where to get large supply of flour/baking soda/etc

[ajl]

So I moved here at the begining of January and we have six people in our family.
We don't have our stuff yet but sometimes we rent a car to get ahead on shopping.
So far this year I'm going to use over 200kg of flour, so I'm interested in getting
larger packages, instead of a gazillion 2kg ones. I used to use a lot of vinegar and
baking soda for my cleaning needs in the states because that reduced the poisons
kept in the household to a bare minimum (yes, we try to keep bad stuff high & away,
your kids may not be as interested to get into places mine have gotten to; why have
toxic stuff if there is safer alternative?). So where can a non business person buy
big quantities of flour, baking soda, vinegar and related things? I'm not a huge
costco-esque person but shopping ahead for a big family saves time. I'd like to
save my excitment for roller coasters instead of the fear I get from having to take
my kids shopping so frequently (every aisle pretty much has glass jars somewhere
on it, your kids may not be as Tiggerish as mine can be, even the one in the pram).

thx,

Amy

[Rosamunda]

So I moved here at the begining of January....

Hi Amy.

I think you need to be a tad more specific about where you live, if you want us to give you some spot on advice

[Woverke]

I saw large (5-10kg) bags of flour in the Mini-Mani in Vaasa today.

I don't know if that's a wide spread supermarketchain though .

(ps: first post for me here, flew into Vaasa on Monday for a three month practical training for my bachelor degree. Normally, I live in Belgium).

[enk]

https://www.prima-mausteet.fi/

Baking soda:

RUOKASOODA 250g Lisää koriin

Tuotekoodi: 516
Yksikkö: KPL
Alv-prosentti: 17
Hinta ALV 0 0,81 EUR
Hinta sisältäen ALV:n 0,95 EUR
Natriumbikarbonaatti. Käytetään leivonnaisten kohotusaineena.

For large amounts of flour, I'd look for a mill nearby if you're far
enough out. Or even a farm selling stuff (such as places like
this: http://personal.inet.fi/yritys/maatilapuoti/)

-enk

[Rosamunda]

I saw large (5-10kg) bags of flour in the Mini-Mani in Vaasa today.

I don't know if that's a wide spread supermarketchain though .

(ps: first post for me here, flew into Vaasa on Monday for a three month practical training for my bachelor degree. Normally, I live in Belgium).

We have Minimani in Olari (Espoo) - they have a pretty good selection of reasonably priced staples (but I don't rate their fruit and veg much). http://www.minimani.fi/default.aspx?id=126 (only 6 in Finland though)


@Woverke: In case you haven't found it already, and in case you are French-speaking, there is a French forum on: www.salutfinlande.net

[enk]

Now I found the place was looking for:

http://www.labbynkauppa.net/

They deliver to Helsinki, Vantaa, Porvoo, Kotka, Loviisa and Eastern Uusimaa direct,
otherwise they'll ship it through Matkahuolto (neither veggies nor meat though).

-enk

[Woverke]

I saw large (5-10kg) bags of flour in the Mini-Mani in Vaasa today.

I don't know if that's a wide spread supermarketchain though .

(ps: first post for me here, flew into Vaasa on Monday for a three month practical training for my bachelor degree. Normally, I live in Belgium).

We have Minimani in Olari (Espoo) - they have a pretty good selection of reasonably priced staples (but I don't rate their fruit and veg much). http://www.minimani.fi/default.aspx?id=126 (only 6 in Finland though)


@Woverke: In case you haven't found it already, and in case you are French-speaking, there is a French forum on: http://www.salutfinlande.net

Well actually, I'm from the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium (60% Dutch (Flemish), 40% French (Walloon), very small percentage German), and since my French isn't quite that good, I'd rather stay here if you don't mind.

I did found a Dutch-speaking forum (www.finlandforum.nl), but that's not nearly as active as this one...

[Rosamunda]

I'd rather stay here if you don't mind.

Sure, I don't mind Just trying to be helpful

[ajl]

ahh, I'm sorry, live in Helsinki area. Don't expect kids to become very quiet when walking, unless I only
get 5 minutes in the store, ha ha. Your milage may vary, but my kids are BOUNCY types. None sat in a
stroller that was stopped in the states either. Must touch anything and everything as well.
Reality is what you percieve of course, but telling me my kids are going to magically change by living
here will just make me laugh; you must have very special kids, or no kids at all. Of course the almost
8 year old is better at walking through the store nicely, unfortunately it is boring to do that so he is also
much better at starting a fight with his brother (things take way longer when I need to read labels,
and look at/find stuff, and we never stay in a store more than 15 minutes unless the checkout lines
are long).

So I could go through 3-4kg of baking soda and 3 gallons (that's about 12L) of vinegar (5% solution,
which is half the solution the 1L jug I found in one K store I go to often has) in one month.
I haven't followed all the links here, but the tone is not good. For baking soda and vinegar one
would think there might be so great non obvious sources, they are useful chemicals.

thx

[enk]

It'd be a good idea to look at the links first

-enk

[Rosamunda]

Bulk items are available from Heino in Sörnäinen but you need an access card. If you belong to the AWC, BWA etc then you should be able to get the card from them. Some of the ethnic stores in the Hakaniemi area sell bulk items too. The big supermarkets do have 5kgs bags of flour, but sometimes you have to look hard for them. If you want organic whole grain flours then use the search engine because several of us have posted links to farms selling direct (but they are outside of town).

If you want to avoid chemicals, you could invest in a steam cleaner. I use mine all over the house and thereby avoid both the chemicals and the smell of vinegar (which, let's face it, is not so nice). Kärcher steam cleaners are available from the big hardware stores (eg Bauhaus, K.Rauta etc). Otherwise a tub of Universal Stone goes a long long way and you can get that from the big supermarkets.

I remember when my 3 boys were all under 4 years of age... I never took them shopping either and still don't (the eldest will be 17 tomorrow). Maybe you can find a babysitter and / or dh to take care of them while you do the shops. Most stores are open until 9pm so you can still shop when the kids have gone to bed. And Heino is open at the crack of dawn weekdays and even on Sundays.

HTH

[Mook]

There's always "weigh and save" http://www.punnitse.fi/

[Rosamunda]

There's always "weigh and save" http://www.punnitse.fi/

Are they cheaper than eg: Prisma? I will have to take a look in there some time this week; I have never been in one of their stores.

I found organic spelt and buckwheat flours to weigh, but no regular plain/strong plain wheat flour on their webpage. Looks good for nuts and spices though.

[ajl]

thanks for the replies, I will definitely be visiting that spice importer when we have a car
and when we visit mother in law's cabin which is past Tampere, love those places, one
thing leads to another and whammo, you never knew where you'd end up, but the journey
is exciting! We used to belong to a CSA in the seattle area, so I will be checking out
farm-direct links over the next few years. Hope I'll be able to get into making some easy
cheeses/cultured stuff in my copious spare time I'll start with easy stuff - ricotta, sour
creams, and move up the ladder to some harder stuff. Is beer making legal here? That
would be something worth getting into (haven't tried that for a while, and although our
earlier attempts exploded somewhat, should be worth trying again since spouse likes IPA
and stouts).

[EP]

Yes, beer making is legal. So is wine making.