Best real food and food storage deals from unlikely sources… or at least, or not where I typically think of going when I first started building up our food storage and moving to a real food kitchen.
While our goal is to grow as much of our own food as possible, we still go grocery shopping. We raise all of our own meat and eggs, and about 50% of our vegetables and fruit, but it's impossible to raise all of your own food and never purchase or barter from an outside source. Even back in the pioneer days this wasn't achieved.
Listen below to Top Real Food & Food Storage Deals from Unlikely Sources, Episode #133 of the Pioneering Today Podcast, where we teach families how to grow, preserve and cook their own food using old-fashioned skill sets and wisdom to create a natural self-sufficient home, with, or without, the homestead.
Almost a decade ago, after my health scare and learning about the state of our food, (check out the 3 part series on How I Healed My Stomach Acid and Ulcers Naturally Part 1 here) I drastically overhauled the foods we ate and the ingredients I use to cook with. But it can be overwhelming trying to decide where and what to buy.
Time & Money Saving Tips on Real Food Shopping
I'm not a couponer. Most of the foods we purchase don't have coupons because they're whole foods (I find most coupons are for processed foods) and I try to only go to town for grocery shopping a couple of times a month, which means I'm not going to run from store to store just to save a few pennies. By the time I've spent the extra gas and time, I don't come out ahead.
I purchase the large majority of our store bought food from a handful of places. First on my list is Costco. In the past five years they've really increased the amount of organic food in their stores. I am not endorsed or sponsored by Costco in any way shape or form (but if they're reading this, I'm totally up for it), I just happen to love their prices and the way they treat their employees, members, and vendors.
Costco is a big corporation, but I have friends who have worked their for years. They give great bonuses and pay their employees well compared to similar size chain grocery stores. I also love that they've even purchased land for their small organic farmers when they needed help to increase their crops. They don't use bags, which helps cut down on their footprint, even though the food is packaged, not having bags helps cut down on that end.
Real whole foods & food storage I purchase from Costco
- Extra Virgin Coconut Oil (I keep two on hand at all times, the one we're using, and my back stock)
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Avocado Oil
- Grassfed Kerrygold Butter (and/or their Organic Butter)
- Grassfed Kerrygold cheese
- Avocados
- Organic sweet potatoes (we're too cold to grow sweet potatoes here)
- Organic evaporated cane juice (I use this as regular sugar in all our baking and canning)
- Organic all-purpose flour (though I grind most of our own flour, I keep a small amount of this on hand for baking)
- Organic coconut flour
- Almond flour
- Organic apple cider vinegar for canning (I make my own apple cider vinegar, but for canning I need tested 5% acidity for safety)
- Organic broccoli (I buy the frozen bags to have on hand for casseroles, soups, or a side for supper)
- Cauliflower
- Organic nuts
- Yeast (when I'm not using my sourdough starter) tip: store your yeast in the fridge or freezer to make it stay viable longer
- Organic tortilla chips (My kids love guacamole and homemade nachos so this is a fairly rare purchase but I love that it's just a few real food ingredients)
- Organic Maple Syrup
I do my best to buy local when I'm not growing it myself, but there are some products I only find online. I will confess, I love Amazon prime and my local UPS driver is a regular at our house.
One of the benefits to ordering from Amazon is I can log in and see how long it takes us to go through each food item. I try to have at least 3 to 6 months of non-perishables on hand, if not a year. This really helps me gauge how much to purchase with a few clicks.
To find out more about building up your food storage and keeping it organized--> Episode #129 7 Tips to Organize & Build Your Homestead Food Storage & Kitchen
Real Foods I purchase from Amazon (find all of the exact versions I order here)
- Organic cocoa butter (the best white chocolate flavor evah!!)
- Organic Cacao Powder
- Organic Stevia Powder
- Organic Erythritol (I mix the stevia powder with the erythritol for sugar free baking)
- Liquid Stevia extract for drinks and some sauces
- Organic dark chocolate chips (non-GMO, dairy free, soy free, and nut free)
- Organic Spelt berries (ancient grain for grinding my own flour and my pastry flour choice)
- Organic hard white wheat berries (this is my go to for grinding my own bread flour)
- Organic popping corn (I buy 9 pounds at once, it comes in a case of 6 bags)
My new favorite coffee (the only coffee I've been able to brew hot and not have upset my stomach in over 8 years!)
It's organic and shade grown, which means less acid and not served with a side of pesticides (coffee is one of the most absorbent crops and heavily sprayed). The cool thing is, they roast it and ship it to you the same day. You can't get much fresher than that and it's a local independent company, I've been to their plant and my first soap making teacher, Karen, works there.
You can get whole beans or ground. I do a bit of both. On really early mornings, we use the ground coffee… aka when I forget to grind it the night before so the grinder doesn't wake up the kids.
You can get 1/2 off your first box here (scroll down to see the 1/2 off box sizes and special) –> 1/2 off organic and shade grown coffee
How long are whole coffee beans good for in food storage
Having coffee in your food storage is smart, but make sure you go with whole beans. They'll last longer than already ground, but you'll need to make sure they're in an airtight sealed container and not exposed to light. Taking these measures they'll be at their freshest for 3 to 4 months. This is one area I keep a back up on, but don't try to amass a year supply of.
There you have it, my best food storage deals and best place to buy real food. Do you have any to add?
