Going Green at P’lovers in Port Perry

With Earth Day coming up on April 22, a to visit P’lovers The Environmental Store in Port Perry seemed in order. As I walked down Queen Street, sunlight glinting off Lake Scugog at the end of the road, it struck me that this handsome lakefront community with its historic main street is an ideal location for an eco-friendly shop. Originating in Halifax, P’lovers has been a fixture in Port Perry since  2002, quickly becoming popular enough to warrant a move to its current location in a Victorian-era building, complete with original tin ceilings.

The store boasts an excellent selection of books—including familiar titles by big names like Suzuki and Gore, as well many fun and funky titles like How to Eat Like a Tree or the self-explanatory Survival Wisdom & Know-How: Everything You Need to Know to Subsist in the Wilderness.

Proprietor Stephen Kreider strives to source locally made products like Nature’s Body Works lime-scented Beach Butter (from Guelph) and Ella’s Botanicals soaps from Toronto. Ella’s Chai Latte soap has such a wonderful cinnamon scent I keep sniffing a bar of it as a write this.

Recycling doesn’t get any more Canadian than the Muskoka chair made of old wooden hockey sticks.

The stroller-pushing young mums were loading up on organic lotions and chlorine-free diapers, biodegradable laundry soap and environmentally friendly cleaners--Citra-solv comes highly recommended--then lingering to chat over organic fair trade coffee in the Queen Beans Coffee House in the same space.

On Earth Day P'lovers will offer special promotions for shoppers, but as Stephen pointed out “really every day is Earth Day.”

In keeping with the Earth Day spirit, I set out to see where else I might find recycled goods in Port Perry and stumbled upon a wonderful antique shop, Caviar and Cobwebs Garage Sale, with lots of antique toys, Victorian furniture and a pink-and-chrome 1950s dinette set. I’m all for recycling, especially when it’s this much fun.

Comments

[Dave]

Yay - Port Perry!