When getting ready for Mother’s Day, don’t forget about Mother Earth. We have gathered ten ideas that your mother will love and won’t hurt the earth.

A Gift That Blooms

1. Flowers are always right for Mom’s Day. If you are leaning in that direction, consider buying local blooms from a local florist. Picking out flowers that are grown locally cuts down on the amount of gas used to bring you that flower, and you will be supporting your neighborhood economy. If cut flowers aren’t easily found, look for a perennial or shrub in a pot.

Find local flower markets and farms by typing in your zip code on LocalHarvest.org. We found White Dove Farm Flowers, in Santa Paula, Calif., north of Los Angeles, which produced this gorgeous Iris.

White Dove is just one of many possible local sellers. You’ll find several flower farms, sometimes as part of larger produce and herb farms, in any large market.

A Gift With A Conscience

2. Make your mom proud and invest in another woman’s future. Microplace.com enables you to make an investment in a loan of a hard-working borrower in an impoverished nation. With only a $20 donation, your mom can receive a hand-woven, free-trade scarf from Bihar, India and you will help a hard-working entrepreneur to lift herself out of poverty.

A Tasty Treat

3. A basket full of fresh organic fruits and vegetables can more than carry the day. Stop by your local farmers market and hand pick some fruit or veggies. To be earth friendly, reuse a basket or pretty tote you have in the house and fill it with your hand-picked goodies, her favorites.

Add some baked treats from Blackbird Bakery for some gluten-free sweets to make mom smile. Blackbird, founded by Karen Morgan, and popular with Courtney Cox Arquette, Island Def Jam and Laura Dern,  uses 100 percent organic fruit, eggs and dairy in its products.

Or add a sweet touch from Taza chocolate – it’s organic and stone ground and available in gift boxes.

Turns out that the sour candy you’ve been dishing out to the kids because it’s got fewer calories, and well, they love it, has some serious consequences for their teeth.

Not only do the gummy versions (and to a lesser degree the chewy, crystallized, hard and foamy varieties) get stuck in their teeth, some of the really sour, tangy stuff is acidic enough to eat away at tooth enamel, according to the report out this week by the California Dental Hygienists’ Association.

“This Halloween, we are advising adults to think twice about buying sour candies for trick-or-treaters,” said Erika Feltham, a Registered Dental Hygienist and CDHA member who has studied this issue for more than a decade.

“With repeated exposure and frequency” sour candy can lead to  “increased cavities, tooth sensitivity, staining, soft-tissue sensitivities and loss of shine,” she said.

In these days of melting 401Ks and Arctic ice caps,  the loss of tooth shine doesn’t quite top the list of our immediate concerns. But it does suggest that come Halloween, we should just Let Them Eat Chocolate!

We have long enjoyed Endangered Species Chocolate, an Indianapolis company that gives back 10 percent of its net profits to conservation and habitat preservation projects and manages to produce a delectable chocolate. Endangered Species is offering bite-size Halloween-wrapped chocolates again this year for trick-or-treaters; you can order either milk or dark chocolate (72% cocoa). The product is “ethically traded”, vegan, kosher and gluten free, according to the company.

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