Comments on: Plastic…fantastic?

By: Sunwarm

Sunwarm — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:51:44 +0000

The plastic issue is a puzzle. I’ve considered selling only by weight - that way people can bring their own bags and weigh into them. The up side is much less prep time; the downside is that pricing by pound can make thing sound very expensive. My lettuce mix would be $6-$8/ pound. (yes, I’m in the US) Maybe if I advertised price per ounce?

Now I’m curious: do other farmers’ market folks sell by weight? If so, which products?

By: willing hands organic farm

willing hands organic farm — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:50:07 +0000

There is a company that sells cellophane bags which are made from cellulose/renewable wood resource. A woman who sells 100# of salad mix a week has been using them for years.

PAK-SEL 1-800-635-2247
7205 SE Johnson Creek Blvd
Portland OR 97206

By: Amy - Green Plan(t)

Amy - Green Plan(t) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 22:18:22 +0000

Mike - That’s alright, I understand. :D Well, if you ever do find yourself downsizing your home, I’ll be there! I really like the yurts too; I just don’t know if my husband would be that interested.

But you have given me a good idea. I think soon I’ll start profiling “tiny gardeners” too. That is, I’ve become very interested in the “sub-acre agriculture” that some people have been doing. Hope you don’t mind if I steal your idea. ;)

By: Mike (tfb)

Mike (tfb) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 04:59:18 +0000

L.Bo Marie: Yeah, that big bag of bags… It’s crazy…

Chris: I’ve been using 8lb and 10lb bags from a bulk grocery store here. They come in boxes of 100, in sizes from…tiny, to 10 or 12 lbs. They’re about $3-4 a box, so not super-cheap. I haven’t really looked into buying bulk. Someone gave me a roll of microperf bags, I think it was a thousand, they look like regular plastic but they’re porous so they’re great for greens. But I couldn’t find where to buy ‘em…

Amy: Sorry, you were perfectly clear, I just didn’t read carefully. Guess I’m garden-obsessed! Here, it’s a 100+ year old farmhouse, not that big, but quite a bit over 1200 sq ft. If I move, I think I’d like a tiny home to go with the microfarm… I’ve looked online at designer prefabs and there’s at least one cool mobile home that you can have trucked to different spots. And the whole straw bale/adobe/cob/rammed earth natural materials side is really interesting… Yurts look great, too! But that’s all just daydreaming right now…

By: Amy - Green Plan(t)

Amy - Green Plan(t) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 23:43:04 +0000

Mike - Oh! I’m sorry if I was unclear. I’m profiling people who live in “tiny” homes. I thought that might apply to you, but I wasn’t sure. It seems that many people living in a sustainable, homestead lifestyle often live in smaller homes. If you’d be interested, let me know! :)

By: Chris DeVries

Chris DeVries — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:29:21 +0000

Mike,

I just started falling into the plastic bag phenomena myself. As you said, it doesn’t quite feel right going through so much plastic at one time. You notice it way more on the supply end than you do as a consumer.

That said, I don’t see an obvious way around it for greens. Where, by the way do you get your bags for greens? I’ve started by using cheap freezer bags from the store, but I’m interested in finding something in larger quantities (and cheaper).

Chris

By: L.Bo Marie

L.Bo Marie — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:26:51 +0000

I’ve been trying to remember my canvas bag when I go shopping, I finally found one that rolls back up into itself- so it fits in a small space- and have been keeping it in my backpack/purse
I keep hoping that the compostable plastic bag people will be given some big tax breaks or something so that their products will become cheaper- but then… we’re still making a big ol’mess having those made- and using them just once. ..
This winter I started to attack our “bag’o'bags” under the kitchen counter- My plan was to crochet them into reusable, durable shopping bags. I like the end result- but find they’re bulky to carry around with me. :(

By: Mike (tfb)

Mike (tfb) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:55:36 +0000

Amy - Green Plant(t): If you’re profiling gardeners of 1200 sq ft gardens, this one’s quite tiny for a market garden, but it’s still more like 100,000+ sq ft… It’s just over two acres, and an acre is about 44,000. ;)

Monica: Yeah, no simple solution comes to mind, it seems like something that would come from people themselves, but I’m sure it’ll get figured out here, in time. I hear you about the kinda smaller percentage of landfill waste that bags constitute. In my case, though (and I was gonna explain this in the post, but it was already long!), I’d say my motivation for cutting out bags isn’t directly “pollution,” it comes more from thinking that People out there are profiting from all this excess bagging. It’s another stupid consumer culture thing, where we’re all trained to take bags everywhere we go, as if they’re FREE. So the…plastic bag industry is profiting in a sneaky way from yet another excess. I really don’t like the idea of people being fooled and ripped off…with planet-wide environmental damage as an uncaring byproduct. Something like that!

CSA-farmer girl: Yes, I’ve been offered and priced cotton bags (too expensive), and thought of making ‘em as well, also considered the deposit thing, and I’m in the same position as you: not enough time, or decisive focus, or…well, maybe next season (or later this one…).

Deborah: We have a huge garbage bag jam-packed with saved grocery bags from the last few years, must be thousands. I could re-use. People also occasionally give me saved bag collections, which slowly get reused. I don’t know, I have this resistance to making bag recycling a major focus at the market. I have to think through to why exactly… I’ll let you know when I do!

OrganicCats: Depends on the veggie, but mostly quantity gets fed to animals or put on the compost heap, in that order. I’d like to be able to sell or give away nearly everything I grow, but you have to overplant by quite a bit, I’ve found 25% or more, to ensure adequate yields, especially with our increasingly crazy weather… I don’t think of it as waste, it all gets cycled back into the soil. But I can imagine, at least on this small scale, having people take practically everything at one stage or another, picking up market leftovers, and coming in to the field to pick through beds that’re past regular harvest. It’s slow and steady local community building around the field…

By: OrganicCats

OrganicCats — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:18:41 +0000

What do you do with all the leftovers from the sales?

By: Deborah

Deborah — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:25:03 +0000

Here in France, the tiny marketeers quite often portion things like cherry tomatoes, gooseberries etc in the plastic punnets for display but when you’ve chosen the one you want they tip it into a paper bag so they can re-use the punnet. Also most people have a wicker shopping basket so veg can be put in without packaging and without squashing.

I have lots of ‘bags for life’, from UK supermarkets (you buy the first one and when it fails they will exchange it for a new one) Not that I can get them exchanged here but since most French supermarkets have stopped handing out plastic bags (because of the time it takes them to decay in landfill), when I do get a plastic carrier I store it for later use. They never get thrown away empty.