Bulk Food Shop Time!

While this blog is about baking, I think it is relevant to talk about where I get my ingredients. Bulk food shops, like The Source are shops where you bring your own containers (or use their paper bags) and scoop out your own groceries. There are several reasons for this, but for me the main reason is to try and limit the use of plastic packaging. Now, I wanted to go to one of these places for ages (ie. 4 months, since I moved out of home) and yesterday I managed to go.

So off I went, armed with my 4 jars and can-do attitude. Now, not all bulk food shops are the same. Apparently, some only weigh your container after you place your ingredients in it. Imagine using a glass container, which can easily weigh 500g by itself. That can quickly add up.

Happily, The Source weighs your containers before you put your groceries in them, so all you're buying is the product itself.

I spent a good 20 minutes or so just looking at the products they had on offer. Lots of flours, sugars, sweets, herbs spices and teas (including Rooibus! Yum!). There was also dishwashing liquid, shampoo, conditioner and oils. They even had a "make your own peanut/almond butter" station, where the machine grinds peanuts or almonds depending on the day and smooshes it out. So many different things were on offer! It definitely did not cover all the things that I would get during my normal grocery shop, but it will be great for my baking.

DIY Peanut Butter Machine. All you get is smooshed peanuts!

I got a few things to try--spelt flour, corn pasta, choc covered macadamias and some little Easter eggs. The macadamias were delicious! The right ratio of chocolate to nut (ie 1000000:1), and the chocolate was good quality too. I wasn't keen on the Easter egg, it tasted like Raw food, which I don't enjoy. I'm looking forward to trying out my spelt flour, I haven't cooked with it yet, so I'm curious to see if it is any different to basic wheat flour.

Now, to make ANZAC cookies!

Bake on,

Beth