Mother Earth News Fair took place Oct. 24 and 25 at the Kansas Expocentre. Mother Earth News is a magazine produced in Topeka. The fair was first hosted in the fall of 2010, intended to bring the magazine to life. 

“It’s for people looking for solutions to the sustainability, and all the participants are the sorts of people who help to make our existence on this planet not only ecologically sound but prosperous and enjoyable,” said Andrew Perkins, director of merchandising and events of Ogden Publications for Mother Earth News. 

Keynote speakers gave presentations throughout the weekend. Titles of keynote presentations at the Mother Earth News Stage included “Bread! History, Milling and Wood-Fired Bread Ovens” and “Organic Gardening for Newbies: Avoiding Beginner Mistakes.”

Some of the other stages included the Modern Homesteading Stage, Mother Earth Living Stage, Organic Gardening Stage, Real Food Stage and Renewable Energy Stage, with presentations titled “Build Your Own Electric Car,” “DIY Solar,” “Make Mead Like a Viking” and “Choosing Herbal Remedies for Sustainability.”  

The fair was full of off-stage demonstrations, from coffee roasting by Peder Fisher of Blue Jazz Coffee Roasters to learning about the benefits of essential oils by Connie Jacoby of Wise Women Botanicals.  

The event hosted 150 vendor booths, all offering some type of sustainable or natural form of technology, product or service. 

One of the booths hosted Hang-A-Pot, the hidden garden hanger. It’s essentially a plastic hook that a flower pot can be hung from. The hook can be screwed into just about anything, which has resulted in many pins on Pinterest of creative DIY gardening projects. 

Ralph Katzenberger, a Hang-A-Pot salesman, had a variety of uses displayed to show how it worked. Hanging a heavy ceramic pot from a hook doesn’t seem like a good idea, but he ensured that it was foolproof. 

“Hang-a-Pot is a problem solver for ‘dull areas’ such as fences, decks, posts, trees, et cetera,” Katzenberger said. “They add color and life to a surface and are good for getting edible plants off the ground and up away from rodents and pests.”

An exhibit that drew many visitors was one demonstrating the benefits of the “Alimtox Ion Cell Cleanse.” This machine had quite the visual: people had their feet in tubs of bubbly orange water, said to be caused by the parasites and toxins in the feet. 

The foot detox was a side effect of the actual treatment, which is a cell cleanse. An electrical bracelet is placed on the wrist, and an array in the tub of water. The machine supposedly produces negatively and positively charged ions, which attach themselves to toxic substances in the body. 

This treatment is believed to bring the blood from an acidic state to an alkaline state, which is beneficial to people with inflammation, circulation problems or toxic-related conditions. Even though this technology is classified as industrial equipment and not medical, it is FDA approved and has resulted in cleaner blood cells in users. 

Wayne Pitter, one of the owners of Alimtox, explained how this type of detoxing cleanses the blood.

“We call this a cell cleanse because we are trying to make your body alkaline so we achieve what is known as homeostasis,” Pitter said. 

Red blood cells clean by absorbing oxygen and nutrients to turn into energy. This process intends to make the body alkaline, rather than acidic. Ions passing through the body collect the particles to be processed out by the kidneys and liver. 

After it visits other cities across the country, the fair will return to Topeka. Until then, visit motherearthnews.com to explore ways to be more sustainable and find natural alternatives for everyday living.