Bulk Buys: Organic Strawberries & Almonds

I have been busy in my kitchen putting away bulk purchases the past few days. Buying in bulk is something we've just started doing to become more green...and save some money, too! Buying in bulk reduces packaging waste, saves on fuel costs, and is generally cheaper than buying in smaller quantities. Not to mention it means we always have food on hand as well as less trips to the grocery store, and with a 2 year old and a 7 month old, that is a blessing...for me AND the other shoppers! :)

While I have been buying in bulk from Amazon.com over the past 2 months, I had my first experiences with buying in bulk directly from farmers this week. Buying directly from farmers ensures you get the freshest products, reduces fuel costs, and generally saves you money since you eliminate the middle man.

Earlier this week, I got strawberries. Not just any strawberries. Organic, hydroponically grown strawberries...about 50 pounds of them! We use strawberries a lot in hot cereals and in smoothies, so I wanted to buy a bunch while they were fresh and freeze them. Fifty pounds of strawberries should last us a really long time! :)

Now, here in North Carolina, strawberries won't be ready for picking for another month or two. But Florida strawberries are ready NOW! My parents were just down in Florida visiting relatives, so I asked them to look around for an organic strawberry farm while they were there. Why organic? Because strawberries are on the Shoppers Guide to Pesticides' Dirty Dozen list! This list details the 12 produce items you should always buy organic because of their high pesticide load when grown non-organically.

Well, my parents not only found me organic strawberries, but hydroponically grown ones as well at the Parke Family HydroFarms. While hydroponic strawberries weren't a requirement of mine, it definitely was an interesting experience for my parents since the plants are all grown in vertically arranged pots, so there was no bending or kneeling required to pick the strawberries! Because my parents were kind enough to pick the strawberries themselves, they saved me about $50! So, what does 50 pounds of organic strawberries cost? About $100. Because of the quantity and because they picked them, the strawberries cost $1.99 a pound. That's cheaper than non-organic strawberries in the grocery stores!

When I heard my parents were able to find organic strawberries, I searched on Craigslist to find a FoodSaver. I was able to find a Vac 900 with 2 rolls of bags, a few pre-made bags, and a canister for $35. I figured this way I'd be able to vacuum seal the berries to keep them as fresh as possible. This was a pretty good deal considering 2 rolls of bags cost upwards of $19.99 + tax by themselves.

So, late on Tuesday night, my hand-picked strawberries arrived. Everyone was tired, so we waited until the morning to get them put away.

On Wednesday morning, I got to work on the strawberries while my mom played with the kids (read: kept them out of my hair). I had researched on the internet the best way to freeze strawberries, so I had a rough plan in mind. I think what I did ended up working really well.

First I topped (cut off the green top of the strawberry) and washed them. I had 5 flats total and I did one flat at a time. After I washed a small batch of them, I laid them out to dry on flour sack towels. Once I completed an entire flat, I hand placed them on cookie sheets lined with wax paper so that none were touching. Then I stuck them in my mostly empty garage freezer (another great Craigslist purchase...3 year old Frigidaire commercial freezer for $75) to harden. While they were freezing, I started on the next batch. After about an hour or so, I removed the frozen strawberries from the freezer and vacuum sealed them in FoodSaver bags. Ideally now I'll be able to open the bag and remove single strawberries instead of huge clumps!

So, from the "fields" to my freezer in about 24 hours!!


My second large bulk purchase arrived today: truly raw organic almonds!


We'll use them for almond butter, trail mixes, nut toppings, and raw desserts! Yum! In trying to learn more about the raw diet several weeks ago, I learned that most almonds labeled as raw, really aren't. A California law passed a few years ago requires that farmers steam pasteurize their almonds before they are sold, though they can still be labeled as raw. Unfortunately, this process "kills" the enzymes in the almonds and they are no longer living foods. If you soak these steam pasteurized almonds (labeled as raw) they will not sprout, like truly raw almonds should. The California law does have a loophole though; it does not specify that almonds sold directly to consumers be pasteurized. So, if you want truly raw almonds, you have to either buy imported almonds from Spain, or buy directly from a California almond farmer. I chose to do the latter.

After much research, I settled on Anderson Almonds.


My local health foods grocery quoted me a price of $12.99 for organic almonds (which aren't even really raw). Anderson Almonds sells their organic almonds shipped to your door for $8-10 a pound AND they are really, truly raw AND shipping is included in that price! If you order 5-10 pounds, you pay $10/lb and if you order 25 lbs you pay $8/lb. I had a few questions before ordering, so I emailed them and received fast, courteous replies. When I was ready to order, I called and talked to the owner himself. I gave him my credit card number to pay for the 25lbs of almonds ($200 even). He told me they normally take about 6 days to arrive, and on day 6, guess what UPS dropped off at my door?? That's right, my organic, raw almonds!!

I noticed right away upon opening the box that these almonds were carefully graded. There were virtually zero broken, cracked, or chipped almonds...very unlike the bulk bin almonds I had been buying from Whole Foods which, although "whole" were most definitely not!



I immediately went to work to freeze my almonds. I like to store my almonds for daily use in the refrigerator in a 1/2 gallon mason jar. So I figured out how many cups of almonds it took to fill up my 1/2 gallon jar: 8. Then I got out my measuring cups; I used the 2-cup one as a scoop to fill up the 4-cup one.


I put roughly 8-cups of almonds into each food saver bag...


...and vacuum sealed.


I ended up with 11 bags which immediately were placed in my freezer.

I can't wait to try them, but figured I'd finish using my not-really-raw raw almonds from the grocery store first. I'll be sure to update you on them later and show off some recipes using them!

Here are the 25 pounds of vacuum sealed organic raw almonds in my freezer:

I now have an entire shelf of organic strawberries and most of a shelf of organic raw almonds!



Now, off to enjoy the rest of this unseasonably warm Friday evening...and maybe munch on a few fresh organic strawberries I hid in the back of my refrigerator!! ;)