Monday, March 31, 2014

Pantry Inventory Notes and List ~ Spring Preparation


It is always helpful to do a pantry inventory of your "prepared" food storage before another season of harvest arrives. It gives you an idea of what you need to use up and what you may have processed too much of (excess canned goods can always be given away as gifts providing they haven't expired). It would also be wise to go through your freezer and use up anything from last year to make room for a fresh supply (make it a challenge to spend less on groceries by utilizing your reserves, don't buy when you have).

It may look like a poor inventory but I did do a lot of preserving this past year. The reason for the bare shelves it that we were intentional about using what we had. I would focus my menus around our garden, pantry and freezer foods which led to much savings. Our mentality was, what do we have to eat rather than what does the grocery store have to offer. And yes, that means that when cabbages were in season, we ate a lot of cabbage!

Here is a list of our current inventory of pantry items which we prepared ourselves:

What this list tells me is that we could use more tomatoes (zero inventory left)! You can never can enough tomatoes because they are so versatile (think soup bases, pasta/pizza sauces, Mexican dishes)! Also, the dried bell peppers, pickled cauliflower/carrots, pickled peppers and dill pickles are completely gone so we will try and increase our supply of these this season.

All the fermented food have been consumed so we purchased more Fido jars in order to accommodate more of that kind of food storage. We also purchased three, large, 5 liter Fido jars (I found them on clearance for $3 each and took the last ones!) which will be great for preparing bigger batches of apple cider vinegar when those scraps come in.

Our empty canning jars have been organized in size order and we have restocked our inventory of lids. We are now ready for the next batch of garden goods, are you? 

"The best preparation for the future is the present well seen to,
and the last duty done."
~ George MacDonald


17 comments:

  1. We are getting low on a lot of things as well. We just ate the last quart of peaches:(, and we are getting really low on juice and apple cider. Everything in our pantry is diminishing slowly which is a bitter sweet feeling. Hate to see it go but it has to!;) It's always hard to let go of the last jar of a particular item. We are running down our freezer as well.

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    1. Oh yes, the last precious jar of anything in the pantry...

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  2. Wow, what a great deal you got on the 5-liter Fido jars! Good for you. I really love Fido jars, especially so since I discovered that sauerkraut made in them can take just two weeks. We are down to just a few jars of pickles, but I do have some tomatoes left. Good idea to take inventory. Have a great day!

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    1. We love them for sauerkraut also! So simple to make in the fido jars!

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  3. Not only are you well stocked, but your shelves look so pretty with your jars of food :) I am looking forward to this summer when I can put up some more food to help get us through the Winter. I always freeze fresh corn and we used our last bag a couple of weeks ago.

    Happy Monday, lovely JES!

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    1. Ooh, fresh corn! The birds eat ours every time they come up... We have almost given up growing them... Thanks for sharing Stephanie :)

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  4. As always, lovely. Shared with our readers at Homestead Lady.

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  5. I need to do this for sure! Maybe we'll take a week or two and just eat from the pantry to clean out last year's reserves. We, too, need to can more tomatoes this year. Great post! Thanks for the reminder!

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    1. And, think of the money you will save in groceries this week ;) Thanks for sharing Keri!

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  6. I need to do this for sure! Maybe we'll take a week or two and just eat from the pantry to clean out last year's reserves. We, too, need to can more tomatoes this year. Great post! Thanks for the reminder!

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    1. And, think of the money you will save in groceries this week ;) Thanks for sharing Keri!

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  7. I'm not a canner, JES, but you photo makes me think how there is "art" in homemaking. You jars full of colorful food look so pretty. And I am impressed with all that you make. God bless you, Gail

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    1. Thanks Gail, it is a fun hobby for me :)

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  8. What a great post, your pantry items look wonderful! I would love to invite you to share your post at my linky party. :) Meal Planning Monday Recipe Link-Up. http://www.aprilshomemaking.com/2014/04/meal-planning-monday-recipe-link-up-5.html

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  9. Loved this post and have been thinking that I need to do this chore.. Thanks for inspiring me.. Have a great week.. xo

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  10. I've been thinking about this too. I've actually noticed we have only barely touched the fruits we put up. We don't eat much jam, and the fruits we eat are what's in season, rather than what we've put up. It's interesting to me, noticing the rhythms of our eating patterns.

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  11. Interesting, this is a good exercise. Thanks for linking up to Awesome Life Friday!

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