It seems that industrious husband of mine caught the building bug while creating my raised beds.
We will have a new addition to our back yard next week, a garden shed. The idea is to free up room in the garage so he can build an awesome pantry to store my bulk food items.
The kids are also claiming some of the soon to be available square footage to practice their kick boxing and martial arts. I hope we’ll be able to park the car in there too.
Buying in bulk is one of the ways that I stretch our food dollar. It also saves on our fuel costs by keeping us from supermarket trips. One or two bulk food orders a month bring us all the basics to our front door. That even includes certain toiletry items.
If you are not a member of a food co op try to locate one in your area.
Ours is a regional wholesale supplier that provides goods throughout the west. Although I don’t get wholesale prices ,I do fair better price wise than if I went to the local health food store. And in my area there are not many of those anyway.
Keeping Food Real is all about eating the freshest ,home made food from organic ingredients.
These ingredients can be costly if purchasing them in small packages from the health food store. They can be a little less expensive if you buy them in bulk from a store that has a bin section but I wonder about the sanitation and freshness of bin items. I have smelled rancid brown rice on more than one occasion as well as wondered how many kid fingers had passed before me in the raisin bin.
I prefer o create my own bin type storage in my home. This way I know how fresh my items are and have better control over the sanitation of food handlers.
What Can You Save …..
A 1 pound package of organic basmati rice costs $5.99 at my local grocery store.
At my bulk food buying club..Azure Standard the same brand costs $4.99 for a 2 pound package ($2.50/lb)
If I want to save even more I can purchase a case of12 packages for $49.55 ($2.07/lb)
Or I can purchase a 5 lb bag for $10.60 ($2.12/lb)
Or a single 25 lb bag for $45.70 ($1.83/lb)
Since I have a nice supply of food grade storage buckets with cool Gamma “spinny” lids I get the 25 lb bag! For long term storage I would take further measures. I will cover that in a later post. 
Rice isn’t the only thing that you can save on by buying in bulk. I stock up when the price is low on all my grocery staples.
I am excited that I am going to have a pantry specially built for my food storage needs. But I have always kept food even when we lived in an apartment. We all have to eat so it’s only prudent to make sure that we can.
I would LOVE to see pictures of YOUR food storage solutions…. BIG or Small… send them to me judith@thekitchencounterculture.com I ‘ll feature them in a future post..
Keep Food REAL !
Judith
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