Do you struggle to find high-quality foods at the grocery store? If so, you're not alone!
There are so many labels making so many claims – some of which are true and others that are misleading. It can be tough to know what you should choose.
Wouldn't it be great to have an "easy button" for finding groceries that are actually good for you?
I've found one! It's Azure Standard.
What is Azure Standard?
Azure is an organic grocery and natural products company. It offers a huge range of foods, natural remedies, garden and homesteading supplies, and much more. You have to page through the shop to truly appreciate the depth of products it carries. I've been ordering through Azure for at least 5-6 years now, and I still find items that I didn't know I could get.
Azure began as a conventional farm turned organic and expanded to include other local farms and suppliers of organic, non-GMO foods.
What impresses me most about the company is that each product added to its line-up has its supply line examined to ensure every ingredients is non-GMO. This is something that can be difficult for the average consumer to do while browsing the aisles in the grocery store, so it's relieving to have a company that carries only these products, so I know that anything I buy from them is non-GMO.
Like I said, it's the easy button for grocery shopping.
How it Works
Azure does business a bit differently. Online grocery shopping and having them delivered to your car in the parking lot has become commonplace in the last few years, and Azure uses a similar process.
When you sign up with Azure, you will choose a local "drop." This is the location that you will meet with a group of other Azure customers to pick up your groceries.
Your drop will have an order period each month, and you must order your items before your cutoff. Then, your order will be packed onto a refrigerated truck with the orders from other people in your drop and the other drops along the route.
At your drop's specified day and time, you and the other people in your drop meet at the location, and the truck arrives. The driver will unload the groceries, and everyone pitches in to read the names on the packages and get them distributed to the right people.
If you ordered something frozen, don't forget to wait for the driver to unload from the front frozen compartment as well.
What I Source from Azure
What I order from Azure has increased exponentially since I first began. I think my first orders were mostly grains – flour, oatmeal, and the like.
Now, my orders contain almost every pantry staple I use.
It varies each month, but here's a brief look at the types of item I source from Azure:
- Grains – all types of flour, oatmeal, cornmeal, rice
- Dried beans
- Pasta
- Cheese
- Baking supplies – baking powder, salt, coconut sugar, chocolate chips, nuts, spices
- Frozen peas
- Jarred tomato products (when I run out of what I've canned)
- Condiments like ketchup and mustard
- Chicken feed
- Garden seeds
- Natural product DIY supplies like jojoba oil
- Natural remedies like colloidal silver and activated charcoal
I also buy a lot of these items in bulk quantities to save money, which is another perk of Azure over most grocery stores.
What I Don't Buy from Azure
For full disclosure, there are two categories of items I do not buy from Azure.
First – fresh produce. Since orders ship from Oregon and make many stops along the way, I've found that by the time the truck arrives to me in eastern South Dakota, the produce is not ideal. I prefer to use Misfits Market for organic produce. I have ordered apples, and I see other people in my drop ordering carrots, but I stay away from short shelf-life foods.
Second – essential oils. Cheap oils aren't good oils, and Azure's essential oils are stupid cheap. Oils that cheap are generally synthetic, adulterated, or improperly distilled. Since I use essential oils for therapeutic purposes, I won't buy cheap ones ... period. I source oils here.
Drawbacks
There aren't many downsides to Azure, and they certainly don't negate the positives for me, but here are a couple things to be aware of:
You only get one delivery a month – if you forget to order something or miss your cutoff, you're out of luck until the next month, unless you want to pay the more expensive shipping to have it sent directly to you.
You won't know the delivery date and time when you order – When I first started ordering, they gave the date and time of the drop up front, but now, they don't. They'll tell you the week your delivery will come, but even that is subject to change. I had a delivery changed to 1:00 on Labor Day, and another that should've arrived the week before Christmas arrived the week after. If you have a trip or something planned for the week after your drop, I recommend not ordering that month unless someone else can pick it up for you. And if you have a strict work schedule, Azure may not work for you.
There it is – pretty much everything I know about Azure Standard. As I've started prioritizing organic, non-GMO, and sustainable foods, I've come to rely more on Azure to fill my grocery needs.
With the scheduling, it may not work for everyone, but if you can make the delivery times work or don't mind paying the shipping to your door, it really is the easy button for sourcing healthy foods.
If you'd like to try Azure out, you can use this link to get started. And feel free to ask me any questions! I'm happy to answer if I can!
*This site contains affiliate links. If you use these links, you don't pay any extra, but the company gives me a portion of the sale. I appreciate your support of my family and small business!*
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