Monthly shopping for food items

Hello friends welcome to my blog.

Restocking food items requires planning and keeping in check to be sure the old ones are used up to ensure no wastage, at the same time avoiding running out of food. All these are taken into consideration. So, after my planning, it's time to go for dried non-perishable food items.

I do my food shopping in a local food market in my locality. All sort of food stuff you can think of is found in this market, one thing about this market is that it begins very early in the morning, from 6am, people are already in the market. I also heard the market sells as early as 3am..hahahahha. So on my to buy list are Crayfish, Dried pepper and Melon seed(egusi). I got them in large quantities, to store them so they last for a long period.

I have vendor i buy from so i do not waste much time when i get to the market.

	Buying Crayfish

Buying Dried pepper and Melon seed

Dried pepper comes in different species; there are the long ones and the short ones. The shorter species is hotter. And only a little is required in your cooking, and this shorter species of pepper is more expensive than the longer one. People go for their different choices, I bought this hotter one because it lasts longer, as I do not use much of it in my cooking.

I also got melon seeds. Melon seeds are of two types: the hand-peeled and the machine-peeled. Growing up, I have heard my mum say that hand-peeled melon seed tastes better than machine-peeled melon seeds, and I have grown up with that myth, which makes me always go for it.

I also noticed that the hand peel is more expensive than the machine peel which i think might be because of the manual labour involved in peeling the melon seed. I have also noticed that the hand-peeled melon seeds have fewer broken seeds because it was carefully done.

However, when i got home, i got them all poured out into a big bowl and tray and carefully picked out dirt, so i dont have to do that whenever i want to use them and then i stored them in an airtight seal bags to keep it out from air, remain fresh and protect them from contamination of insects and pest.

	Melon seeds packed in Ziplock bag

Crayfish in Ziplock bag

	Dried pepper in Ziplock bag

Moreover, storing food stuff like this without grinding it enables your meal to taste fresh. I have tried grinding them before and storing them, but over time, they began to lose taste, especially when they are in large quantities. It's best to grind at the point of use and if you must grind and keep, it should be in a quantity that won't stay for too long.

Another important thing to note on storing, if you have older remains of the same food stuff, try to differentiate, maybe by labelling or putting a mark on it, so you can use them before the new ones to avoid spoiling. They should, most importantly, be kept in a safe place.