Bulk Grains in S.Al-any ideas

zant · #1 02/26/11, 04:43 PM

The wife is freaking and wants to buy bulk grains-oats,rice,and beans....We have a pretty good prep supply now.I don't want to pay shipping so I'm looking local-within 100m circle of Dothan,Al....If anyone has any ideas,places,etc..it would be appreciated.Thanks..

barnyardfun · #2 02/26/11, 06:01 PM

Goodluck! I haven't had any luck finding things locally. I sure hope your luck is better then mine. BUT I do order from LDS and Emergency Essentials. The shipping is not that bad. Local is always great if you can find it!

claytonpiano · #3 02/26/11, 08:05 PM

According to their web site Bread Beckers has a co-op that comes to Dothan. There is another one in Headland. Go to www.breadbeckers.com to locate a co-op near you. I ordered from them for years until I found a local source. Their product is great and comes already placed in 5 gallon buckets. You split the shipping cost among co-op members and get a reduced rate for the product when you order. The larger the order, the greater the discount. I get buckets of dried beans from them and bulk cinnamon.

I am also a part of a Dutch Valley Food co-op. Not sure how to find that information, but you might try their web site. The wheat is incredibly cheap from them.

Also try Frontier co-ops for cheap, organic spices etc in bulk.

Can't remember how far Dothan is from Atlanta, but Bread Beckers is located there. (I should know how far it is. My mother is from Andalusia, but its been a long time since I drove to Dothan from Atlanta.)

jerrwhy · #4 02/27/11, 08:12 AM

Bread Beckers is the place we use for grains as well, and I can vouch for it.

You might also want to check out Honeyville grains. They used to have a 4.95 flat shipping rate, I don't know if they still do that or not.

ET1 SS · #5 02/27/11, 08:58 AM

Dig around at:
http://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_...bama/index.asp

It looks like Cullman County is the biggest grain producer in your state. If you go there and drive around surely you will find the grain producers.

motdaugrnds · #6 02/27/11, 09:46 AM

Do you have to be a member of those co-ops to order from them?

claytonpiano · #7 02/27/11, 05:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by motdaugrnds

Do you have to be a member of those co-ops to order from them?

not sure what you mean by member. You contact Bread Beckers. They give the e-mail address of the person who orders and you e-mail them. Place your order and pay before shipment. When the shipment arrives you will be contacted to pick it up, but you do not have to order every time.

Sara in IN · #8 02/27/11, 05:44 PM

Zant,

Go to the Sam's Club in Dothan for 25 or 50 lb bags of Riceland Rice. Some Sam's carry fancier brands of rice depending on their clientele. If you are not a member, find a friend or relative who is a member and go with them, all the while grumbling about your wife's crazy idea, but this is a whole lot cheaper than marriage counseling - we can give it to the (not your church's) food pantry or Unka Bob and his 6 kids out in Oklahoma.

Put the rice in lidded 5 gallon plastic buckets meant to be used for food for use-within-one-year storage or in sealed mylar bags in the plastic buckets for longer term storage.
You may be able to big boxes of Quaker quick oats at Sam''s. Some Sam's carry 10 or 25 lb bags of pinto beans, you'll have to look or ask at the service desk where is the nearest Sam's that carries beans or whatever product you are looking for. Do the same with the oats or beans as for the rice. Some people like to bag up the rice/rolled oats, etc into smaller bags and pack those in the bucket so that it's easier to just grab a couple of pounds when the tin upstairs is empty.

ET1 SS · #9 02/27/11, 05:53 PM

Sara - I thought that Sam's prices for grain usually ran about three times higher than farm prices.

Sara in IN · #10 02/27/11, 06:34 PM

ET1,

Bulk grains doesn't necessarily mean straight from the combine hopper. Due to the husk on whole oats at the feed store, you will want your oats rolled unless you are a horse, chicken, rabbit, etc. Rice you will want polished, ie white, as brown rice goes rancid a whole lot faster than white rice, unless you can keep brown rice in the freezer or something.

Bulk grains in the usual prep parlance, refers to grains in 5 to 50 lb sacks, food grade. Yes, some places you can go to the elevator/feed store and buy 500lbs of local wheat, but it won't be well cleaned,might not be quite dry enough, might be soft winter wheat, good for biscuits, but difficult for bread, and the allowable chaff, weed seed, mold count will be for a livestock standard, not human consumption.

The food coops or breadbeckers referenced above, carry bulk grains that are of high quality, triple cleaned and rated for human consumption. Yes, grain from the food coop will be three times the cost of the grain at the farm gate because of the additional grading, cleaning and transportation, but I am not going to drive from Indiana to Louisiana to buy unprocessed rice direct from a farmer, nor to Michigan to buy ungraded navy beans of questionable moisture % in the field. If your next door neighbor or brother-in-law grows it and you have a way to process the raw product, a way get it down to the correct moisture %, OK, but watch out for mold, creepy crawlies and flutter-out-of-the-bags. BTDT back in the '70's.

An LDS storehouse is a great way to go if you or friend/family are LDS and live within a reasonable distance and can meet the specific storehouse's guidelines. *CALL AHEAD!* You might want to buy the bagged bulk product and put it up in buckets rather than use the dry cannery facility at the storehouse.

ET1 SS · #11 02/27/11, 06:54 PM

Yes, I buy our Corn, Barley and Oats direct from farmers put into burlap or plastic bags, 50-pounds each.

That is how we get our bulk grain. I buy in the fall from three different farmers as each of them are in mid-harvest.

Usually 40 bags of each.