Think Locally, Act Locally

"I created my own massage cream for clients, and wanted to go bigger," local entrepreneur Carissa Gulyas told Patch. "I wanted to keep the ingredients local, but it was really difficult to find what I needed."

So began the seedling of Gulyas's new website, BuyLocallyCT.com, which launched a month ago and brings together otherwise difficult-to-find local resources in one place. 

"As a society, we have definitely gotten away from buying locally and supporting the businesses within our communities," Gulyas notes on the website. 

"I thought, how great would it be to have all local things in one spot to go to as a reference," Gulyas told Patch. 

Although she originally planned to carry local products in inventory and then sell them on the site, Gulyas, now offers local businesses a subscription to the site for $10 per month.

There is a selection of "raw and organic" inventory that consumers can  purchase, from locally-made lip balm to hand and face cream to honey to bug spray.

The subscription purchases a business "feature page" that showcases "whatever products [the businesses] want," Gulyas said. "I'll include photographs of products plus background information on the business...whatever they want to get out to the viewer.

"I will include links to the businesses' websites, and then [consumers] can purchase their products directly," she added.

Gulyas said that "the response to the website has been fantastic. The number of hits increases every week.

"These businesses can really flourish, if we get the word out," she said.

Weston business Red Bee Honey is featured, with two " best ever" lip balms, one lavender-scented and one strawberry-scented, at $5 each. Red Bee also offers handmade soaps, artisan honey, and foot balm through the site, priced from $6 to $10.

The site also features farmers' market information for the entire state.

"The farms don't pay anything to subscribe to the site," Gulyas said. 

The move to promote all things local has picked up considerable steam in Fairfield County. The hopes to take over in Weston and turn it into a town farm, much like Wakeman Farm in Westport.

Meanwhile, Gulyas is trying to get the word out about local products because it's good for the businesses and the environment. She plans to expand the website's reach by contacting farms and local businesses in the far reaches of the state via postcard, as well as partner with local community groups such as GVI.

"Wherever I go, I try to talk about it any way I can," she said. "I visit farmers' markets and pass out postcards, and I'm on Facebook. I also just started a Twitter account a couple of days ago."

Although Gulyas is not able to find in Connecticut every product she needs for her own eco-friendly businesses — olive and coconut oils, for example — she "wants to keep it in the United States."

Gulyas want the products to be American-made at least, if not Connecticut-made.

She is a licensed Clinical Massage Therapist who operates her own business, Organic Massage Therapy. She resides in Trumbull with her husband, a personal trainer.