Product review: Palm Leaf Plates

By Paul Briand

If you're looking for a sturdy alternative to paper or plastic plates -- an alternative that has a high eco-cool factor to it too -- look into plates made from palm leaf.

I had the opportunity recently through the good folks at MarxFoods.com to test drive a set of plates and bowls made from the leaves of palm trees in a way that is about as carbon neutral as possible.

Information about the plates can be found here.

First, a little bit about how the plates are made as provided by Justin Marx at MarxFoods.

The leaves themselves come from fallen or discarded leaves of the Adaka palm, then prepped in a cleaning process that includes hand washing with a mixture of water and turmeric. Once thoroughly cleaned and rinsed, the leaves are dried, then hand stretched and flattened.

The various shapes -- bowls, rectangle and hexagon-shaped dinner plates -- are molded using a heated press. Up to three plates can be created from each leaf. Each plate is then sun dried and packaged in groups of 25.

"Every piece has a unique natural pattern and the line includes bowls, plates, serving dishes and utensils," said Marx. "We sell them in 25 piece orders and picnic and dinner party themed setting combinations are also available."

My test drive included the heaviest food I could think of -- a barbecue-type meal of ribs, potato salad and corn on the cob. I really loaded up the rectangle plate and found there was no sagging, and no leaking ... not from the buttered corn or from the ooey-gooey barbecue sauce on the ribs. The food remained hot and the plate absorbed and conducted it well with no discomfort whatsoever as I walked around, palm plate in one hand, a rib in the other.

The next morning, just out of curiosity, I ate my cereal out of a palm leaf bowl. Again, the material held fast -- no sagging, no leaking.

What's interesting is that the plates are reusable to a certain extent. Sandwiches and chips, for example, produce a few crumbs that can be wiped with a damp paper towel from the plates. I didn't try reusing the plates after the barbeque meal given how dirty they were.

According to MarxFoods, the plates can be thrown away or even composted after use.

To give you an idea of price, a 25-piece dinner party set that includes round bowls (two sizes), round plates (two sizes) and forks, knives and spoons costs $80.25.

And they must be selling pretty well. Various combinations of the palm-leaf ware is temporarily out of stock, according to the web site.

There's a certain cool factor to the plates, as in telling someone, "You know, these plates are made out of palm leaves."

And the usual response is: "Wow, that's pretty cool."