Wednesday, November 17, 2021

In the pantry

 I still have grape jelly (from juice) to make

I still have apple jelly (from juice) to make

I still have tomato paste (from canned tom.) to make

I have turnips I will end up canning 

I have radishes I will end up pickling.  

I now have 15 gals of apples to deal with as we finished clearing the last tree. It even over whelmed our Amish neighbors.

I know after Thanksgiving I will have turkey meat to freeze and broth to can.

After Christmas I will have prime rib meat to freeze.. but probably no broth as the butcher shop said there probably would be no bones but I could stop in if I wanted bones for broth. Not sure I want to pay for bones. 

I need to make more homemade noodles as we are not out. As I am now getting free eggs I can make the noodles for just the price of the bread flour.

In the pantry ... remember I "put up" for 18 months, it was a year until the kids had to come get food last year. By bumping it up to 18 months we can make a year and still help the kids.  FYI, my buckets hold 25 to 35 lbs.


This is the basement door in the hall. My onions hang here. I don't really have a good storage at this point for keeping onions but Hubby can get 6 lbs from the Amish for less than I can get at the store until around Jan.


Looking down the stairs. Starting to the left and go right , the bucket you barely see is White Lily white cornbread mix, then regular AP flour, then sugar, then regular bread flour, then long grain white rice then just barely the bucket of minute rice. 


Oils, vinegars, on top of cabinet nuts and M&Ms that Hubby make trail mix from along with muffin mixes.


This holds dry mixes of just about everything. Jell-O, pudding, cake, stuffing, crackers, dry milk, Bisquick that Hubby can not live without etc.


Cookie mixes in the washer. They are Hubby's that he likes to make so I keep them separate and don't have to worry about mice getting in the washer with the lid that goes on it. Rubber maid is dried mashed potatoes and mixes for baked doughnuts.


 Lots of empty canning jars, buckets have White Lily AP flour, White Lily bread flour, White Lily self rising flour, regular self rising flour, regular oats, quick oats and 00 flour > I call this the bucket room as it has the most buckets , Hubby changes what he calls it almost daily.


more canning jars, gray frig is dairy (heavy cream, half and half, extra milk, cheeses, some beverages , freezer part is breads or such. Black frig is fresh produce and the freezer is produce and bagged turkey. 


Shelf unit next to black frig is the appliances like crock pot, roaster (behind jars) cake decorating stuff, al. pans and my bigger pans I use for bulk cooking.

The other shelf unit is paper goods, foils, freezer back, vacuum bags, paper plates , ice cube trays for broths or fats. Some larger serving dishes

Where the rug (actually dog bed as Charlotte likes to lay there during storms) is the door to the mechanical room where the furnace, water softener, breaker box and water heater is.


Freezers 2 and 3, 3 is at the door. Three has fruits, nuts and desserts, two has a veggies, pork and poultry and some odds and ends.


Freezer 1 beef, sausage, bacon, breads, meat fats, condiments like carmelized onions etc. The shelf unit at the end is canning stuff and camping things if Hubby needs it. 

We do have a small freezer in the barn, I use it for leftovers and meat that will be ate in the month. By April, lates May it will be cleared as it's the freezer we use if we end up making ice for the Amish neighbors if the pond doesn't have enough water or freezes.


ignore the double buckets as you saw those in the down the stairs pic. The first single bucket is the White Lily white cornbread mix the next one is semolina flour. The next 3 buckets with crates on them is dried sliced potatoes, dried hash browns and dried cubed potatoes. Crates are white potatoes and sweet potatoes.


applesauce. fermented foods, veggies, condiments  1st shelf unit. Coffee , coffee syrups, booze next unit (I cook more with booze than I drink and Hubby only drinks hard cider now days) , last unit Charlotte's Den I am clueless why she claimed that spot but she kept digging the canned goods out of there to lay so I just put a bed in it for her. Spices and herbs on the two shelves about her bed (I have over 100 and yes I use them all) and then top shelf is the extra pasta.

Bucket closest is Jasmine rice, the other one is Basmati rice, container on floor beside it in home grown dehydrated greens and herbs. Shelf units is pie filling and juices, other is soups, more pie filling and some grocery store canned veggies.


Bucket is par boiled rice, bottom shelf is pickles of different kinds , then dried fruit, then canned fruit and pickled beets then more canned fruit and then homegrown dried fruits and veggies.


left four buckets of 25 lbs. sugar AKA emergency supply for M  Shelf unit is different pastas, bucket is ramen noodles.


condiments, canned butter, Crisco, flavored vinegars and oils. Top shelf has dried veggies and canned red bell peppers. Karo syrup beside butter.

Taco shells, tomato products like pasta sauce, sauce, pizza sauce, hot salsa, mild salsa, green tomatoes, already got empty spots there .  Bucket on crate is for homemade noodles which I am out of, upside down bucket is for coleslaw that I can or kraut if I ever decided to go that way. Behind those buckets is more pasta, wild rice, black rice and risotto rice. Next unit is beans and canned meat. Combination of store bought or home canned. Bottom shelf has different lentils and broths . Bucket is brown sugar and XXX sugar and container in corner is corn starch, baking soda etc. Kitty bucket (there is two that Son 2 bleached and passed to us for storage) ) hold bags of smoke chips for the smoker.


Right side against wall, special flours, yellow corn meal, syrups sugars, stuff to make desserts from. The one between that and the condiments has lemon and lime juice, fruit butters, jellies and jams, more dessert stuff on top. 



beans, most of it home grown. 



Dining room dry goods used daily or weekly, bottom shelf is dried fruits. Next is different sugars, vanilla beans and paste, powdered lime and lemon juice and different syrups (some are medical used like elderberry and molasses) Next shelf is bfast items and dried soups and flavorings One more shelf up and you have the stuff Hubby uses for his trail mix, different crackers, peppers, bouillon, some dry mixes of sauces and gravies that is hard to make for just two.  Next up, fig newtons, different salts, herbal tea and the glass container that holds the family size tea bags for our kettle tea. Up one more shelf, powdered drinks, extra family size tea bags and herbal tea . Top is extra tea. I buy tea once a year. I know what we use. 

I had to move the 3 plastic pitchers I have that sits on this. I have one for whisks, one for wooden spoons and rubber spatulas and one for cooking utensils. Left to right, self rising flour in ice cream bucket, White Lily self rising on top of it, Ap flour next with AP small can for when I need to dust the board, instant flour, then bisquick and almond flour. 


Baking supplies, corn starch, baking soda, pomegranate molasses malts, stem ginger (thanks to Great British bake off) all the little goodies of adding different flavors as Hubby is definitely in to giving me new recipes.

I do have half a dozen cooking oils on roll care and two dozen bfast bars boxes on top of another cabinet . Hubby does not get "lunch time" when hauling so he carries trail mix and bfast bars that are not sticky or crumbly as he does not like the mess in his truck. Dust is fine, crumbs isn't LOL.

I usually get asked how much we end up pitching due to it going bad. Very little. If I have something that needs used up I either plan to use it or ask Daughter 4 or Son 2 if they could use it. If it is flour or sugar I pass it to M and she just refills it with fresh . They go through 25 lbs. of sugar and 50 lbs. of flour A WEEK. Sometimes more like when canning. Believe me, I've been to her house to ask if she had something that I ran out of like yeast.

I know what we use in a year. I have the same line for cleaning, dog treats(a little high now since we just lost two but Daughter 4 has 5 dogs so nothing will go bad) paper goods and personal items. Paper towel usage is down because I push the use the rag first.  Hubby just picked up pet friendly sidewalk salt and got enough for two winters. If we get a lot of freezing rain we will use twice as much because he KNOWS what we use in one year.

All the kids get rice off me, none really eat a lot of rice so it goes bad on them. They have learnt to come get it from me and as a family we get through it before it gets bad. 

Another thing I will point out, I am organized , everyone in the family knows where things go as they also know I date pretty much everything and it's first in first out to keep the "oh crap that got shoved to the back." I do have to watch that a bit more if Hubby takes something to the basement frigs and does not think to tell me he did. I've gotten to the point I go down and check every other day to keep that issue down also.

How often do I shop? Twice a month is the most.  One will be a major dairy and what ever produce (mushrooms, carrots and celery) that I don't have any more of. The second one will be milk. Maybe something that is on sale that I try to keep stocked like butter. Bfast bars and trail mix is once every 3 months if that. Flours is maybe 9 months but closer to 12 months depending on if M or the kids need some (M replaces, kids give kisses and hugs, I did have a grandson that did some of my chores while I bagged food up for him.)

Right now I am low of popcorn. We didn't grow any this year thinking we still had some in the freezer. I just pulled the last pint.