Clear Conscience Blog | J.R. Watkins Naturals

As lovers of all things natural, we enjoy finding ways to step up our health. Recently, we stumbled across this article from Natural Home and Garden about cures for common ailments. The best part? It’s simple! Check out a few of our favorite recommendations.

Thyme is perfect for the common cold and cough. Mix 1 teaspoon of thyme with 1 cup of hot water. After straining, drink up to 3 cups a day! Bask in relief.

Garlic is a natural antioxidant that can help boost the immune system and it’s also heart healthy. Studies show that it may help reduce bad cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease. On top of all that healthy goodness, garlic tastes great—try adding one clove per day to your diet (raw or lightly cooked). What’s not to love?

Cinnamon is one of our favorites. Use it to bake with, add to hot drinks in the fall or put it on your oatmeal in the morning and skip the sugar. Just like garlic, it also has natural antioxidants. Tasty!

There are so many great ways to use and add natural ingredients to boost your health. We’d love hear your tips!

You asked, and we listened! Many of you checked out the new Grapefruit All-Purpose Cleaner and loved it, so we decided to introduce two more products to the line: hand soap and dish soap.

We love this scent over at J.R. Watkins, and we’re so glad you couldn’t get enough either! A great-smelling product makes cleaning your home enjoyable (well, almost!). These products will be available in Target stores, online at jrwatkins.com or through your local Watkins Associate.

We love making memories, celebrating milestones and finding ways to document them. One of our favorite ways is through photographs, but another is through our timeline. Check out these fun highlights of J.R. Watkins history!

   

1868   
This is where it all begins. The first product, Original Liniment, launches the beginning of what is now known as J.R. Watkins.

   

1888   
J.R. Watkins moves from Plainview to Winona! Winona is where headquarters are still located today.

   

1895       
Wondering how long our famous Vanilla Extract has been around? That’s right, since 1895!

   

1920 
100 products on the market – that’s a lot!

       

1960   
We made the news: Watkins ads appear live on NBC’s “Today” show!

2003   
Happy birthday! Year 135 and we’re still committed to producing the finest natural products just as we were in 1868!

  

2010   
Launch of this blog!

    

We’re excited to name our 2011 milestone. What are some of your most memorable milestones, and how do you celebrate and document them?

As you well know, part of living a healthy lifestyle includes eating well, drinking water and being active. And, when the sun comes out in our home state of Minnesota, athletes of all kinds emerge.

From biking to running to yoga to Frisbee, people are out and about enjoying the sun and fresh air. Sometimes, though, being active also includes sore muscles (especially after going to yoga class four times this week!).

That’s why we LOVE our Deep Muscle Cooling Gel and Deep Muscle Warming Balm for those minor aches and pains. Although they work in different ways, both are relaxing and rejuvenating, keeping us in the game.

Play on!

Can you believe it’s August? We can’t! And as much as we hate to admit it, summer is quickly coming to an end. In an attempt to make the best of our remaining days of summer, we’re planning to pack-in our favorite activities over the next few weeks.

One of our favorite things to do over here at J.R. Watkins is get outside, round up our

friends and spark up the grill! So, this week we are throwing down a few of our favorite grillables: burgers, hot dogs, steaks and potatoes (yes, we’re grilling potatoes)!

Want to know how we serve them up? Check out this great recipe for potatoes grilled to perfection:

Grilled Potatoes

Ingredients
4 medium potatoes, sliced
1 medium onion, sliced
2 tbsp/30 mL J.R. Watkins All-Natural Original Grapeseed Oil
1/4 tsp/1.2 mL J.R. Watkins All-Natural Black Pepper
1/4 tsp/1.2 mL Seasoning Salt

Directions
Thinly slice potatoes and onions place them on aluminum foil drizzle with grapeseed oil and season with pepper and salt. Fold aluminum tightly over potatoes and onions so they are completely covered. Place on grill for 20 to 25 minutes.

Serves 2

What is your favorite grilled food?

Summer is busy: weekend getaways, time outside, laying at the beach, exploring new things in your city – who has time for cleaning? It’s hard to fit it all in, so we thought we’d share these five easy cleaning tips that will help keep your home clean without cutting too much into your play time.

1. Spending too much time trying to get streak-free windows and mirrors? Use a newspaper with your cleaning product! Seems backwards but it works! Not sure you want to do that? Just make sure the cloth you are using is lint-free.
2. Wipe down your shower after each use. When the time comes to do a thorough cleaning, the process will go much quicker!
3. Pick things up, every day. Get the whole family to help. Waking up to an organized home is one of our favorite feelings.
4. Use a Swiffer or similar product for a quick clean kitchen floor.
5. Do a little laundry every day instead of trying to spend a whole day for this task. Throw a load in while you prep for dinner, switch the load to the dryer while you eat and fold and put away while you watch your evening TV show.

What is your favorite easy cleaning tip?

This year, we started what we love to call the “Watkins Plainview Employee Garden.” One of the organizers is a guest blogger today, here to fill you in on all the details!

Contributed by Daniel Crawford, QA Lab Technician, J.R. Watkins Naturals

Q: Tell us a little about how the garden got started.
A: This was our first season of the Watkins Plainview Employee Garden. We have 14 plots and some are shared. A couple of plots didn’t get filled; so a few ambitious gardeners took on additional plots. The gardens are all volunteers, and the gardeners are of different gardening skill levels.

Q: What steps have you taken to make the garden environmentally friendly? Why is that important?
A: The gardens are all organic, utilizing natural fertilizers such manure and guano. Organic waste from the employee break rooms, including coffee grounds, apple cores, and used vanilla bean husks from the processing of vanilla, are composted and used as natural fertilizers.  This waste would otherwise be put into a landfill where it doesn’t break down properly and adds to the already taxed landfills.  Storm water runoff can contain pollutants like sediment, oil, grease, bacteria and nutrients that flow directly into the rivers and lakes. Eventually, our water will be collected from rain barrels preventing some of this storm water runoff from reaching the Mississippi River.  This is very important due to our proximity to the Mississippi River (a few hundred yards from our facility).
 
Q: What is the long-term vision for the garden?

A: We formed a garden committee to ensure the long-term success of the garden. The Plainview Employee Garden is about being a positive influence and growing as a company, as individuals, and as a community.  In the months ahead, we look forward to our first harvest, as well as a possible expansion for next year. An additional garden is being considered at the distribution center. Also, due to the high interest of community members, the garden may open plots to residents of the Winona community.

Our employee garden from the very beginning! We were happy to recycle the sod to employees and neighbors for use in their own yards!

Once we got the sod up and pathways down, it was time to plant! Some folks chose to start from seeds, while others stuck with more established varieties.

If you’re in town, stop by and see what we are growing! We’d love to have you visit our garden!

We know that many people keep a clean countertop, and store products under the sink, but we’re all about keeping our bathroom essentials on display. The way we see it, our packaging is a design element, and can be incorporated into look of any room. In a bathroom, fun elements like this great shower curtain from West Elm or a wicker basket from Target are a perfect complement to showcase our personal care products.

Ready for a bathroom design refresh? Simply display your J.R. Watkins products!

This is the season for get-togethers, time outside and parties with friends (let’s be honest, it’s a short season so we try to take advantage of it as much as possible). And we’re always on the hunt for new ideas. One of our favorite features from Real Simple magazine is called “New Uses for Old Things.” Not only do they provide inexpensive ideas that add a little fun to your party, they offer useful tips on how to recycle or repurpose household items – an easy way to be a little more green!

Our Real Simple favorites (featured on RealSimple.com):

Use cupcake holders as ice cream dishes! Freeze the ice cream in the holders before your next party for ready-to-serve treats when your guests arrive.

Need to label the food at your party? Attach name tags to a tooth pick and use them to identify different types of cheese, dishes or desserts!

Add a pretty decoration to your cupcakes and eliminate wax dripping on your frosting. Use a LifeSaver to secure a candle in your cake or cupcake!

Inspired by these ideas, we came up with a few of our own.

Do you have old marbles, colored stones or large beads at home? Fill a small vase with the colorful items for an easy centerpiece or piece of art to display near the party food.

Do you have a red stain on fabric? Pineapple juice removes small red stains from fabrics!

Any other ideas? How do you make use of old items in new ways?