Azure Standard

Have you ever used Azure Standard? If you aren’t familiar with them, it’s probably worth reading about them and checking out their website. When we lived in Texas, there was a drop location in Cisco but it was about 70 miles from our house and their pickup times were usually in the evening, which often meant we’d be making at least part of the trip in the dark. With the deer there and neither of us able to drive after dark, I never ordered.

When we moved here, the first thing I checked was where the drop point was and it’s in Carthage and barely 10 miles from our house. I kept meaning to order but never did and finally, I ordered! Today was our first pickup.

Here’s what I got this time:

• 8 oz. sugar snap peas
• 25 pounds carrots
• 1 pound fresh turmeric
• 3 pounds purple sweet potatoes
• 2 pounds brussels sprouts
• 5 pounds beets
• 50 pounds oat groats (2 – 25 pound bags)

The reason I placed the order when I did, besides the fact that I had been meaning to do it, was that I had opened our last container of oats and hadn’t been able to find more for a reasonable price. I initially ordered one 50 pound bag from Azure and they sold out of those before my cut off/charge date. I then added an order for two 25 pound bags, which was just a little more than one 50 pound bag, and on my cut off date, the note said “Out of stock. Your order probably will not be filled.”)

Darn! We can’t be without oats! That’s when I went to Honeyville and ordered two large bags of oat groats (45 pounds each). Then, about a week later, I got confirmation that the oats from Azure Standard were shipped. The really weird thing is that the oats from Honeyville were delivered today AND we picked up our Azure Standard order today – what are the odds of ordering things at two different times from two different places and having them arrive the same day? So, we now have right at 150 pounds of oats? We won’t be buying any more of those for a while.

You can read lots of reviews, some good, some bad, about Azure Standard. This blog post and updates pretty much sums it up. I understand exactly what she’s staying:

1. My next order closes around April 19. I can add to my cart, delete things from my cart up to that time. Once the closing time arrives, my order is a done deal. I cannot add to it or take anything off it.
2. My next drop date is sometime the week of April 24.
3. I will not know what’s actually in stock and going to be delivered to me until a few days after my closing date. That’s exactly the same as if I call Walmart (NEVER!) and ask if they have brussels sprouts and they say yes – 10 bags and just before I get there, someone goes in and buys 10 bags! That’s life.
4. So . . if I order 10 things and 8 of them are out of stock, I can’t cancel the two remaining things. If I had to drive 50+ miles each way for one pound of carrots and 3 pounds of sweet potatoes, I would not be thrilled but I understand the system.

On the order we picked up today, the only thing I did not get was 25 pounds of spelt, which had not gone out of stock the entire time I was waiting for my closing date and just before the truck was packed, the spelt was all gone. They’re expecting 2,200 – 25 pound bags of spelt in tomorrow but I’m sure that will be gone before my next shipment date . . the week of April 24. They’re expecting 11,000 – 5 pound bags of spelt tomorrow. Maybe I can get a couple of those if the 25 pound bags are all time. We’ll see.

Our Experience – First Order Drop:

The pickup location, as I mentioned above, is 10 miles from our house. Not bad at all. I had received an email with my order confirmation a week ago that our time was 2:15 and we should arrive 15 minutes early. An 18 wheeler delivers, usually to a large parking lot. Our drop spot was a medical clinic that was not open today. I had not looked at my messages since about noon and once we got there, I checked my messages and one from our coordinator stating that the truck was not going to be there til 2:30. It was just a little after 2 at that point but he actually arrived about 2:05.

That’s snow and sleet on our windshield! Vince and I had no idea how things worked so we kinda sat in the car and watched. What happens is the truck driver opens up a big shrink wrapped pallet and starts stacking stuff at the end of the trailer. Everyone grabs stuff and starts making “piles” for everyone. Each box/bag/jar has a label with what’s in the box/bag/jar and the purchaser’s name.

I would say there were about 20 people there picking up things and there were a few piles with no one there yet to pick them up. The coordinator said that was about 30% more people than what they usually have . . I think that’s a testament to people being concerned about the food supply. There was everything! 40 pound bags of fertilizer, to chicken feed, to live plants and all kinds of food. I saw probably 40 cases of pasta, several cases of pasta sauce, a 50 pound bag of dried corn, I’m guessing there were at least 40 bags of grain (oats, wheat, buckwheat, einkorn, rye, etc.).

According to Vince, the people were all “homestead” looking people, not Joplin people. He’s so funny. He meant people who grow some of their own food, can their food, grind their wheat – not the people you find shopping in the malls. Vince looks at people. I was looking at all the stuff they had bought! I couldn’t start to tell you what any of the people looked at. There was a young lady – probably early 20’s who was there to pick up her mom’s stuff. There was a lady with 3 kids – probably age 6 – 10 and my guess is she’s a homeschooler. That’s the only people I noticed.

There was one stack where someone had ordered about 10 – 25 pound bags of kidney beans. It really was interesting to see what people had ordered. I wanted to talk to the people who had ordered wheat and other grains. I’m sure they mill their own and that excites me.

As we were standing there, I said to Vince “I’m surprised to see so many bags of wheat have been ordered.” The young lady who was there to pick up her mom’s stuff said “Have you tried buying wheat lately?” I knew where that conversation was going . . I looked up and saw that Vince had already taken our bags of oats to the car so I simply said “No”. I was being honest because . . what’s the meaning of “lately”? 🙂 I hadn’t tried since I gave up a couple of weeks ago trying to get spelt.

Our Order:

I got the two bags of oats and, as expected, they were in heavy duty paper . . almost cardboard bags. I didn’t see a single bag that anyone received that was torn.

As far as everything else, I don’t buy a lot of organic produce. I do try to buy organic when it’s a root crop – carrots, beats, radishes, I’d like to say I buy organic potatoes but here, I’m doing good to find decent potatoes and usually will take whatever looks like it might make it for another couple of days.

I ordered one container of snow peas. I almost ordered two because we love those but then I wondered how well they would travel and if they would be fresh. They are. They look like they were picked yesterday.

25 pounds of carrots is a lot of carrots! I’ll probably can about half of them tomorrow. We do use a lot of carrots but, 25 pounds . . that’s about 5-6 months worth. You can see the two bags of turmeric, which I’ll mostly plant, purple sweet potatoes in the bag that looks like apples (3 pounds); beets (5 pounds); brussels sprouts (2 pounds); and sugar snap peas (8 oz.).

That’s it. I’m extremely happy with what we got.

Price Comparison:

With the Walmart app on my phone, I compared the prices for everything. The sugar snap peas were about twice as much as they are at Walmart but lately, the ones from Walmart didn’t look so good so I didn’t even buy them. The carrots, by buying the 25 pound bag were the same as Walmart’s price for non-organic carrots. The organic brussels sprouts were .32/ounce where non-organic halved brussels sprouts at Walmart were .29. I’ve not been happy with brussels sprouts the last few times I got them at Walmart so I’m happy to pay a few cents more. The Azure Standard price is about .48 more per pound and if I can use all those and not have to toss any of them, it definitely makes them a better deal. Non-organic beets at Walmart are $2.44/pound and the Azure Standard organic beets were $1.80 per pound. Walmart doesn’t have purple sweet potatoes but organic sweet potatoes are $1.75/pound. I paid $3.23/pound for the purple sweet potatoes. OK . . that was kinda over the top. At Natural Grocer in Joplin, which is the only place I ever find these locally, they’re $3.39 per pound so it’s ok that I paid $3.23/pound.

The Verdict:

I’ve eaten a raw carrot, and a couple of raw sugar snap peas. I’ve taken about half the carrots out and put them in gallon ziploc bags. I’ll share some with Nicole. The brussels sprouts look fresh. The beets and sweet potatoes look good . . hard to tell about those two til I cook them. I’m 100% pleased and wishing they made drops every two weeks instead of once a month.

I made sure Vince was happy with everything too. He was impressed with how clean and neat and well organized the truck was. He thought everything was great.

We’ll be ordering from Azure Standard again!