Bulk Foods Online

EatDrinkShopCook: Digesting the Whole Foods experience

Whether you agree with it or not, you've got to laugh at the "Urban Dictionary" definition of Whole Paycheck: "A nickname for Whole Foods Market, the now-famous purveyor of (rather high-priced) organic and fresh foods and sundries. As in, `I'm headed to Whole Paycheck to pick up a dozen organic, cage-free, free-range, vegetarian-fed eggs and some sustainably farmed, sprouted quinoa; good thing I just completed that second mortgage.' "

No doubt about it; clean eating comes at a price. While people may take shots at the checkout bill from Whole Foods, there are certain things that are worth the trip (and the extra cash). The new Fairfield store, which opened last week at Grasmere Avenue and Kings Highway East, has an edge on the other Whole Foods locations in the region.

Fairfield is the first of the chain's stores in the Northeast to offer a kiosk where you can go online and interact with others in the food community. This is a partnership with Food 52, the web collaboration between food writers Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs.

Also, the store employs Michelle Ryan as the store's cooking coach. She will demonstrate how to cook using the Whole Foods theme, "Buy a little, make a little."

While the bulk items alone are enough to make the trip to the new Whole Foods Market (where else can you find soldier, cattle, anasazi and cranberry beans?), there are eight other particularly worthwhile things you might want to take home in your organically grown, free-trade, recycled hemp bags.

1. Kalustyan's spices: Based in Manhattan, Kalustyan's offers an endless array of specialty foods, most notably spices. The Fairfield Whole Foods has a section dedicated to pre-mixed Kalustyan spices, such as Moroccan Tagine Spice, Tabil Tunisian Seven Spice and Egyptian Spice. Beats the pants off garlic powder any day.

I Should Be In The Kitchen: Buying in Bulk to Save Money

With gas prices rising, it seems that even people that weren't buying in bulk before are considering it and will now buy bulk products. If you're going to buy bulk and haven't before, you might want to start out small unless you are working on getting a years supply of food like LDS families do. (For more information on that, check out the LDS Food Storage Calculator ). If you are looking for organic or locally sourced ingredients, you can usually find a co-op type farm that delivers on a route on a specific delivery time line. For the North West, check out Azure Standard . You will have to order a minimum amount if you are not a part of a preexisting drop, so call to see if there is one in your area. If you're not in the NW, a Google search should be able to find you a co-op that delivers in your area, or ask around in your local organic food store. Buying bulk food online is going to cost you a pretty penny in shipping, and if not in shipping, then in packaging. A lot of it will be packaged as "emergency food". If you want it to be as long lasting as the "emergency food" that is selling on the websites, there are a few things you can do, but you will need to package it well. Most of the "emergency food" is in 5 gallon buckets or "super pails" (which I think are 6 gallon buckets) with the actual food in a Mylar bag and an oxygen absorber. So all you need to do to keep your bulk food you buy from the store as fresh is put it is buckets with Mylar bags with and oxygen absorber. NEVER put an oxygen absorber in with sugar unless you want it to be a brick. When you seal the bags, you need to make sure that as much oxygen is out as possible. Google around for more information, I am not an expert on this stuff. If you are going to use your food in a reasonable amount of time you can just put it in buckets for storage. You can either buy buckets, which are a little pricey (you need FOOD GRADE plastic, DO NOT use anything that held anything toxic such as paint, primer, paint thinner, chemicals, etc) or you can go to your local bakery and ask them if they have any extra buckets. They will usually have extra frosting buckets laying around. It helps to call ahead and have them save them for you. Sometimes they will charge you $1-2 for each bucket, but at the store buckets go for about $5-7 so you're still saving money. If you don't want to pay, try calling a different bakery. If the lids they don't provide you with don't work, you can buy lids. Lids are cheaper than buckets.

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