, and her 4th book, The Food in Jars Kitchen: 140 ways to cook, bake, plate + share your homemade pantry was just released yesterday! Now she's sharing with us all her tips on how to can food, what equipment you need to get started, how to troubleshoot common canning problems, healthy sugar alternatives for canning recipes, foods you didn't know you could can, and more. This episode is sponsored by Earthlove Box, a quarterly subscription box of eco-friendly products, run by a female farmer in Washington State, to help you connect with nature + live a more holistic lifestyle. You can save 10% off your first order with my discount code "HIPPIEINAVAN10", and if you order next month's box, it'll include a face mask from my eco brand, Bestowed Essentials!

Today's guest is Robin LaCross, a holistic health practitioner who specializes in women’s reproductive health. She has been teaching natural birth control methods for over 25 years, and she is passionate about making sure every young woman grows up knowing and understanding her body. Robin is on a mission to reduce unintended pregnancies and the spread of STDs in the world by changing the way mothers talk to their children about puberty + sex. Today, Callee + Robin are talking about natural birth control, as a way for you to take control of your own reproductive health, to save money, and to make less waste. Whether you already have kids, don't ever want to have kids, or are currently trying to have kids, there's something for everyone in this episode, men included. And if you, like Callee + Robin, have known since a young age that being a mother isn't part of your life plan, definitely stay tuned near the end of this episode where they talk about tubal ligation, how difficult it is to find a doctor who respects your decision, and what they've both done to prevent unintended pregnancy.

Today we are chatting with Lindsey McCoy, co-founder and CEO of Plaine Products. She holds a master’s degree in nonprofit management and spent the last 10 years working on environmental education in the Bahamas where single-use plastic is common. She and her sister co-founded a company, Plaine Products, that offers shampoo, conditioner and body wash and lotion in aluminum bottles that can be returned, refilled and reused. We discuss how they started a refill-by-mail company, how it works, what business struggles and hardships they faced, and more.

Today we are chatting with Chris Maxwell-Gaines, a professional engineer and owner of Innovative Water Solutions LLC. IWS is a full-service design / build company passionately committed to providing comprehensive, sustainable, and absolute water management and conservation solutions, utilizing alternative water sources and stormwater management for residential and commercial projects. IWS focuses on systems such as rainwater collection, graywater reuse, stormwater management, and green infrastructure. To date, IWS has installed over 7,000,000 gallons of rainwater storage capacity across the state of Texas. Today he is sharing some easy ways you can conserve water at home, how to collect, filter, and use rainwater. We talk about what gray water is and how to reuse it, the legalities of using rain water and gray water throughout the US and more.

Today we're talking with Leah Segedie, author of Green Enough: Eat Better, Live Cleaner, Be Happier (All Without Driving Your Family Crazy!), founder of the Mamavation® community, founder of ShiftCon Social Media Conference, food activist and social media consultant. We discuss topics like how to investigating "organic" baby formula companies, ceramic cookware companies, and how to advocate change. Shownotes for this episode, including a full transcript, are available at www.ahippieinavan.com/028.

This is a bonus episode of the Hippie Haven Podcast, featuring Polly Barks of GreenIndyBlog.com talking about how environmental racism and the zero waste movement are inextricably linked. Read the text version of her article (also where she links resources to facts / studies she mentions in this episode) here: [https://greenindyblog.com/environmental-racism-zero-waste/][1]

Check out the rest of her blog as well: [www.greenindyblog.com][2] + follow her on Instagram [@GreenIndyBlog][3]

[1]: https://greenindyblog.com/environmental-racism-zero-waste/

[2]: http://www.greenindyblog.com

[3]: http://instagram.com/greenindyblog

Today we chat with Bethany Daughtery of Recraft Indy, a secondhand supply craft store in Indianapolis, IN. We discuss topics like starting your own eco craft store or any store as we touch upon the business aspect of it. You can visit the stores' website at www.recraftindy.com and follow them on instagram @recraftindy, and find them on Facebook here: www.facebook.com/recraftindy. Shownotes for this episode, including a full transcript, are available at www.ahippieinavan.com/027.

Today's episode is all about composting with worms, featuring Anna de la Vega, a composting expert who founded The Urban Worm, and provides vermicompost workshops + consulting to individuals, businesses + schools in the UK. You can follow her on Instagram @wormologist, or visit her website at www.theurbanworm.co.uk. Shownotes for this episode, including a full transcript, are available at www.ahippieinavan.com/026.

This episode is sponsored by Uncle Jim's Worm Farm, the #1 supplier of composting worms + supplies in the US. I've got a compost bin in my shop that's thriving with worm from Uncle Jim's, and I'll be ordering from them again in a few months when I start a second worm bin in my campervan once I'm back on the road. Uncle Jim's ships worms to the continental United States, plus Alaska, Puerto Rico + the Virgin Islands year-round, with guaranteed live delivery. To order worms or other compost supplies, visit ahippieinavan.com/worms, and as always, thank you so much for supporting our podcast partners!

For today's bonus episode, I've got 13 crowdfunding campaigns from different countries that are ending soon and could really benefit from your support, whether it's financial if you have a few dollars or more to spare, or sharing them on your social networks to help boost their visibility. While there might not be an eco business or charity crowdfunding near you yet, I recommend picking the closest one to you, or to a friend or family member of yours.