Editor’s Note: If you are in some serious need of inspiration to leave the house today after a fabulously hot weekend jamming at MusicFest (I was so tired I went to bed at 8 p.m. last night), I have one – cheese, of the French kind.
Natural Pastures Cheese Co. is having its second cheese tour stop with the Eat Real. Eat Local 30-Day Food Challenge today with a glimpse into their process of making French cheeses (and some samples too). Demos are at 11 a.m., Noon and 1 p.m. So, pencil in that last-minute “meeting” to attend or tell the kids you all are headed out for a snack and head on over to Natural Pastures at 635 McPhee Avenue in Courtenay.
Meanwhile, check out the hottest eco-lunch bag in town, handcrafted by Sayward mama Rosina Huber. You only need to use them once to fall in love:
I have been on the lookout for reusable lunch bags for years. No joke, I’m totally one of those people who rinses out re-sealing plastic bags and reuses them until they fall apart. But, since me and plastic broke up, I have been lost for options to send the tiny person’s lunch out in.
Then, as often happens when I chat with the Podlings crew (isn’t Little Me’s new name cool!), Sherry said she’s came across a genius solution – and I wouldn’t believe that they were local.
She sent me on over to Rosy Und Posy and that’s when I knew they’d be spectacular.
Local mama Rosina Huber and her lovely crew have long been NeighbourWood Walking it with OBE and I am a bit of a blog lurker as I love her craft ideas and her incredibly creative ways.
So, it was no surprise to me that she was the genius behind these gorgeous handcrafted sandwich and snack bags.
I snagged a couple of the large and smaller sizes, got them in the mail a few days later (so nice to get happy mail) and have a major crush on these bags. It actually may be true love.
Ken, always the skeptic, thought they might not stand up to the rigors of the preschool crowd. Would the velcro stay shut? Would the sandwich remain in tact? Would a bag or lunch box be covered in goo?
I tried to reassure him with Rosina’s description of how they are made: “Items are constructed using sturdy double french seams, with hidden velcro stitching that is not visible on your outside fabric and top stitched for extra durability and years of use.:)”
His fears were quickly overcome as we now use them for EVERYTHING and I can’t wait to get more. They go with us full of dry snack, grapes, apples, cherries, sandwiches, chips and hold up to every test the tiny person crowd puts them though. They even wash fabulously and line dry in about 5 minutes.
Plus, they are so stinking cute – which I think is THE major bonus because, well, I think life should be adorable and the happy prints that Rosina pulls together just make you want to smile and reflect her bubbling personality.
These gems are sold online at Rosina’s Etsy store and at The Green Room on Fourth Street in Courtenay. You can also always e-mail Rosina and ask her to bring them in to town when she comes to save you postage (she’s awesome like that).
Speaking of awesome, Rosina is offering a set of two sandwich-sized bags and one snack-sized bag with the choice of any of the available fabric patterns in her shop for one random commenter today.
Today’s question is: What snack always goes with you or you stop for during your Summer time outings?
Yesterday’s drink ideas were fabulous (I’m going to have to try all of them!). Reesh was the winner.
This contest is closed. Jess won.
Photos courtesy of Rosina Huber
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I’ve seen these on etsy! I didn’t know she was local – Cool!
take-alongs are frequent these days. pb sandwiches, apple slices, and dates are pretty common around here…
I can imagine these bags would be good for a handful of crackers. I like the idea of being able to rinse the crumbs out of the bottom…
These days it is pumpkin muffins that follow us everywhere. We are still using up the pumpkin we froze last fall, so I usually have a few muffins hanging out in the freezer. Whenever we get ready to go, the littlest one is asking for her “pozen muffins, pease”!
Oh those are fabulous! And I love how easy you say they clean up – the eight year old is a messy messy creature so I always love things that are easy to clean!
Apples and grapes are the staple take-along snack for us.
I have been on the lookout for something like this for quite some time now. As always, my daily visit to OBE does not disappoint!!
For our outings there are always berries of some kind, lately its been blueberries and raspberries, as well as crackers of some sort.
I’ll definitely be heading to The Green Room today!
Fruit of any kind is a fav of ours (at the moment blueberries), and little crackers or granola bars. Food on-the-go is a must have for my little guys. Love those bags – trendy and useful. Gotta get some.
Those are adorable!! My eco conscious 7 year old would absolutely LOVE those for her school lunches, may have to get her some for a back to school gift if we don’t try homeschooling.
We always have some type of cracker in the car as an emergency snack. But in the summer we are always taking along watermelon, or stopping for ice cream (seems to be happening a lot more since I’ve been pregnant).
Our staple is apple slices, grapes and any other yummy, local fruit we have in the fridge. And of course cherrios for the littlest one
Those bags are adorable! can’t wait to try them out!
Staples these days include fishie crackers and apples. Plus, my Granma was visiting and brought us some amazing granola which the little one loves. These bags are so stinkin’ cute!
Love these bags!!! Etsy is such an amazing venue too – Always makes me so happy to hear about local success stories! And makes me itch like crazy to get crafting!
Our favorite summer take-along snacks sound like most of the moms’ who’ve already posted – fruits and crackers and cheese.
Speaking of cheese – You have to go to the Natural Pastures demos if you haven’t been to one yet! How lucky are we to live in a place when you can go chat with a Swiss cheese maker? And buy Brie and Camembert that are on special for $4/round because this batch happens to be ripening a little bit too quickly to ship to the grocery stores!
We’ve been trying to buy our fruit as local as possible, and since I love to bake anyway I’ve been trying all sorts of homemade cracker recipes. This is one of our favorites: http://dinnerwithjulie.com/2009/01/27/rosemary-raisin-pecan-crisps/
I am definately going to get us some of these!! Super cute and very practical.
Grapes and crackers are the frequent companion on our daily trips.
I didn’t know these were local either, I have some and I love them! They are awsome. For snamkes in the summer we fill these great bags with Gold fish and take lots of fruit
Dana
In the summer our go to snacks are fresh fruit. We started with strawberries (thank you ASH berry farms), moved to cherries, then raspberries and we just checked the blueberry patch…. a few more days of sunshine and then hello blueberries our new fav take along snack.
Our go-everywhere snack is Rebar (the original) along with stainless drink bottles of water. The kids love Rebar as an emergency snack and it totally staves off my hypoglycemia for up to an hour till I can get something substantial to eat.
Nice to see the good from the north island crafters!! The bags look awesome and can be used by everyone – everyone eats! Fresh pea pods are in my bag o snacks when I’m out and about and usually a cluster of grapes.
Snacks at the Farmers’ Market: Apple Chips, cheese scones, rhubarb muffins, strawberries, cherry tomatoes.
Snacks from my yard: raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, peas
Oooh, how cute are these! Muffins are a fave snack for us to take anywhere. They’re filling, healthy and travel well. This time of year, fruit is always added to the snack bag as well. We also never leave the house without our water.
My husband just purchased a food dehydrator and he has been drying all sorts of fruit…also making fruit roll ups and beef jerky…suffice it to say that everything we snack on now is dried first!
We always take fresh fruit when we head out, especially grapes.