Organico Bantry

Organico Bantry was chosen by Herbal Company A. Vogel to be a ‘Specialist Store’, thanks to the high level of training our staff have received and the variety of herbal products we stock.

We were delighted to receive this accolade and were even more delighted when they announced the Jan de Vries would be visiting us and would be giving a talk on health to our customers. Jan has an incredible reputation as a healer and is the author of over 30 books on health care. The visit is taking place on Tuesday the 29th of May in the morning between 9.30 and 11.30, and the talk is on the Monday night in the Celtic Ross Hotel in Rosscarbery, starting at 7pm.

For information on alternative health call in to Organico and talk to one of our highly trained staff who can advise you.

Organico Shop, Glengarriff Rd., Bantry, Co. Cork, Ireland. Phone +353 (0)27 51391

If you would like to meet Jan de Vries in person, come along to Organico on the morning of Tuesday 29th of May at around 9am. From 9.30 Mr de Vries will be signing books and giving brief health consultations on how to live a healthy life.

We can wholeheartedly recommend coming along to this event as Jan De Vries is one of the most respected Natropaths working today. the fact that he is still working is nothing short of a miracle - he is over 70 and has been practicing as a natropath for 50 years. he has clinics in Dublin, Edinburgh, & Glasgow; and he has published over 30 books on natural healing and healthcare. As a source of inspiration, Jan is unrivaled - don’t miss this opportunity to meet him in person!

If you want to call us on (027) 51391 we can give you more information about the day. We will be dedicating a corner of the shop to Jan’s visit and meeting him will be on a first come basis. There will be chairs if people need to sit down; if you have any books you would like him to sign please bring them along.
Organico Shop (027) 51391 Open Monday - Saturday 9.30 - 6 pm

The irish Basket Makers Association is presenting a unique opportunity of free workshops and demonstrations of a range of traditional skills in Future Forests in West Cork, this Saturday.

Martin & Yvonne Flynn, local organic farmers and basket makers, are organising this Traditional Skills day at Future Forests in Kealkil on Saturday the 19th of May (2-6pm). The day is being presented by the Irish Basket Makers Association and will also feature demonstrations/workshops of thatching, coppersmithing, woodcarving, chairseating, pole-laithing, woodturning, garden structures, blacksmithing as well as a kids corner and an organic cafe (we are supplying some of the food from Organico Bakery). Admission is free, as most of these craftspeople are trying to raise their profile and share their knowledge. There will also be baskets for sale, like the one pictured here (we have baskets like this in Organico Shop - our customers love using them to shop with) as well as plants and trees and garden sculpture. From 9pm that night there will be caile agus craic with Johnny Coakley, Noel Burke and friends.

Future Forests is well signposted from Kealkil village and is 15 mins from Bantry, and is well worth a visit all on its own if you have never been there!

Organico Shop, Glengarriff Rd., Bantry, Co. Cork, Ireland. Phone +353 (0)27 51391

The World renowned natropath and author Jan De Vries is coming to Organico on the 29th of May to give free consultations to our customers (and some of the staff too I suspect!) If you have a health question, a book you would like signed or would just like to meet one of the foremost natropaths of our time, come along to Organico on Tuesday the 29th of May at around 9am. It will be first come first served so come early!

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On Monday the 28th of May Jan will be giving a talk in Rosscarbery on ‘How to Live a Healthy Life’. We have the tickets for this talk on sale in Organico (cost €8 - all proceeds donated to charity). Having met Jan in Dublin last October, I can vouch for him being one of the people best placed to give a talk on this subject. He has been practising as a natropath for 50 years, and still works full time despite being over 70. His energy level, the day I met him, was incredible. We were all at a weekend Tradeshow in the RDS< an event which is open to Healthstore members and the public as well, and is packed out from 11-6pm. Jan gave personal consultations in the morning, followed by a talk to a packed conference room, followed by more consultations. When I saw him leaving at about 7 that evening he was waving cheerily to departing visitors.

If you would like to hear Jan speak - and I can vouch for how inspiring he is - come to The Celtic Ross Hotel on Monday the 28th of May for a 7pm talk. Again, come early!

Organico Shop, Glengarriff Rd., Bantry, Co. Cork, Ireland. Phone +353 (0)27 51391

Organico Cafe is delighted to once again welcome Lorraine Bacchus to the Cafe with her new work for 2007. Lorraine has had a number of other shows since she exhibited with us last winter (click here) and her work has matured and become, if such a thing is possible, even more beautiful. The pieces are mostly oil on canvas, though there are some sketches as well. The theme is Nudes, and the predominant colours are pale - white, with washes of green, blue and greys bringing an ethereal dream-like quality. They are perfect for this time of year when we are experiencing such beautiful vibrant weather and it is somehow fitting to have soothing and calming art on the walls.

The piece pictured above is called ‘transparent’ and is oil on canvas, roughly 25cmx60cm (I don’t have the measurements - that’s a guess). It is selling for €1000.
Organico Cafe is open from 9.30 - 5.30 Monday - Friday; and 9.30 - 5pm on Saturdays. Come and enjoy a delicious vibrant organic lunch and take a look at Lorraine’s work at the same time. The paintings will be with us until the end of the month.

If you would like to help to protect your right to choose the amount of Vitamin C you can buy without being unnecessarily restricted by the EU, contact the following people and let them know your views:

1. Mr Markos Kyprianou, The Commissioner, Directorate General Health and Consumer Protection, The European Commission, B-1049 Brussels, Belgium.
2. Dr Brian Redahan, Director Consumer Protection, Food Safety Authority of Ireland, Abbey Court, Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1, Ireland. www.fsai.ie

Some of the points you might want to include in your letter or email:

* What you are writing about : The Food Supplements Directive & the setting of Maximum Levels of Vitamins and Minerals
* Who you are: As a single person or as a parent how do you feel about having your health possible jeopodised by the EU? For example, they would like to set the maximum limit for B6 at 10 mg/day, when people are safely taking 50 - 400 mg/day currently to treat common problems ranging from PMT to Asthma. How will this affect you?
* Express your concern at one of the possible motives behind this directive, which many think is linked to the large food companies seeing a new role in the market place for ‘fortified foods’, which would be especially in demand if the general public cannot buy their vitamins any other way.
* For more information on this subject see this article By Dr.Gaby:Safe Upper Limits for Nutritional Supplements: One Giant Step BACKWARD

• Or go to http://www.irishhealthstores.com/

As we speak, the European Union is in the process of introducing Europe wide regulations on maximum doses of vitamin and mineral supplements - and in particular what manufacturers and shops like Organico can say about the supplements we sell. Most shops and manufacturers are in favour of regulations, as we would not like to be working in a world where people can lie to the public about what a product does, but we are concerned that the proposed regulations are going to restrict consumer choice and impact negatively on health. We are most of us in favour of setting ‘upper safety limits’ based on scientific evidence, but not in setting them based on decades-old notions of what minimum levels of vitamins prevents life-threatening illnesses.

In Organico we believe in optimum health, not just in preventing illness. And we also feel that all of us should be able to treat our minor ailments in any (safe) way we chose - by using 1000mg of vitamin C for a cold, for example. But in other European countries this amount of vitamin C is prohibited, and in order to harmonise situations like this the European Union is trying to standardise maximum levels accross the EU.

Under the terms of Article 5 of the Food Supplements Directive (2002/46/EC), the European Commission will shortly propose levels of vitamins and minerals which it believes are the maximum that should be permitted for use in supplements. A Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers will then be asked to approve those figures.

Unfortunately it appears that the Irish foods regulatory authority (the FSAI) are supporters of the RDA principal (which as I touched on above allows only for the prevention of critical illnesses rather than the maintenance of good health) and has taken very little notice of the Health Food Industry’s submissions of evidence supporting the use of safe upper levels. Our industry association (the I.A.H.S.) is currently in talks with the Dept of Health regarding this issue. However we are now starting to take action at a local level.

Shortly I will post a pro-forma letter that can be adapted and sent to relevant parties, and a list of people to send it to.

Fair trade fortnight in Bantry, 2007, was a resounding succes. The Fair trade committee, including Liz Ewing from Organico, put together several very entertaining events. The main focus was on the visit paid by Renwick Rose from the Windward Islands Farmers Association, who came to Bantry on the 7th of March and had lunch in Organico Cafe before giving a talk on fair Trade in the Youth Cafe. Renwick was very enthusiastic about Ieland’s commitment to Fair Trade and said the ‘wherever I have had the privilege of visiting there has been a spontaneous outpooring of friendship and solidarity in keeping with the principles of the Fair Trade movement’. He described fair trade as a way of ‘contributing to the practical expression of a new trading relationship between consumers and producers based on social justice’.

The Fair Trade committee also held a delightful Cookery Demonstration profiling Fair Trade produce and hosted by John and Sally McKenna, as well as a coffee morning.

Organico Shop, Glengarriff Rd., Bantry, Co. Cork, Ireland. Phone +353 (0)27 51391

In Organico we are delighted to be stocking Solgar’s products, as of Febuary 2007. Solgar are market leaders in high quality vitamins, minerals and herbal supplements, and have pioneered a huge amount of research into the field of complementary and alternative health. They are widely trusted and their research is second to none.

Over the next months we will be building up our range of Solgar products as we find out what our customers are looking for. Our staff are going to do Solgar’s retailer training as well, as their products are often unique and we need to be informed in order to advise our customers on them.

So far customer feedback has been very positive, especially on Celadrin which is an essential fatty acid product used in cases of inflamatory joint pain, and which several customers have told us is very effective.

The West Cork run is in its 2nd year and is well on its way to becoming one of the most enjoyable half marathons in Ireland. The route lies along the main road from Glengarriff to Bantry with the sea to the right of the road for nearly the whole way. This is one of the most beautiful routes in Ireland (I enjoy it every day on the way to work!)

This year the run will take place on the 6th of May and there will be three different events - a half marathon, a 10 k walk and a ‘Kids dash’. Last year Organic entered a team and everyone completed in very good time - and we were all delighted with the tee shirts and mugs that we got to take home as momentos.

For more information on the route or to sign up click here