…And what a lovely day its been for me.

I have planned a nice Vegan meal for this evening not realizing I needed some items from the grocery store. So I headed out to my local Whole Foods with my reusable bags in the back of my car, happy to do my shopping before the lunch rush. On my drive to WF, I was hit by a guy and his wife in their very large truck. We pulled over to look at the damage. Luckily only my spare tire was hit so there were only light scuffs on it. *For any of you who know me and my ordeals with this vehicle, WTH? A little set back, no biggie. But so much for a quick shopping trip. Emeril Lagasse of ‘Emeril Live’ , was there filming an episode of his new cooking show, ‘Emeril Green’ in the produce department where I was carefully selecting my organic yukon gold potatoes. When I looked up there he was with an enormous film crew, Discovery Channel/Planet Green staff, a woman shopper who was in the scene with him, and a grocery cart between them. Then I noticed that I was in direct line of the camera. Call it stage fright but I split. Yikes! Thank god I was having a good hair day. Lol. The rest of my trip consisted of dodging the camera while grabbing the few items on my list and my usual slice of vegan pie for my ride home.

When I reached the checkout I was reminded of Whole Foods’ ending the use of the disposable plastic bag at the checkout. All of its 270 stores in US, Canada, and UK are aiming to be plastic bag-free by today. The choices that remain; paper, purchase a reusable bag, or Bring Your Own Bag! I always bring my own and purchase when I don’t have enough or can’t run out to my car in enough time to grab them. So at first I hadn’t noticed the stack of wonderfully decorated paper bags honoring Earth Day. I assumed they had been drawn by some area school children. I thought they were adorable so I asked to have one for my groceries to show some love. I love to see stuff like this. It makes me smile. And what wonderful artists. I wondered what area school(s) may have decorated them and because I wished to also blog about this, I later called to speak with a manager to find out more details. I wanted to convey to the WF staff how much I truly enjoyed this art and the positive message they are sending about our environment. It was one of my highlights to this beautiful, sunny, slightly breezy, 64 degree day in Northern Virginia. Dinner will be in there too.

A few notes on Emeril. Nothoney sent me this Ecorazzi post about his new show. Thanks. I’ve also attached an overview from Planet Green.

So let me get this straight, Emeril Green? I’m curious as to why they chose Emeril. I do hope he addresses the sustainability issues and the environmental issues in his show and not just meat and fish menus. I did read his quote about living green, “I try a little harder every day to think greener and be respectful of our environment and our resources”. I know everyone has their start line, so hopefully this is his. In addition to the sustainability issues I also have hopes for more of his menus suited to a vegetarian and vegan diet and use less factory farmed animals.

Now go do something green. =)

*Had to post without hearing from the WF management about the identities of these talented artists.

**UPDATE from WF mangement**

Hi! Those lovely bags came to us courtesy of Virginia Run Elementary School students in Fairfax.

Thanks for your kind words.

In response to nothoney, Emeril won’t be cooking foie gras here…we don’t sell it based on our animal compassion standards.

Feel free to contact me anytime if you have any questions in the future.