March Wholy Living Haul

"Wholy Living?"  you may ask, "What the Heck is that?"

Well, if you are in Alaska, this might interest you :).

Wholy Living is a whole foods dealer in Palmer, Alaska.  I honestly didn't have a clue this place really existed until recently.

It all started when I was watching Three Rivers Homstead on YouTube.  She was grinding wheat to use in baking.  No biggie, I thought, I do that.  BUT instead of going to the hand sifting step that I always had to go through to make the flour lighter and fluffier (and it makes a huge mess), she just popped the flour into a contraption that was attached to the top of her Bosch, ran it and the flour came out super light and fluffy.  Without tons of hand sifting needed, which meant a lot less hand aches.  Without all of the mess!  

The device she was using was a sifter that someone had developed for the Bosch, she explained, and she loved it.  I looked over at my Nutrimill Artiste mixer (I bought it after the earthquake as my Viking mixer wasn't working properly, but once my husband fixed the Viking the NutriMill became my back up mixer :), went online and found out that the device would indeed attach to the Artiste mixer.  I called my husband and told him straight that if I could find it, I was taking the money out of savings and buying it as the sifter would quickly pay for itself just in labor hours saved.  Now, mind you, I do not normally look at an item brand new and say, "We are getting this".  I can recall twice that has happened in my life.  One was when I test drove our Equinox (now that was partly my husband's fault as he found the car *laugh*)  and the other was this sifter.

The hard part, for me, was finding somewhere to get one.  I found a few outfits online, but their shipping on a 90.00 item was astronomical to Alaska, so I decided to call around, text my mother-in-law (who knows the Bosch way better than I do as she's had one for years), etc.  My mother-in-law and Allen and Peterson (our local Kitchen appliance and kitchenware outfit), both came out with Wholy Living as my best bet for finding the attachment.  And she did, indeed have it in stock!  I was thrilled.

I then started going through her site and realizing that there was things in her store that I could really use, so I started to compile a list of things to get.  I pooled all of my money for March for bulk foods/pantry restock, and took the 90.00 out of savings to pay for the sifter on top of it.  I managed to kidnap/convince my mother-in-law to help me find the place and we took off up Clark-Wolverine Road to go and get a sifter.

When we got there, I had a list, which I think was the best way to do things as a bulk food store like that, without prices listed in the place...I could have easily gotten out of there spending wayyyyyy more than I planned on.  I had prices written down from the site and had everything added up on top of it.  The only thing I ended up buying that wasn't on my list was she had a bunch of local potatoes for .99 lb and my mother-in-law really wanted to get some, so I ended up with more potatoes when she insisted on splitting the bag with me *laugh*.  Margaret (the owner of Wholy Living) also didn't have the size of Italian seasoning I wanted (she only had 4 oz bags, and only two at that, so instead of a pound of seasoning I ended up with 1/2 lb) so she took off 5.00 from the total to compensate. 

Funny enough, since she runs a co-op type of operation, she carries Azure Standard stuff (I never thought I'd be able to get those types of items), which was awesome as I really wanted to try out some of their products :).  

In total, I spent 266.00 total, minus the sifter attachment the total up top cost me 176.00, which wasn't bad for what I got.  The sifter was 90.00 and it is TOTALLY worth getting if you grind your own grain and have a Bosch or NutriMill Artiste mixer.  I know it is a convenience item, but when you get into doing as much baking as I do anymore, this thing is just wonderful to have.

So, let's break down what I got.

1. 25 lbs, 9 grain cereal.  

My husband and I have been eating the Bob's Red Mill 5 grain hot cereal for breakfast a lot, but the only place I could get it was Amazon and it was getting really spendy to buy as it came in one pound packages and cost like 25.00 for a box of four.  When I saw that I could get 25 lbs of NINE grain cereal for like 33.00, I was thrilled!  It was a MUCH better deal than what I was buying.  

I then took 1 lb out of the bag and put it into my cereal container to eat for breakfasts (it is also really good added to bread to make a nice whole grain bread).   

Then, I separated out the rest into 1 lb increments in freezer bags and put them in the freezer to pull out as needed.  I am thinking this will easily last us a year.

  2.  25 lbs of Alaska grown hulless barley (the white bag above).

I was really happy to see this when I saw it as I have been wanting to get some barley from Alaska flour company, but to ship a bag to myself would have cost significantly more than the amount she was charging (I think it was like 30.00 or something close to that).

This stuff takes a while to cook, but if you cook it in some chicken broth and get it tender, it is really good.  And if you add it to rice pilaf or other dishes it lends a wonderful texture and flavor!  I haven't even ground some into flour yet (the majority of it went into a five gallon bucket with some oxy absorbers and got sealed up tight for future use), but am looking forward to grinding some into flour for bread :).

3.  5 lbs of allergy free mini chocolate chips.

This was for Alvah.  He loves the Enjoy Life mini chocolate chips, but the bags not only get smaller (so it seems anyway), but they are terribly expensive, so I got these to use for bribes/snacks for him.

4.  1 lb beef gelatin. 

I got this to start making more home made jello and get in some added nutrition into our diets.  I still haven't used it yet (waiting for closer to summer), but I really am looking forward to making it with some of my home canned raspberry juice.  Yum!!!

5.  Almond Extract, 8 oz.

I have been needing almond extract, but haven't had much luck finding it at the store, so I got it here.  It is a big bottle and will last me for quite a while, I think.

6.  Italian Seasoning, 4 oz packages, two total.

I was hoping to get the 1 lb package, but she only had two four oz packages left, so I went with those.  I needed Italian seasoning (I use it all the time), so it was great being able to pick it up while I was there.

7.  Montreal Steak Seasoning, 1 lb.

This was another "I need that" as I was completely out, so I decided to give the Azure Market brand a try instead of going with my usual McCormick.  I have to say it is really good and I'm enjoying it :).

8.  SAF Instant Yeast, 1 lb.

I rarely pass up an opportunity to pick up another block of yeast when I get a chance, so I definitely took advantage and grabbed a pound there.  For 8.00 it was cheaper than what I was finding on Amazon for yeast prices as well.

9.  And, of course, the star of the show...

The sifter!!!  Seen here up top of my NutriMill in all of it's sifting glory!

10.  And, I almost forgot the potatoes...

The potatoes are nice potatoes and a lot of them are really large.  I can't remember if we got Yukon gold or German Butterball, but either way the potatoes are nice potatoes.  I split my mother-in-laws half into a box and kept my half in the burlap sack.  I didn't really NEED potatoes and the potato drawer in my fridge was full up, so I ended up having to use them up quickly as they started to sprout and some were getting green (I'll show what I did with them in another post :).

And there you go folks.  My bulk shopping I did in March.  I know it doesn't do a lot of people any good as they don't have Wholy Living to shop at, but I do encourage you to check in your local area to see what bulk foods outfits are available to you as with current inflation and things going the way they are, honestly buying in bulk might be a good option for a lot of us.  I had no idea Wholy Living existed until others told me about it, so who knows what is hiding in your local area as well.

Enjoy!