Valley Natural Foods is participating in National Bulk Foods Week from October 14-20! Look for lots of sales on bulk food items throughout October to celebrate the Bulk is Green Council’s (BIG) effort to raise awareness of the many benefits of buying organic and natural foods in bulk. Hundreds of retailers across the country are participating in this campaign.

Buying in bulk has great economic and environmental benefits. Portland State University’s Food Industry Leadership Center reports that on average, organic bulk food items are 89% less expensive than their organic packaged counterparts. Manufacturers also save on average 54% on bulk foods materials and delivery costs, helping reduce the amount of product packaging going into landfills.

During the month of October bulk items are even more less expensive! These bulk items are on sale through October 16: Frontier tea, Golden Temple Granola, Grandy Oats Granola, sunflower seeds, steel cut oats, Equal Exchange Coffee, Alakef French Roast Coffee, Peace Coffee’s Mexican Roast, raw almonds,  yogurt covered almonds and raisins, chocolate covered ginger and wild harvest ginger mix. Starting October 17-30, the same coffees are on sale along with kidney beans, raw pecans, pumpkin seeds, yogurt covered almonds and raisins, raw almonds and Grandy Oats Granola.

Need some help traversing our bulk trail? Save $1.00 on our Discovering Bulk Foods: A Cooperative Guidebook by printing our online coupon.  This guidebook, found in our bulk trail, will be a $1.99 with the coupon. Discover lots of bulk recipes, cooking instructions and a listing of most of the items you will find.

Beans, peas, pasta, nuts,  lentils, soup mixes,  dried fruit, granola, cooking oils, flour and more! The bulk trail at Valley Natural Foods has pretty much everything you need for snacks and meals, usually at a deeper discount than packaged grocery items. What is stopping you from shopping the bulk trail regularly? Maybe you are overwhelmed by all the choices (there are over 300), maybe you are not sure how to cook those beans or lentils or maybe you don’t know how shopping the bulk trail works.

Whatever the reason, our new Discovering Bulk Foods: A Cooperative Guidebook can help you out.  You can find a copy of the 32-page  guidebook in the bulk trail selling for $2.99. Written by our lead grocery buyer at Valley Natural Foods, Yani Clement, the guidebook provides a plethora of information on everything you would want to know about buying in bulk, including helping you understand the benefits.  The guidebook is jam-packed with cooking instructions for every bean, pea, lentil, pasta, soup, rice, bran and grain product located along the bulk trail. Also, discover many fun recipes, storage and buying tips, background information on unusual bulk items, along with bios of all our  local bulk vendors.  The book also provides a comprehensive list of all the bulk items available for purchase. It’s definitely a handy little book to have when you are looking for something new to try.

Cooking instructions for bulk products can also be found on the Valley Natural Foods website.

Check out our bulk department for some alternative candy ideas for Easter. Delicious organic lollipops,jelly beans and licorice bites  (all made with non-artificial coloring) can be bagged up in very small plastic bags and tied off with colorful ribbons for an attractive treat. Same can be done for those yogurt or peanut butter coated pretzels that are always a hit with the kids. Purchase small amounts of coated almonds, peanuts or even chocolate covered ginger separately, and then combine at home for your own custom mixes to place into plastic easter eggs.

In the deli, order one of our delicious, made-from-scratch cakes with homemade frosting, available in various sizes. Frostings and decorations are made with non-artificial colorings! Stop by and ask deli staff to help you order a cake. Ask about custom decorations.

One great advantage of buying in bulk is especially true when trying a new item for the first time–you only buy just what you need, rather than an entire package!

According to Alter Eco Americas’ website, “Purple Jasmine Rice (Khao Gram variety) is a unique purple grain that is glutinous when cooked and has a delicate, sweet palate. Due to its rich taste and aesthetic appeal, this traditional rice is used by local communities for feasts and celebrations. It is grown exclusively in the fertile soil of the Esan Plateau, in the East of Thailand, situated close to the Cambodian border. This particular region has the ideal combination of soil and climatic conditions to produce nutritious and flavorful rice. Purple rice is mixed with naturally perfumed White Jasmine rice to give it an ideal texture while retaining its vibrant purple color and sweet flavor.”

Cooking instructions from Alter Eco Americas: Rinse the rice thoroughly and drain. Add one cup of rice to one and a half cups of water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and let simmer until all the water has evaporated (approximately 15 minutes). You can also fry the rice in a small amount of olive oil for five minutes before cooking to give it a deliciously more elaborate taste.

Serving Tip From Valley Natural Foods: When cooked, the entire batch of rice becomes uniform in color–purple! The texture and taste is similar to Thai sticky rice. Serve as a side (as you would regular rice) to any meat or veggie dish. Sprinkle the rice with a bit of soy sauce to season, and top with chopped fresh cilantro and perhaps a sliver or two of fresh hot chili pepper for visual (and tasty!) contrast.

If you’re someone who shops our bulk foods area, you may have noticed a big change! The bulk foods department at Valley Natural Foods is in the final stage of a reset. We upgraded the bulk cooler to a more efficient one, added additional bins to accomodate at least 30 new bulk products and expanded our shelf space to hold containers and liquid bulk dispensers. The whole area feels roomier too!

You can look forward to seeing new products filling those additional bins such as Organic Tri-Colored Quinoa, Sprouted Quinoa, Quinoa Flakes, Purple Jasmine Rice, Pearled Farro, Whole Wheat French Couscous and Sprouted Green Lentils, just to name a few. Some of these new items are a result of customer requests!

Stay tuned – we will be blogging about what you can do with some of these new bulk products in future posts.