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During the Depression, pawpaws were called “the poor man’s banana,” but since then, they’ve become perhaps the best fruit you’ve never heard of, probably because they must be harvested when ripe, have a short shelf life, and don’t travel well. “They kept growing, though,” writes Allison Braden, “as they always had, along creeks and rivers in the Appalachian woodlands, a sweet secret in the understory.” Meet the North Carolina farmers cultivating them, learn how to grow your own, and try a recipe for pawpaw jam. (And to read more Bluedot Living Kitchen stories, sign up for our Kitchen newsletter.)

Our New Store Is Here!

We’re making it easier for our readers to shop sustainably with our new online store, Bluedot Living Collection. From home essentials to clean beauty, and wardrobe staples to low-waste swaps, you can find planet-friendly products all in one place. We've already partnered with a curated array of brands we believe in, and we’re just getting started. As we continue to vet new products, you’ll see even more options added, each one selected for quality, responsibility, and real-world functionality.

“Kindness has a power and a strength that almost nothing else on this planet has. I’d seen kindness do extraordinary things: I’d seen it give people hope; I’d seen it change minds and transform lives. I wasn’t afraid to say it aloud, and as soon as I said it, I was sure: kindness. This would be my guiding principle no matter what lay ahead.”

– Jacinda Ardern, former prime minister of New Zealand and author of A Different Kind of Power (available on Amazon and Thriftbooks)

• Climate Quick Tip: Carpet Clear-Out

• Our New Shopify Store Is Full of Eco-Treasures

• All About Pawpaws

• Oil’s Not Going Anywhere. So What’s Next?

• Repairing the Watershed in Cedar Falls, Iowa

• Music Festivals Go Green

• Fighting Food Waste and Hunger in Canada

• Dear Dot: What Can I Do with Corks?

• Let Secondhand Sisters Help You Dress Climate Smart

• Rehome Your Hole-y Socks

Make sustainable living simple with the Bluedot Living’s Green Home Deluxe Kit — a $170+ value collection of our editors’ favorite Earth-friendly products, free with your membership. You’ll also enjoy exclusive member savings, inspiring community connections, and more planet-positive perks.

FEATURED STORIES

BIG IDEAS AND LOCAL CHANGEMAKERS

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Coming Together to Repair the Watershed

In Cedar Falls, Iowa, residents, local organizations, and government agencies have worked together for 20 years to improve the water quality of the Dry Run Creek. They’ve created rain gardens in public spaces, installed permeable pavement, and placed rain barrels on their own property, minimizing stormwater runoff and bolstering biological diversity in the creek. “We all have common goals: everyone wants to live happy, healthy lives, be outdoors, enjoy themselves,” said Josh Balk, a coordinator with the Dry Run Creek Watershed Improvement Project. “Getting involved with conservation, whether smaller or large scale, there’s indeed opportunities there.”

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Dear Dot: Where Can I Send Used Corks?

Dear Dot,

Where can I send used corks? I have been collecting them from various friends and restaurants for a while. I looked online and found one place, which I can’t find again. Whole Foods no longer accepts them. Any ideas?

–Mona, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania

Dear Mona,

Salut! Dot has been composting evidence of my syrah self-soothing and can report that it’s a cinch. I simply break down the corks into small bits and then toss them into my backyard compost. They are considered “brown” matter in compost parlance. A note of caution: ensure that they are, indeed, actual cork and not the plastic or silicone versions that some vintners are using these days and which are neither compostable nor recyclable. 

But if you’d prefer to de-cork your life by sending them to be recycled, read on.

Be among the first to experience a Bluedot Living–curated travel experience, where you’ll connect with local environmental change-makers and enjoy carefully designed all-inclusive itineraries and farm-to-table dining, all in exquisite locales. With five trips scheduled for 2026, ranging from Hollywood, California, to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, there’s a destination to suit every traveler.

BUY LESS/BUY BETTER:
Candles for a Luminous Fall

If you make a purchase through our links, including from Amazon, we may earn a small commission.

There’s nothing like the flicker of candlelight on a chilly night. Add some hot cocoa, a challenging puzzle, and some cozy socks, and you’ve got autumn at its finest. But while candles can set the mood, they can also pollute it with petroleum-based waxes and synthetic fragrances. Fortunately, we’ve got lots of great recommendations for clean-burning candles for every occasion. 

Pure Beeswax Candles

For more than 30 years, Bluecorn has been hand-pouring candles in Colorado using pure beeswax, a naturally renewable byproduct of responsible beekeeping. The candles burn cleanly and emit a subtle, honeyed fragrance all their own — no added scent required. The golden light they cast feels warmer and more alive than anything synthetic. Try adding elegant tapers to your table to set the scene for your next dinner party (even if it’s just for two!). Shop Now

Bringing Nature Inside

Juniper Ridge captures the untamed, beloved fragrances of the American West. The Oakland, California, company’s candles bring the coast, desert, and forest home using steam-distilled essential oils from plants like red cedar, sage, and Douglas fir. The resulting scents, earthy and evocative, offer a quick ticket to majestic spots such as Big Sur and the Cascade Mountains. Juniper Ridge also makes wonderful incense, essential oils, and minimalist diffusers. Shop Now

Glow and Grow

Modern Sprout makes gorgeous grow lights, garden tools, and creative seed kits, as well as uniquely giftable candles. Once the essential oil–scented, soy wax candles have burned down, the vessels double as small planters. Each candle comes with seeds, so after you’re done burning, you can start growing. The candle’s scents correspond to the plants you’ll soon cultivate. With prices starting at $16.99, the kits are a terrific bargain. Shop Now 

Want all these items and everything else in Bluedot’s shop for 10% off? Become a Bluedot Living member.

What You Can Do: Dress (Climate) Smart

The screams are coming from … inside our closets! Clothes account for almost 10% of global carbon emissions — more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined. And our addiction to fast fashion — with its shockingly cheap prices and (let’s be honest) shockingly poor quality — sends a staggering three of five garments to the landfill before they’re worn for a year. What can we do? Buy less, and buy better, as our Bluedot motto urges. Buy secondhand clothes (let our Secondhand Sisters direct you to sites and styles), look to Bluedot’s Shopify store for sustainable options, and consider renting clothes for big occasions. And be sure to recycle your worn out clothes (or repair them) or donate them.

The Keep-This Handbook

It remains a mystery how socks lose their mates … and the one that remains inevitably has a hole in it. If you’re slowly amassing a mountain of useless socks, let Bluedot help you dispose of them with our Guide to Getting Rid of (Almost) Anything.

Handmade Holidays

A few years back, my mom gave me a few bags stuffed with yarn and embroidery floss she no longer needed. I grew up watching her and my grandma knit and sew beautiful things, from buttery soft baby blankets to sweetly smocked dresses, and I always thought, I wish I could do that. 

This year, I’m shifting from wishing to doing. As the holiday season kicks into gear and the pressure to consume runs wild, I’m pulling out those bags of crafting materials and making gifts for my friends. They might not be as perfect as the present a friend gave me last Christmas — a cross-stitched quote from my favorite movie (“What’s your damage, Heather?”), tucked into a frame her woodworker husband made — or the multicolored Christmas stocking, festooned with an angel, that my mom knit for my daughter when she was a baby. But they’ll be handmade from materials passed down from a master crafter, and a step toward a more sustainable holiday season, and that’s good enough for me.  

Do you make your own holiday gifts? Tell us about it!

Enjoy the weekend, and we’ll see you in two weeks.

–Robin Jones (and Emily Cain, Leslie Garrett, and Jamie Kageleiry)

Editors

Write us at editor@bluedotliving.com

Leslie Garrett has been covering climate stories for close to two decades.  She makes her home in Canada, west of Toronto. She’s still figuring out her favorite spot but it’s definitely near the water.

Jamie Kageleiry, a longtime magazine and newspaper editor from Martha’s Vineyard, says her favorite spot on earth is out on a kayak there, looking at birds.

Robin Jones is a Southern California native who served as an editor at Westways magazine for more than a decade. She lives in Long Beach and teaches journalism at Cal State Long Beach.

Emily Cain is a recent graduate of Cal State Long Beach, where she wrote and edited for the university’s award-winning magazine, DIG.

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