In the Using My Pantry post last week, Howling Hill asked “What do you consider “the essentials” of a pantry? What would you recommend those of us just starting out prioritize on our list o’ things to can?” I did answer her briefly in the comments of that post, but I’ve been doing some more thinking about it and so this planning my pantry post.
I do believe a pantry should be planned around what you and your family eat. It doesn’t do any good to make 15 pints of rhubarb chutney if no one is going to eat it, unless you plan on using it all for gifts. On the opposite end of the spectrum, its important to stock up on what you do eat. So how do I plan the pantry here at Two Frog Home?
Stock Up on Sale / Good Priced Items- I stock up when I see a good buy on something, this goes for everything from peaches to green peppers to local beef. I buy in large quantities and preserve what I find to keep us well fed and our pantry well stocked. I freeze, can, and to some degree dehydrate (hope to do more of that) everything so that we have ample stock on hand. I sometimes buy beef in large quantities and split it with neighbors or friends, because we don’t have enough storage room for that and we don’t eat that much.
Menu Planning – I’ve mentioned before that I plan menus and I keep those meal plans for reference. This has been handy for me in making sure I make enough salsa, pizza sauce, etc. Obviously each year varies, but I can on the higher end of the spectrum. This year we’ve eaten less pizza than last year but not terribly so, I should have about 3 pints of pizza sauce from 2007 when I make a new batch next month, salsa on the other hand I didn’t make nearly enough.
Windfalls- I never refuse when someone offers me extras from their gardens, orchards, etc. I haven’t planted zucchini for years, but every year I get more than enough for the two of us. I make it known that I practice home canning and because of that people tend to give me their surpluses often. I also make sure to gift the giver of these surpluses with home canned goodies. These windfalls have given has more local fruit than anything else over the years, but because we eat fruit most everyday with our lunch we can never have enough it seems.
Preparing my pantry- I can and freeze items as I’m going to use them. I make a few jars of soups and stews in our favorite varieties to have on hand for quick meals. I also keep my pantry well stocked with store bought goods (again on sale whenever possible). These store bought goods include a variety of pastas (spaghetti, soba noodles, orzo, etc.), grains (rice, wheat, millet, oats), misc. baking supplies (flours that I don’t grind from whole grain, baking powder, cocoa, etc.), spices lots of spices and herbs, etc. Basically, I keep things on hand so that I can whip up most anything my or Jeff’s heart desires.
List Keeping – I keep a fairly comprehensive shopping list and price book. I make sure that the minute I’m close to using something up it goes onto that list. I use that list when I shop, so that the pantry is properly stocked and I don’t run out of things like olive oil or salt, etc. There’s just no reason to run to the store for staples in my opinion.
Inventory – I keep an inventory of my pantry, I have the pantry building page here, but I also keep a handwritten graph. This is on graph paper with a square filled in for each individual can, bag, pepper, etc. I mark off a square each time I use that individual thing. I keep track of the date said item was stored and when I ran out, this way I know next year if I need more or less to get through.
Edited to add: This is a picture of part of my graph. I knew my explanation didn’t quite get it explained. I put the name of whatever is stored to the left and highlight one square for each item. Note that peppers say individual, cherries have a q equaling quart, etc. So each square equals one individual, one pint, or one quart, etc. As I use a jar or pepper, I put an “X” in one of the highlighted squares meaning that it is gone. I put the date the items were put up at the end of the highlighted squares an when an item is completely used up I put that date next to it. Does that make sense?
Flexibility – I stay flexible, this year we didn’t have a garden, last year we did and had a banner year for green beans. Without that garden, we won’t can as many green beans, so I’ll need to be flexible in my meal planning over the course of this next year. Some years I make way more applesauce than others, it depends on pricing and availability. I adapt and plan accordingly.
If you are already stocking a pantry (either home preserved or store bought) how do you plan? If you are just getting started, how are you going about it?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
This is really helpful. I am so disorganized. I do have all like things together in the pantry, but I have no idea how much or this or how many of that I have on hand. I would love to know how much of something we use in a year so I can more accurately judge our needs (future goal of mine).
I was wondering, sometime in the future will you go through a tutorial on menu planning. Seems simple, but I have never succeeded in creating one. I’m sure it’s a consequence of the diorganization thing I mentioned!
This is excellent, Kathie. Thank you. You’ve given me a good foundation to work off of.
Thankyouthankyou for this! So many of us are really starting from scratch on this living simpler and greener thing, it’s wonderful when we share our secrets of success!
Kathie, I’m curious about your menu planning too. My hubby has food allergies and strong likes and dislikes, so sometimes, I’m stocking up for two separate types of meals. Please do a post with your planning tips
I’m also confused about your pantry graph – I can’t visualize it… can you explain for us feeble minded, hands on people??
We are trying to grow what we eat, but growing up like this, I know I have to can fruit when we get it, because sometimes, it might be several years before the trees bear again. So, when we have an abundance, some gets frozen, but most is canned in some form, since it will keep.
Azure has sales on items I buy, on a predictable schedule, so I can stock up on expensive items that we can’t grow, but still like to cook with, like olive oil and coconut oil, etc. They use cost plus pricing, so sometimes the prices actually go down!
I’m so glad this was a bit helpful. I will plan on doing a post on how I plan meals next week, it takes me a while to get my thoughts in order about these things. I try to break it down and explain it, but sometimes my directions fall a little short.
Nita – I edited the post with a picture of my graph and a little more explanation. Let me know if that makes more sense or if I’m still being too vfague.
I have no illusions that I can grow everything I eat. My garden is much too small. Our farmers market is open every Sat every week of the year so I mostly plan my fresh food purchases Sat morning before I leave for the market. Twice a month I get food from our church’s food pantry and I’ve learned to only bring home what we’ll eat or can give away to neighbors. If I have too many loaves of bread in my little refrigerator freezer I can’t put in the other food like homemade tomato sauce.
I keep a running grocery list on the frig so if one of us is going past the grocery store we can get what’s on the list. We generally shop once a week.
The Professor does most of the grocery shopping so he checks the different stores’ ads before he goes off to buy meat which is our most expensive item.
We don’t have much storage so I let the stores ‘keep’ my extras. I only buy in bulk if the price is really good. Otherwise I just don’t have room in the pantry. But I do know what’s in there at all times because I check weekly.
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