Fair Trade market baskets from Ghana

We just got a new batch of Bolga baskets from Ghana. The full size ones were a mixture of the traditional leather handles and the cloth-handled ones that we started having made last year for our vegan customers.

The baby Bolga baskets all had leather handles – we’re still waiting for our first batch of cloth-handled ones.

We’ll add a selection of the baskets to our online store in the next day or so.

I had a very special helper when it was time to shape them….

Fair Trade Vegan Market Baskets from Ghana

We started Global Fayre early in 2007, and opened our store in Springfield, Missouri in the December of that year.

There have been many many rewarding aspects of having the store (and now the online store too) but one element that becomes increasingly important to us (and to our customers) is the closeness between the end purchaser and the producer. We may be many thousands of miles apart physically, but through the close contact we have, either directly with the producers or via our importers, our customers get a real understanding of the producers and their world.

Better still, our customers get to ask for custom products – a real revelation in these days of mass production where the producer and end consumer have never met, have no interaction and live in different worlds (in all senses).

One great example of this closeness is the recent delivery we took of market baskets from Ghana. Of course we get market baskets all the time, as do thousands of retailers (fair trade or not) throughout the USA. We know that our market baskets are a little different – we source through the same importer everytime (Basket of Africa), we know that Cael uses the same weavers all the time, and we see the direct impact of this in the wonderful quality of the baskets that they make. So, when we had some customers asking for a vegan version of a market basket (vegan meaning no leather handle or straps) we were confident we could oblige. What surprised us was how quickly it could happen. The first sample arrived in the spring, and our delivery today included a dozen of the same type.

Isn’t that awesome?!

We haven’t added them all to our site yet, but you can see the images on our facebook page.

Mothers Day Fair Trade Food Basket from Global Fayre

If you think the title to this blog is a mouthful, you should check out the basket itself!

We’ve tried to replicate for the online store what it’s like when you come in to the Global Fayre store to put a gift basket together – so many goodies to choose from!

Here’s what the basic basket looks like:

So what do you get?

Inside the standard basket is a cookie mix (you get to choose from 6 wonderful options from Soups of Success, based in Indiana) a soup mix (a choice of 4 from the Women’s Bean Project and Soups of Success), a scruptious Cornbread Mix from the Women’s Bean Project and a pack of tea from Equal Exchange (choose from Earl Grey, Green, Irish Breakfast, English Breakfast or Rooibos).

Think you’re finished? What about the basket….you can stick with the standard, or upgrade to a mini-Bolga market basket

or you could super-size and go for the full-size market basket:

or you could go for the Freeset options:

Ghana Bolga Market Baskets

Suddenly realized today that one of our most popular items is not yet on the online store – how crazy is that?!

We carry a range of baskets sourced from Cael at Baskets of Africa (a fellow member of the Fair Trade Federation). The best sellers are the Bolga Market Baskets from Ghana. These baskets are traditionally used for carrying goods to and from the market. Weavers in the region use the abundant Veta vera grass to weave these incredibly hardy, useful baskets. The leather wrapped handle adds to the durability.

Went to add them and found that stocks are really low, so added just these three:

Bolga Basket from Ghana

Bolga Market Basket from Ghana

Basket #3

Every basket is unique, so selling them in the online store is going to be pretty labor intensive – but what great news for the weavers in Ghana….another outlet for their great work!