 Friends if you've clicked on this video, then you're probably here for this Azure Hall as you can see by the title of this video This is my first Azure Hall if you are unfamiliar with my channel I've done a lot of shop with me's and halls on bulk shopping We have a lot of bulk food stores within driving distance in our area that I visit fairly regularly I also do a lot of once a month shopping and I'm gonna be sharing more about that in the next couple of months Just how I've been going about that. So I wanted to give Azure a try It has been something that is kind of been in my radar I see a lot of other people that cook and shop the way that I do using Azure and what really gave us the push is we have a daughter and actually myself that have some different health issues and in the last two months We've really uncovered a lot of those and so some of that is tied to certain processed foods and just needing to get A more clean diet and have more clean ingredients. So I'm not gonna ramble on We're gonna get right into this hall because if that's what you're here for you want to see the goods But when I'm done with the hall I will explain a little bit more of what Azure is in case you've never heard of Azure Which I think if you watch a lot of meal prep videos or the types of videos that I do Then you probably are familiar with them But let's go ahead and I'll show you what I picked out for my first order And then when I'm done, I will also give you my thoughts on whether or not I will order from them again I'm gonna take this whole thing section by section. We're just gonna get right into it I'm not gonna say organic for every single product, but I think everything I purchased here is organic So the first thing I have over here are two boxes. They're frozen One of them is cranberries and the other one is some celery I've been going through a lot of chickens lately and getting the broth canned and the shredded chicken canned And I love putting celery in it But because of how far we live from a store where I would want to shop And it's just not very convenient for me to just run to the store for celery I wanted to keep some of this on hand so that as I'm getting chickens out of the freezer and doing that I can just add some frozen celery to that also it is getting into soup season So I figured I would want to use that for that as well and the cranberries are for cranberry juice I'll be showing you that in a video how I'm going to can home canned cranberry juice going into cold season It's a great source of vitamin C here. I've got some carrots. They look amazing. I think they're gonna store really well I have a refrigerator that's in my cellar And I think these will store for quite some time in there and again these work really great for broth So I probably will be throwing them in with my chicken broth as well The next thing will be something I definitely will not be purchasing again anytime soon And that is a 25 pound bag of popcorn. We love popcorn in our house It is a staple snack that I keep around and I thought why not go ahead and just get a nice big bag of it It lasts a long time in storage So I'm excited to try this popcorn and see what we think of it side that I've got a 55 pound bag of cane sugar and I'm swapping out sugar for cane sugar I'll wrap back around to why I'm doing that here in a little bit because I'm gonna explain that and Down here. I've got powdered cane sugar. I just figured with the holidays getting a little bit closer We might want to do some frosting and things like that So that is nice and one thing about all of these bags I will say is none of them are leaking and I don't see any powder or anything that has Escaped from the bag. So I'm really happy with that. It was very clean To get all of these things out of my car and out of the boxes and all of that So next over here, I've got some caraway seeds and actually I didn't realize that you can sprout these So I may try doing that but my main purpose in purchasing these is I'm going to be making my own Sourcrout and we love sauerkraut with the caraway seeds in it next to that. I have garbanzo beans I'll show you all how I'm going to be canning those because we really enjoy Hummus and I know that if I have them canned on the shelf I can get them out drain them so I'm in my food processor with some roasted bell pepper and we have a great hummus really quickly and Below that I have mustard. I got yellow mustard and Dijon mustard I have been really working at making a lot of our own condiments and sauces and things like that and especially our own mayo And so you definitely want the Dijon mustard for that for your own mayo and then also just having yellow mustard on hand is good I have two five-pound bags of the dry roasted peanuts I have been working at learning how to make my own Peanut butter and it's so easy and I'm so excited to use these I have had some others on hand that was testing out But I think these are going to be a lot tastier because the others were raw these are pre-roasted So I think it's going to give a more deeper flavor back here in the back This really big bag is rolled oats like I said half of our family eats gluten-free And so we go through a lot of oats plus I've been doing a lot of oat flour recipes lately So we will be using this very heavily and then I got three bags of raw almonds I would not have purchased three bags of these almonds, but it was in I don't know what it's called I'll put it on the screen here, but I think it's called their bargain bin or something like that and Simply because in about two months their expiration date will be up But I've been making a lot of our own almond milk And so we will definitely go through these before those two months is up And I could even throw them in the freezer to make them extend even longer So they were marked down discounted So I went ahead and got three bags of those down here along with the condiments So like I said, I'm making a lot of condiments, but I also like the convenience. You'll see I have a few others Of being able to purchase an organic or clean ingredient condiment through Azure So I got some sriracha sauce I would really love to make my own of that someday And then a fermented hot sauce that I thought would be fun for us to try out and down here at the bottom I have two flavorings and one of them is peppermint and the other one is almond and The peppermint I actually made a mint homemade extract, but it's just mint. It's not peppermint and With the holidays and all of the things wanting to make a good peppermint hot chocolate or something like that I definitely wanted this around and I will eventually make my own almond extract as well I just don't have it made or even started and that's probably a year away of letting it sit on the shelf And then I think this is the only non Grocery or food item that I picked up, but it is magnesium oil and it's in a spray bottle My husband is a contractor and so he works really hard. It's a very physical job And I thought this might be great to help release sore muscles I know I've heard that it works really well for some people So I wanted to give that a try so next up over here. We have some white cheddar cheese I got a five pound block of that. It's a cheese that we really enjoy and it had super great reviews That's something I liked about Azure's website It's most things people take the time to review and it inspires me to probably review as well next over here, I have a huge bag of coconut chips I truly don't think I will need to purchase coconut chips and I'll for a long time but I actually like to add them into granola and Or just make like a very healthy type cereal or on top of yogurt You can do a lot with these. They're already toasted and really delicious behind that up here I've got two bags of unbleached all-purpose flour I've gotten into making more sourdough things lately and so just to feed my starter and to make things For some of the members in the family. I'm going to be using that Here I got a small loaf of Gluten-free sourdough and I'm really thrilled to try this out if we like this. This is something that I can get In a larger quantity. I just wanted to get one for this time and Just test it out see if we really liked it and a lot of the ingredients are kind of unusual It's not a lot of starches and things like a lot of gluten-free things have so very clean and Again, super excited about that. So down on this side. I've got cream cheese This is a fermented cream cheese So it's a good option if you don't want to make it yourself and then over here is the same brand of sour cream again A has natural probiotics. It's fermented and I know we use a lot of cream cheese in our house So I'm super excited for us to try that out and see if we like it there's a couple of things that I like to keep on hand and I didn't have a Very reliable source to get them from and know where they where the ingredients came from and that sort of thing So it is buttermilk powder Once in a while I have a recipe that I need buttermilk and buttermilk powder is one of the handiest things to have so you don't have to run to the store just for buttermilk and then some organic cornstarch and then also Some non-gmo hundred percent beef gelatin. We like to make our own jello We don't use food dyes. And so Being able to make our own jello out of fruit and things like that is nice to have gelatin around for all right So this is the last little section I have here back here. I've got a big jug of rice vinegar That's kind of a new thing for us. We really enjoy rice vinegar and Especially with Azure their vinegars are definitely a better price if you get a gallon jug of them So I decided to go ahead and take the plunge and just get a big jug of it And then next to that I make my own brown sugar here at home, especially now with the cane sugar I definitely want to so I got some molasses to do that and then I do have a bunch of Vanilla going if I think in my last video you all saw me Actually putting together some more vanilla extract for next year, but we just go through it so heavily And so I know for the next couple of months at least if not into next year We're going to have to probably get Vanilla somewhere because I've already used up almost everything that I made from last year and I only Got into that a couple of months ago. So next to that. I also got some Worcestershire sauce I know we have this kind of running joke on my channel if you've been around for a long time But I always have the hardest time saying that word so we're gonna call it W sauce But I got three bottles of that it was cheaper to get three bottles then to just buy one Per bottle it was cheaper and then I got some organic ground turkey I want to try making my own sausage out of this It's just a cleaner way to make sausage and it was a pretty good price whenever you bought Five or I think more than that you can get like a whole case Speaking of cases. I got a whole case of these chicken breasts This brand is really really cool if you go on Azure and you read about how they do their farming with their chickens How they process them? It is a very reliable source to get chicken It's not the cheapest But if it's your only option for a really clean chicken Then you may want to take advantage of that and be able to order it in large quantities because it definitely helps the price if you buy a whole case at a time and One of the reasons that we have been buying this type of chicken is because it is not put into Chlorinated water a lot of chicken is put into chlorinated water You just have to watch the packaging and learn how they cool chicken down after the butchering process So then up here above the chicken. I have a nice big bag of onions I've heard people say that these onions last pretty long and they've been very happy with them So I went ahead and got enough for probably two months for us Depending on what I make and then next to that. I also got a case of the lemon juice This is such a good deal for lemon juice. I know I've shown you all how I can my own lemon juice I freeze it sometimes. I've gotten lemons in a whole case and done it that way But for the amount of juice that you get in per bottle in this case I don't I don't know I just don't see that how the price would match up to buy a case of lemons because you're getting a much better deal With it in juice form if that makes sense for the amount of juice So I was really happy to purchase this I'm curious to see if we like the taste of it and again with making a lot of our own Marinades and condiments and things like that lemon juice is something you definitely want to have on hand so now I'm going to show you the cases of stuff in the front of all of this and Then I will share my thoughts about Azure. All right So down here in front just to show you everything I put these on some stools, but I got two cases of apples I Don't have any resources in my area to purchase large quantities of organic apples And I really want to dry a bunch of apples and these look to be in very good shape I think I'm gonna put them in a refrigerator probably in my cellar and just see how long they hold up for me But we also will be eating some fresh and making some apple crisp and things like that And the girls were already over here getting apples and eating them as a treat when we got home From picking up our order. Okay, so kind of like with the apples potatoes again To find a resource in my area to get a large bulk amounts of organic potatoes It doesn't exist. It's very difficult to find and so I got a box of sweet potatoes and a box of Red potatoes. I think this is a 50 pound box box and then this one is a 20 pound box We love both of them potatoes are definitely a staple in our diet and in our household And I've actually been buying red potatoes in bulk for the last little while and I think it takes anywhere from about 8 to 10 weeks for us to work through a 50 pound bag of red potatoes now This is my first time getting them organic so I'm really glad that I was able to find that since that's something I've never seen before and We love making french fries and other things out of these obviously mashed potatoes and things like that I do can a lot of potatoes and have a lot of potatoes on the shelf but they do not work well for Mashed potatoes or obviously if you want a baked potato that's not going to be in a can form and so For those things we use that then for things like potato salad or frying potatoes I tend to use my canned potatoes, so I kind of like to have a little bit of both Hey friends, so it's a handful of days later I wanted to really test out some of the products open them up and Really be able to give you an honest review. So if you are familiar with my channel, I live in central, Pennsylvania I actually come from a Mennonite background have lots of Mennonite family And there's lots of Mennonites in the area where we live and with that comes a lot of Mennonite owned bulk food stores If you go a little bit south of us towards the Lancaster You'll find a lot of Amish owned bulk food stores as well And I've shown shopping days and halls from those types of stores So those of you that have been around for a while, you're gonna be wondering what my comparison to those stores are with Azure So I wrote a few notes down here just to get my thoughts together And one of the first things I wanted to really think about is why would you shop at Azure and is Azure cheaper? So yes and no Azure is not necessarily cheaper if you have access to local bulk food stores like I do and if you are looking for just very basic Types of grocery items like flour and sugar and those sorts of things So my thoughts are if you are going to buy flour and sugar, you're not wanting them organic You are just wanting the run-of-the-mill Normal flour and sugar your lowest cheapest price on that is Walmart Sometimes Walmart even beats out some of the bulk food stores in my area just depending I just so rarely shop at Walmart. We don't live very close to one So that is one of the reasons why I will pick I have a bulk food store for some of those things However, if you are looking for organic unbleached flour or you're looking for cane sugar Then you may want to look into Azure. So when it comes to price a lot of times Walmart really beats out so many places And even Aldi, I know a lot of people like to shop Aldi But if you start comparing the amount in a box or a bag of something Compared to Walmart, you may find that some of it is cheaper I've done a lot of price comparisons and it can go both ways But they're very neck-in-neck and a lot of it is because Aldi has a smaller packaging And most of their things and so it seems cheaper But if you compare it for pound per pound or ounce per ounce You're gonna find that there reveals the true price of something. So keep that all in mind when you're shopping Azure I look at price per ounce price per pound not necessarily per Package of something so two main reasons you would want to shop at Azure One of them being if you're looking for a lot of organic items They are very well known for their organic selection, which is huge the second reason being if you are looking for Grocery items that are simply of a better quality. I love how Azure lists on their website where stuff comes from Also gives you a lot of description of the farms that a lot of things come from Where things are sourced from how they're even processed, which I'll get into here in a moment But that type of information is so valuable. We pick up an item off the shelf at the store We have really not a lot of information on where it came from sometimes It will list where an item is processed But that doesn't necessarily mean that's where it was grown or where it came from And there's just a lot of things unclear. So with Azure I mean in their name as your standard they truly bring a new standard of Finding out where your items are being sourced from Which for us as a family has become something very very important and along with that I mean, they're really kind of the same idea But I just wanted to kind of separate them. So if you're looking for organic non-gmo items You're going to find a lot of that but with that you're also going to find a higher quality of item And oh my just in a couple of the examples I will be giving you here You're going to really be able to see that they really put a lot of time and effort into making sure that they're sourcing quality goods for you to shop and that is just huge If you're somebody that's looking for things that are full of nutrition That haven't had the nutrition taken out of them or been modified in some way Which is really becoming a big concern in the us All right. So with that you're probably wondering why I'm interested in Azure. So I'm interested in Azure because We have come to a few Discoveries and now understand a few things about myself and my one daughter And there are some other sensitivities in our family, but myself and my daughter We have a lot of things that we have to be careful that we're not incorporating into our diet specifically our daughter One thing that she has a major sensitivity to is chlorination She can't swim in chlorinated pools anymore We just couldn't figure out why she would get sick. And anyways, we've gotten a lot of answer on all of that But along with that, there are a lot of our foods that are run through chlorinated water And or processed with chlorinated water in the food And so that is something that if you deal with that issue, you suddenly realize how much of our food is Contaminated by that. I guess if that's a way to put it chicken being one of them I don't think I really mentioned that a whole lot when I showed that chicken But that is one reason I really went looking at where our stuff is being sourced how it's being processed Because chicken is actually soaked in chlorinated water And it absorbs a certain percentage of that water and a lot of packaging will even tell you the percentage Including organic chicken Um, I've actually seen organic chicken that will tell you the water percentage that's been absorbed And so that just goes to show that even though it's organic the way it's processed Can affect how you feel a few other things for her is things like corn syrup and also food dyes So some of those things are in almost everything along with like soy oil and Seed oils and things like that. So we just really have to rethink a lot of the way that we're sourcing our ingredients So that we can avoid all of those things the great thing about azure is they're very Transparent in how things are processed for the most part. So you're able to read that That's how I was able to find that chicken that was air chilled versus Being put through chlorinated water and I really want to share with you a couple of things that we've used over the last couple days That I am very impressed with starting with the chicken. I am really impressed with it I think that it's not chewy like a lot of chicken that's been soaked in that water It doesn't bland. I think it feel like it has a lot more flavor and texture It's just really really delicious and I love how I can buy it in a bulk form where I can get a lot to put in Our freezer at once one of the other big surprises was the popcorn that we got That popcorn is so delicious. It pops. It's nice big um kernels that pop open and they're crunchy and Our whole family has just been really thrilled with that popcorn So i'm so glad that I was able to get a big bag of it for a great price And we'll be able to enjoy it for quite some time another winner for us was that white cheddar the raw white cheddar We have been buying raw cheeses over the last handful of months and the flavor and the creaminess Just that comes with raw cheese is so so delicious. So I definitely will be ordering that one again We've been using it on many different things including some scallop potatoes, which oh wow if you put white Cheddar in scallop potatoes. It just takes them to the next level so delicious The last two things I want to mention are the apples. They were so yummy And um, I'm finding different ways to preserve them and I'm actually going to get some more in next month's order Just to be able to freeze dry and Use in other ways because they were just good and I felt like they came in great shape to where I had Probably a good months or more in my refrigerator that I could use them sporadically They weren't like on their last leg whenever I got them And then the last thing I want to mention if you are someone that eats gluten free which I do and my daughter does as well And we've been implementing more and more gluten free items into our family Um, but we found a gluten free sourdough and I think that the brand is called simple needs I'll leave the brand name here on the screen for you all to see But it is made with a fermenting process like sourdough is but the ingredients that they've put into it are so well thought out It's not made with a bunch of starches. There's times that I pick up A package of gluten free bread and the first or second ingredient is just cornstarch Or made with gums and other things like that and it's not that we don't consume those things ever It's just I feel like there could be better grains put into bread Well, this company has found that and I like you saw ordered one loaf of it My daughter and I both have been Loving it the flavor is so delicious toast it up a little bit It's just delicious. So next month when I order from them I'll be getting a whole case of that because it's something that comes frozen We can just keep it in the freezer and I'm not I make regular sourdough for the rest of our family But I'm not quite ready to dive in to learning how to do gluten free sourdough So it's just a great outlet for me to be able to source it Until one day I get that all figured out back to the pricing a quick little note about costco Because you all know I do shop costco as well And there are some things that are cheaper through costco even if you are shopping organic So things like green beans and broccoli and frozen blueberries and frozen strawberries that are organic At least that my costco are cheaper per pound than azure So for me there will be things like that that I definitely won't order through azure But there are also a huge number of things that I simply can't find that quality Of an ingredient at my local stores anywhere. So that aspect of it I love um, I love that you can even get dairy products organic dairy products Through them as well things that are refrigerated. You can get produce and those sorts of things And so for those reasons at this point, I think I will be doing some orders through azure I don't know if it'll be every month. I'm gonna wait and kind of see just because you get so many things in such large bulk quantities There's a lot of things especially with this order that I will not need again for months and months and months So I don't know if it will always be worth it for me to place a full on order Um, but we'll wait and see and I definitely will share those halls with you all So in case you don't know what azure is at all and you're like she's talking about all this stuff This sounds great. I would be interested. I don't know Um, number one. This video is not sponsored by azure whatsoever. This was all my own spending and order However, the way that azure works is you place an order through their website And they give you a drop point for your local area Our drop point is actually not just up the street from us like we do have to drive a little ways for it um, but You go and you pick up once a month. I do believe there may be some areas that they run a little bit more often um, but I think most areas it's once a month And so you place your order you have a certain cutoff point that you are able to place your order up to And then there is a drop point coordinator person for your area They give you a text or you might get an email on when you're supposed to pick up in the time frame And when the truck will be there and all of those sorts of things and actually funny enough The drop coordinator for our area is someone that I personally know And she's been doing it for years and she's really awesome So I feel like you can get a lot of information from your drop point coordinator And usually their contact information is on the website once you put in Your address to find out the closest drop point for you So then you just go and you pick up all your goodies And you bring them home and put them away So it's super similar in my mind to like a Walmart pickup or anything else It's just they you have a time frame that you have to go and pick the things up at one more thing I'm going to say before I wrap this video up is that azure has a massive variety of Items and things. I mean they've even gotten to the point now that they have canning jars. They have Herbs and even things that you would use for teas Stuff like that. They've got shampoos. They've got home cleaners I mean, they're essentially like a very healthy version of a Walmart You can just really get anything and everything through them And most of it you can get in bulk to where if you get a larger quantity You're going to get a cheaper price. I hope I didn't leave anything out I hope that I was able to communicate this well to you all and if you're interested I will leave the website below for azure as well I thank you guys for hanging out with me today and I hope this video wasn't too long or too Kind of scatterbrained. I tried to get it all together the best that I could And yeah, those are a few little updates also on our family's health situation That we just have some things that I have to start taking into account With the health issues that we have and I know we're on our way to healing and better gut health by just being more mindful In our eating if you're new here, don't forget to subscribe I put out a lot of meal prep and grocery shopping and food preservation And all of those sorts of things very very much taking it back to the old ways of doing things That my mom and my grandmothers would have done And don't forget to leave a comment below give this video a like and I'll see you all in the next one