Note: The Need-a-Bag? project was created to promote sustainable bagging at the Hwy 441 Alachua County Farmer's Market each Saturday morning. We supply reusable tote bags reclaimed from thrift stores and garage sales. The Need-a-Bag? project also utilizes old tank tops as tote bags by sewing up the bottoms (these are called t-totes). We invite you to read the other posts on the project by clicking the "Need-a-Bag? Project" label at the bottom of this post.Ohmygosh, the okra is everywhere! I cannot eat okra; last year I tried to make soup with okra and it turned int
o this alien gelatinous mess. So, I cannot eat okra.Lots of fun things to talk about in the world of bags -- Jean has been giving us bags left and right! She is a Need-a-Bag? Project Angel, and the way she procures the bags is absolutely amazing: She bargains for them, and will not take them for more than 50-cents a piece, if she can't get them for 3/$1.00. When she told me this, I laughed and said, "gee, we always say we won't pay more than a dollar for a bag, heh, heh," and then Jean basically told me I was an idiot. All fair! I AM an idiot if I am not following this woman around and learning all her secrets to garage/estate/yard sale wheeling and dealing.
Another person I would like to highlight in this post is Gayle, of the Waste Watchers, who had a table set up today and was giving out free, reusable bags -- hey, that's our job! Nosing in on our territory, eh? These weren't just any old, free reusable bags, they were fre
e, reusable bags made from recycled plastic bottles! Gayle also is another Need-a-Bag? Project Angel, because she is apparently the kind soul who donated a ton of school-related type tote bags from various meetings and what not for educators. Maybe that was the Need-a-Bag? project miracle I recounted a ways back. I also made a mockery of Compost Kid in a prior post from January but, it turns out, Waste Watchers is a slick operation that other waste management companies wish they could be like. I was very impressed with Gayle and her Waste Watcher activities, and am also very thankful for her continued donations to the project. Thank you, Gayle!!!I ended up by the Glades Ridge Goat Cheese table and bought some cheese from the nice gents who run the table. When I got home I turned it into the goop I always make it into and then put that into an amazing omelet with farm-fresh eggs I get from my egg connection on campus. I talked about Glades Ridge in a recent post; one thing I want to say is that the picture I supposedly took of the table and gentlemen who run the operation did not make it onto my computer, for some reason. Supernatural? Maybe. I have another supernatural event that happened to me at Rolfs Hall right before I went in to teach my first class of the Technical Communications class I have this semester -- but I'm saving that story for Halloween! Boo!
Here is a picture of some adorable puppies, waiting obediently for their mistress' return.
3 comments:
Wow, I love the idea of proving secondhand bags, instead of just reusable bags. I like the tanktop idea too-- do you have instructions on how to make that?
I wish we had something like WasteWatchers here too!!
I'm more for natural materials myself, but it's better tha plastic bottles get recycled into bags than thrown away!
(PS Can those bags be recycled too?)
The tank tops are supereasy, you just nab you a tank top, turn it inside out and sew straight across the bottom a couple times. Then you turn it right side out, pick it up by the shoulder straps and stuff it full of produce. Et voila, nee une chemise, aujourd'hui une parcel du shopping. They're stretchy, like a string bag, so they're handy for packing in more, more, more. (Sew a lot of times across the bottom so your sweet potatoes don't bust through and roll all over the farmers' market.)
Yep, you can wash and re-use the nonwoven substrate bags several times before they give out. These are some of the most satisfying ones to find in the thrift stores and garage sales and put into the Need-a-Bag? usestream, 'cause you know in many cases some poor person spent a dollar on the thing when it was new, and they were all full of resolve and hope and then they gave up in despair when they could never remember to re-use it and it sat in a closet reproaching them cruelly. Now it has new, useful life, and the first purchaser's karma is resplendent, if that's how you spell resplendant!
Why not start a Need-a-Bag? franchise at your favorite market today? Look at those adorable poodles! What could be more fun?
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