mon sac à légumes

It's getting to be that time of year when I will be carrying great big bags of produce home from the farmers' market, so I was happy to find this adorable bag for sale for a very reasonable $13, VAT excluded.



I put it in my cart and voila, shipping to les États-Unis is FORTY NINE DOLLARS AND SEVENTY-FOUR CENTS. Incroyable! Does it come with un petite bag of l'herbe? I don't believe it does.

So, on to Manufactum, where I found a terrific bag woven of steel fibers:



Into my cart it went, along with a few irresistible notebooks just the right size for grocery lists. And then? The drop-down list of countries Manufactum ships to seems to stop at Sweden. No "United . . ." anything. Sigh.

Cute canvas totes are easy enough to find and work as well for men as they do for women — at least, here in Manhattan they're a good look for everyone; I can't speak for whether or not a man-tote would be acceptable in Boise — but they don't ever seem to hold as much as one thinks they might, and they tend to get dirty fast.

I've noticed this sort of cart for sale more and more often; I suppose it might be useful, but if you have that many mouths to feed, might one or two members of your brood be pressed into service to carry your heaviest bag of tomatoes and your most-unwieldy squashes? Your tomatoes would probably be squished in the pricey basket anyhow.

I'm just going to continue frumping up the markets for now with one of my half-dozen hippie string bags. Hopefully I will not continue losing them on a weekly basis, but in my experience they are harder to keep track of than socks or even teaspoons.