I’ve read about the joys of Azure Standard for years. It’s a company that makes many varieties of real food and organic ingredients available affordably. I’ve been wanting to try it out since I first read about it in 2013, but there were no drops anywhere near me at the time.

Up until last month, we lived in Sarasota, FL and the closest drop was in Lutz. (Update: The Sarasota/Bradenton area now has two brand-new drop locations. This is very exciting!!)  Drops can only be scheduled if enough people are interested and work together to make it happen. We moved to NE Texas and I was ecstatic to see drops within 10-30 minutes of our home in every direction.

I went online to their site, registered for free and started filling my online cart and chose what location I would be able to pick up from. There’s a cut-off date about a week before each drop and all orders need to be in by then. Azure sends very helpful emails about this as reminders.

It isn’t necessary to buy in major bulk on many items, but it is even cheaper. I bought bulk pastured butter (18 lbs), raw cheese (from pastured cows, 15lbs, Note: the pepper jack in the photo was ripped into by my daughter in advance as it’s her favorite), 10lbs organic yellow onions, shredded coconut, bulk organic grains for my grain mill (25lbs each of oat groats, spelt berries and white wheat berries), 5lbs organic split peas, a few beeswax pillar candles as gifts and vanilla beans.

Was it financially worth it? I’d say so!!! I saved a considerable amount of money. I saved between 30-60% compared to buying in stores or from online sites. I left feeling really, really good about my decision to try out Azure. In fact, it greatly numbed the frustration I experienced of a flat tire on the way there and a long wait to change out my spare tire on the way back….with all five kids with me in unusually cold weather. I actually can’t wait to order again and try out some other things, like their boxes of organic fruits, other organic grains, organic beans of a few other varieties and who knows what else. I’m hooked now!

 

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. My stuff is in there somewhere. They very nicely pull it out and yell out your name. 

 

 

Here’s what I’m doing with my purchases:

Pastured Butter: I’m freezing it and pulling it out as needed.

Raw Cheese: I sliced it in about 1/2lb chunks, placed it in little freezer bags and froze it. I’ve been pulling it out as needed.

Chop and freeze, man. It took a whole 5-7 minutes. 

 

Yellow Onions: I love onions. That’s pretty much it.

Shredded Coconut: It’s in a food safe storage container and I use it for making coconut milk. I can’t beat the price and I love not using canned coconut milk full of BPA and additives.

Bulk Grains: I’m using the oat groats for hot cereal and to grind into flour for cookies and granola. The spelt is for bread making and the white wheat is for more delicate things like baked goods that aren’t bread. I’ve been using this grain mill for years and years, here. You can read about my method for storing bulk grains and beans down below.

Split Peas: I love split pea soup pretty big time. It really lights up my life. I have a recipe here.

Vanilla Beans: I use these to make vanilla extract.

 

Bulk Grain and Bean Storage: 

I prefer to store bulk grains and beans in food safe 5 gallon buckets with gamma lids to keep them truly airtight here. Azure actually sells these storage items for a cheaper price. They can also be found at Home Depot. I also like to add silica packets to each bucket to further ensure no moisture harms my grains or beans. They can be found here.

I keep one gallon of each on the countertop or in a cabinet in glass jars so I’m not constantly opening buckets. I open the buckets for refills. There’s no problem using plastic containers for these as they aren’t being heated in the plastic, but since I leave them out, the glass is more visually appealing. I use these here. Also, 1 gallon glass cookie jars are a great choice. You can find them here. They can also be found at places like Walmart pretty inexpensively. I saw some today for around $7.

 

 

I’m not affiliated with Azure Standard in any way. I just enjoy sharing what is both delicious and saves my family money. What’s not to love about that? You can check them out here.