Is Bag Balm a specifically New England thing?

[xiphias]

There's this product, a chapped-skin ointment, called Bag Balm. It's sold in a green tin cubical can, and is a petroleum jelly/lanolin mix with 8-hydroxy quinoline sulfate in it. I have no idea what 8-hydroxy quinoline sulfate is, but it works.

Bag Balm was designed for -- and is still used for -- protecting and healing dairy cows' udders from chapping. But it works great on humans, too.

I'd recently run out, and had been looking for the stuff, which I've intermittently found at various drugstores, supermarkets, and occasionally at Costco. But nobody had it in stock. Then I had an insight, and went to the Essex County Agricultural Co-op. Which I drive past whenever I drive Lis to work, anyway. I went in and asked the kid behind the cash register by the door if they might have Bag Balm. He reached behind himself without even looking and handed me a can.

Yep. It's a New England farmers' product. I don't know why I didn't start out looking in the New England farmers' store.

Edited to Add: I guess a followup question would be, "Does the availability of Bag Balm correspond more closely with the availability of farmers, of hippies, or of hipsters?" I'm going to guess that it correlates strongly positively with with farmers, significantly with hippies, some of which would be due to the hippie/farmer "organic/natural/localvore/free-range" overlap, and not at all with hipsters.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

There is a product called Udder Cream http://www.udderlysmooth.com/ which I have never used but is available as well.

[horizonchaser.livejournal.com]

Bag Balm is awesome stuff, we get it here in California at the grocery stores and pharmacies. Loma Linda University Hospital uses it. It's thick, it stays where you put it, it's antibiotic.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Is it antibiotic? Cool! I just thought it was a protectant.

[rosefox]

Yep, it's fungicidal and microbicidal.

http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/molecule-of-the-week/archive/8-hydroxyquinoline-sulfate.html
http://www.pesticideinfo.org/Detail_Chemical.jsp?Rec_Id=PC34299

[tournevis.livejournal.com]

It's been a thing in Canada for decades.

[tylik.livejournal.com]

It was pretty common in Western Washington. (Can't speak for East of the mountains, though that's generally a more rural area...)

[bkwrrm-tx.livejournal.com]

When we lived on the farm in Minnesota, Bag Balm was indispensable for both the cows udders and our hands. Loved it!

[boxofdelights]

You can buy it in farm supply stores in Colorado. I don't think the hippie food co-op carries it, though they do have many other skin care products.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

IIRC, The Vermont Country Store used to sell it mail order

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Vermont Country Store still has it, I just got their catalogue today in the mail.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

The last place I saw it was at a Target in upscale Edina, Minnesota.

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

It has a different formulation than Udderly Smooth, which I used to use sometimes when I could still find it in stores--Trader Joes might still have it but I haven't looked for it in a while. I think the question becomes, do non-farmer retailers know what to do to introduce these things to non-cow-owning customers?

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Paula used to get hers in farm supply stores in Texas. After we moved to Maryland she ended up buying it from the Vermont Country Store catalog.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

You might enjoy this thread. (Also, check the dates on the comments as you go along!)

[seventorches.livejournal.com]

Nope, you can buy it at normal grocery stores and pharmacies in Texas, Oregon, and Arizona.

[sarianna.livejournal.com]

No idea whether it's a specifically New England thing, but it's always been around as far as I can remember--then again, I grew up in Peabody and now live in Greenfield, so it's totally common in MA. :)

[yardlong.livejournal.com]

I found it on Amazon! Looks like good stuff to keep on hand, though I've never used it or heard of it.

[ellettra.livejournal.com]

Strongly with farmers, I would guess, and hippies.

[sproutntad.livejournal.com]

My first thought was "I have some in Florida so it must be available here" and then I realized I've had the tin since I moved down from Mass. So that doesn't help. Kent knows what it is and has used it growing up in Florida. And down here we can get it at TSC (Tractor Supply Company)

[cos]

I'm used to finding Bag Balm at CVSes and Walgreens. And yes I do think it's more widely used (and known) in New England.

[stitchwhich.livejournal.com]

In Virginia Beach & Norfolk, we find it in fabric stores and knitting shops more often than pharmacies. I hadn't looked in agricultural stores, so don't know if they stock it.