I'm fairly confident that in the olden days,long long ago, people used flour sacks and rice sacks for such things as carrying home fruits and vegetables. Guess what? Oddly, they WORK BETTER. I know I mentioned this at Earth Day, but I just have to blather on for a minute.
My friend E and I just ordered another shipment from reusablebags.com of the produce bags. Now I have twenty! So if some stuff is still in the bags, I don't have to resort to plastic on the next trip.
Did I mention I think I love them? You know how those crappy plastic bags tear, carrots poke through , sweet potatoes come crashing through a hole in the bottom, some plum squishes in them, and they are instantly trash/recycling? Not so with the humble cloth produce bag. Nothing breaks through them, and if they get dirty, here's something wacky I do. I throw them in the laundry. Nutty, isn't it? No trash, and they are way sturdier. The only thing this doesn't really work on is wiltable veggies. I fear the reality is, in the olden days, people also didn't have refrigerators. I'm not willing to go quite that back-to-basics.
However, I have switched us to all cloth produce bags for all else, and bulk grains/flour etc. from Whole Foods. You know how when you buy bulk grains, that space dust clings to the plastic bag, so you pretty much don't want to use it again? Guess what I do if that happens with cloth? Yep, you guessed it. And it's not like I don't do laundry so often that a thin bag or two matters. Do hang them dry though, I doubt they take kindly to the dryer.
We hang everything dry all spring/summer/fall, so it's not hard to remember for us, but I thought I'd best note that. I realize not everyone shares my nutty gruppie heart on this one. (though you might consider trying it, some of my clothes are dry in 5 min on a hot day!)
Anyway, I love these bags. I had to share. The new ones seem thicker and better quality, too. And they work. And there's less plastic polluting the earth. That has to be a good thing, right?
1 comment:
We LOVE our Ecobags muslin produce bags. Tips from me:
1. yup, you can dry them. Hanging is still nicer for the planet, but it won't kill the bag if they sneak into the dryer.
2. wiltables? take them home in the cloth bag, then prep them and put them in a glass container in the fridge. Now they won't wilt *and* they're ready to cook/serve.
Would love to hear your bulk flour experience - do you have to be really careful how you rest the bag in the cart/car?
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