"Why'd you buy 75 kg of potatoes Kev?"
"Why not!?!"
Last Friday I popped over to a local farm after playgroup to buy some potatoes. I normally buy a couple of bags at a time, but this time they had three varieties to try out so I decided to buy a bag of each to compare. I'm the same when I buy flour - big bags are the only way to go.
Three bags like this will take us a long time to get through, but stored in a cold frost free place they'll last just fine.
Buying direct from the farm is so much cheaper than buying from the supermarket and knowing that there is a few months worth of spuds ready to cook and eat is great as well.
So far we've only tried Nectar, which is a variety I haven't heard of before, the sign on the farm office door was right though, they make a fine jacket (baked) potato and best of all they all seemed to be a good size (much easier preparing meals for me!).
I'm also thinking about pressure canning some of these potatoes as I think it would be great to have some near ready meals sat on the shelf waiting to go - I'll let you know if I do it.
What do you like to buy in big quantities?
What do you find is cheapest to buy direct?
Flour, Pasta, Rice and sugar I buy in bulk to store a lot cheaper than messing around with little bags, when we go to fruit and veg place we buy a net of carrots, for the goats and dog but I will use some as well, I have canned some of the carrots before again handy to have on the shelf, if ever I get baking potatoes I cook them all at once and freeze the surplus.
ReplyDeleteI am thinking about arranging some fruit-and-veg storage space in our cold garage so that we can do the same. I'm thinking potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions and crates of apples!
ReplyDeleteFYI, sweet potatoes do not like to be cold. We store them in a box near our boiler where it is reasonably warm all winter. They keep fine there. Also, sweet potato skins are very tender. Handle with care to make them keep longer.
DeleteWe buy flour, sugar, and oats in 50 pound bags-organic-from a local Amish store. SOOOOOOOO much cheaper than buying from the grocery store.
ReplyDeleteWe are the same as Dawn, flour, pasta and rice. Where I used to live I was part of a buying coop. There isnt one around here.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing we buy direct, are eggs from the lady down the road.
I'm not sure why (the security thing?), but I simply love to buy in bulk. It's certainly more economical, of course. Nearly anything we use regularly whether it be a food product or toilet paper (!), I buy in bulk. Of course, when you grow a big garden you automatically harvest and process in bulk. Some folks say they can't buy in bulk because of a storage issue. Pshaw, I say. You can get cases of non-perishable products under your bed or the floor of a closet. Except for in very warm climates, winter storage of food that needs to be kept cool can go in a cool basement or garage corner.
ReplyDeleteI bought 150 pounds of pirates for $36. I ordered a new pressure cooker ( I'm at 4300 feet for elevation). It should be here Friday. I will be pressure cooking some.
ReplyDeleteI used to buy big sacks of Basmati Rice, but these days I just buy several small packs when they're on special offer.
ReplyDeleteGreat buy Kevin! I was given a box of yellow fleshed potatoes a few years ago (apparently unmarketable as they all had scab). The flesh was perfectly fine so I peeled them and pressure canned them. I must admit it was a bit of work to peel and chop them into uniform sizes, but the end result was WELL worth the effort! Those quart jars of golden cubes were perfect for pan fried potatoes and it was so QUICK to get a meal on the table. We made "chip and egg" with them quite a lot (everyone's favourite way to eat them).
ReplyDeleteBargain and well worth forking out for. It take hubby and I a year get through that amount of spuds.
ReplyDeleteOh I wish we could buy big bags of potatoes, but the weather over here in South Australia just isn't conducive to it
ReplyDeleteWe do buy the normal flours etc in bulk, but I also love buying our dry herbs and spices in bulk too. We barbecue a fair bit so those little jars from the supermarket wouldn't last a day!
Oh I wish we could buy big bags of potatoes, but the weather over here in South Australia just isn't conducive to it
ReplyDeleteWe do buy the normal flours etc in bulk, but I also love buying our dry herbs and spices in bulk too. We barbecue a fair bit so those little jars from the supermarket wouldn't last a day!
Definitely worth keeping food in the larder in case of hard times, I think of it as an investment.
ReplyDelete