Harlowe Green – a home business built for the times

Jul 01, 2020

In the current, unprecedented economic climate, some businesses are suffering terribly, others are thriving, and it is hard to know, until you ask, which ones are which.

Ange DeFosse has a busy life. She works full time for the Lakelands Family Health and is a mother as well.

She is also a passionate advocate for sustainable living, and sourcing zero-waste, plastic free products is an obsession of hers, of sorts.

She started a business, Harlowe Green, because all of the research she has done to source eco-friendly products that work and are not packaged poorly and wastefully, will be more valuable to the producers of the products she believes if she can find more customers for them.

And she likes selling and merchandising as well. The village of Harlowe is not exactly a retail hotbed, so researching and buying and selling online is necessary for her all the time. When retail was locked down this spring, it made the whole world a bit more like Harlowe, so it was a prime opportunity to open an online store, which she did by developing Harlowegreen.com.

The store has sections devoted to laundry, personal care, kitchens, cleaning, shaving, showers, even teeth. Bulk products are available by visiting her Harlowe location, but much of the product line can be shipped. On her site, there is also a tab called read, which brings up a blog she has been posting to about once every ten days or so since mid-April. The blog is about her journey with eco-friendly products and zero waste lifestyle. It is about the products for sale on the site, some of the time, but mostly it is about how to slowly develop a sustainable lifestyle in 2020.

In addition to online selling, Ange deFosse is looking into other retail opportunities in communities around the region. On July 18 she will be doing a pop-up shop in Belleville on July 18, and is looking at other communities as well.

Go to Harlowegreen.com for much more information.