Hello and welcome to the Live Lightly podcast.
I'm your host, Jessica Franklin.
in today's episode, we're going to talk about one of my very favorite kitchen
hacks for keeping food fresh, keeping it out of the landfill, and also reducing
household dependence on plastic, single -use plastic especially.
It's called Vejibag.
It's a vegetable crisper bag that's made of 100 % unbleached organic cotton French
terry, and they keep vegetables fresh for up to two weeks without plastic.
I'm joined today by Anne Wing, the Director of Communications And Stacey
Erickson, the Director of Operations.
Welcome, Anne and Stacey.
Thank you for joining me today.
Thanks, Jessica, for having us.
we have a lot to talk about, but I'd love to just start with the story behind
Vejibag and how it was originally started.
And then also, of course, how both of you became involved with your current roles,
because I know that you have stepped in for the founder, who is no longer, she's
retired, correct?
Yes, Vejibag was started in 2013 by my mother -in -law Sally, she was living in a
small town called Eastport, Maine, and she had a greenhouse, and she was selling
greens to the local co -op, and wanted to figure out how to transport these organic
greens to her customers without using plastic.
she got on the internet, she did a bunch of research and found that people had
historically used kitchen towels to wrap their greens in.
So Sally went to her local thrift store, found some used washcloths and started
sewing them together and packing her greens in them and sending them out to
people.
And it worked.
They kept everything fresh.
Maybe six months later, she showed up to my house with this bag that she had sewn
together and said, Hey, you've got to start using this to keep your greens
fresh.
And I kind of looked at her.
I was like, really?
I tried it.
And sure enough, they actually worked.
I actually joined the company in 2016.
So between 2013 and 2016, I kept.
hearing updates from Sally about what the company was doing.
I kept thinking, this is so cool.
I really want to be a part of it someday.
And finally in 2016, the time was right for everybody.
so from 2013 to 2016, the bags were actually made by women out of different
recycled materials, either
washcloths from the thrift store, then it turned into t -shirts from the thrift
store that they would then screen print, but it was all made by women in their
homes to provide them with work while they were at home.
So it seems very serendipitous that then I ended up coming to work for the company in
2016 when she relocated from Maine to North Carolina.
that is so cool.
I love it.
It's literally grassroots But Anne, let's hear a little bit from you.
And then and then I definitely want to dive into like.
the progression of how she went from that to what they are today.
Awesome, yeah, so I met Stacey in 2013 when all of this was starting for Sally.
amidst this, her first grandchild was born, Stacey's older son.
And that's what brought me and Stacey together.
We became friends in 2013 because we both had...
babies and we started spending time together.
And so we haven't really spent a whole lot of time apart from each other since then.
I remember hearing Stacey talk about getting involved with Vejibag , and then I
started using Veggie Bags myself I would, leave a playdate with Stacey and she'd be
going off to ship Veggie Bags.
So the company was still really small and family was making it work and just, like
you said, very grassroots.
But production shifted to North Carolina since I think Sally wanted to be closer to
her grandson and family.
So I actually...
have known the family for some years and have always marveled at Sally's commitment
to sustainable practices.
And so it was really interesting.
She found a way to start producing vejibag at a higher volume by partnering with some
companies out of North Carolina, which is where we're based.
She found 100 % organic cotton that was being grown in Texas actually, through a
cooperative there and being brought to North Carolina to be spun into thread,
which was then made into the fabric we use by a company out of Asheville, North
Carolina called Spiritex.
So she...
Through that, she also developed a relationship with a small worker -owned
facility in Western North Carolina as well called Opportunity Threads.
And that's where vejibag are cut and sewn.
So all of that came together.
And still being a very grassroots company,
took production to another level.
And then in 2020, I got involved with the company.
It was a good time to have somebody come and help out a little bit more given the
success of the small.
family -run company.
So I just kind of stepped into a role to help out wherever I could and things have
just kind of evolved from there.
Eventually, like Stacey said, Sally decided to take a back seat and she's on
to other really cool endeavors
and is just so passionate about the company.
But yeah, these days Stacey and I are the people behind the scenes with Vejibag
it seems like growth has happened pretty fast.
to inspire people who have ideas for sustainably made products that can help
reduce plastic use in homes and just in the world in general.
And so do you know kind of a little bit about what that journey looked like for
her to go from such a small scale to what it is now?
How did she start growing?
Did she just start with local stores or was it online mostly or a little bit
combination of both?
And.
If there were any like struggles or challenges along the way that she met with
the growth of her company, either with sourcing or with production, those kinds
of little nuggets I think are always fun and interesting for people to hear
because, it kind of helps to create the picture of what possibilities are
available for people who have a passion and something that,
that they have an idea to do and that it might, start small, but it can grow.
Yeah, in 2013, she was mostly just using materials she could find at the local
thrift store.
And then in 2014, she found out about cloth waste at hospitals.
So she started actually picking up
the what they're called, Huk towels.
They're used like wrap up medical instruments before surgery surgeries.
So they're completely sterile through the whole process.
So she found out about those and was like, this is a great waste stream.
So she, for a while vejibag were made out of Huk towels until she realized.
I mean, that's just the ingenuity and the creativity that I love to hear about
because it's so resourceful and she's saving waste from the landfill.
I mean, I'm guessing they only use those once.
my gosh.
Yeah.
So from there, she started hiring more and more women to make these.
So then she also felt like she needed to make sure she was able to provide a stable
income stream for these women and realized that by...
trying to make each one, each one was such an individual piece that it just wasn't
really scalable because at that time she was actually cutting and screen printing
all the labels herself.
She was cutting manila folders that she was getting at the thrift store to turn
them into tags for the vejibag.
that.
she was So while it was saving a lot of things from the landfill, it just wasn't
really a scalable way to do business.
And people were learning about it.
First it started off in the small town and then some of the local shops found out and
business just very organically grew.
So she realized I've got to do something different.
And that's when she was like, well, if I'm going to do this, I want to do it in the
most ethical way I possibly can.
And I don't want to be poisoning people while I'm doing it So the only solution
then was to find organic cotton, unbleached material.
And she found that the terry worked really, really well.
And she was able to find.
a source in the US because she didn't want to be transporting it across the ocean and
found that luckily there's the Texas Cotton Cooperative growing organic cotton
and that there was a person in Asheville actually making the fabric that she was
looking for.
Yeah, and that keeps it sustainable too when you know your growers and you know
your manufacturers.
It keeps it ethical for, the pay and how the workers are treated.
and that seems to be kind of a theme that I hear from all of my guests so far who
are founders of their products and their companies is that they started from day
one.
with sustainability as a number one priority.
to keep everything clean and put good out into the world with their products They
are obviously thinking about people and the planet before profits, which is.
rare and hard to find and it takes some time.
And I know that I actually, this is not a product that I found myself, which is
unusual because usually I'm the one digging through the internet and trying to
find things that are made with this kind of mindset.
And with all the greenwashing out there, there's now a lot more choices than seven
years ago when I started this process of trying to reduce.
my plastic use.
But now there's so much and it's harder to sift through the green washing.
But luckily, this is a product that was brought to me several years ago.
My in -laws who live East Coast in New York City, they found Vejibag as a
solution to keeping their produce fresh.
for a week or week and a half, however long it would be between their trips to
Whole Foods.
And so they brought me some because they were like, my gosh, you're going to love
this.
and at first I was kind of like really it's going to keep my leafy greens fresh
for two weeks I don't know about that, you know So I kind of had some hesitation and
there's a little bit of a learning curve, but it's not bad And once I did it, I was
like, wow, this is great I can actually go less often to the one store that I prefer
or to the farmers market just kind of depends on the week and be able to
not have to make so many trips So that's how I stumbled upon Vejibag and I'm so
glad that they're still making it today because I just think it's the most no
-brainer resource to avoid plastic, you know, getting lettuce that's in those big
plastic tubs and it just also it's supposed to keep it fresh longer, but it
just doesn't.
keep it fresh for very long.
And then also just putting it into like plastic bags to keep it fresh doesn't work
for very many days either.
So this is a great solution.
And actually the other day, literally yesterday, I pulled some kale out of the
fridge that had been in a Vejibag for three weeks.
And I'd been keeping it moist because I just, I had bought two batches of kale at
the farmer's market instead of one for whatever reason.
And I was like, well, because it will be fresh for two weeks.
It's fine.
And usually I just use one bunch worth in a week.
And so I used the first one.
And then the next week, I just didn't get around to using the second one.
But I just kind of kept the bag moist like I do during that two week window.
If I have something for that long, just kind of make sure that it doesn't dry out.
And.
Last night I had the opportunity to use it and I was like, well, here's hoping, you
know?
And I opened it up and it was completely fresh and crisp and perfect.
There was like two leaves in the middle that maybe weren't exposed to as much of
the moisture that had a little bit of like yellowing starting around the edges.
But I mean, I was like, this is amazing.
And I think that it happened that way at perfect timing just for this interview
because, it just kind of is a testament to how.
awesome these bags are.
And just such a savings, I would have had to throw it away, right?
Like that would have been not only kind of a mess to clean up in my drawer, but also
two or $3, down the drain, in addition to the resources that are used to grow the
kale.
But also I like to reference this.
I found this information on the USDA website one time about how unsustainable
food waste is.
on so many different levels and I just kind of want to read it really quick
because when I read it I was like, it's kind of like you know inherently that it's
wasteful.
But when you read this or hear this, you're just like, wow, that's really a lot
of resources.
So it says, when food is wasted, so too is the land, water, labor, energy, and other
inputs that are used in producing.
processing, transporting, preparing or packaging for sale and storing and
disposing of the wasted discarded food.
So when you really see the bigger picture, it adds up to a lot more than just a
little bit of food into the landfill,
and that is creating some unfavorable things for our planet as well.
So I love the resource so much for so many different reasons
And so it's an initial investment, but I think on the back end, the amount of money
that you save from not having to throw foods away because they don't last forever
and you know, life happens.
We have kids, we're busy and planned meals sometimes don't always get executed on
time.
And so, you know, I think over time they pay for themselves like tenfold.
Definitely.
Well, we love to hear your story about your three week old kale, Jessica.
And I think just everything you are saying speaks to the fact that Vejibag are
awesome because they're good at keeping your vegetables crisp.
That's why we call them crisper bags.
And they're also.
plastic free.
And we find that we have customers who are seeking just plastic free.
They don't want to use plastic bags anymore.
And that might lead them to trying a Vejibag.
Or we have people that are really tired of slimy lettuce.
And that might bring them to try a Vejibag.
But either way, it's a win on both counts.
And I think it gives me the opportunity to say just a little bit more about how they
actually work.
That's a common question we get.
So as you heard, the bags are made from 100 % organic cotton, which is very
breathable.
The material is a teary fabric.
So it's kind of a thicker weave and it's great at.
retaining moisture, you actually dampen the bag and then you wring it out really
well.
And so it works kind of like a washcloth.
You don't want it to be dripping wet, but you just want it to be nice and moist.
And the reason this is effective is because vegetables like moisture.
so the bags are so effective because they work like the spritzer in the grocery
store.
You see spritzers constantly keeping the produce moist and a Vejibag works in the
same way.
It's, keeping a level of humidity that produce.
wants and needs in order not to become wilted.
And at the same time, the bags are breathable, unlike plastic bags or plastic
boxes, because most vegetables emit some amount of ethylene gas.
And when that is trapped inside of plastic, it results in
the vegetables going bad.
It just increases the rate at which they decompose.
So the bags allow your produce to breathe while also keeping your produce moist.
Something that we would like to remind people is that, just like when you get cut
flowers, you think of the flowers of being alive and that they need to go immediately
into a vase with water.
And that when you go to a store or a farmer's market to buy vegetables, those
vegetables, even though they've been picked, are still alive.
So it's the same concept as getting moisture to the vegetables to help keep
them fresh longer.
Yeah, exactly.
And it makes me wonder why everybody started putting things into plastic when
you say it that way, Anne, and you explain that what it's releasing, the gases that
it's releasing actually keeps those closer and is part
of almost accelerating it, but I think that plastic was kind of used as a way to,
keep it fresh but it's so prevalent.
Even at our farmer's market, you'll find leafy lettuces that are put into the
plastic bags.
And I'm just like, why?
I don't understand.
we've got some more resources on our website.
We have a Q &A section of our website where we have a link to a table that kind
of shows you the ideal temperatures and humidity levels for.
pretty much any produce you can think of.
And a lot of our customers find that really helpful and interesting.
Most people are surprised to find that produce actually prefers a pretty cold
temperature, almost closer to freezing than you might guess.
And that also is part of the kind of learning how to store your produce in a
Vejibag, keeping your fridge cool enough.
keeping your bag moist.
And once you get the hang of it, like you said, we get these stories all the time
about people who are eating their two, three week salad or whatever, broccoli,
cucumbers, you name it.
So, yeah.
One of my favorite stories I've heard was we sent samples to a store that was
thinking about carrying Vejibag and she put carrots.
from her farmer's market in there and kind of forgot about them for a couple of
weeks.
And then she went to check it and the carrots had actually rooted, started to
root in the Vejibag.
And she took the carrots out and planted them in her garden.
my gosh.
Yeah, you can use them for more than just leafy greens.
Tell us a little bit about all of the different things you would recommend them
for.
I know it's on your website, but I just think it's good to hear.
So it's like, start putting together like, yeah, I could use it for way more than
just lettuce and kale.
Yeah, I love them for like yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, peppers, beets,
chard, any of the leafy greens of root vegetables.
I think a lot of folks don't realize they're super handy as well for cut.
items.
Stacey taught me this back in the day.
But so say, you know, you only wanted half an apple and so throw that other half in
your bag and it's not going to get shriveled and brown looking the way it
would if you just left it sitting out.
Or if you want to prep your cut vegetables in advance.
We're fans of
you know, preparing basically a whole salad.
I think refer to a salad in a bag sometimes, but like slicing up your
cucumbers and peppers and whatever you want in your salad and just throwing it
all into a Vejibag.
you can literally, use it for food prep and have like your sliced stuff for your
stir fry, your prepared salad for whatever night of the week.
And then you just, you know, dump it out of your bag and.
you're ready to go.
So those are some other potential uses.
I will add the sliced vegetables don't last as long as the, you know, beautiful
leafy greens that you just brought home, but like the prepared salad, I've had it
last no problems for four or five days.
That is so helpful.
I'm going to do that all the time now that's definitely something that I didn't
know.
the one thing that I will do when I come home from the farmer's market I will wash
it in advance.
And so it's already like ready for prep and then put them in washed.
so that at least that step is done, but you don't have to even do that.
I mean, you can just throw them in there and then I just do that because I kind of
feel like I'm already, putting away the groceries, you know, just one more step,
wash everything before I put them in the bag.
And now I'm going to even if I have the extra time prep things, if I know that I
can use them within what like three or four days, that's cool because usually,
you know, you're just like prepping.
the day of and sometimes that can become a little overwhelming or the reason you
might be like, I don't have time for that.
Let's just pick something up for dinner, you know, but like if it's already done,
then that's half the battle to preparing your meal for the night.
So that's really great little tip.
Thank you for that.
So I'm curious, is there anything new coming down the pipes for Vejibag in the
future?
Yeah, so we've got some really exciting developments which really tie back into
part of our earlier conversation about just the company's commitment to
sustainability and reducing food waste and plastic waste all around from the
beginning.
So.
through the entire time that vejibag have been produced in North Carolina out of the
100 % organic terry cotton with opportunity threads, we have been saving
every scrap of material that's generated during the cutting and sewing of our bags.
So Opportunity Threads has been just creating this big pile of
beautiful organic cotton.
And they have partnered with a organization called Material Return, which
is also out of Morganton, North Carolina.
And Material Return is a really innovative company that is figuring out how to
repurpose used material.
That's another huge area of waste, as you heard a little bit about.
in the story of Sally's initial repurposing of textiles to make vejibag.
So material return is doing a lot to figure out how to keep textile waste out
of landfills.
And they have figured out a process in which they are able to break down our
organic cotton scraps and then...
spin that cotton in a combination with some virgin organic cotton that we already
use into a thread and knit into the same exact fabric that we use, so the terry
fabric.
And as of April of this year, all of our Vejibags are now made of this fabric that
is 30 %
recycled Vejibag fabric.
So we have created a zero waste stream with our product where we don't generate
any textile waste anymore in the making of our bags.
So that's something we're very excited about and has inspired us to work towards
some other product developments.
One of the things we're hoping to release this year are bulk refill bags.
So if anybody goes to their local refillery to get beans or nuts or anything
else you might buy in bulk, that they'll be able to take a 100 % organic bag with
them, knowing that it was grown and sown in the US, completely ethically made and
not have to wonder about, you know.
what's in their bag.
That is amazing.
And again, just such a testament to being sustainable from the beginning to the end.
And I just wish so many more companies out there would be doing business this way.
I know it's not the easy way.
It's the hard path.
And it's just...
a new way of thinking that I hope starts to grow and expand across the board in
every industry.
And I'm excited to check out the bulk bags
And also I just wanted to touch base kind of circle back around to you said
something that I think should be pointed out again, right?
Like this bag is made of organic cotton and that's important because anything
that's touching our food that may not be made of materials that are, you know, as
I'll just say it, like when plastic touches your food, it's made with a lot of
chemicals such as PFAS, BPA.
phthalates.
And all of those chemicals can leach into the food depending on the circumstances
how it's been shipped and stored.
And so this is how humans are now exposed to and taking in some of these chemicals
that
are in plastics.
And so I just wanted to reiterate why it's so important, not only for the
sustainability factor of, growing organic cotton is more sustainable because you're
not using pesticides.
In addition to that, not being good for our environment, the soil, the farmers.
the bees and our air and people who live next to those farms, right?
So there's a lot of different layers to look at from that perspective as well.
I just love all of the different layers of sustainability that are involved with the
making of Vejibag.
Yeah, and one thing we didn't mention either is that of course the bags
are compostable because the cotton is completely, free of toxins or chemicals
and even down to the ink that we use for our labels is also non -toxic.
And yeah, so you can repurpose your very worn out bags to do other things with or
you can compost them.
I just love that you're also bringing it to the end of life because at some point
they're going to have, an end of life, and they compost.
So that's great because sometimes for me, I'm just always like, what do I do with
this?
Where does this go?
And I just don't like throwing things away that go into the landfill.
So it's great.
I want to be able to provide resources to connect with you for the listeners who are
now ready to get their Vejibags And so I will say that your website is certainly a
resource and they can go to that directly, which is what is the website?
It's just www .vejibag .com.
And Vejibag is V -E -J -I -B -A -G.
that is the one little thing tricky to know about the spelling for sure.
And also if you want to pick up a link for a discount it's in my sustainable.
Wellness home guide which is a free resource for all my listeners.
If you don't have it yet, you can get it on live lightly .
ECO And it's under the tab for free guide.
and if you use the link that's in the guide you'll receive a discount on the
bags and also I know you guys have an Instagram for people to connect with you
there as well.
we're just @vejibag which again is V -E -J -I -B -A -G.
And we'd love to hear from people about other products that you might like to see
from us made out of, 100 % organic.
recycled cotton blend.
And whether you're wanting to move away from using plastic or you're just really
passionate about keeping your produce fresh, we always like to remind people
that vejibag are one piece that we can all try in this whole puzzle of.
plastic and throwaway culture and we aren't perfect by any means but you know a
lot of folks find that vejibag really work for them and it's one small way to to make
change so.
Yeah, absolutely.
I agree.
And I think that it's a small change, but over time, it adds up.
it's just these little things that we can do collectively that do kind of add up and
make a big difference.
So thank you guys for joining me today.
I really appreciate it.
I know you're both busy moms and also working.
So taking time out of your busy day and your schedule really is appreciated.
Thank you.