"Eat Your Greens" with a modern twist ;)

Moms are always trying to get their kids to eat their leafy greens, as well as other green veggies like green beans, broccoli, etc.  I love the crunch of a nice, leafy green salad, it's just delish, especially if you mix in a variety of lettuce.  In the spring/summer we grow our own lettuce, and most years it does very well.  This year I'd like to try to mix in some new varieties like Red leaf and Mesclun greens.  During the colder months, I'm partial to mixing Romaine, Ice Berg, and Arugula for a yummy colorful salad.  Of course I don't need to tell you that greens are good for us and provide roughage.

But what about the packaging of lettuces?  You probably put your lettuce into a thin plastic produce bag, and I hope you recycle it?  It is definitely recyclable, I checked the other day and the produce bag was Type 2, so just add it to the wad of grocery bags that you are hopefully depositing in the bin at the grocery store.  The plastic grocery bags are high-density polyethylene film (HDPE, Type 2), or  low density or linear-low density polyethylene film (LDPE/LLDPE, Type 4), and can be recycled at your local supermarket and other locations.  The bins are usually available right near the entrance/exits. 

What about that green velcro gizmo that is wrapped around the leaf lettuces?  In the past, lettuce was wrapped with large twisty-ties, but I prefer the green velcro gizmo because to me, they are greener in more ways than one.  I've come up with a few great re-uses for those green gems!   Let me know if you have any more ideas to add to the list!

1. My first use for them was to help wrap an icepack around injured children's body part.  Place the icepack on, and use the green velcro gizmo to help hold it in place. In this case I don't cut the velcro, but use it as is from the lettuce.
2. Use number two is a green "cord keeper".  Instead of buying those velcro cord keepers, use one that might have ended up in a landfill instead.  The only problem was when kids took the cords out, the green "cord keeper" often lost it's cord.  In this case, I cut the velcro to size I need.
3. Use number three, new and improved, green "cord keeper".  I made an adjustment to the velcro so that it threads through itself, and does not come off the cord and get lost.  It's really easy, after you cut it to the size you need, fold one end over on itself, then cut a tiny slit in the green velcro (you are cutting through two layers), then you wrap it around the cord, and feed the green velcro through the slit, pull until it's snug on the cord.  Coil up your cord, wrap the velcro around and fasten it!
4. Use number four, brings us full circle...back to the garden, where I use it to tie plants such as tomatoes to the tomato cages, and cukes, pole beans, etc. to their cages/poles.  I also use the velcro plant ties to train vines such as clematis to grow along the chicken-wire fence of my garden, and to tie heavier plants such as sunflowers to a fence.  Gardeners will immediately get the picture ;)

Jumbled mess of cords

Nice and neat with "green" velcro keeper, recycled from lettuce packaging :)

 Sources:   http://www.ehow.com/how_10885_recycle-plastic-grocery.html#ixzz1DDf3fcMV