Monday Q&A | Reusable Produce Bags, Mending, and Finding Local Meat
Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you'd like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you!
How do you find your local meat sources? I live near an agricultural area. I have checked our local paper classifieds, but have not found anything. Do you go to the farmer or do you use a meat store? Does it make a difference in taste compared to the grocery store? Have you ever bought a ½ or ¼ beef or pork?
-Jill
Check out Local Harvest, a site that helps you to find local food producers in your area. Also, if you have farmer's markets in your area, visit them. Farmer's markets aren't just for fruits and vegetables...local meat producers might have a stand there as well.
You might also poke around to see if there are any local eating groups in your area. If you can find like-minded people, you'll probably be on to some good resources.
I've bought ¼ of beef several times, but not pork. I pay around $3.50/pound hung weight (the weight before the beef is butchered), and the beef IS really good. It definitely tastes better than grocery store beef, and the difference in ground beef is especially noticeable.
What type of reusable produce bags do you use? I purchased a set of 12 from Amazon a while ago and they were not well made and smelled bad so I returned them. I have yet to try again with another purchase.
How do you patch a hole in (for example) shorts? Do you go out and buy similar fabric to the article of clothing to use for the patch?
-Amanda
Produce Bags
I bought some mesh laundry bags from Dollar Tree. I wouldn't recommend the zippered ones, as the zipper is pretty poor quality. The drawstring ones are better, although one of mine is coming apart on the bottom seam and needs to be repaired.
Often, I put my produce into the cart as-is. Cucumbers, bananas, peppers, apples, and the like are usually fine. But for items like green beans, a bag is really handy.
Clothes Mending
When possible, I dig through my scrap pile to find material of a similar color. Most of the time, I tend to put the patch inside the garment and then sew along the edges of the hole.
That sounds more confusing than it is, so go check out this post for an example (scroll down to see how I fixed a pair of shorts).
I've often been able to put in a patch like this while keeping my stitches very inconspicuous. See if there's existing top-stitching on the garment where you can hide your sewing.
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Readers, please feel free to add your answers to mine!
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Today's 365 post: A proper burial for the flowers.
We get our all natural grass-fed beef from a local farmer, too. We actually found them by going to the local Farmer's Market! 😀 And I was wondering... those bags you make from jean legs, wouldn't those be GREAT for produce??? 😀
I learned a nifty fixing trick from my mother-in-law recetly. For cuts where the edges can still match up but the fabric is too stretchy for them to hold together while sewing, like t-shirt material, take a scrap of interfacing and iron it to the back of the garment to hold the edges in place, then do a tight zig-zag stitch over the cut in matching thread. It blends pretty well, especially if it's in an inconspicuous area. She fixed one of my son's shirts and two of my skirts that way.
Another option is to do the patch in a contrasting color and make it a decorative statement - works well on kids cothes, where you can do a patch and then add a heart or star or something over top of it. I remember one of my favorite pairs of pants as a kid being one that had been patched, and then had a teddy bear iron on patch put over top of that.
Save any mesh bags that you get when you buy oranges or onions and reuse those. You might need to cut off the label part and tie a knot to make it into a bag again, otherwise it can confuse the cashier when your green beans are in a bag marked onions. These are also great dish scrubbers.
That's a great idea, I do have some of them lying around. I've also been meaning to try them as scrubbers 🙂
I've done this forever, but be forewarned, it will freak out the cashier even if you do cut off any existing tags. They generally assume that anything that appears in those mesh bags is pre-packaged and it tends to send them into a panic trying to find the right price. I usually have the best results if I tell them upfront that I brought the bag myself. It still freaks them out though!
I was wondering about reusable produce bags and whether they weigh a lot more than the plastic ones. I also only use them for small items like green beans and brussels sprouts, so a bit of extra weight would add up. Can you get really small laundry bags that would be suitable for this? Or does anyone have any other ideas? Thanks 🙂
Some of the bags do weigh slightly more than the plastic bags. Depending on which store you're shopping at, and how accustomed they are to having customers bring their own bags, you can sometimes stop by the customer service counter to get at "tare" on the bag before you fill it. "Tare" is just industry lingo for the weight of the empty bag, which they can then deduct from the final weight. Whole Foods is happy to do this, I've never tried at the neighborhood grocery store.
I have been using those zippered mesh-ish bags you use for laundering small items such as the hosiery we used to use. My produce is doing well, and my checkout people are learning!
For produce bags, I use Flip and Tumble Reusable Produce Bags. I've been using them for the past several months and really like them. Since they were shipped in plastic, I did wash them before the first use, to get rid of the plastic bag smell (I also wash them every couple of weeks to keep them fresh).
I'm not a germophobe by any means but the thought of placing my produce in the seat of the shopping cart where some kid probably soiled himself just grosses me out. I suppose I could just use one of those cart wipes ...
The funny thing is, where we shop (Shop Rite and Aldi) many items are already in plastic bags. Potatoes, carrots, celery etc.
Personally I just recycle the plastic bags and move on with my life. I suppose if you're really crafty you could try fusing some old plastic bags together and make your own.
I make iron-on patches with Wonder-Under, that fusible stuff for fabric. I choose the actual patching fabric I want, iron on the Wonder-Under, then use as a patch. I've currently got a set of sheets with a double Wonder Under patch, one patch for each side of the tear in the sheet. This has made it through the wash about a dozen times now, with no coming up at the edges yet. When the edges do eventually peel a bit, I'll go over with an iron to refuse it.
On jeans, I'll use the Wonder Under patch as an iron on, then zig zag stitch around the edges to totally secure it through many washes and wears. Most of the time my kids want me to make a colorful and sometimes shaped patch. so we'll go through the fabric scraps together and find what they like.
In a pinch jeans patching -- duct tape on the inside will hold the hole together long enough till I have time to do a real patch.
Girls might accept a patch in the shape of a flower or something, or you can add beads to the sewing around the patch and make it a decoration, but boys might like another pocket sewn right over the hole. You can cut off the pocket from something else and save it, mend the hole from inside with whatever you have, then sew the pocket over the spot.
Doesn't always work, but in the right spot, the pocket blends in and gives them another place to put junk.
To find a local meat source you might try asking at a local meat processer. When you do find one, consider carefully what cuts you really want and which you really don't want beforehand. The processer will ask you, but they fire the questions off really fast and it is easy to make a mistake. Also, ask the grower what feeds the animal has been getting, as what they eat affects the flavor of the meat. I personally avoid distiller's grains, brewer's grains, and silage as feed sources because they can give an off flavor to the meat.
This is terrible, but I never thought of reusable produce bags! I usually just recycle them at home (as doggie bags lol) but I'll be looking into reusable ones now 🙂
I am not very good with my sewing machine, but my mom helped me make baggies out of tulle and we use sort-of a draw string to close the bags. We haven't had any issues, though I think we handle them with a bit more care so as to not mess them up.
Eatwild.com is a great resource for local meat, dairy and produce.
I have tried the mesh bags with drawstrings (found them at the neighborhood grocery store) and they are OK, but after a few years they're developing holes, plus the drawstring adds some weight and most stores (with the exception of Whole Foods) aren't really set up to tare out the extra bag weight.
Soooo... I finally made my own bags from rip stop nylon, which is basically parachute fabric. I used a flat felled seam down the sides (like the kind of seam you see on jeans) and I just left them open on the top - usually I just tie a knot in the top, but you could use twist ties. They're very lightweight and strong, and also work well for bulk foods because there are no mesh holes for things to fall through. The only issue is that you can't see through them too well, so I have to remember to take one of the stickers off of whatever I'm buying and stick it to the outside of the bag (like for apples etc.)
I saw some similar bags on Etsy, but was too cheap to buy them... so that's why I made my own, but if you're not into sewing I'm sure you could find some there.
Hello,
I've been thinking a lot about using less plastic in our lives and ways I can make that possible. I am planning on buying a reusable grocery bag, but the benefits of buying the plastics is that I can use them as garbage bags for bathrooms, cat litter, etc. Do you have any recommendations for how I can use less plastics for that?
Maribelle
I have a suggestion for the kitty litter. I place 2-3 sheets of newspaper down oriented in kind of a diamond shape. I place the sifted kitty waste on the paper then fold the corner of the paper closest to me over the waste and roll once. I then fold the left corner of the paper over the "package" and roll once. I repeat with the right corner and roll the remaining package up. It is very neat and tidy and in my view much less gross. When I swap the whole box of litter out, I just use the empty kitty litter bag that I had previously used. I hope my explanation is clear enough.
This probably puts me in the category of the utterly psychotic, but I actually compost the kitty litter. You have to used plant based kitty litter for it to work (I use SWheat scoop) because otherwise you just end up with foul smelling cement. Plus, I don't use the compost on food crops, only ornamental stuff, because cats who have ever eaten raw prey can be carriers of toxoplasmosis, so you want to use care with kitty do-do and food. I know it's crazy, but it cut down my garbage to almost nothing, I save money buying fertilizer for the flowers, and I actually think it's less hassle than the bags. But do I acknowledge that it is totally nuts, and most people wouldn't want to "go there!" But hey, I never said I wasn't crazy!
I hear ya, my cat generates more trash than I do! It is all because of the litter box.
I know it's probably not the best way (though still better than nothing!) but I re-use the plastic produce bags. I got sick of how many were building up in our cupboard, that after I empty one, I throw it into my reuseable grocery bag, so that I have it the next weekend that I go to the market. I will toss them when they seem to get too disgusting (unfortunately, here in Perth Australia they aren't recyclable, at least not in my area :S) However, since all the produce is either washed or peeled, I don't worry too much about how dirty they are! Doing it this way though, I very rarely have to grab new bags 🙂
However, I am wary of how dirty these bags get, that when I buy other stuff in bulk, I usually will get a new bag :-/ I should really ask at the store I shop at if I can bring containers to get weighed, before I fill them!
Thanks Kristen for answering my questions! =)
About meats, your local farmer's market, butcher, or independent grocery store might have some leads for you.
I always use my Re-Sack reusable produce bags on the local market. It's a strong bag made of organic cotton. Looks kinda cool also!