bulk buying and backyard: conclusions

we closed our bulk buying and backyard challenge a bit ago, and thus also ended the revolting and gnashing of teeth from my household.  we farmers missed our cheese!  but we survived, lost a few pounds, and felt much healthier as a result of our mostly plant-based diet.  here’s a sample of one of our days of eating:

breakfast: granola, milk (rehydrated), dried cranberries & raisins

snack:  popcorn with nutritional yeast, cashews

lunch:  brown rice (with illicit soy sauce), raisins, dates, green peppers, peanuts

snack:  rice pudding, more nuts and dried fruit

dinner:  frittata with peppers, tomato, onions, & swiss chard, salad with cranberries, almonds, sunflower seeds, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil, bread machine bread

dessert:  chocolate covered pretzels

i did cheat in a few places, such as the soy sauce.  i used a bottled asian sauce in stir-fry and pre-packaged yeast for bread.  and the toddler still drank organic whole milk from a carton.

a few thoughts on the advantages of eating in such a way:

-          health – we undoubtedly increased our nutrition level.  we ate predominately whole foods, and mostly plant-based.  this decreased our cholesterol intake and bad fats.  protein stayed high through nuts and peanut butter.  our sugar intake decreased because who has time to make cookies every day?  and oh my sweet ice cream….it was good to have her back.

-          quality of food – fresh?  whole?  homemade and home-grown?  what’s not to love!  everything did taste quite good.

-          time – i noticed a distinct decrease in my disposable time during the week.  i spent much more time on meals, due in large part to the picking, gathering, washing, spinning, chopping of vegetables.

-          money – this was a swing gain.  your savings from bulk purchasing depends on what kind of food you buy normally.  we saved oodles on produce.  i usually buy conventional grains and ingredients at aldi, a discount grocery store; i bought organic and, often local ingredients from bulk.  i probably spent about the same amount, but got a much higher quality product.  but i spent significantly more on processed/prepared foods, like snack crackers, gummy bears, etc.  all in all, I spent about 40% more on groceries for the week.

-          packaging – no comparison.  we hardly threw away anything for the week.  waste was negligible, and energy used to deliver it to the store decreased.  this was by far the greatest advantage.

so i’ve been thinking about how to incorporate some of these principles as standards in our grocery habits.  here are a few:

-          continue to purchase locally-grown goods from bulk bins.  for us, these include popcorn, flour, cornmeal, honey, and a few others.

-          try to make my own prepared foods, like granola, snacks, and bread.  

-          subsist from our garden in the summer.  preserve foods by freezing and canning for the rest of the year.

-          be conscious of eating foods produced near me, if possible.  even if not locally, i’m trying to be aware of distance.  for example, we chose to stop buying mangoes because of the distance they have to travel to indiana.  (this should probably apply to bananas, too, but i’m just not there yet!)

-          view all containers as potential for bulk food storage.  anyone know a pattern to make bulk flour bags?

let me hear from you…  what do you buy in bulk?  any simple things you make at home? 

our next challenge to tackle – milk fresh from the cow.  stay tuned for more…..