BULK BUYING FOOD TIPS & HOW TO STORE WHAT YOU BUY

we grow and preserve a lot of our food but there are staple items that we need to buy if we buy it in bulk we can get good quality for cheaper while saving time not running to the grocery store we get a lot of questions about how this works and there are a few things that you need to know before bulk buying so today i'm going to show you what bulk buying looks like for us of course we always try to buy locally directly from farmers but there are a lot of things that we just can't get around here so we love participating in a buying co-op called azure standard there are several different buying co-ops out there but azure standard is a family business that is committed to quality and healthy foods so we really like buying from them but shopping this way is very different than just running to the store and grabbing what you want you order and pay for what you're buying online and it is delivered by semi truck to a drop point near you you'll need to go to pick up what you order when it arrives in the truck azure has options for large quantities like 50 pound bags of wheat or oats or small quantities like single bars of my favorite chocolate because we don't need to buy that in bulk they also have amazing all-natural cleaning supplies organic produce and even garden plant starts in the season we usually use azure to stock up on grains like wheat oats and rice they even have an amazing selection of ancient grains and gluten-free products we get both household and animal salts in bulk we get oils like olive oil and sweeteners like molasses from them the bulk prices are good and they are really careful about quantity oh and don't forget their organic raw apple cider vinegar i buy that by the five gallon bucket once you have all of your items in your cart you're ready to check out and pay and get ready for your order you'll have to watch for an email from azure regarding the delivery time because you'll want to be at the drop a little early to be ready to meet the truck once you get your bulk items home it's really important that you store them properly one of the biggest mistakes that people make when bulk buying is to leave the food inside the original packaging it comes in in most cases you need to change out the packaging and put it in something different the reason for this is that if you're buying bulk grains or anything that is dry and they come in paper bags those bags are not going to protect your item from insects from rodents from moisture or from any of the other things that could happen to that grain it's also not necessarily going to keep it free of dust so you want to get your items stored properly so that they last for the longest amount of time now the first thing that you need to do is decide whether you're storing something for short term where you're going to be using it kind of constantly or for long-term use where you're going to be setting it aside and maybe it won't be touched for at least three months up to several years you're going to store things differently depending on whether it's short-term storage or long-term storage now if you've just bought something in a large quantity and you want to be able to use it right away in your kitchen you just need to get it into a usable form that can be a five gallon bucket that's stored near the kitchen it could be maybe smaller jars or you know something that's a little more usable than a giant amount if you bought a five gallon bucket of apple cider vinegar you're really going to want to pour it off into something smaller so that it's easy for you to use when you get it i love using these half gallon jars with the plastic storage lids i didn't grab any of those today but these make it really easy to use and to actually pour and to have in a smaller quantity so you'll want to get things packaged into usable amounts for your kitchen now if you're wanting to store something longer term the best bet is to get it into some sort of a container where you can lock it down airtight now you really want to be aware of keeping pests out of it you want to keep it away from extreme temperature differences and hot and cold because that up and down temperature motion really degrades the nutrient value of the foods in it and you really want to keep it out of the bright sun so let's talk about some of the storage options my favorite are food grade buckets like this with something that's called a gamma seal lid here you can see the the label there this is a brand new one i haven't used and the great thing about it is it has a rubber gasket in here so that it is actually creates an airtight watertight seal but then it has a screw top lid i don't have this one put on there so i'll show you on this one i don't have enough to be able to open it up there so it has a screw top lid so that makes it really easy to get in and out of without a lot of force now to put a gamma seal lid onto a five gallon or in this case a two gallon bucket you're going to want something called a rubber mallet and you just go around and you just hammer it right on all the way around until it's completely settled on now that gives you an airtight seal on your bucket so that's a really good thing and of course it gives you easy access in and out what it doesn't do though is it's not going to dry anything in a moist environment so if you're storing dry grains or dry goods for a long period of time you may want to get some packets of desiccant now those are just packets of little bits of silica gel that you can just throw in and it'll absorb the moisture i really like those because you can reuse them time after time by just heating them up in an oven to dry them back out and then you can throw them back in now another thing we need to be concerned about especially with your dry grains is insects all dry goods have the potential to have some insect eggs in them and it's very likely they do this is one of the reasons we want to make sure our food is stored properly so that we don't end up causing some sort of an infestation in your pantry like pantry moths once you get your food in to your buckets it's really simple to get some diatomaceous earth and just sprinkle a little bit over your food it's completely food grade but it'll kill off anything that hatches inside your bucket before it has a chance to root the goods inside your bucket or to breed so you'll want to make sure to protect from insects now always choose a good location to store your dry goods if you have a cool storage space that of course is best but i don't mean cold they don't need to be frozen and in the case of dried grains or flowers sugars or anything else that's shelf stable they don't need to be refrigerated even but if they can stay on the cooler side they're going to last with high nutrient density a lot longer properly stored dried bulk goods like this can last for up to 20 years and still be good for eating sometimes even longer but the trick is in storing it properly now another tool that you might really want to have on hand when you're buying bulk foods is this and this is a bucket opener now it's not for these gamma seal lids but if you get goods that come in a five gallon bucket you're going to want to be able to open that bucket and this is essentially a prying device to do that if you've ever tried opening a bucket without one of these you'll understand exactly why you want it thankfully azure standard carries both of those these things in their supplies department along with the gamma steel lids and the different size buckets they also carry different sized jars and other packing containers so that not only can you get your bulk foods but you can properly store it so you can enjoy them for years just make sure you get it out of its original packaging you get it into something that's meant to last for a long time and is going to protect your food so that you can have great use out of your bulk foods for years to come we love getting to buy foods in bulk we love getting to get shop just once a month and get a big delivery so that we don't have to spend our time going to the grocery store waiting in lines and getting little packages that cost a lot more enjoy you guys

Channel: Homesteading Family

Views: 152,076

Keywords: Homesteading, Self-Sufficiency, Sustainable, Living, Permaculture, Homesteading Family, Food Preservation, bulk buying, bulk buying food, buying in bulk, food storage, bulk food, save money on food, grocery tips, stock your pantry, save money on groceries, how to save money, how to save money on groceries, long term food storage, emergency food supply, buying in bulk food, buying in bulk tips, food storage containers, food storage ideas, food storage buckets

Id: m5M_XUgWu2I

Length: 9min 46sec (586 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 15 2020