Shopping In Bulk

I recently as in earlier this year, discovered the wows of the bulk foods section. I shop at a locally owned store called Huckleberries that gets mostly organic foods and local if it can. I got the idea of having my containers weighed from It's Easy Being Green by Crissy Trask. So I took my containers in with a bit of masking tape on top to have them weighed. To get an accurate measurement the containers must be clean and empty! Otherwise you will be paying for the weight of the container you bring in. I store my organic almonds in a glass sealed jar that is REALLY heavy. I of course don't want to pay each time for the weight of the container. Thus bringing it in empty. Now the first time I did this I had bowls and Tupperware's all on the counter at home, of dried fruits, oats, flour etc. that lined the bottom of the container. It does take some planing in order to have the empty container weighed. But it's worth it!

On the pictures that follow, the .63T is the tare or weight of the container. At the checkout the cashier weights the entire thing and then subtracts the tare from the total weight. In this picture is my containers for maple syrup, olive oil, oats, mung beans, rolled oats, almonds, walnuts, 2 kinds of Dr. Bronners, brown bag for mushrooms (used many many times). Containers not pictured: tofu, Braggs amino acids, raisins, blue berries, navy beans, black beans, flax seeds.... ok ok you get the idea.


















Now some shots of the Huckleberries bulk foods section itself.


The dried fruits, nuts, beans and cereal.


















Mom rocking the tea and bulk spices wall.


















And the anything and everything liquid.














I have found buying in bulk does save some money. Organic bulk is still expensive but I do feel better about not using so much waste just to grocery shop. I would always recycle the containers before. But now it is kinda fun to just reuse them over and over again. Recycling in many forms.