Stocking a Living Pantry

    Definition of a living pantry- a pantry of items you stock that you normally use throughout the year to make meals, cleaning products, medicinals and toiletries. NOT items that you never eat but store for the sole purpose of emergency situations. 

    Stocking a living pantry these days might not sound as important as 100 years ago but I am finding that the quality of our food is making it very important to us to do so. In my great grandparents day there was no need for organics or reading labels... researching a company to find out the purity of a product because we can't trust the forces in charge to protect us wasn't needed then. Really? Sadly yes, the laws allow way too much. After reading some of the laws um I think I will make my food supply a priority! I know it sounds like a lot of work but is't food one of the most important health giving or taking away parts of your whole life? When you read that 80% of olive oil here in US is adulterated with rancid vegetable oil and honey is adulterated with corn syrup.... so much for switching to healthy alternatives and paying more to boot. So for us it is a big part of this abundant life we are trying to live.
    You may ask how to switch to better products and get the real deal? Your best bet is to go local and go small. The smaller local companies have better control of how and what goes into their products. I love supporting my local farms. So we buy or barter for local maple syrup, honey, produce and meats we don't grow ourselves. We grow some of our own herbs, some vegetables, chickens, eggs, some fruit and some nuts. Over many years we switched to mostly homemade items like granola, dairy products, condiments, sauces, canned fruits, pantry mixes, pickles, ferments, and herb mixes. If you think you can't do this where you live I encourage you to read the book "The Urban Farmer Handbook" for inspiration. These things are learned over time not overnight, switch slowly. When we can't get local we try to buy from small companies in bulk from the source. Like olive oil in a gallon tin from Greece or California. Tip-they will print harvest date on can and not just an expiration date 
    So lets get down to business with this pantry stocking. First write down about 30 of the most common meals you make throughout the year. If they are from mostly processed foods then look into how to change the recipes to a homemade version to cut down on chemical preservatives and increase the quality of the meal. Tip- to make things more convenient many meals can be prepped ahead, frozen to be used on busy days or to be thrown in a crock pot. I have just made 25 meals in 5 hours this weekend that I threw in the freezer. For inspiration, recipes and grocery lists check here. As a family we will make up 6 jars each of convenient mixes like seasonings, pancake mix, cookies, cake, soup mix or trail mix. These are treats but it makes it simple to use one as a gift or have the teens make a dessert when company comes over. So after we have our meals written down we look at the list of ingredients needed. Write this up on a grocery list so you can see how much is needed of each item... like 10 onions, 5 lbs carrots, 10 lbs chicken, etc. Now you can easily see how much food your family eats in a year by multiplying this by 12! You may vary your meals with the seasons but I found that families gravitate towards similar base ingredients throughout the year. Example- our family uses jasmine rice, wild rice, rolled oats, buckwheat groats, navy beans, honey, maple syrup, nuts, seeds, dried fruit, sea salt, herbs, spices, apple cider vinegar and certain oils throughout the year. After I wrote this out for breakfast and lunches too I could start to see how many pounds of rice, oats, nuts, etc. I would use as the months rolled by. That made it easy to justify buying certain items that keep in bulk. After a year I could be pretty certain that I would use a 25 lb bag of rice and 50 lbs of oats(getting them cheaper by the pound).
    Here are the categories you may use to write up a master list for your family- whole grains(rice, oats, quinoa, groats, etc.), beans/legumes(lentils, beans or peas), nuts/seeds/dried fruits, fats/oils(coconut, palm, olive oil, avocado,etc), vinegars, sweeteners(honey, maple syrup raw sugar), condiments/canned goods(mustard, relish, hot sauce, tomato products, canned fish, pickles, jam, nut butters, etc.), dried goods(baking ingredients, seasonings, cacao powder, teas, coffee, diy mixes), dairy/dairy alternative products, cold storage vegetables if you have the room or conditions(potatoes, apples, carrots, onions, garlic, winter squashes, sweet potatoes, etc.), freezer items(fruits picked in season, vegetables, meats, prepared meals, etc.), natural medicinal and cleaning product supplies(herbs, homeopathics, essential oils, butters, clays, beeswax, soaps, etc.) I make a master list that I can check or write prices on as I stock up. I shop every two weeks and try to buy one bulk items to replenish my stock. It varies as the seasons change. I buy maple syrup, olive oil and honey after it has been harvested that year.
    Now for storing all those items! I have a small kitchen that I stock two cabinets with bulk items in glass jars to use on a weekly basis. The jars range from gallon, half gallon and quarts depending on how often I use that item. Seasoning are in pint jars in a drawer. Other bulk items are kept in our basement in six 5 gallon buckets with Gamma lids. If I buy a 25 or 50 pound bag items I will often break that down to 5 or 10 pound increments in mylar bags that I seal with a iron. They get stacked in the 5 gallon bucket for storage. Most bulk items get used or rotated through in a year. Some items are kept longer if it is suitable to do so. Canned items are kept on a shelving unit in basement and next to that is two upright freezers stocked with meats and prepared meals. Once or twice a year I make up cleaning products and toiletries. Medicinal items are made in the season prior to the season they are needed in so they are fresh but ready to go. Example-elderberry syrup, vapor rub and cold kicker are made in September, sunscreen, deodorant and bug spray are made in May. 
    KEEP IT SIMPLE! Say your family doesn't often get sick then it may be silly for you to make 10 different items for cold season. Think about YOUR situation and what would be worth your time and money to invest in.
   Some of our favorite mixes-
Ranch dressing mix
Copy Cat Rice-a-Roni made with gluten free pasta
vegan meals in jars
jambalaya mix(except we add the broth later instead of using bouillon)
vanilla extract
LOADS of diy mixes
gluten free baking mix

Accidental Canner

Vegetables from the fridge that needed to be dealt with

our new "older" chickens

Our first unbroken eggs

"Souper Mix" with beets

Becoming sauce

    So I find sometimes I feel like the accidental canner. Friends will say how do you have time to can and sometimes I really don't but when you need to prepare for winter and have all this extra produce taking up spacing and starting to go bad because we can't use it fast enough then it is time to can whether I have time or not. Canning is a commitment and sometimes you don't always feel like doing it. It is one of the most satisfying tasks I do though. Seeing all those jars lined up makes me very happy. As we perfect our recipes over the years we know they are yummy and worth waiting till winter to enjoy them. I find when I am in this situation that unloading the fridge, lining up the baskets, and spreading it all out before me is the best way to see what and how much I am dealing with. A few things we always like to can like tomato sauce and pickles get done when we have a huge amount of produce. We do have one crock pot full of sauce cooking as I write this and I may have enough to do two more pots worth. I will get maybe 9-10 quarts of sauce from that. We will do apple sauce and pie filling that way as well. At the moment there is no exhaust in my kitchen which makes canning on humid or hot days not very nice. So until we either put in an exhaust fan or make an outdoor processing kitchen(this is the way we will go in the future so we can process meat as well.)
    So this year so far we have canned 6 jars pesto, 5 jars "Souper Mix"(with beets and red peppers), 3 quarts beef stock, 6 quarts beans, and 6 quarts chopped tomatoes. Nothing to brag about but not bad for getting settled into our old farmhouse. At the moment I am waiting for the basement cement to finish curing so we can set-up our shelves for canned items and winter produce. Today we will can Onion and Maple Conserve and tomorrow Pecan Apple Conserve. These are small batch items that need only a few minutes to process.
    We are also enjoying the beautiful chickens friends have given to us this past week. They are older girls but a few are still laying. I like that they eat my kitchen scraps and produce manure for my garden.... something it is going to need a lot of next year.
    Lastly if you find yourself with way to many zucchini or summer squash this year you can puree it to use in meat loaf, zucchini bread or chocolate cup cakes. We also found this recipe is a new favorite.

Zucchini Parmesan Bake

2 lbs. ground meat (we use lamb or beef)

2 T. butter and 2T. olive oil

1 cup sliced onions

3 garlic cloves crushed

italian seasoning

1 zucchini, 1 summer squash and 2-3 potatoes all sliced about 1/4 inch thick

1 c. parmesan cheese

In a skillet sauté butter, olive oil, onions and garlic till just starting to brown. Spread those out in bottom of pan. Brown ground meat in pan without cleaning it out. Then add to onion/garlic mix in baking dish, sprinkle generously with italian seasoning and mix together. Layer the sliced zucchini, potato and squash on top of meat mixture. Sprinkle top with more italian seasoning and parmesan cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes covered and 30 minutes uncovered. 

Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot

It is no secret that I enjoy getting rid of stuff... to the point I am surprised my friends still love me. I think I have taught them how to saw 'NO' (refuse)better then they ever knew before. I monthly reevaluate my STUFF to see if there is anything left to get rid of before we move(someone will eventually buy our house, right?). I live in a 1100 sq ft home so managing 4 people and their stuff makes living small work. No I am not moving to a bigger house just bigger land so we can be less consumers and more producers... that is a story for another time. We love our little house and would move it to a larger piece of land if it were cost effective. The past 20 years I have really thought long and hard about the possessions I have owned... or did they own me? I have moved over 17 times in my life and after awhile you start to ask yourself why you even bothered to pack certain things instead of getting rid of them. Watch this little video on STUFF and leave me a comment of what your thoughts are.
Some things I started doing to help close the loops:

• I started looking at how happy the people were in the photos from friends who had gone on mission trips... the folks weren't happy because they had STUFF... they were happy to have Jesus, food, a place to sleep, family, friends...etc.
• I seriously think about how I am voting with my dollars and do I really need to buy it at all(reduce)
• Repurposing stuff I already have.... like turning old sweaters into hats, gloves, and scarves(my favorite scarf from my favorite old sweater), old t-shirts into rugs, milk jugs into mini greenhouses, containers into storage for leftovers, etc.(reuse)
• Recycle computers, cell phones, any packaging I can... boxes, glass, plastic(recycle)
• My son has a worm farm in the basement that helps to turn some of our kitchen waste into dirt(rot)
• Before I buy a packaged item I try to think how I can keep it out of the trash after I have only spent a few minutes consuming it... hum.
• Buy used items and take care of them so they continue to be passed around or sold till they wear out. My favorite items to buy used are books, clothes, and my car(we figured by buying brand new you loose about $5,000 in a 5-10 year period... over your lifetime that is a lot of money saved)
• Buy quality useful items from local crafts people that could then be passed down to others(I love my wooden spoons!)
• Make what you can homemade and store the homemade items in glass or plastic jars you have recycled. We make tooth powder, deodorant, cleaning supplies, soup mixes, canned food, blankets, a few clothes items, bread, etc.
• Buy in bulk the food items you use most
• Buy local foods and take your own container(our local bulk store will refill my peanut butter jar with fresh ground butter)
• Lastly... when you pick an item up think about it's function... can you do that function with an item you already have in your home... I don't know about you but I love items that can be used 10 different ways so it not only saves me space but saves me money

If you still need some inspiration take a look at this family that are close to ZERO waste. It is impressive. It is where I got the inspiration to write this post.

My favorite scarf from my favorite old sweater

Taking care of wooden kitchen tools

This week I decided as I was cleaning out the pantry and organizing everything that I should also clean my wooden spoons. Something like at the end of summer gardening you clean and oil your tools to help them last a long time. Well I had never done this before because I never researched what to clean and oil my wooden tools with other then petroleum products. Since I have a nice collection of wooden tools some of which I spent a nice sum of money on to support local crafters I decided at the end of a hard winters use I should refresh them to help them last a long time... but with what? So after some research I found that a simple oil and beeswax paste would be the best thing to use. You can make your own or buy something already made up. I didn't realize how beneficial this little task would end up being. I took a cloth put a little paste on it and started to rub all over my lovely wooden tools. I then set them on the table to dry and absorb all that bee goodness. After part of the afternoon passed I wiped them down a bit and put them back in my wooden tool crock and back to their place on my counter. Later I decided to mix up some bread to soak overnight. I always use a wooden spoon to incorporate everything and boy was I surprised how easy that spoon came clean. The bread I am making gets pretty shaggy and makes it hard to clean my spoon. I don't like to soak my spoons so it takes some scrubbing to get it clean.... but not anymore. So go spend a little quiet time waxing your lovely cherished wooden tools so they keep on doing their job or get the kids to help. After I was all done with the task I rubbed the bee goodness that was left on my fingers into my hands... gotta love multi-purpose products.

Herbal Inventory

 Tis the time for some spring cleaning and inventory of what is on the pantry shelves. My pantry is in my basement because I don't have a kitchen large enough to handle all my pantry items. So I started with my herbs for making teas, remedies and balms.
So what I typically keep on hand are:
Astragalus/Burdock/Dandelion roots to add to bone broth
Chamomile(we use this for pink eye and bladder infections)
Calendula/St. John's Wort/Plantain/Comfrey(for salve)
Children's Composition(from www.morethanalive.com) for glycerite
Yarrow
Rose Hips
Lavender
Catnip
Lemon Balm
Nettle Leaf
Red Raspberry
Oatstraw                              
Echinacea root
Rosemary
Eucalyptus
Peppermint
Spearmint
Red Clover
Mullein
Elder flower/berry(for Elder flower tea and Elder berry syrup)
Marshmallow
Slippery Elm
Myrrh powder
Beeswax/Shea Butter/Olive Oil/coconut oil/assorted essential oils
Most of my supplies if I don't grow them myself come from Mountain Rose Herbs.
Remember I am not a medical doctor so this is for educational purposes only and not meant as information to treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
I keep my roots, bark, and berries for 3-4 years and leaves/flowers for 1-3 years. We make salves, chest balm, lip balm, toothpowder, deodorant, hard lotion bars, teas, glycerites, tinctures, lozenges, poultices, infusions, and cough syrup. Sometime this year we will try our hand at face lotion, flower waters, and soap making.
My favorite beginners site is www.learningherbs.com where they offer free ecourses, a newsletter, and kits to get started. My kids also love their board game about herbs. If you want more in depth studies try the link on my page to Vintage Remedies School. Try your hand at a recipe from one of the links above or try growing a few new herbs in your garden this summer. In a later post I will share my plans for a new medicinal herb garden that I hope to plant this summer. Growing and using herbs has been such a joy for me and my family that I have a hard time not sharing it with others. I hope you find something in this post that is helpful... let me know in the comments.

Making herbal chest rub. If your wondering about the wooden tool it is called a spurtle that I use just for stirring things I make with beeswax. 

Finished chest rub.

Making sniff jars for Christmas presents.

                                                                

Homemade tooth powder and deodorant.

Pumpkin Pie, Bird Count and Creative Pursuits, oh my!

I haven't been posting much because I feel like time is standing still these days. Waiting for someone to love our home enough to buy it. In the mean time I was craving homemade pumpkin pie. So even though we are trying to keep the kitchen spotless for visitors at any moment I had to whip one up last night. 

Maple Pumpkin Pie

One pie crust, set oven to 350. 

Mix up 2 eggs, 1/3 c. cream, 1/2 c. maple syrup, 15oz pumpkin canned or  fresh, 1 T. pumpkin pie spice and pour in shell. Bake 60 minutes. 

LET COOL before you put your whipped cream on top...... mine melted because I just couldn't wait, YUM! I am glad my grandma taught me to make pies... I know it is a comfort thing but I am ready to burst at the creative seams I tell ya. This keeping my house perfect is killing me. I am a creative person and I am just antsy to get working on a project. This weekend I think I may need to break out the sewing machine for a little creative pursuits. I have three quilts that I am dying to work on. So I do believe after we return from enjoying God's creation at the Great Backyard Bird count at Nolde Forest I will begin sewing up something pretty. That should carry me through till next week. 

Check out the link for counting birds this weekend and go make something to share with your loved ones. Share with us too... send me a picture of something you made or a photo of God's beautiful creation or a post that I can share with others.  

Home Again

After spending the last 2 weeks farm sitting at a goat farm I am ready to be home and elfing. Yes, you heard me "elfing"; making things for my family for Christmas. After years of making things for them I now start to get requests for homemade goodies.
This year they are getting:
*Mug Rugs, new mugs, special hot cocoa mix, peppermint straws, cookies to decorate,
*More fabric envelopes to hold pen pal letters and drawing supplies for church
*DIY Wonderball with marbles, candy, charms, and collectible rocks
*New boo boo packs in their favorite fabric
Not as many homemade items this year since we were busy farm sitting many weeks this fall not to mention some vacations. So next year like many years I will start earlier on some new mittens, pj pants, and pillow cases in flannel.
Here are a few photos from last Christmas.

Stockings filled with knitting supplies, games in tins, chocolate, candy cane, and felting supplies. 

Cookies to decorate

The tree only had white lights on it when we arrived so we added paper snowflakes and paper Ogees
(Ogee directions can be found HERE )

Paper Ogee