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Buying in bulk and storing it?
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So I love buying in bulk and for the most part my favoirte place to do so it Azure Standard. You save so much money and then it’s just on hand which might be my personal favorite part.
Where else do you like to buy in bulk and what do you buy?
Do you think buying wheat berries and grinding saves verse’s buying the flour?
What do you use to store your items in? Like flour I’m using new 5 gallon buckets from Menards! But I can’t seem to find a good fit for beans, & spices (this cabinet falls out at me AHHH).
My local co-op is nice and all but they don’t give a good deal compared to buying straight from someone. Here are some things I’d like to buy in bulk more rice(large quantities), vanilla beans, and olives (we love to snack on these and so healthy).
Thanks Misty
Misty,
We buy bulk of some items (grains, rice, beans, flax seed) I just recieved my first order of vanilla beans which I have stored unopened in my desk drawer 😉
I do not recommend grinding your grain until you are ready to use it, or grind small extra amounts and store in the freezer, to retain nutritional benefits. We just have 2 shelves of large buckets that we store food in. We actually need about 2 more, but don’t have room. Right now our bag of pinto beans is rolled up and on a shelf. Rice is in large plastic jugs (I’m working on replacing with glass) in a cabinet. Flax Seed is in large mason jars on the back of a shelf.
When we remodel our kitchen this winter I am hoping to find a design for a spice cabinet that will hold all of our daughter’s herbal harvests and also the spices we buy.
I agree buying bulk has many benefits, but it is a challenge finding a place to store the food, and to make it easily accessiable.
🙂
I use the buckets and gamma lids you can order from Azure. I store my wheat berries, rice, beans, white flour (yes, yes, I do still use white flour too…), rolled oats, steel cut oats, and whatever else will fit in a bucket in those things WITH the gamma lids because they screw on and off and are much more friendly than the “just try and pry me open” lids that usually go on those big buckets. My kitchen is tiny, so all of my buckets have found a happy home in my bedroom. Not real fashionable, but it’s functional. If I know I’ll be using a lot of something in, say, a week, I’ll get a bunch out of my bedroom and put it into a smaller container in the kitchen. And I second the mason jars-and they’re pretty with different colored things in them! Flax, millet, beans, popcorn, etc… But for storing the “bulk” of it, I keep in in our bedroom
LillyLou
Can’t you buy bulk rice from Azure, too? I buy my grains, rice and beans from my UNFI co-op.
I store my rice and beans in the same 5 gall. buckets, w/gamma lids, in which I store my grain seed. I grind it when I need it and put it in glass jars w/air tight lids (out of the sun). If you want to store more flour at a time, grind it then put in the freezer in bags. I store my popcorn in a glass jar. I inhereited many glass jars from my grandmother, but if I hadn’t I also say yes on creative uses for mason jars; the 1/2 gall. jars are most useful.
I store my flax seed in a glass jar in the fridge, as well as my opened yeast (I store the extra yeast packages in the freezer-they last 5 years or more; I’m on my last yeast package and it’s from 2000).
Yes, buying the groats are definitely more economical than buying the flour; plus healthier.
Rachel
I have lots of food stored lots of different ways. Yes, I buy wheat, and leave it as wheat until I need it, then I grind it. I do the same with corn, oats, barley, etc. I store many things in the plastic buckets. I make sure to have sealable gamma rings and if it will be for a long time, I also put in oxygen absorbers. I get those the same places I get my buckets. I find several places to buy supplies–a local Amish store, an online carrier like Emergency Essentials or Montana Wheat.
I also have some food sealed in Mylar bags. I have to confess I don’t like these–I’ve heard they are not 100% mouseproof and also some food tastes funny after coming out of them.
I have LOTS of food in #10 cans. Excepting stuff I have VERY high quantities of, like wheat, I keep most things in these. They are practical, inexpensive, easy to use. Easy to stack. Our church has a #10 can sealer, so all I need is the bulk food I purchase, and the cans, lids and oxygen absorbers and I can store anything dry. I use plastic lining bags for very powdery things like milk powder.
We have food in our basement, we have food under the beds (in fact our twin beds the box springs rests ON pallets of #10 cans) we have tables made up of food buckets, we have food in the closets, we have food on shelves up under the ceiling. Our friends *hate* to help us move because we have so much food and so many books. LOL You can make a coffee table out of #10 cans. In one house we lived in, one bedroom was bigger than we needed and oddly shaped, so we stacked boxes of #10 cans of food all along one wall then hung curtains over it. Our egress window in the basement has “stair steps” leading up to it–made of 5 gallon buckets.
Rachel – rice – from Azure I can’t seem to find it in larger than 5lb bags? At least not the brown? Maybe I’m looking wrong.
What are these gamma lids? I will go find out! I use a lot of old pickel jars, olive jars from pizza restraunts that will give them to me for free!!
But I need a better something for the bigger things.
What about the spices? Things you need daily but that are smaller? Do you still use mason jars? What else
We buy short grain organic brown rice in 12 1/2 pounds bags for $12.59 from Costco, but Azure sells both long and short Lundberg organic brown rice for $33 for 25lbs… https://www.azurestandard.com/shop/search?page=2&q=Brown+rice&submit=
Gamma lids are screw-on lids with a gasket made for plastic buckets. We use food grade 5-gallon buckets (#2 on bottom of bucket indicates a bpa-free food grade plastic) with gamma lids for most things like legumes and grains. We originally bought our gamma lids from http://freckleface.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/gammaseals.html. Azure sells gamma lids as well https://www.azurestandard.com/shop/search?q=Gamma&submit=
We also reuse pickle jars. Most of our gallon pickle jars were free from a local German bakery.
I buy the spices from my co-op (or you can order from Forntier) in bulk; 1 lb. bags. I have saved glass spice jars from past purchasing to refill with the bulk bought spices; then I reseal with my Foodsaver any spice remaining and keep in a cool, dark place. If you can get bulk coffee at a price you like, get the beans and store in a cool/dark place, safe from air and moisture.
You can also order tea and spices in bulk from Mountain Rose herbs or Frontier; or they be available through Azure. I can get Frontier through my UNFI.
http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/
This explains the lids, though I would shop around for best prices: http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/gamma_seal_lids_gamma_lid_products.aspx
I’m surprised you can’t get anything bigger from Azure. Walton Feed is another bulk supplier adn they have brown rice in bulk; that’s just one of several.
Surely there’s another co-op delivery close to you. What state are you in?
Rachel
I’m im MN and I see a link now for the larger rice thanks Janell, where have I been looking??? Oh well now I have it.
And Rachel thanks that just reminded me I could use all those old jelly jars for the current spices I use.
Yeah, rice! Thanks Janell for finding that for her. That’s the kind I buy from UNFI and at just a slightly lower price.
Rachel
I get some stuff from UNFI, too. I have bought spices and left them in their containers and placed in a bucket to protect from light and moisture.
I wanted to chime and save you all some $$$. If you are using food grade buckets, go to Walmart, grocery stores with bakeries, bakeries, or donut shops. Ask for the frosting buckets, and make sure there is a rubber ring in the lid. IF there is, ask them if you can have them. Most give them away for free since they have to throw them away anyway, Walmart has started charging $1 for rinsing it out. You will have to clean them, but a bit of time (and soaking) can save you tons of money. The buckets work well – we are eating grain that we have stored that way for at least 10 years with no problems. (We did tuck a few bay leaves on the top of the grain just in case, because bugs hate bay leaves).
On another note: be selective. Last year my sister did get some that had a strong orange frosting in it and the smell didn’t come out all the way. My flour has a orangey flavor and smell. I am donating those to a family who has a farm, LOL. =) But, in over 15 years, this was the first bucket we had a problem with. And I won’t use one of those again. Yuck.
Yes, I do the same thing regarding Wal-Mart’s buckets. I use them for my chicken feed supplies. I haven’t tried to put a gamma seal lid on one yet for our people food.
Have you done that yet? Did it work?
Rachel
The seals that come inside it are fine. They either have a black or white rubber seal that you can see when you look in there. Those are the ones I have used for 15 years. They are fine, as long as the rubber ring is not cut and the lid shuts tight. =) I do have a bucket opener that we use to pry off the lids. I got mine from Emergency Essentials (I think, I’ll look it up if you need me to).
I just looked at the gamma seals…jeez, everytime I am on this forum I add more to my wishlist! =) Those look great, but I have never tried them. It would be easier to get to your food I am assuming (no prying) and they say it will work for a standard bucket, hmmmm. I’m interested in knowing as well if any one has tried it… (but at the price of one, I’ll be using the ones I have for a while). Sigh. =)
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