What are you stocking in the pantry?

[ThrottleJockey]

I tend to keep on hand enough of everything we use regularly to get us through a solid year+ without restocking. This means enough flour to bake bread as well as the other uses. We keep massive amounts of bisquick, powdered milk, sugar, peanut butter, rice, instant potatoes, various dry and canned beans, baking powder, soda, cornstarch, salt both iodized and feed grade for curing, mortons quick cure, corn meal, about 12 different pastas, brown sugar, powdered sugar, condiments, herbs and spices, seed, yeast, enough canned goods to overload my pickup, etc...The chest freezer is kept stuffed with meat that is replaced and rotated as we use it, should we experience prolonged power outage we will begin curing, drying and smoking. I watch the commodities market and any time I notice potential for any particular item to skyrocket in price, I dump everything into it. I saw peanut butter about to go up a little over a year ago while it was still around a buck a pound and bought everything we had space for, now it's well over $4 a pound and I still won't need to buy any for a couple more years! We don't restrict these habits to the pantry either. I look at it like this, if I'll need something once I'll need it again. I've got multiples of everything, it causes difficulty with storage and space but that's okay, I can't even get the lawnmower in the garage or the shed and haven't for years....We throw almost nothing away, not even used nails, they get pulled and saved. I have no problem re-purposing things and don't mind previously experienced stuff like nails. For several years now we have practiced by living from our stockpiles through the winter months, November through March and restocking in the spring. This gives us a really good feel for our consumption as well as a great opportunity to get rotation squared away. It truly is a lifestyle.

 

[Emerald]

Wow.. I have coffee that is more than a couple years old and we grind the beans and it tastes fine.. but.. I do vac pack everything into my mason jars. It gets stored in the dark way in the back of the cupboard. Even the pre-ground that I love is taken out of it's little brick and vac-packed into mason jars too. I've not had any that was rancid or icky to drink. Yes the whole beans last longer in storage than the pre-ground stuff. (just by my experience.. your mileage may vary )
The oldest I had was some pure Kona from Hawaii.. there was a pint in there from 2002 when my mother went. I totally forgot about it and we opened it this last summer and it was fine. I also have about four different types of loose tea (quart jars worth) that is vac packed and when I open it and get some out I re vacpack it and it is also about 4 or even 5 years old now. it sure tastes as good as when I first got it at least I think it does. Thinking about getting a couple yaupon hollys and see if I can plant them in a sheltered area and baby them thru the winters here.. Great sub for coffee and tea as it does have caffeine in it. and quite frankly.. I loves my coffee/tea and my caffeine!

I think that many things, if properly stored, last way past the expiration dates. I don't buy whole wheat flour but grind it from the wheat berries when I need it. I've had whole wheat flour just get nasty in less than 4 months.
But the one thing I would probably not put away in the prep is the bisquick type mixes. The fat in there not only tends to gather flavors from other stuff but the fat in it goes rancid on me before I can use it. I've had the same problem with some of the "jiffy" mixes too.. While it is still probably edible.. ICK! never leave it in the camper over the winter and then make corn muffins with it.. even the squirrel didn't want it..
The reason I started putting stuff in mason jars was due to flour millers(pantry moths) and I had my new mason jar attachment for the foodsaver(I am planning on buying the other size too) so I had to vac pack them to play with my new toy and was totally tickled that it really made things last in my storage. We started to buy all of our stuff in bulk and while most of the stuff I've played around with last well some didn't. happy accidents..
I'm really pleased at how well my vanilla beans do in vacpacked mason jars. They are still soft and supple and they taste great and it has been about 4 years since I bought them in bulk. The vanilla extract made with them is still nice too. I'm thinking about buying about 1 lb off Amazon since I have the funds now that the holiday shopping is all done. And I am down to just about 8 of the Madagascar type and 10 of the Tahitian type. I did see that Vanilla products USA only had the Madagascar type last I looked.
I'd like to add about some of the other stuff that we buy in bulk but we tend to eat it way before it goes off.. like the jasmine rice and the big 25lb bags of bread flour. Both of those go in the food safe frosting buckets that I get from a local bakery for .99 cents a bucket and they have gasketed lids with them(I may invest in some of those gamma lids that everyone talks about tho). We tend to go thru about 75lbs of bread flour and about 50lbs of all purpose flour and about 50lbs of jasmine a year. I just wish I had bought more of the jasmine rice a year ago.. the price jumped on us by about $6!!!

 

[cheepo]

I recently learned of dry oven canning
good for crackers, flours oats grains ect...
not good for powdered milk sugar and some dehydrated vegies..

Set oven for 200
fill jars
place in oven for an hour
individually pull out one at a time and put on lid and ring

will do its ping and be good at least 10 years...

 

[mythreesons]

Cheepo..could you please tell me what kind of flour? Do you use various jars to store them in..How do you know they will last 10 yrs? Thanks!

 

[cheepo]

here is one write up on it

http://voices.yahoo.com/how-flour-dry-goods-long-term-storage-11293640.html

i too was excited about the wheat flour, as when i just traditionaly stored it never seemed to last long enough for me to finish the bag...

i think with this method...you can think it good indefinately, but i personally have not tested it..

they say good for dehydrated fruit and vegies...but i often go to utube when i am learning of a new idea
and this person didn't have luck with dehydrated vegis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrrgmlfqRjA

but maybe is ok for carrots and onions

and i forgot to mention that you need to wipe the rim with a damp (not too wet) cloth

 

[baymule]

Emerald, i have lots of yaupon holly. I know it contains caffein, but have never made "coffee" from it. It is volotile and the green leaves flare easily. It makes a great fire starter! Have you ever drank "coffee" made from this stuff?

 

[pinkfox]

well for me:

quinoa, Basmati rice and mixed dried beans are big staples
id like to start putting away oats, various flours, flax, barley, split peas and seasame seeds (the nice though about some fo those is a very small amount lasts a very long time due to serving sizes) wheet berries, loose teas, and dehydrated fruits (particularly things like elderberry and rosehips (very high vit-c levels)

thats just the "dry goods" obviously not canned stuff...

y biggest problem right now is im lacking storage space so id realy like to build a large root celler/pantry too...

 

[Emerald]

Emerald, i have lots of yaupon holly. I know it contains caffeine, but have never made "coffee" from it. It is volatile and the green leaves flare easily. It makes a great fire starter! Have you ever drank "coffee" made from this stuff?

I only had it once and it was in a tea bag. I have a friend who is into "weird stuff" like I am and she ordered it off the internet. to me it won't ever ever ever taste like coffee or even tea, as it hasn't got a lot of tannins it has no bitter taste at all. hers was mixed with mint and it was rather nice. Not super strong flavored either. and since I hadn't had my morning coffee and was missing it I did find that it took the edge off the "I NEED COFFEE NOW" feeling. lol.. probably would have been better if I had more than one mug full.

and the reading I did on it says that if you toast the leaves before brewing it makes the caffeine more available. And many of the sites had links to where you could buy tea all made up so that all you had to do was brew it. and I have had good luck with things in my zone 5 that are a bit tender. I"m sure that I could find a good spot for them. And the fact that they make good tinder would be great too! I love multi-use things. I may have to go check on Amazon! if you dont' hear from me in two days call the Amazon patrol!! lol

AWWW.. they dont' have it!

 

[Emerald]

well for me:

quinoa, Basmati rice and mixed dried beans are big staples
id like to start putting away oats, various flours, flax, barley, split peas and seasame seeds (the nice though about some fo those is a very small amount lasts a very long time due to serving sizes) wheet berries, loose teas, and dehydrated fruits (particularly things like elderberry and rosehips (very high vit-c levels)

thats just the "dry goods" obviously not canned stuff...

y biggest problem right now is im lacking storage space so id realy like to build a large root celler/pantry too...

I want a root cellar too!! Hubs has given me permission to empty junk collecting room next to laundry room for pantry(I have to get rid of the junk it has collected tho) he said that if I clean it out he will buy or build the shelves.

 

[baymule]

Emerald, i have lots of yaupon holly. I know it contains caffeine, but have never made "coffee" from it. It is volatile and the green leaves flare easily. It makes a great fire starter! Have you ever drank "coffee" made from this stuff?

I only had it once and it was in a tea bag. I have a friend who is into "weird stuff" like I am and she ordered it off the internet. to me it won't ever ever ever taste like coffee or even tea, as it hasn't got a lot of tannins it has no bitter taste at all. hers was mixed with mint and it was rather nice. Not super strong flavored either. and since I hadn't had my morning coffee and was missing it I did find that it took the edge off the "I NEED COFFEE NOW" feeling. lol.. probably would have been better if I had more than one mug full.

and the reading I did on it says that if you toast the leaves before brewing it makes the caffeine more available. And many of the sites had links to where you could buy tea all made up so that all you had to do was brew it. and I have had good luck with things in my zone 5 that are a bit tender. I"m sure that I could find a good spot for them. And the fact that they make good tinder would be great too! I love multi-use things. I may have to go check on Amazon! if you dont' hear from me in two days call the Amazon patrol!! lol

AWWW.. they dont' have it!

Yaupon also makes good winter feed for livestock. My horses mow it down. I kept a cow on our 16 acres with no feed and no grass and she got roly-poly fat on yaupon! I cut it for the horses sometimes when I get low on hay.