What's in your pantry?

Oh, gotcha on what this whole column is. I think I am in the wrong place. Yes, we are plenty stocked for earthquake, food and water and meds. That is for more or less of a time. But this once done is nothing I put much thought into other than a restock and change and update of things, to tell the truth. I am 80. Likelihood of making it longterm in a disaster is UNlikely, and I am OK with that. Me and my tent in the back yard,hee hee. As I said, the future will make what it will make for us. I at 80 haven't run into the thing I couldn't handle. COULD happen. Just saying, I don't make much of it,nor give it much time.

Albigensian Our generac generator runs on propane, as does our fireplace. They share a large tank in the back that we get checked on a regular basis and refilled as needed. When it kickes in we have water, hot water and the whole house runs as normal. We don't have to worry about water? Or heat, as it comes on,, and has and it is wonderful! If we ran the whole dang house full on it would last several days, but I can not imagine we would ever do this, as we don;t normally. Just a room or two, and it would mostly be for the freezers and such, Seems it would go for at least a week. Which is the longest we have gone without electric. The only generators we have that run on gasoline are our portabables from hubs business. I know whole house gennies are pricey, but they are worth it if you have medical equipment that needs to run.

I have m ore than I should have in the freezers (yes there is an intended "s")
I have a bit of dry goods in the pantry as well.
I try to make a point of "shopping my own home" before I go out shopping.
My Husband always asked my why I stocked up stuff in the freezer and pantry. His logic, and not sure if this was because he came from a "restaurant family" background, was you pass by several stores on the way home, buy what you want that day.
But to this day I can't pass up a "deal" if I see meat on "special, a managers closeout or a short sell by date" I will grab it even if I do not need it right then.
I could probably go for a month without shopping. I might have to try that.

I have canned quite a bit of stuff. Just did 8 quarts of pickled beets. I have not tried Pressure Canning yet though. (cost of canning supplies has gone up since COVID)

Alva, I think the point of a stocked pantry is "in the event of..."

Right now we have an abundance in the USA, that could change overnight.

What happens if San Francisco has another large earthquake? Do you have enough stored to NOT have to leave your home? (that is if it survives)

People are not the same anymore and having to go out for basic survival items puts one at risk, when there was a crisis in old days or smaller communities they band together, in large cities it is a survival of the fittest. I see that attitude growing day by day in the world.

Me, I want to be able to shelter safely in place and be able to help my friends and family do the same.
At least until some order has been restored.

At this point not a matter of what's available for me....everything is, and more. The question now is what am I willing to pay. Got a deal on strawberries, 1.50 for large basket. I like to cut them up, add a bit of sugar, let them marinade overnight and next day it is shortcake. So I went to store. Shells were 5.00 and whipping cream was 5.00 or on sale 3.00 if I got four items in the que. So another 10 and I could have shortcake?
I could afford it, but I chose not to. Had the strawberries. Better for my figure and better for my health, and on I go. I see people spending enormous amounts of money while I am beans and rice or a huge batch of marinara sauce. It's habit for me. All the saving until I am 80 has served me well, but mostly it's how I was taught and it is habit.
Hope everyone is doing OK with current prices.

I have an LP generac generator and a hot water heater I had installed when Mom was alive. This summer I'm having another layer of corning foam insulation and a metal roof installed over the shingles. I'm investigating the generac battery and solar panels system. Looking at my power bills, the solar should be able to provide most of my electricity except on the hottest days (maybe the new insulation will help with that). If so, it will pay for itself in 4-5 years. We usually suffer power outages of 2-6 hours but major snow and thunder storms that take out trees and power lines occasionally result in 4-10 days of outage. We have portable generators my nephew uses on construction jobs, but nothing beats the whole home generators, even when you have them wired just to power some circuits. I also have gas grills and a camper stove to cook on. My nephew's house (next door) has a wood burning stove and a fireplace with a few gas heaters installed.

I also have a manual pump for the well and filters and purifying tablets for taking water from the creek, river, or lake. Again my nephew has water storage tanks he uses in his business so we look at that as providing water to the garden if we need it.

We're really not preppers but when Mom came to live with me I wanted to be able to care for her here if we had a lengthy outage. I don't think she would have coped well moving to a temporary shelter, even my nephew's home. Now I'm looking at my own advancing age and trying to save some money while still staying comfortable. And there's something very neat about having the teenagers choose your canned goods over the fast food they could have picked up!

A leaking bottle of soy sauce 😭

FreqFlyer, I too am annoyed with all the different varieties of light bulbs. I wish I had had the forethought to stock up on them before the extensive diversification occurred.

I've noticed that since this happened, the newer bulbs don't last as long, and certainly as as long as predicted.

I hit paydirt while cleaning out Dad's storage and found several packages of "real" light bulbs.

I also have battery operated lanterns and plan to stock up on more.

Albeginsian, wise advise.

I would just like to add that best by or use by dates do not mean the food is no longer safe to eat. Cans will leak, jar lids will pop if they are spoiled. If you open something and it is foamy it is not safe to eat.

Years ago, food pantries use to wipe off BB and UB dates and labels. They knew that the packaging would not hide spoilage. I think the salvation army still does this.

It is very important to rotate your stores, because you don't want to find out you don't have the stores you think you do, when you need them. I have found keeping my pantry stocked like a grocery shelf makes this easier. I will also use painters tape to designate an area that has items to be used asap.

"My Mom always had a full pantry of can goods, so I learned from her to do the same thing. I keep items that one could also eat cold if need be. Every few months I do check the expiration dates. "

In general, if you keep a food panty you should sort it by expiration date and then rotate your stock by regularly consuming and replacing whatever is closest to expiring. The alternative is massive food waste, and if you think you may have trouble doing this then at least try to keep your pantry to a size you can manage.

In any case, you might start by considering how practical it is to prepare for an extended power outage. Potable water is more important than food because you can go longer without food than you can go without water. Although it's also good to have adequate water for personal hygiene, if possible.

In any case, if you live in a cold climate and no electricity means no heat then you might consider whether this is even practical: can you afford to buy and maintain a backup generator? If it's powered by gasoline consider that gas has a limited storage life (the more volatile fractions evaporate) so you'll need to use and replace the fuel regularly. Further, if your generator is portable, are you sure you have a safe place to use it? And, do you have a safe place to store this fuel?

Or, can you heat part of your home with a wood stove? Note that pellet stoves require electricity, and be sure check with your insurer to see what the effect of installing a wood stove would be on your insurance rates (most insurers really don't like them due to the risk of a chimney fire).

The reality is that few are equipped to survive an extended power outage at home, and it can be costly to prepare for this, and if you attempt it there's little point in spending a lot of time and money on a solution that is just a bit less than complete and adequate.

As an alternative, you might consider at least keeping a "go bag" packed with essentials- and and above all have a plan for where you can go and what you'll want to take with if you must abandon your residence.

GardenArtist, I know what you mean about lightbulbs. Give me the olden days of wattage of 25, 40, 60, 75, 100, and 3-way up to 150. That way I can match the bulb with what the tag says on the lamp. Not today, the wattage is weird.

Back when the manufacturers were starting to switch over, I stocked up big time on light bulbs. I have enough 100 watts to last the rest of my life.

I remember when my Dad had changed over all his lightbulbs to the newer ones. He would brag about how much money he would save in the long run. Well, until my Mom said for some reason the house felt colder and Dad had to turn up the heat. Those new bulbs didn't put out heat the way the older ones did. Well, there went the savings on the light bulbs.

Boot strap pickle me up beer. Just kidding a little bit. Not in the pantry but the fridge. Strangest beer ever. Had to say it! I haven't even read the entire picture st yet, just couldn't resist.

GA, good point about non food items.

Candles, oil lamps, batteries and alternative cooking methods, like briquettes or gas grill. A good first aid kit, just to name a few things we should always have on hand.

This week I realized I had forgotten to store nonfood items that might be needed:  fuses.   One of the kitchen fuses blew and I couldn't use the microwave or lighting in the kitchen.    The fuses I had were probably a decade or old, and I didn't know how to check them for safety.   So I bought some new ones. 

Fortunately, this wasn't winter and there was no storm blowing, so I could get to a hardware store easily,  but before winter, I'm going to get backup fuses just in case.

Same with lightbulbs, if I can figure out what it is I'm buying.  There are so many variations - all I want is something that doesn't glare down on me.

TNTechie, this is a great subject, very appropriate not only for caregivers but for everyone during this tumultuous time and even going forward after the current instabilities are eventually resolved, or past,  or have metamorphed into some other form.

Canning and storing was something natural for my father; his family were farmers.   The frugality and approach to animals, the land, storage, and wealth or lack thereof seem to have been very different, and I think the bonds with the land and animals helped contribute to that.   When I took him "back home" to visit with friends, their attitude and approach to life was sooooo much more different than the people in the areas in which I grew up and still live.

He also had a different attitude toward other things, such as trees.   When he cut down trees in my yard, we didn't discard them.  We both chopped them into logs which I laid out as borders for my garden beds.   Nowadays when I have to hire tree cutters for the monsters that have grown up and hang over my yard, the tree service either chops them or grinds them and hauls them away.

That had to happen though after the first tree cutting episode, when the service ground up all the trees and piled the chips in the yard.   I was ecstatic to have so much garden mulch to lay out!  ….until the lawn Nazis came and said that the pile contributed to rats colonization, and I had to quickly lay out the chips and turn them under.  

Mom and Dad also grew up in the Great Depression years, and learned to live and cope with a frugality that many today will never understand.   My cousin and I still occasionally discuss saving string, aluminum foil and other household goods.  During the Depression, they never knew when, or even if, they'd be able to afford to buy replacements. 

So they saved.   And they shared.  I found a batch of letters my parents exchanged during WWII; they saved Green Stamps, shared and switched stamps with friends (who went shopping together (I think gas was still rationed then), and bonded in ways that many today would never understand.   (How many times have you seen 3 or 4 women shopping together?)

They bought property on which to grow their food but also had a garden at the home they rented from my grandparents.   When they moved, they gardened on their property as well as some vacant property which the owners lent them.

Mom canned; eventually they also bought a food drier and dried  their own food.  Older methods of drying have given way to more abundant food dryers and I think food drying is more widely done these days, at least by gardeners.    .

I used to store canned food in the basement, in a cupboard my father built.  As I aged and got tired of hauling things up, I switched to bookcases and store canned food there.   It may look odd but it's a lot easier and I can keep inventory better (once I actually start doing that!)

I also store other items, nonedible, like soap.  When it's on sale, I stock up and don't buy again until another sale.   Same with vitamins, although the expiration period is always factored in.  

Seeds don't always store well, so I don't buy extras unless I can plant them this year, or possibly the next year.  Saving seeds though is different, b/c they're from home grown food.  

I won't even address books and how many I buy; they're probably as big an expense as food. 

Between my own household items and towels I kept after my sister died, I have enough to last several years.   Fabric and yarn - that's a different story.  When I was knitting, crocheting and sewing a lot, I stocked up.   I have so much material now that I'm considering donating some.  (I still have 100% cotton fabric!)   Same with the yarn and fixtures:   worsted, rug yarn (great for throw pillows and doesn't pill up), embroidery floss, and I forget what else.  


Pam, my father was Mormon, but only after we kids had grown up and moved away.   At that time the reserve storage period was for 6 months.

I worked with a man who hunted. He also had a large garden. He told me once if he lost his job, he wouldn't starve. His freezer was full of deer and rabbit and veggies from his garden.

My Mom froze her veggies from Dads garden. Limas, corn off the cob, peppers, etc. She canned the tomatoes to make spaghetti sauce. When Dads strawberry crop got down to the small berrys, she made strawberry jam. And from his cucumbers she made bread and butter pickles. Sliced so thin they curled up.

At the age of 47 my GFs daughter has canned every year. If you have seen an Amish Pantry, hers is pretty close.

https://images.app.goo.gl/cKdAWtDF1HGcb3BEA

BOJ, you’re too funny. 😝

the pantry seems to be IN my body.

Wow, TN, you have about a year's worth of food. You did good.
ITRR, you, too.

I should start doing that too.

Many years ago I read an article about ( I think) Mormon families that store a years worth of food for themselves and to help other church members in time of need, and I thought that was pretty cool! I have a large shelving unit in our storage room for canned goods and household things. It was very handy during COVID, and I still keep alot of it up. Probably enough for a few months, and our freezers have enough meat for about a year. I still stock up on TP, and pet food. My DD shops in the room when she needs a bar of Dove, and I buy her a big box of assorted items as part of her Christmas gift every year,, she gets a kick out of it! Dried soup mixes are also great, and cake mixes and the like. I will admit we also got a Generac generator to run the house if the power goes out for an extended time,, it has actually been great so far as we are in a dicey power area. I griped about the price when hubs was wanting it,, but it has been wonderful.

We woke last week to a thunder storm and a power outage. My 7 year old grand-nephew came down to my house because (his words) I am "prepared" which to him means I have backup lightning (installed for my mother), working internet (thanks to UPS installed for work from home) and charged devices so I allow him to watch youtube and movies. I also had peanut butter and jelly for breakfast sandwiches along with fruit. The way to a young man's heart is food and entertainment!

My Mom always had a full pantry of can goods, so I learned from her to do the same thing. I keep items that one could also eat cold if need be. Every few months I do check the expiration dates. Right now I am using paper goods I bought 2 years old during the beginning of the pandemic. I have a couple huge-maga rolls of toilet paper, that are the size of a hub cap, that I bought from a office store. Never learned to can as that wasn't something my Mom did.

I think you are very wise.

I have a years worth of food and extra to share.

God forbid something happens we won't be forced to go out during a crisis to ensure we don't starve.

I have counseled seniors and young couples to ensure the have at least 2 weeks of additional food stores in the event of a crisis. It is usually hard for them to determine and they end up with a couple of months worth. Which is great in my opinion.

I, also, keep an emergency food supply that can be grabbed during an evacuation to feed us for 30 days and I have a Berkey water filter to ensure clean water.

I believe we live in uncertain times and we should be prepared for any situation that might arise.

Your family is blessed that you are prepared. They actually depend on your stores more then they realize.