BYOB - Bring Your Own Bag

The San Francisco Ferry Building is doing away with plastic, including plastic water bottles, at the farmers' market. They're making a celebration of it on April 22 and 26.

My favorite activity - the bag parade.

You see I've become a bag lady. It's been a gradual process. In fact I can still remember arriving at the market with no canvas or plastic bags whatsoever. I'd have a bit of cash and nothing else.

It didn't take long to get the first canvas bag but it was only big enough to hold a dozen apples. And the handles weren't long enough.

These days I've got three good canvas bags. And the cute guy has one too. And they're full with returns when we arrive. Egg cartons, strawberry baskets, yogurt crocks, plastic pots from garden starts. We carry reused plastic and cotton produce bags. He tries to remember his coffee cup.

But it's hard to be efficient. The produce bags are always the deepest item in the canvas bag with ten barbells on top of them. The cash is always in the other pocket.

And once my hands are full and there is nowhere to set any of it down without making a scene I see one-more-thing-I-must-have. And it's three people away. And I have no more hands. And with the canvas bags on my shoulders I'm a wide load. And I don't have my glasses on.

It's not pretty.

But it is fun.


The San Rafael Civic Center farmers' market is also having a BYOB (bring your own bag) day on Sunday, April 27.

BYOB and be the parade wherever you are!

9 comments:

Jenna said...

Always good to know that others are balancing the sometimes slightly absurd issues I am.

At the very least, I have learned to ignore the apparent fashion sin status and strap on a fannypack when I head to the farmers markets. Cash close at hand, produce bags tucked in back, and even a notebook to write down the recipe the nice lady selling me rhubard wants me to go home and make at once.

Anonymous said...

Vote for my "BYOB" Design! http://www.designagreenbag.com/vote-for-designs/bag.aspx?BagId=3041

Anonymous said...

We juggle the bags too, along with a stroller and a baby in a mei tai. Don't even ask us where our keys are halfway through the market...who knows? I'll have to tell my husband the now plastic-less Ferry market. He's there twice a week.

Anonymous said...

I'm a bagaholic. There are worse things I suppose. I love bags. I've always headed straight for the bags when shopping. And now, having that large inventory of bags at my disposal (canvas, nylon, the kind they make out of old banners...) is finally "in". I'm finally 'allowed' to put my purchases in whichever bag from my collection has been toted along.

Two best places to get bags...both in San Francisco...

...the Warming Hut and other store at Crissy Field, and

...The Gardener (I think that's the name) in the Ferry Building.

Kale for Sale said...

Jenna - I agree it's absurd but it's also real and that's part of the beauty. It's life. You've got me on the fanny pack though. Great idea but I really would go straight to fashion hell if I put one on.

Anon - I'll check the designs out. Thanks.

kendra - The keys - OMG I forgot the keys. Yes. They are always poking into the freshest peaches or stabbing the tomatoes and nowhere to be found. It's crazy and I don't have to contend with a stroller or even pretend to know what a mei tai is. I get to the Tuesday Ferry market generally every week but the Sat. market only occassionally. It's a market all it's own and I'm looking forward to seeing the plastic alternatives.

Malisa - Does this mean you'll be in the bag parade? You're a perfect candidate. You should meet the cute guy. Maybe you two are related. He loves bags too. Wherever we go he drifts to them. The other day he found an old attache case in the garbage. Not a bin, but, well, it's a long story. He loves it. Mostly his bags hang around as they are highly specialized but never quite right.

Yes, The Gardener. I love that place.

Anonymous said...

Yes, the quest for 'the perfect bag' for any instance is a never ending quest. I must be related to him.

Sadly, no. I'm in So Cal. I hope to hit the Farmers' Market in Claremont on Sunday...I'll take my bags as a nod to the events. But I would have anyway :)

Green Bean said...

Ha! I feel the same way - loaded down with several canvas bags digging into my shoulders, the produce bags in the wrong place, my five year old trying to get the money out of my back pocket. I love your description of it as a bag parade.

Kale for Sale said...

green bean - The picture of your 5-year old digging the money out of your back pocket is priceless. Parades always have an aspect of the circus in them.

Kale for Sale said...

malisa - I'm sorry you'll miss the SF bag parade but you'll be stunning in Claremont I'm sure.