In the interest of full disclosure - here's mine - BEFORE!
We have only lived in our house 6 years, but we must have moved some spices from our old house, judging by the expiration dates. This seems to run in the family, because I remember Mom having a tin of mace from an A&P long after we had moved away from any branches of that famous chain grocery.
I admit it - this was a dysfunctional mess - I could never find anything, so I ended up either using whatever fresh herbs I had on hand or nothing at all - boring!!!
Judging by the cost of spice bottles in the grocery store, revamping the drawer and replacing the spices and herbs seemed overwhelming and too expensive, so I kept putting it off. And then along came Citizen's Co-op...
During their first day open, as I was browsing the shelves, I realized that all their stock of organic herbs and spices was brand new and super fresh. The bulk jars called my name and later at home I daydreamed ways to redo my spice drawer.
Since I happened to have a large number of very inexpensive small, clear plastic containers, I thought they would be perfect. I figured out how many would fit in the drawer, put them all in a box top, grabbed a Sharpie and headed off to the Co-op.
Once there, Gretchen put one of my containers, with the lid, on the scale to determine its weight so that when they weighed the full containers, the cashier could enter the tare and only weigh the spice or herb.
Choosing only 20 was fairly easy - and then I added a couple of new taste sensations to play with - for a total of 24 containers - just the right number to fill my drawer. I labeled the tops with the spice name and the price to make it easier to check out. And the payment was painless - the total for all the spices and herbs was only $9.00
So the total cost - a couple of hours and $10 - including the cost of the containers!
Once home, I just emptied and cleaned the drawer, lined it with a towel, and lined up my containers of fresh spices and herbs. So here's the AFTER!
It's worth the time and "expense" to have an organized drawer of fresh herbs and spices at your fingertips - and bulk spices and herbs make it oh so easy to do!
