After all this talk about how you should eat real food and stay away from not-real food…many of you are asking WHERE I get all of my real food and how I find it to be affordable. I decided my Frugal Friday post for this week would offer some suggestions about great real food sources!
Now of course, I only live in one place. So, I don’t know all of the real food sources you might have in your community, and every community offers different things. I’ll just tell you what I do…and hopefully it will at least give you some ideas!
1. I grow as much produce as I can and preserve it for the winter. (Check out this post about putting up corn and this post for putting up green beans…then stay tuned for more posts about putting up more produce. It IS that time of year when I always have a very achy back from freezing and canning foods for hours. Ah, but I love it!)
2. There are many things that I can’t grow myself that others around me are growing…and they are happy for me to take their extra produce off of their hands. So might I suggest to you: Mooching is a great way to gain access to awesome, often organic produce. MOOCH as much as you can. Woohoo for mooching. (P.S. Is that the right way to spell mooch?) :)
3. What I can’t grow or mooch…I try to find at our local Farmer’s Market. Often if I buy in bulk from some of the venders, they offer me a discount. LOCAL PRODUCE IS THE BEST!! Supporting local farmers is a great thing to do! Go load up at your Farmer’s Market!!
Okay….that was mostly all about produce. Now, on to my resources for other real foods:
4. Health Food Coops. There are several out there. My favorite by far is Azure Standard. If you’ve hung out here much you’ve heard me talk about them over and over. They don’t service every U.S. state, but they are expanding all the time. They have great customer service and great prices on great foods. They even have organic produce for VERY reasonable prices. Go to their website and check them out. Give them a call and see if there’s a coop near you. If not…talk to them about starting one. That’s what I did. They make things very simple. I love Azure Standard! (Really, they should be paying me to say all these things…)
Here’s a picture of my Azure Standard order this month.
Check out that gallon jar of raw honey!!
I also am a part of a Frontier Coop, which my friend organizes. I order a few times a year from them, mostly spices, vanilla, shampoo and dishwashing stuff. (Soon I’ll post more about the soaps and cleaners we use and where I get them all.)
5. Local Farmers. Oh how I love them. These people work HARD so that I can have fresh free range eggs and chickens, grass fed organic raw milk, grass fed organic hormone free beef and lamb…all for very reasonable prices. I found most of these farmers pretty much by just asking around. But, there’s a great website called Local Harvest which may help you find what local farmers in your area have to offer. Even if the farmers you find through their site don’t have exactly what you’re looking for, they might be a good resource to finding other farmers.
6. Local grocery stores. I don’t have any cool stores like Whole Foods within 90 miles of me (bummer)…but I do find a few organic foods I need at our regular grocery stores and of course at Walmart. And, a couple of years ago I called one of our grocery stores and talked to the produce guy who happily ordered cases of organic produce for me. He even gave the produce to me for a price less than what he would have charged if he would have shelved the items for normal sale. My friends and I then divided up the cases and ordered as often as we needed to. It never hurts to ask!
Okay, that pretty much sums up my sources for the food we eat. Here’s a link to a post about our food budget and break down of what we spent where.
Anybody else have a great suggestion about resources for real food?!
Anna says
Great post… thanks for the tips. I just moved to a new area and am still trying to figure out the best places to shop. Going to go see if there is an Azure Standard coop ’round here. :)
Lisa says
This is great to know that someone else out there really does can & freeze :) we are canning green beans, froze corn, freezing applesauce, freezing salsa peppers until I have enough tomatoes for a batch. freeze brussel sprouts when they come on. shred zucchini and freeze for baking. I always keep my ears open when friends say “my grandpa’s apple trees are ripe and he doesn’t know what to do with them all’ so they were free for the picking, the corn was free for the picking, so yes we depend on friends for some of this that we can’t grow. My DH will go pick Elderberries from a road ditch this weekend so I can make up some jelly and juice-you know this is very good for your immune system. I also give back to the giver some of the finished product or like make an apple pie with the apples, etc. Lisa
Donna says
Great post Laura! Great info!
Gotta check out Local Harvest!
Your gallon of honey and those yummy lookin’ leeks makes my heart skip a beat!
I’m still on the lookout for raw milk…methinks I’m gettin’ closer! I found someone who said ‘momma’ knows someone…so I gotta get mommas #!
There’s also a rawmilk webby that lists suppliers in local areas.
When R U gonna show us a pic of your garden? I love to look at other people’s gardens! And their Azure orders! ;-)
Lynn says
Once again I wish Azure standard was in my area. I have contacted them and they aren’t and don’t have plans as of now to be. :( And since you mentioned getting real with food, you might like my post today about what is in pop,soda, or whatever you all it. The visual I did is pretty gross. Thanks for sharing your sources.
Shay B says
I just left a comment on your Pt. 6 series but I wasn’t sure if you check those since it is an older post. I would like some ideas on how to make little changes to start with. Could you give me some ideas on where to start?
Thanks,
Shay
Jennifer says
I am so enjoying the Getting Real series. I look forward to reading each new post. I hope you will continue with this wonderful series. I also wanted to point out that even if Azure does not have a group in your area, you can order and have it shipped through UPS. I realize they don’t ship all items, but there are some really great deals on other items like grain, flour, oats and oils. It might be worth looking into for some of you ladies. They are not in my area, so paying for shipping is my only option as well.
Andrea Hipfner says
I get so excited and inspired reading your blog. I just went and requested a catalog from Azure and my husband and I will check it out together later.
I am so sick of eating highly processed foods and we’re starting to change that, slowly, but surely.
Keep up the great work!
vicky says
I really love your blog! We’re in the process of all the canning and freezing ourselves. We also have a few apples, grapes & blackberries. No coops here, but wish there was. We are getting chickens and our friends want the eggs. I also read your part about snacks & I have 2 hungry all the time boys myself and have found that if I take a day and make snacks & have them individual they are not always after you for something to eat & they are really good about only getting what they are allowed to.
Kate says
What a great post Laura. You are such an inspiration to me as we make slow changes in our eating habits. I’m always looking for new sources to find the food that I really want us to be eating. It gets discouraging at times, but you’ve exposed me to some options I never thought of.
Also, thanks so much for that link to Local Harvest. I found some things closer to us that I never knew about! I’m really excited to look into them further.