Theresa Blackwell, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Tuesday, December 9, 2008
View Original publication

DUNEDIN — On Wednesdays through Saturdays, many North Pinellas towns have farmers markets. They all make for great strolling in Florida’s best weather, but each one is unique.

The Dunedin Green Market in Pioneer Park emphasizes organic.

In the sunshine there Friday, T-shirts were warm enough. The crowd roved from booth to booth while recorded voices sang, “Everywhere around the world, there’ll be dancin’. They’re dancin’ in the street.”

Gregory Jones of St. Petersburg, in a crocheted cap, was juicing and mixing organic smoothies. In business for nearly 20 years, he has set up his booth in 35 states.

“Could I have a carrot-apple-ginger?” said Donna Hey of Dunedin.

She took a sip and declared: “Boy, it’s delicious.”

Next booth over, Debra Chatfield of Lutz was selling products from her business, Lutz Nutz Co. She and her husband rent a Riverview restaurant on Sundays, so they can dry roast the nuts.

Grilled franks and fresh seafood, including humongous shrimp, were nearby. There was coffee grown with a conscience: by adults paid a living wage.

British meat and savory pies beckoned near a booth filled with baked dog treats.

Michael’s Extraordinary Desserts had a Christmas stollen, a sweet yeast bread containing fruit and nuts, made in the German tradition and wrapped in red cellophane. It’s 3 1/2 pounds of pastry filled with marzipan and candied fruit soaked for at least four months in rum.

“It gets better as it gets older,” said Michael Ostrander.

Multicolored bougainvillea flowers bloomed along Douglas Street at Mitch Armstrong Nursery. Other plants had an array of leaf colors and shapes from jagged to ruffled, hairy to smooth, broad to slim.

Linda Taylor’s It’s Our Nature organic cotton products features “healthy wear for people who care.” She sells T-shirts, hats, socks and hemp bags, as well as buttons like one quoting Mahatma Gandhi: “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.”

The market features two busy produce vendors.

Joe’s Market has some little-seen vegetables like a small round zucchini, white asparagus and baby eggplant. Shopper Evie Dann of Dunedin suggested roasting the baby eggplant whole.

“You don’t even have to peel them,” she said.

The Federal Trade Commission has charged a number of bamboo clothing manufacturers with making false claims about the environmental attributes of their product.  The FTC’s case is a part of a growing fight against “greenwashing” – making an environmental claim about a product or service without adequate scientific evidence.

In the National Textile Association’s 8/12/09 News Blog

http://nationaltextile.blogspot.com/2009/08/ftc-charges-bamboo-based-textiles.html, they state that the FTC has charged four sellers with deceptively labeling and advertising garments made of bamboo fiber, when they are actually made of rayon.  The complaints also charge the companies with making false and unsubstantiated “green” claims that their clothing and textile products are manufactured using an environmentally friendly process that  retains the natural antimicrobial properties of the bamboo plant and that they are biodegradable.

Bamboo is a natural candidate for greenwashed claims, according to Chris Pastore, a professor of textile engineering at Philadelphia University.  “It bears a physical resemblance to flax, the plant used to make linen through a simple process that leaves its natural fibers largely intact.  Flax looks like a reed and bamboo looks like a giant reed.  People imagine it’s the same process.  But to make rayon, bamboo or any cellulose source it is typically ground up, dissolved and processed into a viscous liquid with chemicals such as the highly toxic carbon disulfide.  It is much more energy intensive and much more polluting.” Pastore states.

Three of the companies have settled the FTC’s complaints, agreeing to stop making false claims and to abide by the Commission’s Textile Fiber Products Identification Act (Textile Act) and Rules.  Litigation continues against The M Group, Inc. d/b/a Bamboosa, and its principals.

David Vladeck, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection states “With the tremendous expansion of green claims in today’s marketplace, it is particularly important for the FTC to address deceptive environmental claims, so that consumers can trust that the products they buy have the environmentally friendly attributes they want.  When companies sell products woven from man-made fibers, such as rayon, it is important that they accurately label and advertise those products- both with respect to the fibers they use and to the qualities those fibers possess.”

As the Commission charges even if the rayon used in the companies’ clothing and textile products is manufactured using bamboo as the cellulose source, rayon does not retain any natural antimicrobial properties of the bamboo plant.  The rayon manufacturing process which involves dissolving the plant source in harsh chemicals eliminates any such natural properties of the bamboo plant.  Similarly, the Commission charges that the companies’ clothing and textiles are not made using an environmentally friendly process.

The rayon manufacturing process uses toxic chemicals and results in the emission of hazardous air pollutants.  The Commission has a new alert entitled “Have You Been Bamboozled by Bamboo Fabrics?” that provides useful information for consumers. http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt160.shtm.

Linda Taylor, Eco-Entrepreneur Voted “Best Friend of Mother Nature”

In the Weekly Planet’s Best of the Bay 2000 issue!

“Linda Taylor is an outdoorsy type. Not the rugged and wind-beaten, can’t-tell-if-she’s a-female type of outdoorsy, but more the commune-with-the-trees, explore-hidden-areas outdoorsy.

An educator and a lifelong naturalist with 24 years of experience in the health and recreation field Taylor has combined her skills to create It’s Our Nature. Her unique company creates safe, supportive nature experiences -especially for women and girls -that promote physical, mental and spiritual well-being.

In a world where we don’t even have to leave our house to get groceries, Taylor plucks you from the cool confines of your home and takes you beyond the beaches to explore Tampa Bay’s big and beautiful back yard.”

Nature’s wonders captivate at dazzling Caladesi Island
Special Florida Section – Sunday, June 04, 2000

CALADESI ISLAND – It is the beach that brought me here. But an hour and a half after arriving on Caladesi Island, a state park off the coast of Dunedin, I have yet to lay eyes on it.

Instead of joining other visitors making a beeline for the Gulf surf whenthe Caladesi Island Connection ferry docks on the St. Joseph Sound side of the island, my husband, son and I queue up with 14 others for an It’s Our Nature walk. We follow Linda Taylor, founder of the tour company, to a sign that greets visitors with a smattering of information on the barrier island.

All I know about the island at this point is that it has been on Stephen”Dr. Beach” Leatherman’s top 10 list of U.S. beaches for several years. The beach, by virtue of such things as the quality of its sand and water, is again ranked No. 6 for 2000. But, as Taylor will show us, the island holds much more for visitors than its pristine beach.

Caladesi Island (pronounced cala-DEE-SEE) is a taste of unadulterated coastal Florida. No high-rise condos. No beach rental stands. No hotels. No fishing pier. Besides the ferry dock, a 99-slip marina, a small concession stand/park office and two bathhouses, the island is blessedly undeveloped.

Before leading us down a boardwalk trail, Taylor tells us a little about the island’s history and habitats. The park consists of 650 “upland” acres and more than 1,800 acres of mangroves and grass flats surrounding the island. In 1921, a ferocious storm severed Caladesi from neighboring Honeymoon Island, then known as Hog Island.

Caladesi was first inhabited by Native Americans, though no one knows what tribe. A survey done by the Smithsonian Institution revealed several trash and ceremonial mounds on the island, left behind by the ancient people.

“Caladesi,” we learn, means “beautiful bayou” in loosely translated Spanish. And, judging from what we will see during our three-hour walk, the island is one of the few on Florida’s coast that still can live up to such an accolade.

Our 31/2-mile walk will take us through three island habitats: beach scrub, pine flatwoods and hardwood oak hammock. Taylor, who wears a broad-rimmed cap pulled low over her tan face, rattles off the names plants and trees we will see: southern red cedar; cabbage (sabal) palm, Florida’s state tree; slash pines; saw palmettos, a favorite habitat of snakes.

Then she urges us, “Take time to smell, hear and feel nature.”

We begin, trodding toward the beach. But before we get within sight of it, we bear left, leaving the boardwalk behind for loose sand that shifts like powder under our sneakers and makes our calves ache with effort.

The sun is high above our heads by this time, but its rays are muffled by gray clouds that threaten to spill rain on the parched island.

Our predominantly female group is an interesting mix of demographics. Besides my family trio, there are two mother-daughter pairs celebrating this Sunday, Mother’s Day, with a natural twist. There are five women from a local business networking group, and a 50s-something couple. Three other women, all from the Clearwater/St. Petersburg area, have traveled here by themselves, out of curiosity.

Some in our group have been to Caladesi before, many only to experience its beach. But most of us are here for the first time, to discover a little of Florida’s natural history, to take a tame walk on the wild side.

Taylor leads the walk in fits and starts. It’s clear that even after walking these paths for two years with groups like ours, her fascination with the place has yet to be quenched.

Higher Ground

We pull up frequently – sometimes after a few steps, sometimes gaining as much as several hundred yards – so Taylor can share something with us. She shows us a “toothache” tree, which has leaves that were once chewed to relieve dental pain.

Farther along the path, we see the squiggly “footprints” left by a snake that has slithered across the sand path.

When we walk through a stand of pines, their trunks charred by fire, she talks of controlled burns.

This burn, Taylor explains, was done to keep scrub oaks from becoming towering trees that could create shade that would change the ecosystem of the pine flatwoods. Despite their wounds, the pines seem healthy. The scent of them fills the air – a clean smell that releases sudden memories of my all-but-forgotten Girl Scout camping trips.

Taylor turns to face us, her animated gestures commanding attention. “Watch closely,” she says, “and you’ll see the earth changing under your feet.”

Come to think of it, it already has. When we entered the stand of pines, we left behind the low beach scrub. Ahead, we see oaks spreading their limbs. We are climbing a little higher above sea level, Taylor explains. Still, the island’s highest spot is only a few feet above the sea.

“The altitude . . . the air is getting real thin up here!” jokes a woman as she feigns a swoon.

“I’m about to pass out tissues for nose bleeds,” Taylor throws back with a wide smile.

The sun has shrugged the clouds away and is beating down upon us. We sip water from bottles that swing from our hips while Taylor points out more plants – “tread softly,” a white-flowered member of the nettle family; soft, feathery dog fennel; prickly pear cacti, shriveled from the drought but still bearing a beautiful yellow flower.

Taylor brings the group up short at the lip of a bay. She points west to a
strip of sand that separates the inland water from the Gulf. This once was Dunedin Pass, or Big Pass. But nature, with its fit of storms, has delivered enough sand to this spot to close the pass, making it possible to walk from Clearwater Island north to Caladesi Island.

Taylor pulls a book from her pack, Yesteryear I Lived in Paradise. Myrtle Scharrer Betz, its author, was born and raised on the island. Taylor tells us a little about Betz, who penned the book when she was 87.

As a young girl, Betz rose well before dawn, made her widowed father’s dinner, then rowed herself across St. Joseph Sound – two miles and 238 strokes – to attend school in Dunedin. Betz left the island when she married, but returned to live there for a short time with her husband and daughter.

Above and Below

From the bay we turn down a path toward the ruins of the houses built by Betz and her father, Henry Scharrer.

As we enter the oak hammock, Taylor urges us to look beneath our feet. The sand, firmer here, is riddled with small holes dug and inhabited by fiddler crabs.

Then she bids us to lift our gazes to discover the hammock’s aerial garden of Spanish moss and resurrection fern. High above the treetops, someone sights a osprey, a fish clutched in its claws.

We reach the ruins and stand among the stones that mark the foundation of Betz’ house. Part of its fireplace still stands. A sign near it admonishes visitors not to dig up or remove anything from the site.

Taylor again brings out the book, passing it around so we can look at a picture of Betz’ abode. It was an undistinguished wooden structure – simple, small and utilitarian.

Taylor then leads us to an unusual pine prized by Betz. The pine, which Betz calls the “harp” tree, has double upright limbs that sprout from a single trunk, It reminded her of the string instrument played by her mother, who died when Betz was 6 years old.

Taylor asks whether anyone in our group had met Betz before her death in 1992 at the age of 97. Several women relate memories. One speaks of a visit that Betz paid her women’s group. “She was just a little old lady. Anybody’s grandmother. It was surprising to think of her living the kind of life she did.”

Quiet Time

Before we leave the hammock, Taylor asks us for 10 minutes of quiet as we walk toward the beach. We set off, quiet as monks who have taken a vow of silence, lending an ear to the voice of the land and its inhabitants. Laughing gulls cry overhead. The sight of an osprey brings only the point of a finger. Pine needles give way under our feet with brittle crunches. Black and red mangroves hug the path, signaling that we are nearing the Gulf coast of the island. Trees give way to chest-high scrub, and suddenly we see the beach.

There is a smattering of applause as we approach the watery reward of our journey. Many of us fall to the sand to pull off socks and shoes. We wade in the surf like children, careful to shuffle our feet to urge stingrays out of the way. I stand in the water, which laps cooly my ankles, and savor the No. 6 beach in the United States. We are about half a mile from where most visitors have clustered.

As I turn to make my way toward the unfurled umbrellas of civilization, I picture Betz as a young girl, frolicking in the turquoise waves as they break upon the shore of her own little piece of paradise.

Caladesi Island State Park is off the coast of Dunedin, north of Clearwater. It is accessible only by private boat or the Caladesi Island Connection pedestrian ferry. Visitors who take the ferry, which sails from Honeymoon Island State Recreation Area on State Road 586 in Dunedin, must pay a $4 per carload park admission. For more information on Caladesi Island State Park, call 727-469-5918. On the Web, check www.dep.state.fl.us/parks/

The ferry to Caladesi leaves hourly beginning at 10 a.m., weather permitting. Round-trip fare is $6 for adults, $3.50 for children ages 4 to 12, and free for kids under age 4. Maximum stay on the island is four hours. For more information on the Caladesi Island Connection ferry, call 727-734-5263.

Linda Taylor meets It’s Our Nature walk participants at the ferry dock on Honeymoon Island. The guided nature walk of Caladesi Island is $15 per person. Taylor also leads a variety of other trips, including hikes on Honeymoon Island, kayak trips and bird-watching walks. For more information, call It’s Our Nature at 1-888-535-7448 or 727-441-2599.

An entrepreneur finds her niche in nature. Her company gets people in touch with the Florida outdoors.

By Maureen Byrne

^© St. Petersburg Times, published April 21, 2000

DUNEDIN — Linda Taylor loves nature. So much so that she quit her high-paying corporate sales job four years ago and started her own company, It’s Our Nature.

Now, instead of traveling throughout the Southeast selling sports products, she walks and paddles for a living, helping others discover the Florida outdoors.

“I’ve been a naturalist all my life,” says Taylor, 45, who grew up on the New Jersey seashore.

Taylor believes spending time in nature is beneficial to one’s health. It brings balance, improves clarity and enhances creativity, she says.

“Nature touches something very deep inside of us,” she says. “We need to feel, hear and smell it with all our senses. It really touches our spirit.”

To celebrate Earth Day and the fourth anniversary of It’s Our Nature, which was launched on Earth Day in 1996, Taylor will host a free event Saturday at Honeymoon Island State Recreation Area. The noon-to-3 p.m. event will feature a guided nature walk, tai chi lessons on the beach and crafts for children and adults. Park admission is $4 per vehicle.

Taylor, who has a physical education degree from Springfield College in Springfield, Mass., moved here in 1988. Eight years later, she turned her love of the beaches, bays and wildlife into a job.

Her passion for the environment shines as she guides people on walks on Caladesi Island State Park and Honeymoon Island. She eagerly shares her knowledge of the barrier islands, much of it gleaned from local environmental and historical groups, to residents and visitors alike.

Riding a ferry to Caladesi Island, Taylor points to an osprey flying across St. Joseph Sound. The eyes of nine women accompanying her on a recent tour of Caladesi Island quickly scan the sky.

On the island, she points out mangroves and explains their importance to the marine environment. She warns them of rattlesnakes, poison ivy and other hidden dangers. “Don’t touch the white flowers,” she cautions. “They’re nettles and they’ll sting you.”

She explains why there are charred stumps and burned palms on the island. She tells them the trees are deliberately set on fire to help rejuvenate the brush and to kill foreign plants.

She shows the women tracks in the soft sand. The marks are the tiny footprints of an armadillo, she surmises.

As they stroll along a three-mile trail, she draws their attention to each of the island’s three terrains: beach scrub, pine flatwoods and oak hammock. “This is a great place to take a big, deep breath,” she suggests while standing under a patch of pines.

The women begin to slowly inhale and exhale. After all, deep breaths and tranquil thoughts are encouraged on Taylor’s outings. “I’m trying to create a gentle partnership with nature,” she later says.

Taylor also has a partnership with the state. Her company has a contract with Gulf Islands GEOpark, which encompasses Caladesi and Honeymoon islands, to provide eco-tourism opportunities for the public. In turn, she gives a percentage of her proceeds to the state.

“She’s been a great asset for us,” says Perry Smith, manager of Gulf Islands GEOpark. “She’s been a real plus to our operation.”

Skip Meadows, 58, of Clearwater thinks so, too. “I love this,” she says as she follows Taylor on the winding trail. “It’s fantastic. I’ve been out here a number of times, but I’ve never taken the (nature) walk.”

Soon a small beach appears out of nowhere. Taylor points to Dunedin Pass and tells the women how it closed in 1985, when Hurricane Elena blew by the coast. She shows them pictures in the book Yesteryear I Lived in Paradise, which was penned by the daughter of Henry Scharrer, a native of Scotland who lived on Caladesi Island 100 years ago.

Back on the trail, the women walk in silence under the shade of oak trees, listening to footsteps in the brush and chirps of birds overhead. They follow the path to a clearing and step onto a white sandy beach that meets the Gulf of Mexico. The women stop and savor the sight before walking along the shore, the final stretch.

The guided tour is a learning experience for Mary Lowther, 53, who moved from Minnesota to Tampa two years ago. “I feel more connected with Florida now,” she says.

Connecting people to nature is what Taylor hopes to accomplish on her guided tours, which also include bird watching walks on Honeymoon Island, kayak trips near Fort De Soto Park and full-moon walks on the northern tip of Clearwater Beach.

About 70 percent of Taylor’s business comes from women. She says the gentle, moderately paced walks and kayak journeys appeal more to women, but she
would like more men to discover their simple pleasures.

“I’m actually trying to appeal to the person who doesn’t consider themselves an outdoorsman or outdoorswoman,” she says. “They just know they like being in nature.”