Is Your Pantry Ready?

Bear here…

Friendly reminder, WINTER IS COMING … Unlike in the Game of Thrones series, our winters happen every year and it is best to be ready for them. This year could be especially rough due to the COVID virus and who knows what will happen with possibly more lockdowns, bad weather, and some people being just plain stupid. Being ready to stay home for a month or more at a time is a good plan. (Just in case anyone thinks this is political because I mentioned COVID, remember, IOWA had FREAKEN HURRICANE winds this Summer! So the weather may make you need to stay home too.) Most people go to the grocery store at least once a week along with picking up food when at gas stations. If you plan ahead, you can have plenty of food for a month or more and don’t need to panic if there is a food shortage in the stores. You don't solve the problem by not needing to go to the store, but you definitely will not be a part of making shortages worse. Keeping the pantry ready all year is definitely a stress reducer when trouble happens.
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BEING PREPARED IS THE BEST WAY NOT TO PANIC. If you have space and enough food for a month or more you don’t need to worry if you can’t travel to get more. Get an emergency supply that you can rotate once a year and have extras of nonemergency foods so your shopping trips can be more organized and you spend less time in the store.

Storing emergency supplies doesn't have to be fancy. Get some tubs and put them in a convenient corner of the house, basement, or unused closet. ​Remember everyone- pets should be included.

When we restock every 12 months it's treat time! We get to eat canned stuff we usually don't buy on a regular basis.

Got an open wall area? In 2013 we decided this wall would be put to better use as a pantry. (I just noticed this pantry from 2013 was ready for 2020. I see toilet paper and booze was among the first items we stored there.)

Need more room? This year (2020) we added shelves to hold condiments. (They are normally hidden when the door to the room is open.)

If you have a large freezer, buying meat in bulk is usually cheaper than buying item in stores. You can also freeze peppers, corn, and other vegetables for a taste of summer in the winter. We buy everything from local farmers.

If you are really advanced, and like to can, you can have some extra goodies. (Some of the things we have done are meat, bone broth, grape jelly, applesauce, and different tomato sauces...) 

​​Gotta love the pictures, which I hope are inspirational. Here are a few more tips, sadly without pictures...

• Know how you cook and always have plenty of the basics on hand... No, you don't cook much? Have plenty of canned or dried food ready instead. Peanut butter lasts a long time and dried pasta is easy. You bake? Buy your goods in bulk. Powdered milk takes a lot less space than regular milk. Remember if you fry a lot to have plenty of oil for backup.
• MAKE LISTS of what you need, like, and how much you go through. When there is one of something or you take the last of something from the pantry, put it on the grocery list for when you can go to the store. (I've heard running out of coffee or beer can be used as mental abuse in some divorce cases, DON'T quote me...) 
• Remember everyone, this is a good time to get feedback from the family on what they want to eat if supplies are limited. This is also a good time to show others how to cook some things so everyone can help make meals.
• The pets need food too. Stock up on extra for them.
• Remember condiments. Canned tuna tends to suck if there is no mayo. Kids tend to get perturbed if there is no ketchup or mustard. Also, ration the treats so they last longer.
• IF YOU ARE PREPAIRED, THERE IS NO NEED FOR LAST MINUTE PANICKING, nuff said...

This is a short blog and I’m a full share type of guy so if you want more info from our site here are some links:

• Here is our EMERGENCY PREP page
• Info on how we built our pantry
• How to cook from a pantry
• How to make essential cooking staples.
• More ways to preserve food for the pantry.

We are ready, are you? Hopes this helps, stay safe out there...

​Type at ya later...