How I keep my family fed: A quick guide to stocking and maintaining snacks, pantry, and larder

Illustration by Michelle Lassaline for How to Grow a Baby

My friend has a one-year-old and she is quickly learning how important it is (for joy, sanity, wellbeing, ease, health) to have a well stocked pantry so that creating nourishing meals and snacks for her family is do-able and affordable. She asked me to share how I keep my family fed through a mix of bulk purchasing, and both local and online markets. Below, I share my go-tos for keeping my fridge, pantry, and larder stocked so that feeding my family is a little easier.

For nourishing meal ideas and more about food during pregnancy and postpartum, check out my book, How to Grow a Baby, available everywhere books are sold!

Note: there’s no way around the reality that this way of eating is a privilege. It’s not easy or cheap. But, I love food and cooking so this works for our family and we work hard to prioritize spending our limited funds on high quality food over other types of goods.

40 lbs of salt

25 lbs of Himalayan pink salt and 15 lbs of kosher chef salt. I buy mine from San Francisco Salt Company and then I don’t run out for a very long time.

Crazy good olive oil

Next level finishing olive oil by the half gallon (and some incredibly tasty apple cider vinegar). Life changing stuff, my friends. Get it from Katz Farm.

5 lbs of coffee

This delectable roast lasts us a while at home and is super fresh. I also love coffee subscriptions from Tandem and Overview.

CSAs, Coop, & Farmer’s Markets

We visit a weekly, year round farmer’s market and have been CSA members to Prema Farm and Mountain Bounty Farm. This is where I get most of my greens and other seasonal produce. I also visit our local coop 2-4 times a week for small shopping trips. I get milk, yogurt, lemons, sweet potatoes, squash, avocados, parmesan and others cheeses, and other produce here along with locally raised meat.

I love Patagonia Provisions

Every few months (i.e. whenever there is a sale), I order snacks from Patagonia Provisions. I get anchovies, salmon, mackerel, mussels, bison, venison, chile mango, bars, dried apples, pineapple and apple bananas, maple syrup, maple walnuts, and my favorite quick snack for myself, their savory seeds. When you sign up for their emails, you get 30% off right off the bat.

Yes, I Thrive too.

Almond flour and other gluten free baking flours, mango bars and balls, cleaning products, compostable trash bags, cooking olive oil, gluten free pasta, salmon bites, kids vitamin D3 gummies, and some household goods are a few items I order frequently from Thrive.

The garden and the ranch

I have access both to my small backyard garden and fruit trees as well as the garden we planted at my parent’s ranch. Between these two growing locations, we get tons of greens, apples, carrots, squash, fresh herbs, and other produce. Every few years, my family harvests and shares one grass-fed and finished cow so that we have many cuts of beef. We also have chickens at both locations for pastured eggs, and we’ve raised turkeys and ducks in the past as well.

Speciality shops

A few online shops I like to occasionally order speciality/elevated foods and spices from: Wellspent Market, Curio Spice Co., and Housework Store.