Azure Standard is a great resource for buying high quality natural and organic products for great prices. They are a family run business out of The Dalles, Oregon, and from what I have heard they are also a Christian company (they sell Christian books in their catalog, I noticed as well), and they distribute to all over the NW, and Midwest now. You can become a drop spot or connect with others in your area which provides free shipping. They also ship UPS anywhere. My family and I have done the research, and their prices are significantly cheaper than Whole Foods/Wild Oats and Fred Meyer’s Nutrition Center. It is comparable to Trader Joe’s, but then again they carry a lot more products then my local TJ’s.
On request of my friend, Lylah, I have decide to post some of my recommendations of items that I buy from them. Their catalog and website is packed with resources, so it can be intimidating for a first time user. I hope you find this helpful.
What I recommend (all the brands are listed in the parentheses, unless it is just an Azure standard product):
BULK PRODUCTS
Grains – I buy 25 lbs of most of my grains, due to the savings – rolled oats, hard white wheat grain (for my bread), soft white grain (for all my other baking of quick breads, muffins, etc.),-I store these in 5 gallon containers in my garage. If you don’t have a grain mill, you can also buy these products already ground into flour. But I would not recommend buying in bulk as the flour would go bad.
Other grains (5 lb quantities last a few months for me)- barley, quinoa, short grain brown rice, kamut, spelt
Legumes – split peas, lentils (5 lbs)
Beans – kidney, black, pinto, chickpeas (5 lbs) All of these I store in glass quart jars or gallon jars in my kitchen
OTHER PRODUCTS
Herbs – (Frontier or Oregon Spice) – I try to just buy in 4 oz quantities, because they go bad quickly
DAIRY PRODUCTS
Raw Milk Cheddar (Brunkow) -excellent cheese!
Mozzarella (Rumiano -although pasturized this is definitely the best price for a 6 lb loaf of mozzarella!) Both of these cheeses I grate or slice entirely and freeze in ziplocs for later use.
Feta Cheese (Rumiano) – 4 lb container for a huge savings!
PANTRY ITEMS
Coconut Milk (Thai Kitchen Organic) -great for smoothies and coconut ice cream!
Coconut Oil (Nutivia brand) – for use in your smoothies, cooking, and body (I usually buy mine from Mountain Rose Herbs for the best price but this is very comparative)
Olive Oil (Bragg’s)
Supplements – Apple Cider Vinegar (raw organic in bulk), Flax Seeds (5 lb. bulk), Chia seeds
Baking Products – Baking Powder (rumford), Baking Soda (bulk-I use it for cleaning as well), Real Salt (Redmonds), Cinnamon, arrowroot powder, buttermilk powder, cocoa powder
Sweeteners – Raw Honey (1 gal), Rapadura (Rapunzel) or Sucanat-an excellent natural sweetener, use in replacement of sugar or brown sugar
Soap – Dr. Bronner’s (for bath soap, shampoo, toothpaste, cleaning, aftershave, etc-I am just in the process of learning how to use this one product for many uses)
Ground Turkey (Sheltons) case of 12 lbs, packaged in 1 lb. packages
Canned Goods -Tomato Sauce, Diced Tomatoes (12 cans ea quantity packs)
Brown Rice Pasta (Tinkyaka’s brown rice pasta is wonderful and the best pasta to serve with the least amount of phytates)
Frozen Berries - I try to buy all my berries fresh during the summer and freeze them, but in case I run out, Azure sells large quantities of pesticide free berries for very good prices.
Burger Buns (Alvardo Street Bakery) We love these sprouted burger buns from this bakery! I try to buy in a case and keep in the freezer.
God bless you in your pursuit of buying good quality resources for your family!
make your own yogurt and tortillas and save money and use less plastic! azure is a wonderful group. this is a sweet blog.
I’m wondering how often you order from Azure? I’m about to place my first order & I am SO excited to be getting these ‘staples’ at such great prices! I’m hoping to only order quarterly (as I have to go pick it up about 25 minutes drive).. Many of the things on your list are currently in my ‘shopping cart’ & you have a small family, as do I, but I just want to be realistic (I’m really working on trying to cut my food budget dramatically, so IF I’m on target I think it will be in my budget… and I’m trying to share a few things to get the bigger bulk discount…)
Just curious…thanks!
~Erin
I order once a month with Azure. I find this helps me stay within my monthly budget better than stocking up on larger quantities more infrequently (because then I am tempted to spend more on the off months elsewhere), but definitely do what works best for your family. I have found the best thing to do is find a splitting buddy and divide the larger quantities with them to save money. That is a big help!
Thanks Lindsay! Some friends & I ARE planning to go in together on a few things, like they sell 5 Doz eggs for under $3/per dozen, etc..
But on the grains, I’ll be splitting 25 lb. bags with just one friend… if I keep making bread at my current rate i think I’ll be ok, but otherwise I might nee to order for 6 months! ;o)
I’m curious how often you make bread & which Wholesome recipes are your favorites?
I’ve really been liking Marilyn Moll’s 100% Sprouted Whole Wheat (although I’ve already been playing with it! Shhhh!
Thank you for the recommendation! I could spend hours looking through their website!
Thanks Stephanie for the recommendations. I have been wanting to try out the tortillas…maybe I will get them this time around.
Sounds like we order much of the same stuff from Azure! A few other items that I like are:
-Nancy’s yogurt
-raw carob powder
-cleaning supplies (Biokleen and Country Save)
-Nature’s Gate toothpaste
-Tinkyada brown rice pasta (comes in bulk- 20 lbs- I often split with my SIL or MIL, or sometimes buy it myself)
-Brown rice or spelt tortillas
-Ezekiel sprouted grain bread, english muffins
-Bragg’s liquid aminos
-Weleda diaper care cream and children’s toothpaste
-Shelton frying chickens
-I’ve usually purchased the 10 lb bags of spelt flour (I don’t have a mill), but this time I bought a 25 lb and have split it up into smaller bags to be stored in my deep freeze (to keep it fresh- in the pantry it would go rancid)
-I love their frozen berries and Brunkow cheese too!
What a great site, Linds. I pressed the back button at first, I thought I clicked the wrong link.
WOW! This is so helpful…you’re a love to do this for me and other women who can glean from Lindsay’s Kitchen!
I’ll post and link tommorrow.
I would like to move to wordpress – and started a blog over there…and did 3 posts…about my poor dog…oh, my was that a sad time…but, I’m struggling with how to work it, uploading pictures and stuff…so, for now, i’ll stay put until i can find time to go through the learning curve.
hey…you R awesome! lylah