Tag: organic

Clean Up Your Life With Toxin-Free Products At Lüfka

Lüfka Refillables Zero Waste Store, a new store specializing in natural, chemical-free, refillable, zero-waste products, is more than just a business for owner Danielle Howard.

It’s a way of life.

After growing up with a number of maladies, Danielle says she set out on a journey to find a way to live cleanly. That led to her owning two Salt Room businesses — one in Wesley Chapel and the other at the Sarah Vande Berg Tennis & Wellness Center in Zephyrhills — and now Lüfka Refillables Zero Waste Store, which is located on S.R. 56 in Wesley Chapel, a few doors down from Capital Tacos.

While Danielle says The Salt Room Wesley Chapel and the Salt Room at SVB specialize in halotherapy, which involves breathing salty air in order to help respiratory conditions like asthma, bronchitis and allergies, Lüfka Refillables Zero Waste Store takes a more expansive approach to the benefits and solutions of keeping one’s body and home environment clean.

“I can help them from the inside out,” Danielle says. “Lüfka helps their cleaning, and their laundry, and all the stuff they put on their bodies. This is for people who want to make a difference and are also conscious of what those chemicals are doing.”

Whether it’s better choices for toothpaste, hand-crafted soaps, deodorant or laundry detergent, skin and after-shave lotions and even cleaning sprays, she says, Lüfka offers the healthiest options made with the best ingredients.

And, while they can help make you healthier, they help the environment as well. Most Lüfka products come in glass containers, and you are encouraged to bring them back to have them refilled. Customers also are encouraged to bring containers of their own.

It’s no accident that when you first walk in the store, a table of both air and body sprays is one of the first things you see. Room deodorants are one of the biggest offenders when it comes to containing hazardous toxins, so Danielle and her co-owner and mom Gail Sickler are quick to point out safer alternatives that aren’t afraid to show exactly what they are made of to customers.

The five glass jugs of spray deodorants — Autumn Wood, Vanilla Bean Spice, Cranberry Orange Spice, Pumpkin Apple Butter, and Lavender & Tonka — all have labels listing all of their ingredients.

“This is the perfect example of our products,” Gail says. “You can use them to spray the room you are in, spray bedding if you are having guests over or, if you like it, you can use it as your body spray for the day. Just spray and walk through and it can land on your skin and doesn’t hurt anything because there’s nothing in there to hurt you.”

While perhaps more expensive than what you would get at a major store, Danielle says the products are worth every penny.

“If you do some research on a good, organic, clean, multi-functional spray, you’re looking at anywhere from $20-$40, and people will pay that,” she says. But, if you’re looking primarily for the cheapest stuff — say Glade Spray Air Fresheners that might be BOGO at Publix — Danielle says, “Well, we can’t help you. We can just let you know that this is something completely different.”

How It All Got Started

Lüfka Wesley Chapel is only the third Lüfka Refillables Zero Waste store in the Tampa Bay area.

The concept was originally hatched by Kelly and Parosh Hawaii, who opened the original Lüfka in Seminole Heights in 2019, and a second store in South Tampa in November 2020.

Danielle was turned on to the store by a friend, and immediately fell in love with it. She recommended it to all of her clients at her Salt Rooms. The clients raved about the products, and in turn raved about Danielle, who was helping them at the Salt Rooms, to Kelly and Parosh.

While they had thought of franchising before deciding against it, Kelly and Parosh liked Danielle enough — practically vetting her via all the clients she sent to their store — to suggest she open her own Lüfka store.

“Parosh told me he had been watching me, and saw that I was changing lives, and said he wanted me to open a place in Wesley Chapel,” says Danielle, who just happened to be thinking about opening another retail business at the time. “I started looking for places the second I left there.”

Danielle asked her mother if she wanted to be her partner and, in September, Lüfka Wesley Chapel held its North Tampa Bay Chamber ribbon cutting.

“We love it and it goes with everything we do,” Danielle says. “I really felt like Wesley Chapel needed this.”

What’s In A Name?

So, what is a Lüfka? A wash cloth, which is handmade in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and has been around for thousands of years. Parosh is passionate about sharing ancient handmade Kurdish products with the world, hence the name of the store.

The women who weave the Lüfkas from Babylonian willow bark fibers receive all the proceeds from their sales at Lüfka Refillables Zero Waste Store.

A Lüfka looks like a kitchen mitten, but serves as a wash cloth and can be opened so you can wash your back. Not only does it clean, but it also exfoliates the skin. Danielle says her skin is “as soft as a baby’s butt” when she’s done with hers, and Gail says the same.

Danielle takes the education part of her job seriously. While the average person is likely to think all natural products are more expensive and less effective, Lüfka has hundreds of products that work just as well as their chemical-filled counterparts and are priced competitively, according to Danielle.

You aren’t just choosing with your wallet, however. The laundry detergents at Lüfka, for example, have just a handful of chemical-free ingredients, compared to the 200 or so ingredients, mostly chemicals, in regular detergents.

The same goes for Lüfka’s regular soaps and shampoos, toothpaste, body and facial lotions and deodorant.

“There are so many chemicals that you put on your body for the whole day, and your skin absorbs all of it,” Danielle says. “Everything in here is better for you than what you are probably using, and it’s better for the environment, too.”

For people with autoimmune diseases and sensitive skin and/or sense of smell, the distinction between Lüfka products and those that aren’t chemical- and toxin-free is significant.

While deodorant is the store’s best seller, pet products also are very popular. Pet soap is a big one, due to skin issues, as well as other products, such as food-grade diatomaceous earth, which is a safe alternative to anti-flea products, which are some of the most toxin-filled products on the market.

Gail says local hikers come in to purchase the toxin-free bug spray (which lacks the chemicals that give regular bug spray its stickiness) and there is all-natural sunscreen as well as the ingredients needed (like apple cider vinegar, olive oil and vegetable glycerin) for those who want to make their own cleaners and soaps.

Megan Davis is Lüfka’s herbalist, and can help explain the uses and combinations of the herbs and other ingredients that line one wall of the store — like combining the bladderwrack and sea moss into an apple sauce-like paste that can be consumed and contains 102 trace minerals that your body needs.

However, no one at Lüfka is able to provide medical advice, and they do not sell food, although they might recommend some spirulina or turmeric for your morning smoothie.

Danielle hopes to send customers out on the same journey she is on — to eliminate the chemicals her body is ingesting in regular daily products.

There is some trial and error, she says, and everyone is different. But, for many of the things that ail you, like sores or rashes or just malaise, there might be a healthy option to solve it.

“It can change your life,” Danielle says. “It has definitely changed mine.”

For more information, look up @LüfkaWesleyChapel on Facebook, where you can find specials, candle-making classes and even private shopping events if you’re interested in transitioning to healthier products. Lüfka Refillables Zero Waste Store is located at 27221 S.R. 56. and is open Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday and it is closed on Sunday and Monday. To find out more, call (813) 596-9376 or visit Lüfka.com.

Organic Safe Lawns Keeps Your Lawn Both Green AND Healthy!

Nick Pipitone has used other lawn service companies, and even tried to keep his yard green and healthy himself, but he says he was looking for a safer, more environmentally sound option to keep his lawn, as well as his beloved English bulldog, chemical-free.

That’s why, about five years ago, Pipitone decided to hire Jim Schanstra and his Organic Safe Lawns to take care of his lawn.

“I gotta tell you, there is stuff out there, the stuff they (Organic Safe Lawns) uses, that greens up the grass real good,” says Pipitone, a Wesley Chapel resident. “You don’t need all the chemicals. That’s what I was looking for…and they have done a great job.”

Keeping lawns green, free of pests and healthy is Organic Safe Lawns’ specialty. Whether it’s because your kids play in the grass or your pets like to run around in the yard, making sure they stay danger-free is a big deal for Schanstra.

In fact, he says it’s why he started his business in the first place.

Schanstra suspects that exposure to DDT (Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) as a youngster had something to do with his wife Julie developing non-Hodgkin’s large cell lymphoma cancer. DDT was used in the U.S. in agriculture as a pesticide and as a household insecticide in the 1940s and 1950s, only to be banned in 1973.

Julie won her fight with cancer, with help from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, but it was a constant reminder to Schanstra of the potential effects of chemicals used in the environment.

In 2006, just before a scheduled sales meeting with an organic fertilizer manufacturer, Schanstra says that one of the associates said that he’d read a recent news article that claimed Florida was using more chemical-based fertilizers and pesticides on residential properties than the rest of the United States combined.

“This statement hit me like a lightning bolt,” Schanstra says. “It was in that moment that I decided to do something about it. That was the conception of Organic Safe Lawns.”

In January of 2010, Organic Safe Lawns, Inc., became a Florida corporation.

“When I started out, that was my big, hard sell: how do I tell people we can really do it?,” he says. “If we can grow fruits and vegetables organically, why can’t we grow grass that way? That was the concept in my mind.”

Schanstra works closely with one of the top organic fertilizer manufacturers and pioneers of the industry. The products — fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides — used by Schanstra and Organic Safe Lawns are certified by the Organic Materials Review Institute or OMRI, an independent testing company that certifies organic products. He says the products use a proven technology that was originally designed for fruits and vegetables, although Organic Safe Lawns deals strictly with lawns and ornamental plants.

Organic Safe Lawns, Inc., has now designed and manufactured more than 30 different organic fertilizer products that are owned and trademarked by the corporation.

While most typical fertilizers are made up of synthesized chemicals, Schanstra says the products he uses are mostly mined from the shale level of the earth, where healthier and more acidic soil exists. There are richer supplies of micronutrients, enzymes and bacterias found in this soil.

“There’s no downside with our fertilizers,” Schanstra says.

Other lawn companies also use mined products, but they are converted into a granular form — those little balls you see in your grass after the lawn company has stopped by — by incorporating binders and fillers to keep their shape. That’s where Schanstra says carcinogens are often entered into the mixture.

“Once those little balls dissolve, those chemicals end up running off into our aquifers, which are sometimes only a foot or two deep below, and can get into our water, streams and ponds and cause algae blooms,” Schanstra says.

Typical fertilizers come in two types of encapsulation. The first is water-based, meaning the fertilizer is released by coming into contact with water. The second is a polymer, or plastic encapsulation. Its releasing agent is heat.

Schanstra says those forms of release may be fine for more moderate northern climates. However, Florida’s famously erratic weather — sometimes too much rain and often too much heat — can sometimes cause the release of a month’s worth of fertilizer in a week or even a day.

Using chemical fertilizers and pesticides may lead to greener lawns — due to their higher concentrations of nitrogen — but it also can lead to the same typical lawn problems so common here in Florida. Lawn problems like fungus and disease, chinch bugs, webworms and mole crickets are often found in high-nitrogen soils.

“We found that by reducing the nitrogen level (in the products Organic Safe Lawns uses), we almost eliminate fungus and pests,” Schanstra says. “The cheapest way to get green grass is with high-nitrogen fertilizer.”

Schanstra also says that high-nitrogen fertilizers push top growth and weaken root structure. Over time, the lawn’s root system can’t sustain the foliage.

“A weakened root structure is like candy to bugs,” Schanstra says. “After using our treatment, you’ll see the bugs moving over into the neighbor’s yard.”

Chemical-based fertilizers are designed to be absorbed through the leaf (called foliar absorption). All of the organic fertilizers that Schanstra uses are absorbed through the roots. And, he adds, they are all water-soluble liquids that are safe for pets, wildlife and humans.

“When we apply organic fertilizers, I’m spraying that into the soil,” he says. “The only way the plant absorbs it is into the root system. My grass will grow a little bit slower, but my roots will be stronger.”

Top-coated lawns treated with synthetic pesticides and herbicides puts people and pets in danger. Why do you think people applying pesticides wear rubber boots? Because, Schanstra says, they don’t want to get any of the application on them.

In that case, he adds, why would you want you or your pet to track that into your house?

“The dog goes over into the neighbor’s yard to pee, and they’re chewing on their paws when they get back,” Schanstra says. “Kids crawl around and play on the grass and absorb it when they walk in it.”

The chemical herbicide Atrazine is still used widely across the U.S. and Florida to prevent pre- and post-emergence of broadleaf weeds, especially during the summer. It was found by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Diseases (ATSDR) to have adverse effects on the endocrine systems of mammals and that it likely also contribute to some birth defects.

“A lot of lawn companies will blanket your yard with Atrazine,” Schanstra says. “It costs five dollars for a 600-gallon mix. They use it because it’s cheap.”’

But, Organic Safe Lawns’ technicians offer a safe chemical solution for weed control, which is spot-treated throughout the year. It isn’t as cheap as Atrazine, he says, but generally, the stronger root system his lawns have developed lead to fewer weeds anyway.

“We are about the process and the materials,” Schanstra says, “as opposed to using harmful chemicals with regard to weed control.”

Schanstra says he recommends treatment every 30 days, and that it isn’t any more expensive than hiring the lawn care chains. He said he also works with his customers to ensure they are watering and mowing their lawns correctly — two extremely important ways to keep your lawn in tip-top shape that are often overlooked and under-appreciated.

Organic Safe Lawns services Tampa, New Tampa, Wesley Chapel and Land O’ Lakes. For more info, call (813) 393-9665, email organicsafelawns@verizon.net or visit OrganicSafeLawns.com. Existing customers can pay their invoices on the website, too! Prospective customers can fill out a contact form on the site to get a free estimate and $10 off their first treatment.

lawn organic

Earth Fare To Close!

Well, that was fast.

In a rather stunning move, Earth Fare, Wesley Chapel’s first – and only – large green grocer, is closing all of its stores, including the Cypress Creek Town Center location on S.R. 56.

In a press release earlier today, the North Carolina-based grocer announced it was liquidating all of its stores nationwide, and liquidation sales will begin immediately. Even store fixtures can be had, the release noted.

“Earth Fare has been proud to serve the natural and organic grocery market, and the decision to begin the process of closing our stores was not entered into lightly,” the company said in the press release. “We’d like to thank our Team Members for their commitment and dedication to serving our customers, and our vendors and suppliers for their partnership.”

The Wesley Chapel location will, perhaps, barely make it to its first anniversary. More than 100 shoppers lined up on Feb. 19, 2019 eager to be some of the store’s first customers.

“A gut punch,” says Hope Allen, the CEO of the North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce.

Allen said she had recently read about Earth Fare closing a store in Gainesville on Jan. 11 after only four years, but still didn’t think the Wesley Chapel store, which was the 12th for the company in Florida, was in any danger.

“It is very shocking,” Allen says. “I thought we would be immune from those closures because it was so recently opened.”

On a VIP tour of Earth Fare a week before it opened, CEO/president Frank Scorpiniti touted the quality of Earth Fare’s organic products, which do not contain high-fructose corn syrup, artificial fats, colors, sweeteners, or preservatives, or meats that were bred with antibiotics or growth hormones. The chain had a “boot list” — a long list of banned ingredients it does not allow in anything sold in any Earth Fare store.

At the time, Scorpiniti said the Wesley Chapel opening was just the beginning of an aggressive plan to expand Earth Fare’s footprint. At the time, the company was operating 50 stores, and Scorpiniti said he expected there to be more than 100 locations in a few years.

Earth Fare, which was founded in Asheville, NC, in 1975, said its financial struggles were too much to overcome, and hinted that its efforts had failed.

“While many of these initiatives improved the business, continued challenges in the retail industry impeded the company’s progress as well as its ability to refinance its debt,” the press release said. “As a result, Earth Fare is not in a financial position to continue to operate on a go forward basis. As such, we have made the difficult, but necessary decision to commence inventory liquidation sales while we continue to engage in a process to find potential suitors for our stores.”

green grocer organic

Owner offers up Only The Best (OTB) for local patrons

When you meet Brazilian-born-and-raised Dirson De Mesquita, the owner and chef at Only The Best (OTB) Delights Café, located in the Shoppes at Wesley Chapel plaza across Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. from Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel (FHWC), you are immediately impressed by any number of things.

Of course, there’s the cleanliness of his place and the way he tries to communicate with every patron, whether they’re happy (as almost all of his customers are; see below) or not. Anyone can see that the man is a tireless worker who aims to please.

And, pleasing locals is what OTB has been able to do for a little more than a year now. With OTB’s healthy menu, featuring organic and locally-grown produce, no microwaves, fryers or freezers, it’s a perfect, casual (but recently redesigned) little spot where so many who work out at the FHWC Wellness Center or work at the hospital itself have invited their friends and co-workers to sample OTB’s tasty food at very fair prices for the quality.

Dirson has made some changes to his menu, but most recently, he decided to bring back his six-item dinner menu.

For dinner, OTB has two kinds of grass-fed, organic top sirloin (Dirson says to try it with balsamic caramelized onions and gorgonzola cheese crumbles), a Salmon Gone Wild entrée (which is a different dish than the Salmon Gone Wild salad on the next page) of wild-caught, baked North Atlantic salmon with pesto sauce, a chicken Ana Bella (free range chicken cooked in a cream sauce with spinach and tomatoes), all served with soup or salad and fresh veggie and rice sides.

The dinner menu, which is offered any time of day (just as you also can get breakfast or lunch whenever OTB is open), also has two kinds of mini-quesadillas — with cheese or chicken and cheese.

The dinner menu is so new, we don’t have pics of the new items to share, so all of the pics on this page are from OTB’s breakfast and (primarily) lunch menus. But, OTB — which Dirson says he has consistently ranked #1 or #2 of all restaurants in the Wesley Chapel area on Trip Advisor.com and has maintained a 4.5-star (out of 5) rating on Yelp.com — already has lots of fans, including everyone here at the Neighborhood News office. In fact, OTB was the #10 Favorite Restaurant in Wesley Chapel with our readers in the most recent Reader Survey & Dining Contest, and #11 on my own list of favorites (and my fourth favorite lunch place and third favorite hamburger joint in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel).

From breakfast, where I flipped for the Good Morning Ciabatta (try it with over easy fried eggs although, I warn you, it’ll get a little messy), even though I really didn’t think I loved turkey bacon, to each of our office’s favorites so far, there’s something for pretty much everyone at OTB.

Billing manager Jill Reilly loves the Kickin’ Chicken burrito, office assistant Celeste McLaughlin swears by the San Diego Chicken sandwich, office manager Mary Dorey really enjoyed the Salmon Gone Wild salad, assistant editor John Cotey really enjoyed the Seared Steak Delight salad, which is one of my three favorites at OTB, the others being the Asian Orange Ahi Tuna salad and the killer Artisan Burger.

I also can vouch for both the Rio Rancho and Shanghai Chicken rice bowls, which means there’s very little on the menu that I can’t recommend. I don’t eat too much vegetarian-only (and no gluten-free) fare, but OTB does have multiple salads, sandwiches and entrées catering to non-carnivores and those who prefer fresh, real food.

Dirson even recently started growing fresh herbs right in OTB’s new planters to add to the organic feel of the place.

OTB Café is open Mon.-Fri., 11 a.m.-9 p.m., 8 a.m.-9 p.m. on Sat. and 8 a.m.-6 p.m. on Sun. Catering also is available. For more information, call 973-8880 or visit OTBDelightCafe.com.

bruce b. downs blvd. food organic organix Wesley Chapel

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Tag: organic

Clean Up Your Life With Toxin-Free Products At Lüfka

Organic Safe Lawns Keeps Your Lawn Both Green AND Healthy!

Earth Fare To Close!

Owner offers up Only The Best (OTB) for local patrons

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