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Nifty Thrifty:  Preparing yourself  |
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MagnoliaWhisper
True Blue Farmgirl
2817 Posts
Heather
Haysville
Kansas
USA
2817 Posts |
 Posted - Jan 22 2014 : 10:59:14 AM
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I wasn't real sure which forum to start this in. But, just went ahead and settled on this one.
When I lived in NYC my husband was making decent money and we paid decent rent. And had awesome closet space-three walk in closets in a one bedroom apartment! I used one of the two walk in coat closets as a pantry. Along with had cabinets I added to the dining room.
Since moving to Kansas, while I've had HUGE kitchens, I mean really really huge! But, no pantry, and barely any cabinets. (just huge bare walls, I don't quite understand this design!)
Well we are moving and buying a home, that has a medium size kitchen (I would say for 1950 when the house was built it was the normal size, not huge like some of todays, but not tiny either). And it has a HUGE pantry (walk in walk around! etc). And I am getting ideas from youtube and pintrest of adding more storage in the pantry that will help me rotate my stock. Which in NYC was my main problem, rotation so that things got eaten before expiring.
In NYC I had probably about 2 year stash of food. Store bought-I hadn't started canning yet-I can now! When we moved to Kansas I left a lot of it behind (gave it away) and we lived on what I did bring, because it took my husband a while to get a job with enough money for us to eat much.
Well DH now has a fairly good job, and we are getting a pantry. I am sooooo excited to get myself more secure with food again.
Where I live storms could happen (tornados) and such where grocery stores will be wiped out of food for weeks (has happened) and with out electricity for weeks as well-which just compounds the food shortage problem. In NYC mainly had the threat of the grid going down because of too many people on it (which did happen a few times-black outs-again resulted in stores not having food). And then just look at hurricane katrina and such. I like having 1 to 2 years of food storage so I don't have to worry, if a storm hits, or my dh loses his job etc. We can still eat that long....if we can just make the other things do till then.
So any way, thought it would be fun topic. What do you store, how to you make it last longer? Especially with out electric.
Some of my plans-canning myself. I want to can butter, and bacon! I am excited to try both of these! I want to buy a solar oven (I've been with out electric and being able to cook for long periods of time, due to tornado's and since every one else is also with out the charcoal is also gone at the store! And so cooking becomes impossible...restaurants are closed because the water is not good to drink then-and every thing in a restaurant depends on having clean water! (yeah that surprised me during one of our really bad tornadoes). So any way....trying to get as self sufficient as possible.
Once we move I am planning on doing this full force, and will probably share what I am doing do accomplish that here. But, would love your ideas too!
http://www.heathersprairie.blogspot.com |
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churunga
True Blue Farmgirl
3950 Posts
Marie
Minneapolis
MN
USA
3950 Posts |
Posted - Jan 22 2014 : 7:50:26 PM
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I just read about a way to perverse corn which I find intriguing.
When you have more corn than you can eat on the cob, This corn can be dried and stored in glass jars for 6 months. Set up a table in the sun covered with a clean cotton sheet. Cut the corn from the cobs and spread out on the sheet. Cover with muslin to keep the insects off. Stir it once a day. It will dry into popcorn like puffs which can then be stored in jars.
I believe that the best way to store the quantity of food you wish to have is by "use by" dates. Store the closest use by dated food on the first shelf and then chronologically around the pantry. Tell everyone to use the food labeled at the closest use by date. Have a "current shelf" on which all the food that has to be used that month before it goes bad.
Sort your canned food in batches with batch numbers so in case something goes bad, you can pull the entire batch and check them.
If I had a large pantry, I would set aside a corner just for processing herbs. I would hang herbs to dry also.
Marie, Sister #5142
Try everything once and the fun things twice. |
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MagnoliaWhisper
True Blue Farmgirl
2817 Posts
Heather
Haysville
Kansas
USA
2817 Posts |
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churunga
True Blue Farmgirl
3950 Posts
Marie
Minneapolis
MN
USA
3950 Posts |
Posted - Jan 23 2014 : 08:48:34 AM
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I guess I meant to have the use by dates on the home canned goods.
Marie, Sister #5142
Try everything once and the fun things twice. |
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MagnoliaWhisper
True Blue Farmgirl
2817 Posts
Heather
Haysville
Kansas
USA
2817 Posts |
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MagnoliaWhisper
True Blue Farmgirl
2817 Posts
Heather
Haysville
Kansas
USA
2817 Posts |
Posted - Jan 26 2014 : 12:40:56 PM
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I am so glad I started this thread, I've been trying and trying to figure out how to rotate the stash the best, and you had a great idea Marie. I have this cabinet/hutch that I keep in the kitchen (I'm hoping it will fit in my new kitchen when we move) I will keep every thing that expires 2014 in it. And then every thing else in the "pantry" and each shelf be for a different year. That is I think a great idea that I never thought of. I have always organized by thing, not date. IE all green beans together. But, I think organizing by date/shelf will be the better idea! Thank you! Took me a few days to wrap my head around how to work that, but now I got it!
http://www.heathersprairie.blogspot.com |
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AFinkberry
True Blue Farmgirl
310 Posts
Ally
Kalama
Washington
310 Posts |
Posted - Jan 26 2014 : 11:10:03 PM
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We keep all of our recent purchases in our basement and bring them up to our pantry in the house when we run out upstairs! We just keep rotating. DH likes to have at least a months supply on hand.
Ally
Farmgirl Sister #5672
"There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies. My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness." ~His Holiness the Dalai Lama |
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Nifty Thrifty: Preparing yourself |
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Preparing yourself
