9th Annual Bug Eating Festival July 13th!

Little Herds Celebrates Eating Insects and a Sustainable Future of Food at the 9th Annual Bug Eating Festival Part II on Wednesday, July 13th

For the second year in a row, in.gredients is hosting the Bug (Eating) Festival – a celebration of entomophagy and the future of food organized by Little Herds, an Austin non-profit working to promote the use of insects for food and feed as an environmentally sound and economically viable source of nutrition.

A large crowd of local bug-enthusiasts gathered at in.gredients for Part I of the 9^th Annual Bug (Eating) Festival on Saturday, June 4 to sample insect-infused treats, listen to live music by Josh Buckley and learn more about the role of bugs in our food system. 

“It went great; we probably had 200 people there,” Little Herds President Robert Nathan Allen said. “We had booths for PEAS, Delysia Chocolatier, Slow Food Austin, Aketta, and Crickers Crackers. There was a kids’ activities table and a bunch of different treats like cricket rice krispie treats and cricket oatmeal cookies. Chef Rick Lopez from La Condesa did a cooking demonstration of how to make chapulines salsa.”

Due to the severe weather conditions during Part I of the 9th Annual Bug Eating Festival, Little Herds is holding a second Bug Eating Festival this year on Wednesday, July 13 from 5-9PM at in.gredients. The 9th Annual Bug Eating Festival Part II is an opportunity for insect-novices to taste bugs for the first time and for entomophagy enthusiasts like RNA to gather and share what they love about insects as a food of the future.

RNA’s initial interest in insect eating was sparked by a video on entomophagy that was sent to him as a joke, “I took it way too seriously,” he said. A year later RNA had gathered together a group of friends who were interested in eating bugs and raising awareness of the environmental and nutritional benefits of insects as an alternative protein source. Within six months, by December 2013, Little Herds had become a 501c3 non-profit committed to edible insect education.

“We should be thinking about our food before it hits our plate,” RNA said. “Little Herds’ mission is to educate our community about the benefits of eating insects – it addresses the broader questions of how we fix our broken food system. We are interested in insects as food and as livestock feed, and we are focused on our local community and global community. Austin was the perfect birthplace for Little Herds; there are a lot of cultural influences on our food scene. Austin already has a big paleo community, a big gluten-free community – there are a lot of people who want to keep it weird when it comes to what we eat here.”

Raising insects requires significantly less resources – water, space and feed – than the production of other forms of livestock. When RNA learned of the environmental sustainability and nutrient content of edible insects, he began experimenting with cricket flour. He brought one of his first batches of cricket cookies to the 5^th Annual Bug Eating Festival.

“The festival was founded by Marjory Wildcraft. She started nine years ago with some friends and families who wanted to try bugs for the first time. They had such a blast they did it again, and more people showed up the next year, and it grew,” RNA said. “I got involved with this idea at the 5^th Annual Bug Eating Festival; I brought some cricket flour cookies I baked and just fell in love with the idea. Since then I’ve helped organize the festival. Originally it was a way to get people together to try bugs, and now it’s grown as a way to see insects as a resource and to celebrate all the good work that’s happening in Austin around food and sustainability.”

Little Herds has gathered together a group of local bakers and chefs – Chef Rick Lopez from La Condesa, Aketta Cricket Flour, Crickers and Delysia Chocolatier – to bring insect-enriched treats to Part II of the 9^th Annual Bug Eating Festival on Wednesday, July 13 for curious eaters to try. Taste the future of food and sustainable protein in the form of gourmet cricket cookies and chocolates, spiced mealworms and cricket salsa.

“One of the great things about edible insects is that if you don’t want to see them, you don’t have to – you can grind them up into flours,” RNA said. “It’s not a one-to-one replacement of regular flour, but you can sub in a portion of the flour in recipes, and you’ll still get that additional protein, iron and calcium that weren’t there before. Crickets have really good omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids; they have fiber. It’s just mind-blowing how healthy they are, and we’ve just been missing out on it.”

Since Little Herd’s inception in June 2013, they have focused on educating children about entomophagy and getting kids excited to eat bugs. “We have educator kits designed to be taught at schools around Austin that can be catered to any age group,” RNA said. “If we get 1% of kids in Austin to eat insects, we can show how much water is saved and how much greenhouse gas is saved from just a small number people.” Part II of the 9^th Annual Bug (Eating) Festival will feature even more activities for kids to learn about the benefits of bugs and how to eat them.

“Parents know it’s nutritious and environmentally beneficial, and kids don’t have built-in taboos,” RNA said. “Trends change throughout history. We’re trying to change the mentality that insects are gross food.”

Little Herds is part of a larger movement to repopularize eating insects as a sustainable protein alternative. Although entomophagy is practiced throughout the world in countries like Mexico, the idea is relatively new in the United States.

“It’s a cultural taboo that’s built up over time for a variety of reasons. As our ancestors moved up north from the equator and bugs got smaller, people stopped eating insects. Due to agriculture, bugs weren’t needed as a food supply,” RNA said. “There are a lot of places where eating insects is traditional, but for younger generations it’s starting to be seen as something your grandmother did. If we make eating insects part of our modern food culture it won’t have that effect. In Mexico, eating insects is still celebrated as a traditional food. There are restaurants throughout the country that serve traditional Oaxacan chapulines.”

Little Herds has three “core principles” it recommends to anyone interested in trying insects for the first time: be safe, be kind (to other eaters, insects and the planet) and be curious.

“It’s fun to surprise people but we want to make sure people are safe; if you have a shellfish allergy you may be allergic to insects,” RNA said. “If someone doesn’t want to try, that’s okay. Everyone has a food they don’t like, and they don’t need someone bullying them about it.”

Little Herds works to promote ethical insect farming that does not disturb local ecosystems. Insects can be safely and humanely harvested through freezing, “lowering their temperature like they would hibernate in the wild.”

“Be kind to the animals; insects are living creatures and sentient beings,” RNA said. “We are not saying go in your backyard and try bugs; you don’t know where those are from. If you harvest bugs from the wild they may have parasites or your neighbor may spray pesticides. Part of being safe is knowing where your food comes from – you should want to know where your food is grown and the way it’s processed. You want to know that it’s safe for animals.”

This summer, Little Herds launched a crowdfunding campaign through Barnraiser to expand their programs in Austin and abroad. Rewards for donating include a jar of Cricket Bolognese Pasta Sauce, a grow-your-own mealworms kit (that comes equipped with a mealworm cookbook and farm) and a cricket-chocolate making class with Delysia Chocolatier – make sure to donate and claim your reward before their crowdfunding deadline of midnight Friday, July 15.

“The first day we received an anonymous matching donation for up to $4000 if we reached our first goal by the following Saturday. The community rallied, and we hit our goal by Friday,” RNA said. “We have some really great stretch goals that are going to be impactful for the local Austin community.”

Little Herds is still working to meet their third fundraising goal of reaching $25,000, which will allow them to host the second ever “Eating Insects” conference in the U.S. next year in Austin. RNA attended “Eating Insects Detroit,” the first conference in the U.S. devoted to insects for food and feed, and came back inspired to do the same in Austin.

“The conference gave me a huge injection of energy and ideas,” RNA said. “Over 150 international business founders joined the conference along with insect farmers and experts leading research looking at the psychology and marketing of eating insects. There were film screenings, a pop-up insect dinner and a food truck-serving insects. The conference was a snapshot of what people are doing all around the world, and how this can apply to Austin. We were just blown away by how this conference went for its first year; bringing it to Austin next year just makes so much sense. We can make it coincide with the 10^th Annual Bug Eating Festival.”

Similar to Part I of the 9^th Annual Bug (Eating) Festival, Part II will have an Ento Raffle benefitting Little Herds Barnraiser campaign with insect cookbooks, edible insect t-shirts and tote bags, and baking ingredients like cricket flour and Delysia chocolate. The event is open to the public and entrance costs a suggested donation of $10 to Little Herds (kids are free!) – purchase tickets in advance online or at the door.

First time trying insects? Little Herds encourages people to check out their website for resources on how to eat insects safely.

‘I’m in’ with Stephanie Ciancio from San Fransisco’s Nesting So Hard

Stephanie Ciancio lives in San Fransisco but insists on taking a trip to in.gredients every time she visits her best friend in Austin. Stephanie’s commitment to living a zero waste lifestyle and changing how she shops has led her to start Nesting So Hard, a service that helps people reorganize their kitchens and commit to zero waste habits.

in: How did you hear about in.gredients?

SC: I think maybe Pinterest or Facebook, it was something that friends of mine shared. My best friend Suzanne lives in Austin, when I came here I asked her, “Please take me to this place!” That was a couple years ago, and when I’m back in town I’m like, “Let’s go to in.gredients again!”

in: So you always come to in.gredients when you’re in Austin?

SC: Yeah!

in: What do you like about in.gredients?

SC: I love that it’s a cute little shop that helps people buy exactly what they need and not what they don’t – which is the food that you eat and not necessarily a bunch of extra packaging.

in: Do you try to live a zero-waste lifestyle?

SC: I’m a little obsessive about it. My husband is very understanding. I won’t actually throw away clear plastic. I collect it and take it to the one place it can be recycled; so I try not to get it in the first place. We live in San Francisco, and we compost. And I miss composting when I travel. I had to go on a restricted diet for my digestive health, and I started cooking a lot. And that’s when I got into shopping for bulk foods like quinoa and millet. I get a farm subscription for the produce. It’s a fun thing to play at, to get to the zero waste lifestyle. I like to approach it like a game, like how do we get more of what we want and less of what we don’t want rather than demonizing anything. I grew up shopping at Publix, but it’s so much more fun to shop at a pretty place that approaches food from a different angle and has farm relationships and local sourcing.

in: What is your advice for people looking to live a zero waste lifestyle?

SC: That’s a great question because that’s what I’ve just started doing as a service. I help people makeover their kitchens. And the starting point is, what do you like to cook? What do you like to eat – can you cook that? What ingredients do you use a lot of? And how can you streamline getting ahold of those ingredients, whether it’s a CSA delivery or having a system of containers that you always have. It’s so great to know that we can eat most of our meals at home and that most of what we need can be purchased in bulk. I had a commitment to my health that had me cook and eat in a different way. I no longer went to the grocery store when I remembered, it was part of my lifestyle to procure the food that I prepare and eat. You can create a system where you have containers in your car trunk. Or you can create a system where you have a bag of containers ready to go and you create a shopping list, and when you realize there are a lot of things on your list you grab the bag and you go. For me it was a progression. I still buy things I wasn’t planning on buying. But if you look back 5 or 10 years ago, no one every brought their bags, and now it’s like “Oh I forgot my bags this time.” So there’s been a shift already.

in: What’s the name of your business?

SC: Nesting So Hard. I do one-day kitchen makeovers, and I focus on using Mason jars and getting people really acquainted and familiarized and falling in love with their local bulk grocer.

Read more about Nesting So Hard on Stephanie’s blog. 

Photo by Suzanne Pressman, Pressman Studio

Garden Volunteer Day 6/18

Interested in getting your hands dirty and learning how to garden? Join us for our Garden Volunteer day this Saturday, 6/18 from 9-11:30AM! Email Josh at joshua@in.gredients.com to sign up.

A Complete(ly) Sustainable Protein?

We’re all about new ideas.

We’re also into revitalizing old ideas that have gone by the wayside. Eliminating unnecessary food packaging and focusing on locally and sustainably grown foods are good examples of old ideas made new again, and so is this: eating insects.  Entomophagy, as it’s formally known, is a practice dating back thousands of years.  Today, however, Western cultures hardly know the first thing about eating bugs, even though many other culinary traditions (Mexico, Thailand, and China, to name a few) still consume insects with regularity.  As far as we’re concerned, insects are overdue for a resurgence in the West, and we’re not the only ones who think so.

Since 2010 when the idea of in.gredients was born, entomophagy has been on our list of creative solutions to environmental and social problems. Only recently, however, did we  connect with two groups here in Austin leading the way in edible insects.  World Ento, founded in Georgia in 2010 and recently re-located to Austin, is setting industry standards for safe, sustainably-raised insects.  Little Herds, an Austin non-profit in its final days of a crowd-funding campaign, is on a mission to educate the public about the merits and joys of eating insects.

What are those merits, you ask? Insects are a highly efficient and nutritious source of protein (complete with all 9 essential amino acids), which makes insects far more viable in a resource-limited future than traditional sources.  To give some context, the resources required to raise one pound of beef can raise nine pounds of crickets.  That’s a significant difference, and one we simply can’t afford to ignore as population growth and resource depletion continue.

So how does one eat insects?  Well, with over 2,000 edible species, the options are almost endless.  Chefs from all over the States, including Austin’s own Sonya Cote, are already incorporating insects into their menus.  Not excited about a whole cricket on the end of your fork?  That’s fine, World Ento makes both cricket and mealworm flours that incorporate safely prepared insect meal into white or whole wheat flour.  From there, the possibilities range from chocolate chip cookies, to pancakes, to just about any recipe involving flour.  It’s a simple way to add a healthy, sustainable protein, and the insect flavor and texture are hardly detectable.

World Ento raises and sells clean, safe-to-eat, and ethically harvested insects (Good Karma Killing, as World Ento calls it, is a freezing process that lulls them into a painless stasis), and soon you’ll be able to find them (as a Chocolate “Chirp” Cookie Mix) at in.gredients!

Want to learn more?  Follow World Ento and Little Herds on Twitter, and come out to our pre-party (for this amazing event) next Tuesday, February 18th.  We’ll have tons of samples and a few of the big names in entomophagy on hand to talk to you in person about this exciting movement.  Hop on board – you won’t want to miss this one.

Eastside Compost Pedallers: The Loop

Have y’all heard about the Eastside Compost Pedallers? They’re becoming celebrities around these parts, recognizable by their big blue bins strapped to custom fitted bicycles. Not only are they some of the nicest folks we know, they’re doing incredibly important work in our community.

Here’s how it works. You collect your compost (or “scrapple”) throughout the week, leave it out on your porch, and the pedallers will collect your food waste, and bike it to nearby farms. Yep, they bike the compost everywhere. Not only are they diverting food waste from the landfill, they’re doing so on bicycles, eliminating waste in every sense of the word.

Pretty amazing, right?

If that isn’t enough, they just introduced their Loop program, which encourages their customers to compost in order to win prizes from local businesses. The pedallers weigh the compost each week, and approximately one pound of compost equals a point. You can then take those points and cash them in for goodies at your favorite east side spots, including in.gredients.

If you aren’t completely in awe of them by now, watch these videos and you will be. Learn more about the Loop, how we’re getting involved and how you can be a part of this amazing zero-waste business.

Happy composting!

What is The LOOP? from East Side Compost Pedallers on Vimeo.

Loop partner highlight: in.gredients Microgrocer from East Side Compost Pedallers on Vimeo.

Healthy Meals & Snacks for Your Next Trip

Let’s be honest, there’s nothing good about airport food. We’ve all been there, pacing around the airport looking for options that aren’t full of salt, sugar and fat. Seeing as summer is upon us, it only makes sense to provide a go-to list for healthy travel. We found a majority of these tips from My New Roots, a great source for whole foods and healthy living advice. Follow these tips and you’ll be a happy camper when you skip past the $15 sandwich and avoid the inevitable regret that results in spending and eating over priced airport food.

According to Sarah, there’ll be some prep work involved, but it’s worth it. Whether you’re on the plane for just a few hours, going on a transcontinental trip or have an epic road trip in mind, these tips and snacks will carry you through.

Tips on Traveling with Food:

• Pack foods that don’t need to be refrigerated: This is a pretty obvious tip, but just in case you were wondering, leave the meat, cheese and dairy at home.
• Pack foods that will maintain food texture: Think carrots, cucumbers, bell peppers, apples, and granola. If you want to pack greens, stick with romaine. It turns out that spinach and other lettuces wilt and get soggy.
• Pack foods that are easy to eat: Avoid being the person on the plane that ends up smearing sandwich drippings across the tray table. Stick with low-mess fruits, vegetables and snacks.
• Be considerate: Stick to foods that don’t have too strong of a scent. We’ve all been in the plane next to the person who decides to bring McDonalds on board. Be thoughtful of your neighbors, you’re in a VERY small space, remember?
• Avoid liquids: Remember how you can’t bring liquids onto planes anymore? This all depends on the security team, but packing hummus in with carrot sticks will most likely be allowed. If the thought of getting your hummus tossed out makes you anxious, stick to zero-liquid foods.
• Drink lots of water: Another no brainer, but remember that flying dries you out and our bodies will get bloated and feel funky unless you stay well hydrated.

Snacks and Meals for Flying:

From My New Roots

• Rice & Beet Salad
• Roasted Garlic White Bean & Tarragon Dip
• Mango Cashew Sunshine Bites

From the Kitchn

• Veggies & Dip
• Wheat Berry Salad with Figs & Red Onion

From Sprouted Kitchen

• Spicy Lentil Spring Rolls
• Peanut Butter Bites

Cookie & Kate

• Gingerbread Granola
• Homemade Lara Bars

Happy flying!

Guest Blog Post :: Creating a (Clean) Zero-Waste Kitchen

Now that you’ve stuffed yourself silly after preparing and eating with your new Zero-Waste habits, it’s time to chat about keeping your kitchen spotless. How you clean up after your meal is just as important as how you purchase and prepare it. Many of the conventional cleaning products are filled with toxins which pollute the air and the waterways. A majority of them are found in large, plastic bottles and the amount of water wasted making these products is astounding

Part of the beauty of being an (eco)nista is continuously evolving and improving oneself – particularly towards a more conscious and compassionate lifestyle. Continuing the discussion on the Zero-Waste Kitchen, here are some habits to integrate into your Kitchen-cleaning routine.

Tips on Creating A Clean, Zero-Waste Kitchen:

• Unplug appliances not in use, phantom energy is a killer.

• Ditch the paper towels for Reusable Towels/Napkins. Or check out these washable bamboo towels by Bamboee and biodegradable cloth towels from Skoy Cloths

• When cleaning, try castille soap as a cleaner (which can be bought in bulk from in.gredients) it can be used for ANYTHING from hands to dogs to dishes to floors to counters, and you can use baking soda as a scrubber with a compostable cleaning brush (one great brand is Full Circle’s Be Good Dish Brush)

  1. Check out Lisa Bronner’s Blog for great DIY recipes using Dr. Bronner’s Castille Soap.

• Create your own dishwasher soap, or buy in a biodegradable cardboard box.

• Get strategic with your water washing

  1. Limit the duration of running water by washing small things as you fill larger dishes, whose water you can use to soak other pots + pans

  2. Unless icky + sticky, skip the pre-rinse of dishes. The dishwasher is found to use less water than washing by hands (but only run it if it’s full!)

  3. Better yet, use your dirty water as reclaimed water for plants.

• Before composting, maybe try one of these DIY facials with coffee grounds or overripe avocados.

• If you’re not near a compost garden, check out the Compost Pedallers. For as little as $4/week they’ll come to your house and take your compost. Or consider storing your compost in Full Circle’s Freezer Compost Bin and then drop it off weekly at one of Austin’s compost bins.

  1. If you need even more incentive to compost, Austin’s Local Government is offering Home Rebates for Composting.

For more recipes, articles, + information on going Zero Waste in the Kitchen check out my Pinterest board!

Sustainably yours,

Jessa @jwestxo

Guest Blog Post: Safe, Sustainable Sunscreen

The arrival of summer means endless lazy days, juicy watermelon from the Farmer’s Markets, and soaking up that vitamin D at Barton Springs.  All that glorious sun means potential for pesky sunburns. With the endless options on the market today – and virtually no regulation from the FDA – how do you know which is the safest, most sustainable sunscreen?

First let’s break some of the most common misunderstood facts about sunscreen.

• Sunscreen does not protect skin from all types of sun damage: Until recently many sunscreens only primarily protected people from ultraviolet B (UVB) rays, the main cause of sunburns, but not ultraviolet A (UVA) ray, which are correlated with aging and skin damage (i.e. sun spots, wrinkles)

• Higher SPF (Sun Protection Factor) products do not equate in stronger or longer protection: According to EWG’s Sunscreen Guide, there is only 1% difference in the amount of UVB protection from SPF 50 to SPF 100. Instead the key is to consistently re-apply a copious amount to your skin.

• Many conventional sunscreens include ingredients that disrupt hormones and cause skin allergies: Many conventional brands infuse their sunscreen with vitamin A (retinyl palmitate or “retinol”), a chemical linked to increased cancer cell growth, and oxybenzone, a hormone disruptor.

The good news is that there are several safe sunscreen alternatives that will truly protect your beautiful skin! in.gredients offers Kiss My Face Kids SPF 30 and Elemental Herbs Sport 30+. Also, you can check out EWG’s Sunscreen Guide for a list of their top-rated sun care products. Or if you are feeling crafty, why not try these DIY sunscreen recipes from Revitalise Your Health. When it comes down to it, nothing compares to the best sun protection: covering up with hats, clothing, shady trees, and umbrellas. Word on the street is, shade is the new sun.

So now that we know how to protect the largest organ on our body, lets go enjoy the sunshine before it becomes too unbearable in this Texas heat!

Sustainably yours,

Jessa

@jwestxo

Guest Blog Post: Creating a Zero-Waste Kitchen

Whether you desire to save some green or live more green, the Zero-Waste philosophy is for you! Innovating the 3 R’s of living green (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), the Zero-Waste philosophy is all about creating an eco-lisitc understanding of the products and resources we use as we aim to consume (and spend) less.

The kitchen is one of the most wasteful areas in our household. 40% of food in the US goes to the landfill, and 30% of municipal landfill waste is packaging, a majority of which comes from our kitchen (National Resource Defense Council 2012, Environmental Protection Agency 2007.) On top of all that, consider the army of disposables such as paper towels, plastic bags, and aluminum foil that is conventionally used and then tossed into the trash. With statistics like these, can you imagine the amount of change we can create by reevaluating our habits in the kitchen?

Here are some useful tips for creating a zero-waste kitchen. Feel free to begin with the few you’re confident you can do and add more as you go! By continuously integrating these small changes and embracing the Zero-Waste philosophy, we can be certain we are truly having a positive impact on our world (while saving some cash.)

If you have any more ideas or suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment or email me. I always love hearing new creative ways to live simply and fabulously green.

Preparing + Eating

• Buy in Bulk using reusable containers (and bags!) and buy locally.

• Sprout at Home: it’s easy, cost-effective + creates the perfect salad topper.

• Mini-Herb Gardens: freshen your indoor air, while greening your thumb + spicing up your dishes.

• Make sure you are storing your fresh fruits + veggies properly: how often do we toss food for spoiling quicker than you expected? Here’s one great online guide from My Thirty Spot to check out.

• Utilize that freezer! Whether you cook soups + sauces in large quantities or prepare veggie squares for green smoothies, your freezer is your bestfriend when it comes to preserving your produce.

• Try some Recipes for the almost…:

  1. Too-ripe fruit

     1. Smoothies

     2. Low-Fat, Raw-Vegan Ice-Cream (aka blended frozen bananas)

     3. Homemade Jams

     4. Fruit Bread + Muffins

     5. Fruit Leather/Stripes

  2. Too-soft veggies

     1. Spaghetti Sauce

     2. Veggie Soups

     3. Green Smoothie Squares

  3. Too-hard bread

     1. Croutons

     2. Pita chips

     3. Bread Crumbs

     4. Stuffing

     5. Soup Topping

• Simple (yet clever) Cooking Tricks:

  1. Steam your veggies as you boil pasta in to steam veggies.

  2. The electric kettle is up to twice as efficient as a stove-top, so to jump start the boiling water for pasta, rice etc. use the electric kettle.

  3. To save some energy when using the oven to roasted veggies or bake cookies, consider turning off the oven up to 15 minutes before indicated time. As long as you don’t open the door + let the heat out, the oven will stay hot.

• When packing lunches or putting up leftovers use reusable packaging such as glass containers, U Konserve snack bags, or organic towels to wrap fruit.

• To prevent avocados, pears, etc. from turning brown after cut from oxidation, try squirting a little bit of lemon before storing in a reusable container.

For more recipes, articles, + information on going Zero Waste in the Kitchen check out my Pinterest board!

Sustainably yours,

Jessa

@jwestXO

Improving Your Indoor Air Quality with Plants

When the weather is like this, most of us want to stay indoors. We aren’t getting as much fresh air as we’re less inclined to open windows when it’s so cold outside. Did you know that the air quality indoors can be up to ten times worse than the outdoors? This is due to the chemicals found in common household (and workplace) cleaners, furniture and more. These objects emit toxins that pollute the air, and with nowhere to go, the levels of indoor pollution rise.

Don’t panic, just get yourself a houseplant. These plants help filter out common volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Their foliage purifies the air and helps remove the toxins found in common household chemicals. Some of the biggest indoor pollutants are formaldehyde, benzene, acetone, ammonia and VOCs.

We found a list on Mother Nature Network of houseplants that improve indoor air quality. You can call your local garden center to see which of these plants they have available, and add some greenery to your indoor landscape. Here’s a short list of some plants that caught our eye.

The first plant on our list is aloe. This plant is easy to grow, and loves the sun. It helps clear formaldehyde and benzene, which are byproducts of chemical-based cleaners and paints. Aloe is also great for healing cuts and burns, which makes it an ideal plant for a sunny kitchen window.

Next up is the spider plant. If you lack a green thumb, this is the plant for you. Hard to kill, it has lots of foliage and tiny white flowers. The spider plant helps reduce the levels of benzene, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide and xylene. It’s lovely AND resilient, making it one of the most popular houseplants.

If you’re feeling like you want an indoor plant with a lot of color, try the gerber daisy. This bright, flowering plant is effective at removing trichloroethylene, a toxin commonly associated with dry cleaning. The daisy is also good at filtering out benzene that is found in inks. This plant loves sun, so keep it in a bright bedroom window.

Or if you’re looking for a conversation starter, try the mother-in-law’s tongue (how can you not be interested in a plant with a name like that?) This plant is one of the best for filtering out formaldehyde, which is common in cleaning products, toilet paper, tissues and personal care products. You can put one in your bathroom, as it will thrive in low light and steamy humid conditions.

Our last plant is the chrysanthemum. This popular plant does more than add color to your living room, the bloom also helps filter out benzene. The plant thrives in bright light, and if you want the buds to open, you’ll need to find a spot near an open window with direct sunlight.

For the complete list of indoor house plants, visit Mother Nature Network, and check out the image below for additional air purifying houseplants.