[Danielle Balocca]: Hey Medford Bites listeners, before we get into the interview for today, I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the leaked Supreme Court draft that reflects a decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and federal abortion access. Challi and I are taking some time pushing back on the patriarchal idea of organizing a swift response by taking time to care for ourselves during this emotional week. We will be back with more of a discussion on the topic and thoughts for how to get involved, as we still have time to speak back to this draft decision while abortion access remains available. I'm going to continue by reading some of the reactions we received from community members to this news. One listener stated, It's horrible, terrifying, and harmful. Worst for people who are already most marginalized. I'm not surprised given the makeup of the Supreme Court, but it's not what the majority of the American people want." Another reflected sadness, frustration, and disbelief in the hypocrisy. A listener named Jess expressed that more white cis men need to recognize their privilege and yell about this. Someone else remarked, I'm angry, and even with all that we have been through in six years, I still can't believe this is where we are, still attacking women and undervaluing their right and ability to make decisions for themselves. I feel incoherent and disappointed, angry and hopeful that it's not too late to do something to help. Molly Keevy shared the belief that abortion access is essential to healthcare for all people. No one is free until we can choose what we feel is suitable for our bodies. Limiting abortion access is just another example of state-sponsored violence. The government should not be in the business of taking away a person's agency over their body. If there's anything you'd like to add to this conversation, or other reactions you'd like to share, please reach out by email at medfordpod at gmail.com. This episode is coming out the day after Mother's Day, and we hope that you were able to mark that day with whatever feels most present for you. That could be grief, sadness, excitement, celebration, or a time for self-care. We hope you all did what felt best for you. In times like this, the world can feel like an overwhelming place to be, and lots can feel out of our control. My hope is that you can find some connection within our community. Today's guest talks about how her business is aiming to do just that. I felt really inspired by this guest's energy around community and sustainability, and I hope you enjoy. Thank you so much for joining me today. If we could start out just by, if you could introduce yourself with your name, pronouns, and just a bit about who you are.
[TwQhL72oerA_SPEAKER_12]: Absolutely, thanks for having me. So my name is Claire Flaherty. I am she hers, and I'm the owner of Trove Green Provisions, which is a new store opening up on Boston Ave in Medicine, Massachusetts. And it is a eco-friendly, low waste, sustainable store that is also going to be offering refilling for home and body care products.
[Danielle Balocca]: That's cool. So we'll break that down a little bit in the rest of the interview. But if you could start. So the question that I ask everybody that I meet with on the podcast is what their favorite place to eat is in Medford and what they like to eat there.
[TwQhL72oerA_SPEAKER_12]: I don't think I could say absolutely this is my favorite thing because it changes depending on my mood. Right now, just before this interview, I ran to Colette's and got quiche Lorraine for breakfast. So right at this moment in time, that is my favorite restaurant because I'm eating a delicious French breakfast.
[Danielle Balocca]: Solid choice. I think that it does. It's a hard question, and it changes. It can change by the day, for sure. It can, yes.
[TwQhL72oerA_SPEAKER_12]: We're very lucky, I think, that we've got a lot of great food options that can cover every whim.
[Danielle Balocca]: So you mentioned your business, Drove Green Provisions, and so maybe we could sort of start from the beginning, and if you could talk about what prompted you to start this business or to think about starting this business.
[TwQhL72oerA_SPEAKER_12]: So origin stories are always really interesting, right? So what you think is the prompt for a business often later kind of reveals itself to have not been. But I guess my journey in this particular business started about four years ago. I was making body care products as a hobby, kind of an extended hobby for relaxation and selling them to friends and family. And I was really enjoying that and I was doing lots of fairs and events. And I started listening and noting that the kind of natural skincare business side was really taking off. There were, fairs were getting bigger, there were lots of local soap makers, there were lots of local artisans really kind of honing in on the natural side of life. And I started listening to my customers who were also talking about bringing that into the rest of their home life. So cleaning products, or particularly when they were having children. So a lot of when new parents started having children, they were really starting to think about the chemicals in their home, the things that they were bringing into their home. from a kind of safety and parental view. And I, as a parent, I have two kids, was also reflecting on that a little bit. I think when you're working full time and you have children, things can get really busy and you can fall into convenience. And then for whatever reasons, I kind of paused for a minute and started thinking about what cost that convenience was having. either in the products I was choosing or in the environment at large. And I started doing some research in that. And I found that I was more comfortable thinking about if we could get as natural as possible, if we could get to plant-based products, our lives would surely be better. And as that journey kind of unfolded, I unpacked where my life and my journey had gone. I'm from England, I was born and raised in England. I was born and raised to working class parents who didn't have a lot, but we made do and part of my heritage has farming in it and school teaching and kind of being practical. And so I've always had this family vein of make your hobby practical, make it giftable and make it kind of, helpful and tied to the land in a way that brings community. And so as you develop and grow as an adult, you don't really think about these things bubbling away in you and forming you as a person. But as I became a parent, I just became more aware of that side of my personality and my upbringing. And I really wanted to get back to that. I felt I was moving away from that kind of center of myself. And I really wanted to move back to it. And so I started to add to the skincare and to natural home goods. And then I've always wanted to own a store. I've always wanted to own a store. It's been one of those little childhood dreams. I ran stores in my home. I ran stores outside, in the yard. And I lit up on the idea of opening a store that could focus on the things that made me happy and that would maybe be a space for the community to talk about and discover new ideas about living a little bit more naturally and living in a way that is more sustainable as we see, you know, the effects of the climate crisis and we see the effects of environmental damage that human living is causing. And so that's kind of where I came to it philosophically. The journey to the physical space has been a little bumpy. COVID and the pandemic didn't help. I had intended to start this in 2019, about two weeks before schools closed. And so it took a little bit of a break, but the space that I'm in right now is just down the street from my house and has been empty for a really long time. And I've had my eye on that space for a while and I've been asking about it and asking about it to the developer for a long time. So my journey to the space is just as long and winding, but so satisfying once it's actually all come together. It's a really long-winded way of talking about my journey here. I appreciate it. No problem. And then I think the third kind of leg to the stool is I with social media and not being in my homeland, per se, I did start to see a Europe and in England in particular. as a economical and kind of community and economical side of it, as much as the environmental and climate change action, more of buy what you need, don't overbuy, and that kind of movement of being a little bit more fiscally responsible and tightening of belts. I think that came out of COVID and I was seeing a lot of that in Europe and so that kind of informed that kind of third aspect of the business model that we do tend to overbuy and we can control the amount that we buy if we refill. We can control how much we need and how much we're bringing into our home. We might not have the storage space for large amounts, but that we can therefore as a community take kind of responsibility for how much waste we create if we're refilling our product bottles but being able to do it and take advantage of bulk buying at the same time. So that's the kind of journey that I wound my way through and created what I think is going to be a really exciting community space.
[Danielle Balocca]: So he said, sounds like it. And you described kind of these goals of sustainability, thinking about like fiscal responsibility, not overbuying, and also this sense of maybe like enhanced community. And so how's your store solving those problems? Can you describe kind of what people can expect when they go in?
[TwQhL72oerA_SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, so the store is kind of set into two different sides. Right now I have one side which is devoted to the refilling section. So to think about refilling as all the options of the products that you could think of. So laundry powder, detergents, dishwashing, materials, body care items such as like shampoo and conditioner, the things that come in the bottles that we buy and that we use frequently in our home, cleaners, things like that. So the things that we are consuming on a quite regular basis within our homes that we would either recycle the bottle or throw the bottle away and go buy another one. The kind of project behind refilling is that you bring that bottle, you buy that one bottle, and then you just refill it for as many times as the bottle will allow. Not only are you consuming the product, but then you're not perpetuating the kind of waste cycle of a new bottle and a new bottle and a new bottle. So that I have one side of the store which is dedicated to to refilling so people can bring in their own bottles, if they don't have a suitable container they can buy a container. And that way we can we can lower how much waste, we're creating as a community. The other side of the store is is dedicated to. sustainably minded and eco-friendly products that are not always refillable. So things like wool dryer balls that reduce the amount of electricity and power that you need to dry your clothes if you're drying them in a dryer. Cleaning sponges and things like that. So the things that kind of go along with the refillable products and the working tandem. And the third part of the community aspect of it, if you're coming in to get your home consumables and body care products, we can also be a space for you to bring hopefully your hard to recycle items. It's really important that we become a, I want to become a hub for ideas or questions or visiting talks, you know, local artists, you know, a place where we can all be as a community and think about these issues in a practical way and in a way that doesn't doesn't make you feel bad, but makes you feel empowered. So that's my that's my kind of hope for the store that it can be this convening place for people who are interested and want to do their part.
[Danielle Balocca]: So imagine that, you know, when I think about those items that you mentioned and how I buy them, it's like I probably throw them in my grocery cart or whatever it is. And how often am I buying them? And when we're buying huge containers of laundry detergent, for example. I imagine like if I was buying that in less of an amount, but more frequently and going into a store like this, I'd be having that interaction with somebody in my community and sort of building those relationships. And it might be more of an enjoyable experience too, right? I hope so. Yeah.
[TwQhL72oerA_SPEAKER_12]: Could you say- I meant to think about it. Okay. I was going to say in terms of the large containers of laundry detergent, a lot of that is water. actually so some, a lot of the products that we carry are concentrated versions, so you can use less of the product and not have that giant container, you know, kind of eating up your shelf space. That's one of the aspects of you thinking about how we live in our spaces and thinking about what we want to store there. I hope it's going to be a place where people can connect. That's certainly how I saw it. Before I opened the store I was at the farmers market, the Medford farmers market for a year. And it was, and I will be doing it again this year because it was just such a great community experience to to have people coming up to your store and who've gotten the greens or who've gotten the vegetables and then they're talking to each other and they're picking up products and they're, I really like this, I really like this, I've never really thought about that, you know, that's the kind of aspect where you can recommend things to people and expand on your little product world, I guess.
[Danielle Balocca]: You said something about hard to recycle. Can you say more about that, what that means?
[TwQhL72oerA_SPEAKER_12]: Yeah, so there's a great desire, I think, and I think it's getting stronger amongst the majority of people that we need to recycle the materials that are coming into our houses and our places of living. But at the same time, there's an unfortunate creep in what they call wish cycling, which is that we're putting items in recycling containers that we hope are recyclable, or we think may be recyclable, or we kind of wish were recyclable. And, and they're often not in terms of the streamline There are some items that are just not able to be processed in those facilities, for example, the soft plastics, so the things like bread bags cling wrap that kind of that kind of stuff that gets into the gears of the. recycling plant, you can't put it in there. But if you just did an experiment for a week and you looked at that type of plastic, that in itself is everywhere. Even if you're really trying hard, it's on a lot of things. And so there are lots of things like that that need to be recycled in a specialist way. And so it's an emerging space in that There are some companies who are kind of taking it on themselves. So I know I when I do my grocery shopping, you can take soft plastics to to the grocery store and some of the grocery stores and you can put them in there. But I'm, I'm hoping to expand on that. So right now I I do the soft plastics. And I just was accepted into the actual Gillette razor recycling program. So Gillette sponsors recycling through a company called Terra Cycling, where they will accept and recycle any shaving product, packaging, blades and handles. So it doesn't have to be Gillette per se, but they are paying for that recycling. So we're in that program. So you can bring those things in and then we will send them off and they will get separated and made into new things. And so I'm hoping to expand on those types of programs those things that you're like, I want. I don't want to trash this, but I don't know where to take it. it's hard and you need it to be convenient and you need it to be understandable and easy. Otherwise, it just it's too easy to just put it in the trash. But the way to think about it is, you know, when you like say you're throwing something away, there isn't a way for a lot of a lot of items. So, you know, many plastics stick around for least 500 years. And that's quite a long time for a little plastic razor.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah. So, and when you say the soft plastics, you're collecting those and then what happens to those when you like, how do they?
[TwQhL72oerA_SPEAKER_12]: So I collect those and then I send, yeah, I send them to a company. TerraCycle is one of the larger companies that recycle. soft plastics and different products, actually, and they will break them down and send them to different manufacturers to remake into something else. But then I think a lot of that is also whether I'm physically doing it myself or just finding the people connecting the dots in a way so that, you know, mattresses or something like that. I'm certainly not going to be accepting mattresses in the store, but if I know where for people to take them, I can have that list available and it can just be a little bit more of a clearinghouse in a way, a community hub of where we can find the answers to those questions that we have, which I would like to be kind of the community leg of the store. You know, what questions do you have and how together, can we find out the answer?
[Danielle Balocca]: It seems like a nice combination with some of the other resources that we have in Medford. Last week, I talked to Stephanie Johnson, who owns Swaffitt, and we have a great everything is free network in the town too. But there are some items like mattresses, you mentioned in particular, nobody wants somebody's old mattress usually, right? and this seems great like there are lots of options right to to like recycle or reuse or like re-gift and then also it seems great to like be able to go to your store and hear about like if I don't know what to do with this item what are my options
[TwQhL72oerA_SPEAKER_12]: Right. And I might not know either, but that's part of the fun, right? So how do we learn? How do we find out? And if the answer is not readily available, then as a community, we can start asking the questions to new sets of leaders or community, find out why can't we do this? I think that's the important next step, right? So we do know the things we can do as a community and a society to live more sustainably For our own good, not just for the planet, for humans' existence, not just the planet. And then if we don't know, how do we change it? How do we change the system? What questions do we need to ask? And how can we move the needle a little bit?
[Danielle Balocca]: I really appreciate that perspective. I feel like some of these big ideas like sustainability, like living in a plant-based way or economically, I think they can feel really overwhelming when you think about them and like, I have to do this perfectly. And I appreciate that perspective of like, There's some things that we just don't know how to do yet, or some of us might not understand and being able to have an accessible way of talking about that feels like it can make a big difference. Like, right. It's not this like kind of pie in the sky idea. It's something that we can learn together.
[TwQhL72oerA_SPEAKER_12]: Right. We don't need, we don't need two or three people living perfectly in a sustainable way. We need lots of people doing it imperfectly, but wanting to be better. And I think that's, that's kind of where I would like. the store to be known as, it's a judgment-free zone in how far you're going on the journey, right? Each step you make is important and does need to be celebrated and encouraged. So if the only thing you're doing is buying laundry powder in a container that you can refill, that's great. and I think that it can feel like that in the environmental sustainable space. It can feel a little intimidating, it can feel a little exclusionary, it can feel a little privileged a lot of the time and I don't want it to be and so I am aware of those things and I want to try and address them as we expand as a company, because we're new and learning. And I will be the first one to admit that I'm not perfect either. I have an active family. I have two kids. I have a dog. I have two cats. We have a very busy house. And so there are ways to balance those without making yourself feel guilty all the time, walk around feeling the shame.
[Danielle Balocca]: And can you explain, so if you, I'm just imagining like the different types of containers you might bring in to refill, how does that change like the cost? Is it like a, like volume price or how do you figure that out?
[TwQhL72oerA_SPEAKER_12]: So the refilling is as a price per ounce. So what will happen is you bring in your container, we will tar the container weight wise. So I know how much the container weighs, and then you only pay for the amount of the products that you put into that container. And that way you can bring in a giant bottle and it'll be the same price per ounce as somebody bringing in a mason jar. It's just paying for the amount of the product you are buying.
[Danielle Balocca]: and I imagine you could bring in a tiny mason jar and test some of these things out if you were kind of working.
[TwQhL72oerA_SPEAKER_12]: Yes, that would be the best option, especially if there are multiple scents and multiple approaches to products. So a good example is laundry detergent in that I have laundry powder, dry powder, I have laundry sheets, the detergent sheets, and then I also have concentrated liquid. And it is a matter of preference, and it's a matter of scent profiles, and washing machines, and the types of clothes you're washing. So there's a little bit of trial and error in finding the thing that works for you. Because I think that's one of the scary things about buying an eco-friendly, in quotation marks, product that you, is it going to work as well? Is it going to cost more? Is it going to be more annoying to either source or use in some way? And so I would hope that people would come in and try things out and then give feedback, right? part of the process of owning a store is listening to customers and finding out what's working, what's not working. I can't possibly use every single product in the store in my home. I do a lot of them, but that's part of how do we as a community say, this is a great product, we really like that. And I will say one of the things that I am trying to do at the store is to be as local as possible and small business minded. So I do have a value set of the providers of the products that I do have in the store. in terms of, you know, geographical location, trying to keep in the New England area as much as possible to cut down on shipping costs and shipping distances. And then, you know, marching down the list of, you know, is it a small business, family business, minority or female owned businesses? The different layers that I go through in trying to find the right fit of product for the store. Which is tricky.
[Danielle Balocca]: Do you have a favorite product or one that you use the most?
[TwQhL72oerA_SPEAKER_12]: I do. The multi-surface cleaner. It's by a Texas-based company, but they actually have a manufacturing plant in Massachusetts called Puracy. And it's scented green tea and lime scent. And it's just the most heavenly scented thing. I use it everywhere. I use it in bathroom, kitchen, floors. It's truly multi-surface. And so that's probably one of my favorite because I can use it everywhere. I don't have to have something that, I don't have to have specialized product for every area of the home. I just have my spray bottle and I zoom around the house.
[Danielle Balocca]: And what's the best way for people to learn more about you, or if you could say where exactly you're located?
[TwQhL72oerA_SPEAKER_12]: Oh, sure. So our retail store is located at 330 Boston Ave. We're right next to the Danish Pastry House. And we have a website. So it's trovegreenprovisions.com. all one word. And that's the best way to either pop in, we're going to have our grand opening in the next couple of weeks. And so we will start it, our aisles will be expanding during the summer. So the best thing to do would actually be to go to the websites, we'll be putting up our new hours as they evolve as to what the community is needing in terms of hours I think that's, we're right by Tufts University so it's going to be an interesting balance of when students are here versus when families do their shopping. I'm kind of curious as to what that's going to look like.
[Danielle Balocca]: It's a, that's a nice area down there. You can get your coffee and your pastry and then refill.
[TwQhL72oerA_SPEAKER_12]: It's a dangerous food. And now pizza. I got penis pizza. I can get, I can get Mexican. I can get burritos. I can get, you know, um, Turkish food. I can, it's, it's actually really great. It's a really great, um, little commercial zone. You know, I think I, I, wanted to be here selfishly because it's near my home, but also because it is a little microcosm of commercial needs. So I can get what I need at the hardware store to repurpose or refinish something. You've got a laundromat. There's all the things that you would need for kind of little communal living here. So hopefully we can add to that.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yes, and it sounds like to it's close to your home, but I think it's close to a lot of people's home so in terms of people being able to walk or their bikes things like that.
[TwQhL72oerA_SPEAKER_12]: And we do deliver we do deliver to other parts of medford so that's certainly. on the table as an expanding thing. And so we do have a program where it almost like, so as I said, I grew up in England and we still had the milk deliveries in England when I was growing up, which I know some people do here. So the milk delivery, you would leave the bottles outside and then they would exchange them for new ones. And I'm hoping to get the same process for products so that you leave your empties outside, and then get them refilled. And so that it can kind of keep that cycle going even if you're not able to come up to the physical location. So that's definitely on our service list.
[Danielle Balocca]: Very cool. Well, I learned a lot. I think there was lots of different things that I hadn't thought about in terms of what goes into some of these products that we use all the time. So thank you so much.
[TwQhL72oerA_SPEAKER_12]: You're welcome. Thank you very much for inviting me.
[Danielle Balocca]: Yeah, I look forward to coming into the store soon.
[TwQhL72oerA_SPEAKER_12]: Definitely.
[Danielle Balocca]: Thank you so much to Claire. I really can't wait to visit the shop. You can find updates about the shop's progress by following them on Instagram or at their website, which I have linked to in the show notes. A special thanks to all of you who ordered Pride t-shirts. We shattered the fundraising goals and I can't wait to see you all wearing them out and about. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode, and as always, if you have feedback about this episode or ideas for future episodes, you can email medfordpod at gmail.com. You can also subscribe, rate, and review the podcast on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Thanks so much for listening. Guys, what's the name of the podcast? Never Bites. Never Bites. Good job.