updated December 12, 2010.
Amaranth
This grain can be purchased at Return To Eden, or Whole Foods.
Barley
Barley is common. Pearled barley is available at Publix, for example. Hulled barley can be bought at Mother Nature’s Market, or Return To Eden.
Couscous
I’ve seen it at Publix, I’ve seen it at Return To Eden. I’ve seen it at Trader Joes, and Whole Foods.
Flax Seed Oil
Great as a plant based omega 3 fatty acid supplement, it is critical that this foodstuff be refrigerated and kept away from oxygen. Given that, I can’t recommend buying it in a store that doesn’t refrigerate this oil. Whole Foods does this well, and provides a variety of product, from their inexpensive store brand to designer oils.
Farro
It’s also called emmer and is considered a relict crop, but Deborah Madison has featured it in her book Vegetarian Soups in a recipe mixing farro and chickpeas. I’m interested but only if I’m going to be able to find it via local sources.
Online it is available from Market Half Foods but the cost is prohibitive and the farro is semi-pearled. Whether that’s good or bad to you is an individual issue. Another interesting source is Chef’s Shop. Their farro is U.S. grown and hulled but again, it’s expensive. I question the wisdom of buying grains whose cost exceeds that of lamb (ca $5/lb here) and is approaching the price of New York Strip (~ $10/lb).
Turns out at least two sources of farro are available through Whole Foods, and one of them is affordable.
Lentils
There are multiple varieties. So far I’ve mostly been using the green variety found at the nearby supermarkets. In the Mexican food section of Publix, for example, you can find more green lentils, but they are visually much smaller than the standard variety. The health food stores Return To Eden and Mother Nature’s Market have both green and red lentils for sale in bulk.
The only place I can find beluga lentils so far is Trader Joe’s, and they are cooked and somewhat expensive.
At the Buford Highway Farmer’s Market, there is an Indian foods section with green (American lentils), brown (masoor dals), red (split masoor dals), and black lentils (urad or urid dals). Red lentils are also available in the Hispanic section of the market.
Your DeKalb Farmer’s Market also has an excellent selection of lentils and Indian dals, including the small green French lentils.
N. K. Hurst, a soup and bean company based in Indianapolis, has a very interesting combination lentil product.
Quinoa
There are at least six sources in town now. It’s available through Return To Eden, Mother Nature’s Market, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, DeKalb, and there are quinoa based products in Publix next to the various couscous and tabbouleh based products. Quinoa pastas can be found at Whole Foods or DeKalb. Your DeKalb Farmer’s Market has both red and white quinoa and is the only source in town for wild black quinoa.
Salmon
Hard to beat as a omega 3 fatty acid source, or a vitamin D source. If so, you want to target wild Alaskan sockeye (red) salmon more so than pink salmon. Publix has it in small cans. Kroger only carries pink. Vital Choice is an online vendor of high quality canned salmon products and frozen foods. It is one of the few sources I know of the premium king (chinook) salmon.
Sardines and Herring
If you’re purchasing these for their omega 3 fatty acids, don’t buy them in oil. The omega 6 rich cottonseed and canola oils ruin this foodstuff for omega 3 balance. So does frying in these oils. Buying sardines stored in water, stored in mustard sauce, stored in a tomato sauce, or stored in hot sauce are all good.
Spelt
Spelt is another ancient wheat variety, and various spelt products can be bought at Return To Eden and Mother Nature’s Market.
Food Near Snellville 
June 10, 2009 at 7:01 pm
This is a great topic for a blog post! I did a CSA for the first time last year and I brought home some veggies I didn’t recognize and began to realize how much we limit ourselves by eating only what our parents and grandparents cooked. My My husband opened an Italian restaurant last year and I’m pretty focused on learning more about Italian foods right now. I haven’t ventured into the ethnic food stores, yet but this post does encourage us to expand our horizons a little. Thanks for sharing this info!