At last! Fayette foodies sigh contentedly. There's a place

to buy natural and organic foods in bulk without trekking all

over. And it's only a few minutes west of Peachtree City on Ga.

Highway 34.

Dubbed New Creations, this bulk foods emporium looks

small at first glance, but is delightfully comprehensive in its inventory

of grains, cereals, beans, rice, nuts and seeds, herbs and spices.

And it's doubtful anyone anywhere has a more elaborate selection of pasta.

Gourmet coffees and teas samples of which are

hospitably offered with fructose and unrefined sugars sit barrel to

barrel with honey and syrup that can be decanted into the customer's

container.

"The customer chooses how much or how little to buy,"

says New Creations' flier. The result is that the customer is usually

pleasantly surprised by the total on the cash register tape.

Yeast, for example, both for baking and as a nutritional

additive, is strikingly cheaper in bulk. So are chocolates, jelly beans,

and assorted sprinkles for cookies. The place is a bread baker's

dream, although not all of the wide selection of flours is organic.

Immaculately clean and logically organized, New

Creations' only serious shortcoming for a nutrition-freak would be the

lack of cooking instructions and nutritional values. A bin of

pancake/waffle mix, for example, gives no clue as to whether oil or eggs

need to be added, nor how high the fat content is and whether it

includes cholesterol or saturated fat.

These few omissions are soon to be remedied, says Andy

Bond, one-time printer, Navy veteran, ordained Methodist minister,

now Pentecostal evangelist and natural foods maven. He and his

wife Anne opened the store in late December and have been

concentrating on stocking what people want.

For example, he says, "I need pine nuts a lot of people

have asked for them. Some things I'll wait to order until folks ask,"

he continued. "People asked for it, so I have green tea now,

although not in unlimited bulk like the other teas."

Bond is looking for recipes that utilize natural foods, and says

that for a while at least he'll give a 10 percent discount to

customers who bring in recipes to share, but "not too many of the

same kind, and recipes they've tried. I'd especially like recipes that

use some of the unusual grains like amaranth and quinoa."

Bond says he has been interested in nutritional foods

since the early 1980s when he was doing a lot of running. He had

done business with a natural food store in Atlanta that prepackaged

its merchandise, but last summer when he saw natural foods sold

in bulk in Bradenton, Fla., "that was the catalyst" to open a store of

his own.

Once he builds his customer base, he hopes to open a

second store in Peachtree City.

The fact that most of Bond's products are unit-priced to

the pound helps customers compare, although it is startling to see

spices like goldenseal root powder labeled at over $107 per pound.

He says he does not vary price with quantity, however a

product has the same unit-cost whether the customer buys half an

ounce or six pounds of it.

He also notes that echinacea root, cut and sifted, runs about

$6 per ounce, a real bargain compared with the price of capsules

in a health food store.

Most, but not all, of New Creations' selection is organic.

"Frontier is my main supplier for herbs, spices, coffees, through

Cornucopia, and a lot of their things are organic," Bond said, adding

that he recently brought in Mellina's organic pasta sauces.

Bond is a Thomaston, Ga. native, who grew up in

Columbus. He and his family, which includes daughters Emily, 13, and

Laurie, 11, now live in Newnan. Bond says he will continue his work

as an evangelist.

New Creations is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday

through Friday, and from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday. The store is

located across from the entrance to White Oak, in the J & R Plaza just east

of the soccer fields. The phone number is 770-304-9300.

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