vital ones,
Last year, as you may know, our daughter Eden Elsa was born. About eight months later, we opened a storefront, another kind of birth. In honor of Eden, Elena planted a baby apricot tree in our backyard. Last year it bore no fruit, but this year, we see three apricots a-ripening. The same feels true for the store.
With every month in the store being better than the last, May proved the best yet, and we attribute it largely to the steady conversion of our last fabric order into the styles we’ve all been waiting for. In May, we received the 100% hemp linen anywhere pants from our sewers downtown, and they’ve made so many men happy that I’m committed to redesigning a more feminine women’s anywhere pant so women can share the joy of wearing these great pants (and not buy the men’s style, as many have done, though I’m fine with that!).
This month finds us receiving the hemp knits we’ve worked so diligently to perfect: the hemp/tencel tees, tanks, long-sleeves, hoodies, and also new V-necks that we hope will arrive in the store this week! After years of receiving dyed fabric, we’ve switched to a local garment dyer who understands hemp and helps us achieve the colors and “hand,” or feeling we want from the clothes. We hope you’ll come in and try some on, because they’re so great for Summer…the way hemp lets your skin breathe. Or if you live far away, our e-commerce store is up, running and working smoothly at last.
In the vital hemp store (2305 Main St., SM, CA 90405) this Friday night, June 8 at 8 pm, we’ll be screening a wonderful, entertaining documentary, Hempsters Plant the Seed, featuring Woody Harrelson, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Julia Butterfly Hill. Hemp treats by Foods Alive, homemade guacamole, hemp smoothies with Nutiva hemp seeds, and hemp ale will be served gratis! Come at 7:30 to enjoy the fun.
And wear your vital hemp clothes to celebrate hemp history week (this week!). In honor of hemp’s history, a favorite historical fact:
Abraham Lincoln used hemp oil, the brightest of all lamp oils, to fuel his household lamps (and no, the fumes didn’t get him high…).
A little more on hemp oil from hemphasis.net:
Anything which can be made from fossil fuels can be made from an organic substance like hemp. Toxic petrochemicals can be replaced with hemp oil.
Hemp oil can be made into anything with an oil base, including paint, varnish, detergent, solvent, and lubricating oil. The advantage of these products is that they are earth-friendly and biodegradable, and do not destroy ecosystems around them like petrochemicals do.
Until the 1930s most paint and varnishes were made with non-toxic hemp oil. Hemp paint provides superior coating because hemp oil soaks into and preserves wood, due to its high resistance to water.
Hemp oil is a good base for non-toxic printing inks. Soy is currently made into inks, but soy ink requires more processing and takes longer to dry than hemp oil based inks.
And that concludes today’s hempjucation. We wish you a happy June and look forward to seeing you in the store soon!
As ever, thanks for supporting the vital cause of industrial hemp.
Stay vital,
Ron Alcalay
hemperdasher
~satisfy your hemptations~
vitalhemp.com
store and wholesale: (310) 450.2260
