Food storage with a wholesale account?
Do you know where to buy American-grown lentils, garbanzos and green peas that will sprout so you can grow more?
Have you heard of a place to get dried fruit, grown here in America, at wholesale prices?
Have you access to an American company that mills their own grains and sells them wholesale to individual customers?
If not, read on to find out more about food storage with a wholesale account:
I’ve been researching wholesale food sources over the past year, and now I’m sharing with you my secrets. These are the manufacturers (except Frontier), so there is no middleman. They manufacture the product and ship it directly from their facility, thus cutting out the middleman and allowing you to save.
However, this list comes with one caveat: I recommend trying before buying – these companies offer products that are available on Amazon, so buy a sample first. That way, when you do place the large order you can do so with confidence. This is what I did, and it worked out quite well. I was able to shore up my short- and long-term food supply easily and in the most cost-effective way I could.
Food storage with a wholesale account:
Bella Viva Orchards
Bella Viva Orchards is a wonderful place to buy dried fruit at a true wholesale price. They manage their own orchards and dry-yards in California, which allows them to control the quality of the fruit from the time it grows on the tree until it is packed for shipping. Most fruit is grown in their own orchards in California. Bella Viva also offers their fruit for retail, so you can try it out first.
Try it out on Amazon first
Their Tangy California Apricots
are currently at an excellent price on Amazon. If you factor in free shipping with an Amazon Prime account, it gets even better, so try these before you place a wholesale order with them.
Wholesale details
- Opening minimum order: $500
- Minimum subsequent orders: No minimum
- Shipping: Calculated based on your order
- Business license required: No
- Buying club required: No
They can give you a ship quote before you pull the trigger. Get in touch with Bella Viva Orchards wholesale department via their website. They’re super helpful and knowledgeable.
Bob’s Red Mill
Located in lovely Milwaukie Oregon, Bob’s Red Mill manufactures their products using time-honoured techniques, like grinding whole grains at cool temperatures with a traditional stone mill. This production ‘secret’ allows them to seal in the freshness and bring us more wholesome foods. They produce a lot of gluten-free products in addition to whole grain and organic foods.
Try it out on Amazon first
You can try Bob’s Red Mill products on Amazon. Our favorite are the Organic Oats
. We use these oats in our shelf-stable oatmeal cookies, granola, breads, and for breakfast about 4 days of the week. Before I bought wholesale, I bought a very-economical 4-pack on Amazon to try out (a few times, actually). It was consistently fresh, and with an expiration date more than 2 years into the future. They’re boxed very nicely in a clean, heavy cardboard box.
Wholesale details
- Opening minimum order: None
- Minimum subsequent orders: 500 pounds
- Shipping: Calculated based on your order
- Business license required: No
- Buying club required: No
If you are in the Northwest, it might be worth the drive to Milwaukie, Oregon to pick up your order. Otherwise, they will give you a shipping quote once you have your order pulled together. Contact them by calling 800-349-2173. Or if you’d like a contact email address, just contact me direct (I don’t want to publish my contact’s email address online).
Palouse Brand
This is my favorite wholesale food supplier ever. I have several hundred pounds of their beans and wheat, and I use it all weekly. The garbanzo beans make a shelf-stable curry that’s out of this world (I don’t yet have the recipe tested, but when I do, I’ll post it). Here’s what makes Palouse so awesome:
- All Palouse Brand products will sprout. This is because they are not irradiated, like most beans are. Sprouting is a great way to unleash hidden nutrition, and you could potentially grow your own in a survival situation. There is an interesting thread on the very popular GardenWeb discussing growing lentils. One person said she grew them well, that a handful grew enough plants to return a pound!
- Each bag comes with a code you can scan to identify the field they grew it in and harvest date.
- Grown here in the USA, and they are GMO free.
- They grow it, harvest it, truck it, process it, bag it and get it to you – it never touches a middleman.
- The beans are creamy and rich – not anything like from the grocery store.
Try it out on Amazon first
Get a couple of bags on Amazon first – I like the 10 Lb Bean Pack , as it has a 5lb bag of garbanzo and a 5lb bag of lentils, so you can try both. Other products, such as wheat berries are also very good – the best I’ve found for the reasons I noted above (no need to gush, but I love them that much).
Wholesale details
- Opening minimum order: No minimum
- Minimum subsequent orders: No minimum
- Shipping: Calculated based on your order
- Business license required: No
- Buying club required: No
You can buy directly from Palouse on their website. After you order, they’ll give you a call to coordinate a shipment date. I ordered hundreds of pounds this year (seriously), and they were quite helpful and everything arrived without issue.
Frontier Co-Op
Spice is, well, the spice of life. And while the beans and legumes are very reassuring, you’re going to want to spice them up. This is where Frontier comes in. Frontier is a great source for anything natural. From spices (and awesome spice blends) to essential oils, they have the special things you need to take basics like oats and wheat berries and make them super tasty. And for those of us who use essential oils, their brand (Aura Cacia) is one of the best.
Try it out on Amazon first
One of our favorite Frontier spices carried on Amazon is the Organic Cinnamon
. Very fresh and well-packaged, you can keep it in its existing Mylar pouch or split it into other storage containers for the long term. It is of the highest quality and freshness – Frontier leaves grocery-store cinnamon in the, er, dust. Plus, that aroma of warm cinnamon in nearly any food will also help impart a sense of calm and normalcy should the SHTF. We use it in our homemade survival cookie mix – I’ll share the recipe shortly.
Wholesale details
- Opening minimum order: No minimum
- Minimum subsequent orders: No minimum
- Shipping: Free to continental US on orders over $250
- Business license required: No
- Buying club required: Yes
Frontier requires a buying club – so get 4 other folks together who would like to sample some of their products. There’s a $10 membership fee, but it is one-time only. When you sign up, you can request a paper catalog as well (helpful for passing around).
