Wild Bower Studio's Commitment to Sustainability: Creating Beautiful Products with a Conscience

Hey there! Did you know that at Wild Bower Studio, sustainability is at the heart of everything we do? We believe that we all have a responsibility to take care of the environment, and we're doing our part to make a difference.

More and more we’ve been using recycled and repurposed materials in our products. For example, we're currently developing lamps that will use handmade paper shades created from our paper waste. We’re also using broken pottery to create mosaic pieces. Not only are we reducing waste, but we're also giving new life to materials that would otherwise end up in the trash.

We're always on the lookout for ways to minimize our carbon footprint. We've switched to eco-friendly packaging and are brainstorming ways to reduce our plastic usage. Plus, we've implemented energy-saving practices in our studio to help reduce our energy consumption like solar energy and only using rain water. Did you know that on average we use between 5 - 10 gallons of water each month? For a medium that is notoriously known for it’s water usage we are proof that there are ways to reduce the amount of water used.

We know that sustainability is an ongoing process, and we're committed to continually improving our practices. We firmly believe that being sustainable is not only the right thing to do but also a smart choice for our future. By focusing on sustainable practices, we're not only reducing our impact on the environment, but we're also creating unique and meaningful products that resonate with our customers.

At Wild Bower Studio, we think that all businesses should make sustainability a priority. By integrating sustainable practices, companies can reduce their impact on the environment and even improve their bottom line. We're proud to be a part of the movement towards a more sustainable future, and we hope to inspire others to join us on this journey. Oh, and we promise to keep things light-hearted and fun along the way!

2022 Garden Haul & Food Storage

This year marked our 3rd on the homestead and our 2nd year of garden! I’m realizing more and more how important it is to know where your food is coming from and it doesn’t get much more transparent than just growing it yourself. It’s hard work but I’ve found a lot of joy in the process and so far each year has gotten much easier (it’s still frickin hard).

June 2022 - The garden has begun!

Before moving to upstate NY we lived in the concrete jungle of Brooklyn with our above ground garden. More and more I’ve realized just how much living there had affected me and my perspective. While energetic and inspiring I always felt not quite right like I wasn’t meant to stay.

It was never my plan to live in the city but I got a sick job that at the time I really loved but jobs aren’t the only reason to be somewhere. Standing amongst thousands of blurry bodies hustling around trying to make a living, find love, find themselves etc was overwhelming for me. So we left and started our next chapter upstate.

Our garden now stands in hopefully it’s forever home and boyyyyyy am I so frickin proud of the it this year. We’ve started to figure out what we really like to eat (kale, tomatoes, squash) and what gets wasted (eggplant, cucumbers, green peppers) along with how we can store food for the winter. And what seemed really daunting last year felt so much easier this year, which I was really thankful for. Currently we freeze, dehydrate and use the water canning method to store our food.

Dehydrating was probably one of my favorites. After a month of drought we finally had a weekend of rain and with moisture comes mushrooms. I was in luck because on our land was a ton of oyster mushrooms ready to be harvested. The ones we couldn’t eat right away were then dehydrated to use for soups and other recipes. Also a fun veggie to dehydrate is squash & zucchini! Scroll down to see what it looks like.

Next year we plan to start our seeds early esp the luffa, which you know I’ve been trying really hard to grow but our growing season is very short. In other news - we’ll be expanding the garden to include a chicken run that is full of fruiting trees, building out water collection and drainage systems, we’ll grow as many strawberries as possible (my favorite jam), finally making hot sauce… and much more. Can’t wait to start planning!

Let me know in the comments what you’re excited to grow or looking forward to in Spring

Last haul of the 2022 season

Dehydrated Summer Squash & Zucchini - great for soups and stews

Homemade Fire Cider for the days we need a boost in immunity or just a little extra flavor in our soups - Recipe

Some of our canned food - mostly tomato sauce and paste

Foraged Oyster Mushrooms - Our summer was so dry soI didn’t expect to see any mushrooms. These popped up at the very end of Summer after a few days of rain. The majority of these were cleaned, cut up and dehydrated for soups and stews.

Leaf Peeping in Mountaindale

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
― Albert Camus

Fallen Beech Tree leaf found on the Mountaindale Rails to Trails

In 2021 we had a quick and mediocre fall. Right as the leaves began to change an enormous storm rolled in. Within a few days most trees were completely barren. It was a pretty strange feeling to be tossed into the visuals of winter so quickly. Thankfully this year was different.

The first year of us living in Mountaindale we collected fall leaves and other plants to press. Once completely pressed we used a float frame to create a first year memory collage.

Take a look at all the beautiful leaves we saw this season and let us know your favorite!

Our studio at sunset right at the start of fall

“Autumn is the hardest season. The leaves are all falling, and they're falling like
they're falling in love with the ground.”
― Andrea Gibson

“He found himself wondering at times, especially in the autumn, about the wild lands, and strange visions of mountains that he had never seen came into his dreams.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Easily one of my favorites - red oak leaf

“At no other time (than autumn) does the earth let itself be inhaled in one smell, the ripe earth; in a smell that is in no way inferior to the smell of the sea, bitter where it borders on taste, and more honeysweet where you feel it touching the first sounds. Containing depth within itself, darkness, something of the grave almost.”

―Rainer Maria Rilke,Letters on Cézanne

Beautiful yellow maple leaf

Mosaics in Progress

Why do I share unfinished in progress work here? Well, lately I’ve started to think of this journal as a place for notes. I’m not good at keeping a physical journal. I mean, I have many notebooks but none are like “The one” that I carry around and doodle in etc. Which I guess could be strange since I have a painting and drawing degree.

Anyway, I’m a maker not a writer though as you may already know, owning a small business requires you to wear all the hats even if they don’t quite fit. So I decided that part of this process is documenting it here in this journal. It’s an experiment in writing and staying on top of my many projects.

When I was in college I was introduced to the art movement called : Land Art. Though short the movement ran from the late 70s into the early 80s. It was dominated by east coast artists pushing out of the white cube gallery space into the land around them. You can see land art all across the United States and with the biggest pieces located in the western US. I’ve seen a few in person like the Spiral Jetty created by Robert Smithson, the father of Land Art. And have been a frequent visitor of Storm King Art Center and Dia Beacon which are both located in upstate NY house lots of Land Art pieces.

I had long hoped the join some part of the Land Art movement though I had not exactly decided what my work would or could be until perhaps now. But, like I mentioned I am simply experimenting and bringing you along for the ride. I imagine that this project will take on many forms as we work through the materials and meanings.

So there are a few levels to this project. Besides loving Land Art, I have also loved Urban Exploring. I grew up in Bergen County, NJ not far from many abandoned buildings in Newark, Yonkers, Thiells etc. Perhaps my love of urban exploring is a bit romantic. Most of the time I have a limited knowledge of what the buildings were used for so I get to really play with the life I imagine was lived in them. At the core of it I love the way nature reclaims the spaces for herself and I love being able to experience it. I had visited many of the same buildings over and over again so I was able to witness how they changed and decayed. The colors, the smells, the silence, the isolation, the history, the plants, the fear - I could go on and on about why Urban Exploring won my heart so many years ago.

Fifteenish years ago my friend, Michael W Sullivan, a photographer (check out his train photos - they are amazing!) and I, the “model” would set off to explore these buildings together. Yes, I was “modeling” in abandoned buildings. I don’t think I really wanted to model but I for sure wanted to be in those buildings. Sully and I were each others looks outs, safety nets and body guards. Our experiences were incredible. Feel free to check out younger Nicole in Sully’s photos - Yonkers 2008, Yonkers 2009, Yonkers Halloween 2009, Newark 2009, Yonkers 2010, Newark 2012, Winter 2013, Halloween 2014. So wild to go down this memory lane. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to share these but dang, I’m proud of these experiences and the fearlessness that I possessed - I climbed chimneys, train bridges, broken ladders, hung out of windows, submerged myself in coal dust (bad idea) etc. I always loved stumbling upon items left out in the fields or woods. Which brings us back to the project at hand…

Anyway, Our studio in an effort to reduce our carbon footprint has been set up to run on Solar Energy, we gather rain water and utilize discarded packing materials collected from our small town. With that idea I’ve been collecting both our old pottery along with old tiles, glass and other folks broken pottery. It has sat in the studio for years until now.

Pottery before being fired can be broken down and reclaimed for reuse but once the pieces are fired in the kiln they are no longer able to be recycled. It’s kind of annoying and a waste so I’ve collected what I can of fired pottery to create something else - mosaics. But not just any mosaics - large scale mosaics that will hopefully be placed in the woods. Right now I am testing materials. What will provide the piece with the strength to survive the elements and still have the overall visual appearance that I want.

The image below is the very first test…

Tomato Caprese Salad

I’ve never been a right off the vine type of tomato eater… until now. The first tomatoes to ripen this year were these adorable orange ones (don’t ask me the name because I have no idea). They are sweet and honestly taste a bit like happiness. Just look at these droplets of sunshine!

There are so many ways to eat tomatoes but my go to has been a simple caprese salad. Now let’s be honest, a Caprese salad might not be one of those things that require a recipe but here we are so I thought I’d share my favorite combo served on one of our newest sun ray textured dinner plates.

This garden has been a labor of love. When we purchased our home, the garden was located deep in the forrest. Last year we tried growing in that area but it was very unsuccessful. Since we love growing our own vegetables we decided that this year we’d have to move the garden closer to the house and into a much sunnier area. Though it was a lot of work building a new fence and getting the soil together, the garden did not disappoint. We’ve had a plethora of delicious treats come out of the garden from kale to squash to peppers and now tomatoes.

Squiggle Oil Cruet handmade by Wild Bower Studio sits along side a variety of textured bowls and beautiful cherry tomatoes

What you’ll need:

• Tomatoes - pick your favorite but we recommend fresh cherry tomatoes or beefsteak

• Fresh Basil

• Mozzarella or Burrata

• Salt & Pepper to taste

• Cobram Australian Extra Virgin Oil Olive (trust me, it’s the best)

Pick your favorite medium sized Wild Bower bowl. Cut up your tomatoes into halves or quarters depending on size. Chop or ripe your basil and Mozzarella. Add these ingredients to a bowl. Top with salt & pepper to taste. Finally add your EVOO and mix. Sometimes when I’m feeling a little wild, I’ll add a fresh jalapeño, garlic or red pepper flakes. Once fully coated plate your salad on your Wild Bower Studio dinnerware or eat directly from one of our bowls.

When I’m serving this meal to guests I’ll put the herbs & spices on the table in our ceramic catchalls along with the EEVO in one of our oil cruets rather than directly on the salad. It’s a nice addition to any meal and allows guests to really get into the process.

Our bright and beautiful tomato caprese salad is plated on our Sun Ray Dinner Plate along side our Squiggle Oil Curet with a variety of our ceramic bowls in the background.

Strawberry Picking + Oatmeal Bars

Our goal was to make homemade strawberry preserves, which is my home’s overall favorite jam. For those who are new to Preserves - they are a thick fruit spread made from fruit cooked with sugar, but in this case, large pieces of the fruit, or the whole fruit that are suspended in a firm jelly or less-gelled syrupy base. Read more here.

Anyway, with that in mind, we probably went a bit overboard with the amount of strawberries that we picked - 5 Quarts! With about 3.5 quarts went towards the jam we now needed to figure out what to do with the rest…

Lost Quarry and Wild Bower Ceramics <3

Hey Friends!

Have you ever tasted a perfectly ripe strawberry? Though, I’ll probably claim this for every in season fruit, I must say that freshly picked strawberries are pretty dang heavenly.

As you can probably tell, strawberry season is upon us in Upstate New York (mid to late June) and wow, is it magical! These beautiful little red fruits are abundant and ripe for picking so that’s exactly what we did.

Early one morning Lost Quarry and I set out for Saunders Kill Farm in Accord NY to pick our own.

This is where Strawberry Oatmeal bars comes in. Now, I’m not a baker or a chef so most of the recipes here will be linked back to other talented folks who actually create recipes.

These Oatmeal Bars from Well Plated are so easy to make and contain almost no processed white sugar.