Our Story: At Vejibag “We Speak Vegetable!”

Meet Sally Erickson: Certified Salad Freak. Also a Local Food Freak and a Local Economy Freak. 

DOWNEAST MAINE. She came, she saw, she built South Street Greenhouse: to feed her salad habit; to fill the niche for fresh greens in the local winter food scene; and to create some good, local work.

When it came time to first harvest and pack South Street greens for Eastport Maine's Eat Local Eastport Buying Club, those greens screamed not to get tossed into plastic bags. Sally listened up and then set forth on her vintage iMac to search the interwebs for something better.

Sure enough, there was something better.  Way better. Turns out vegetables last longest in a high humidity environment that breathes. She prototyped a fabric bag, got it damp, and packed her greens inside. And guess what?  It worked. Happy greens. Happy Sally.

Happy friends, neighbors, and local customers.  The cloth bags keep their salad greens fresh, crisp and ready to munch for a week or more. Even wilted greens can often be revived!  Vejibags wrote a happy ending to the story of rotting vegetables suffocating in slimy plastic bags in the dark recesses of everyone's fridge.

This could also have been the happy ending to a small local story, but it seems it's just the beginning. 

You see, in Eastport, Maine, good work can be as hard to find as fresh, local greens when summer comes to a close.  Sally, and a small but smart and sassy team of women, the Sack Sisters, decided to help fill that need for good work. They dreamed and schemed and came up with the idea of an at-home cottage industry making Vejibags.  They scoured the interwebs for the most gorgeous US organic cotton. They forged themselves into a well-oiled design team, sat and drank coffee on Sunday mornings, and six months later Vejibag became a reality.  Vejibag now provides good, flexible, well-paid work for a few women (and a couple men!) in the small. but extremely interesting, community of Eastport, Maine.


What We've Accomplished: Read Our Reviews!

Vejibag currently has scores of satisfied, vegetable-eating Vejibuffs! Everywhere Vejibags go, the same response comes back: 

"They really work!" 

We're proud of everything about this seriously "green" product.  Beyond being made from gorgeous U.S. Organic Cotton French Terry fabric, the labels are locally silk-screened on upcycled cotton, with safe, permanent, water-soluble ink.  We even use organic cotton thread! Tags are printed locally on 100% recycled cardstock. Vejibags: designed to be As Green As It Gets. Nothing nasty. Nothing imported.

Vejibags work amazingly well.  Bring your produce home from the farmers market, wash it off, and pop it in a Vejibag. Then eat healthy all week long! Vejibags save time and money.  We figure they pay for themselves in a month or two, because vegetables stay fresh, and you only need to shop once a week! 

We think it just doesn't get any better.

We've crafted a grinningly workable, at-home, manufacturing process; we've trained a small, skilled production team; we've created a beautiful, informative website with a functioning online store and an active Facebook page. And we have a list of women ready to sign-on as at-home VejiSeamstresses. Whew! It's a lot. But it's not time to stop. It's time to IndieGoGo!

It's clear we need to keep the good we've begun growing.

Our Campaign: It's Time to GoGo to the Next Level!

We need a larger and more consistent customer base.  To create that, we need to show smart vegetable eaters, and the stores where they shop across the land, about how intelligently sane it is to store produce in Vejibags.  It's clear to us that Vejibag is destined to become the coolest new household word:

"Hey hon, will you grab some Vejibags for me? They're hanging out on the line!"

Here are our Indiegogo-goals:

1) Fund 6 months of part-time administrative help to free Sally to attend trade shows, soap box on busy street corners, schmooze with produce department managers, and give Vejibag samples to produce handlers at all those favorite foodie grocery stores!   ($4800) 

2) Get serious about a smart, strategic marketing plan: finance high grade, recycled, soy-ink printed tags and hang tags to reinforce our "branding;" develope a "sell sheet" for trade shows, design and build a trade show booth and in-store demonstration table;, pay for attendance at two trade shows in the coming year, and fund training for internet marketing.  ($6,350)

3) Purchase raw goods and pay Vejiseamstresses to enlarge our current inventory, to be ready for the flowering of those new large retail outlets when they start sending in their purchase orders.  ($2,650)

4) Develop 6 short, fun, videos to step up our Internet presence, educate and amuse a wide base of customers, and let potential wholesale buyers know we mean business!  ($2,400)

and....

5) Pay our Indiegogo and Third-Party fees.  (Approx. 10% - $1800)

If we exceed these goals, you better believe we will attend more trade shows, expand our production team and inventory and then, with great confidence and a little sass, approach producers on the Rachel Ray Show, QVC, and the Food Network, and score wholesale deals with large, upscale grocery chains like Fresh Market, Green Grocer, Central Market, Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods.

Can you help us?

Yes you can!

1) DONATE at whatever level, but especially at a level where we can afford to reward you with your own Vejibags! DO IT NOW while there are still Early Bird giant discounts available!  We want you to see for yourself how Vejibags save time, money, and vegetables. Then you can tell all your vegetable-loving friends about how easy it is to eat even more fresh, crisp vegetables. Talk about viral marketing! This is a healthy, sustainable, good virus we're talking about.  We want you to love and talk about Vejibags as much as we do!

2) Of course we'd love you to LIKE US on Facebook and FOLLOW US on Twitter.

3) And pulleeeze SHARE THIS INDIEGOGO CAMPAIGN with your vegetable-loving friends! Let them have a chance to see how Vejibags will save them time, money, and vegetables. (Hint: Who are the foodies, the vegetarians, vegans, paleos, weight-watchers, and health and fitness freaks who would LOVE to snag a Vejibag or three?)

Look at the amazing rewards we offer:


THE VEJITAG:  Made from upcycled cotton, silkscreened with water-soluble dyes, and sealed with beeswax.  A small token of our thanks. Use it as a bookmark!


THE HERBIBAG:  An Indiegogo Exclusive! Made from upcycled cotton, 6" X 9". Perfect for storing a small bunch of fresh herbs, a big fistful of organic carrots, or a medium size bunch of salad greens.

THE VEJIBAG:  Let's face it. This is just the best. Made from 100% U.S. Virgin Organic Cotton, gorgeous, thick, yummy-to-handle, French Terry fabric.  Approximately 9" X 13".  Use moist Vejibags to store greens, beets, carrots,  or even a small poodle, for a week or more! (Okay, we're kidding about the poodle.  We love poodles.  How about a head of cauliflower?  That kinda looks like a poodle...)

THE VejiBIG:  Another Indiegogo Excluseive! Made from 100% U.S. Virgin Organic Cotton, gorgeous, thick, yummy-to-handle, French Terry fabric.  Approximately 10" X 17".  Use moist VejiBIGs for larger items like Kale, Swiss Chard, Celery, and Broccoli.  Or maybe a Standard poodle...

VEJICLIPS:  Another Indiegogo Exclusive! Vejiclips are made from Maine hardwood and sealed with beeswax. They come in sets of six and are crafted just for you by our in-house calligrapher.  Clip them to your Vejibags to remind you which crisp, fresh goodies you have stowed in your fridge!

And get this!  We scored some rare, U.S.-made clothespins, manufactured by the now-defunct Penley Corporation of Paris, Maine.  When these run out, we'll have to switch over to imported clothespins, so grab them while they last!

We'll send our standard six: Salad Greens, Carrots, Broccoli, Kale, Cucumbers, and Spinach

OR

Choose from the list below and email us with your special requests! Our calligrapher is standing by!

Artichokes, Asparagas, Arugula, Basil, Beets, Beet Greens, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celery, Celeriac, Chard, Cilantro, Collards, Cucumber, Eggplant, Fennel, Green Beans, Kale,  Lettuce, Leeks, Parsnips, Peas, Peppers (don’t wash, just put in damp bag), Radishes, Rhubarb, Salad Greens, Spinach, Scallions, Turnips, Zucchini

Or something else?  New Zealand Spinach, perhaps?