Two Reviews: The Veji-bag and the film "May I Be Frank"

When I saw Wendy's blog post over at Healthy Girl's Kitchen (www.healthygirlskitchen.blogspot.com) about a new product called the Veji-bag, I was riveted.  Even though I've become fairly diligent about monitoring what is in the frig and working on not over-buying, I still will occasionally find limp, yucky greens in the produce drawer.  Nothing is as sad as decomposing lacinato kale. 

It is such a waste of a resource and beautiful food, and always makes me feel bad.

After watching the little video of the story of Sally Erickson, the creator of Veji-bag and her mission, I was impressed with her efforts to keep this product as green as possible, down to every detail, even the ink that is used to create the label.  http://vejibag.com/

The economist in me looked at the product and thought, oh, heck I could make one of those, and I may do something similar for myself in the future, but I've become very mindful of my power to vote with my dollar.

So vote I did and ordered one of the bags.

The bag arrived the very next day, in an eco-friendly package and with a kind little note from Sally.
It is very soft material and the easy-to-use instructions are clearly printed along with pictorials.

I used it to store kale and it did an excellent job of keeping those greens very fresh for the 3 or 4 days I had them in it.  I did a test and split the kale, storing half in plastic.  There really was a noticeable difference in favor of the Veji-bag. 

Next I put it to the true test:  organic red leaf lettuce.  I have a heck of a time keeping this dainty stuff fresh and usually try to consume in two days or so.

I left the lettuce in the Veji-bag for a week.  It was still in great shape.  I left some of it in for another week and pushed that to a week and a half.

So....at over two and a half weeks, here is the lettuce:

If you look closely at the piece on the left, you'll see a dark piece and that is slimy as were the very outer leaves which I discarded.  But the rest, while not what I would classify as 'fresh', is entirely edible.  I would have had to toss this long ago if stored in plastic.

Sally has introduced a larger Veji-bag and I took advantage of a reduced price for buying three of these.  This larger size will be perfect for kale, chard, collards and will help me out as I harvest my kale which is growing like crazy in the garden.

Pricey, but I believe these bags will be a good investment and will end up nearly paying for themselves in the first year.  And really, I'm not going to get around to making these for myself anytime soon.  I have other things to do. 

Like teaching my grand-daughter the joys of making a big ole mess with watercolors.

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I recently viewed the film "May I Be Frank", the story of Frank Ferrante, an over-weight man who is offered a second chance on finding joy and love in his life by three of the most loving individuals I think I've ever come across.  Watch the trailer here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZNKlUmFkG4

Inspirational, graphic, I laughed, I cried, I saw so many of us in Frank....I highly recommend it.  If you are sensitive to language or explicit images of naked fat men, you likely won't enjoy.  Otherwise, watch one man's journey and see what love can do.  (Note:  be sure to watch the special features; the interview with Frank shows the rest of his amazing transformation).

Sue, grateful for my healthy life and fresh greens, in Ohio