Flower children, tree huggers, neo-hippies, granola people...us crunchy people have a lot of names and just as many stereotypes. We’re not all a bunch of un-showered hippies who shove opinions down others’ throats. Far from, actually. The earthy, crunchy lifestyle is something much greater – it’s a way of thinking, living and being at peace with yourself and the earth. It’s about simplifying and reconnecting with nature.

We’re Planet Earth’s biggest fans. We think composting is the coolest thing. We know sustainable agriculture is the future. We constantly tell our friends “Don’t throw this out, it’s recyclable!”.

We know global warming and climate change is all too real, and we probably have a shirt, poster or bumper sticker with the slogan “Save the planet!” on it.

You can most definitely find us lounging in a hammock, on top of a mountain or canoeing down a river. Yeah, we dig nature.

Our ideal morning is drinking green tea while jamming to some indie music.

Our houses are full of plants and windows are just about always open.

We often wonder why marijuana is illegal, yet alcohol is not.

Drinking out of a mason jar is totally the norm – we’ll pass on the plastic.

We often wonder why people want large, glamorous houses when tiny houses exist (Less house = more nature).

Heavily processed foods are something out of our worst nightmare. We’ll stick with our homemade kale chips, granola and kombucha, thanks.

There’s a good chance any of us crunchy folk you meet are either vegetarian, vegan or stick to local free range animal products.

Nothing beats the excitement of the weekly farmers’ market.

We prefer the comfortable life over the expensive life.

We ditch the shoes whenever possible, but if we must wear them, we settle for our trusty Chacos or Birkenstocks.

We’re happiest when we're under trees.

OK, sometimes we hug them, but more than that we worship them - we love them. When you fall in love with trees you fall in love with the planet and all its living things.

It seems that everyone these days has become separated from nature, from trees and from their roots (tree pun intended). We’ll be nature loving, tree hugging people until the day we die, and we couldn’t imagine it any other way.

The crunchy life is the best life. Us open minded, self-aware and earthy people are some of the happiest you’ll meet. We’re conscious of our actions and dig natural sources. We’re into living the real, not synthetic, life, and we welcome each day as a new opportunity to learn, grow and connect with the world around us.