Pantry Tour
March 16, 2010|Comments (17)
Confession: I am obsessed with pantries. Shelves lined with sparkling quart jars filled with colorful fruits and vegetables send me into fits of happiness. One look at some antique canning jars with those dome-glass lids and I melt. For me, pantries are more fun than bubble wrap and jet skis.
Within moment of unpacking the kitchen, it was obvious that I’d outgrown it. There may never be a kitchen that is too big for my needs. Three years later, my kitchen was overflowing thanks to several factors:
1. This house does not have a basement. Basements are unheard-of in these parts.
2. My kitchen (as with many of the kitchens we toured when house-shopping) was not meant for a canning/preserving canning family.
3. No pantry. None. Not even a hint of one. I know because I looked. Everywhere.
After issuing multiple complaints with management, shelves were installed in the laundry room. Shelves built for canning jars and food storage for a household such as this one must be sturdy. Why must they be so sturdy? Because these shelves easily hold enough food to get our family through a few months without having to hit the grocery store and that much food weighs a ton. Wire shelves simply can’t hold up under the strain.
As I prepare to pack everything up and relocate our entire life, I thought I’d take inventory. A stockpiling inventory! Are you ready? Here we go:
orzo brown rice speckled heart grits
pinto beans matzo meal cracker meal
black eye peas great northern beans pearled barley
garbanzo beans black beans kidney beans
bulgur wheat flax seed calico bean soup mix
yellow lentils green lentils brown lentils
wheat germ quick-cook oats old fashioned oats
yellow cornmeal white cornmeal corn muffin mix
vital wheat gluten cracked wheat arborio rice
jasmine rice long grain rice yellow rice
dried plums dried apricots raisins
dried cranberries sun-dried tomatoes dates
bread flour semolina flour rye flour
whole wheat flour powdered sugar cocoa powder
light brown sugar dark brown sugar molasses
baking soda baking powder Kosher salt
white sugar Lipton tea (family size) powdered milk
rice flour cake flour split peas
lima beans pine nuts noodles/various dried pasta
And then there are the canned fruits and vegetables:
diced tomatoes stewed tomatoes salsa
summer squash banana peppers jalapeno peppers
green beans collard greens mushrooms
diced carrots dill pickles pickle relish
pepper relish applesauce apple butter
pear butter mint jelly blueberry jam
apple jelly peaches apple pie filling
cherries grapefruit apricot preserves
Do you have a pantry? Do you stockpile food?
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My list looks very familiar and I have to move too. Yikes!
Do not have a pantry. : ( Want one though!
I skipped straight ahead to the list of the canned fruits and vegetables. You have a lovely pantry!
OMG! That is a beautiful site. I too am cursed with no pantry. I grew up with one most of my life, and miss it terribly. I do have a lot of cupboards…but they are not the same as a beautiful walk in pantry….sigh…
I also don’t can at all….but I do like having a basic stock of staples that can easily be made into meals…and that takes storage. I love the storing of your staples in the jars…that is my next project!
I’m SO with you on the pantry thing Lacy. In fact poor old Jerry recently lost his half of the wardrobe so I could build into it from the other side to increase my pantry space. Extreme? Heck no – food is more important than clothes LOL
Check it out
http://margoandjerry.blogspot.com/2010/02/its-finished.html
yes I stockpile… rice, beans, tomatoes, flour, sugar, yeast, oil and meat we have a 1/2 cow and a full pig in the freezer
we can eat rice and meat for months!
That is a nice and clean pantry! I’d love to have one…
Cheers,
Rosa
Hmmmm. I need to organize my pantry. No time like today! Or perhaps I should wait until you come back?
Decisions, decisions…
We have a large makeshift pantry but I can neither confirm nor deny that we stockpile food…
We can from our garden every year and eat pretty well through the year though…
Sorry you have to move all that stuff but I am sure you will do it and do it well! Can’t wait to see your new pantry!
Hi Lacy,
Wow, you look like you are almost ready to get started for your trip. It is a great feeling to have a pantry. Mine is downstairs until I get the one built upstairs in the kitchen. I keep forgetting about the one in the basement and buy more of things I already have. Hubby says I have to start walking downstairs more often. Oh well good exercize right?…..love always
I have a cold room full of food and I have a pantry full of food. With the reserves in those spaces, in our freezers, on our bodies, we could survive a very long time without resources, so what I am wondering is why do I have such a big grocery bill every two weeks?
.
love all those colorful jars! have you gotten word yet as to where you’ll be headed?
aawww…that reminds me of growing up. I can’t say that we had a pantry but Mama stocked so much of everything you have…as do I now. I have a pantry in the utility room although it’s more of a wide closet.
Hello Lacy!
Brussels calling! Thanks for making us see your filled pantry!
Thanks for sharing & it is very interesting too!
WOW, that’s some stockpile:) I had a walk-in pantry ONCE in 17 years of marriage. Still dream of my lost pantry…I have canning shelves in the basement, which are getting empty. And 2 large chest freezers, one with meat (beef, pig, fish, and venison), and the other is filled with everything else. I thought I was doing good going to the grocery store every other week, to fill in with stuff:) I have 2 teenagers whose friends love to eat at my house, along with Hubs’ buddies, so non-stop eatin’ goin on:) Thanks for sharing, very interesting so how you live:)
Yours looks so inviting! It has such a homey, country look….
Have you found out where you’re going yet? Or did I miss that?
I am so with you with pantries. I love them. Root cellars too.
Just looking at one makes me feel like a child in a toys store.
Thank you for sharing!
brenda