My first review

Very cool. I was looking at the Foodie Blogroll a couple of months ago and saw that there was a company looking to send their products to bloggers for review. Never one to pass up free stuff, I sent an email to Marxfoods, offering to try and review their Palm Leaf plates. These plates are marketed as eco-friendly, biodegradable/compostable and stylish.

A few square and round plates arrived in the mail a short while later. My first impression was that they were nice enough looking. Kind of like wood. They would look very nice setting an outdoor dining table. I noticed some splinters and rough edges that surprised me a little. The plates were thick and seemed quite strong.

We used them for lunches and salads and they held up well. However we had a spell of high humidity and I found the plates became a little pliable at that point. Still stronger than a flimsy paper plate, but I wonder how they would hold up at an outdoor function on a humid day.

While eating some salad off of one of the round plates I found a splinter in my mouth. That was disappointing to say the least. And not the only one we found.

While these plates seem friendly enough, the reality is that the ones I received had rough edges and gave off splinters in my food. I would not let my children use them. Nor would I want to serve guests with them.

Then there is the price. $33.50 (USD) for 25 square plates, for example. Plus shipping and handling. I don't know that I could ever justify spending over a dollar a dish for something meant to be thrown out at the end of the day.

Good on the company for using a something as innovative as dead palm leaves to make products out of. But when looking at price and quality, I will definitely take a pass and won't be ordering them for our family.