- 2 days ago
🔗 Save $6,000 A Year with My Complete Amish Home-Saving Method I teach:
https://eliasyoder.com
You walk down to the cellar in November to fetch a jar of last summer's tomatoes, and you stop at the bottom of the steps. The shelves are full. Jars of green beans put up in August. Crocks of sauerkraut working through its second month. And along the far wall, the deeper pantry — long shelves of dry food in five-gallon buckets and clean glass jars. The food that does not spoil because the food was never meant to spoil.
The grocery store sells you food with a "Best By" date stamped on the side that tells you to throw it out in six months, a year, two at the longest. The cheap factory-canned food really does have a finite life. But the food careful folks have kept for centuries — the salt and honey and sugar and wheat and dried beans and rice — that food does not expire. It outlasts the family that stored it. Some of it has been found edible after three thousand years in tombs in Egypt.
Esther and I keep a deep pantry, the way our parents kept a deep pantry, the way every careful farm family in this country kept a deep pantry before grocery stores became the kitchen extension that most fo
https://eliasyoder.com
You walk down to the cellar in November to fetch a jar of last summer's tomatoes, and you stop at the bottom of the steps. The shelves are full. Jars of green beans put up in August. Crocks of sauerkraut working through its second month. And along the far wall, the deeper pantry — long shelves of dry food in five-gallon buckets and clean glass jars. The food that does not spoil because the food was never meant to spoil.
The grocery store sells you food with a "Best By" date stamped on the side that tells you to throw it out in six months, a year, two at the longest. The cheap factory-canned food really does have a finite life. But the food careful folks have kept for centuries — the salt and honey and sugar and wheat and dried beans and rice — that food does not expire. It outlasts the family that stored it. Some of it has been found edible after three thousand years in tombs in Egypt.
Esther and I keep a deep pantry, the way our parents kept a deep pantry, the way every careful farm family in this country kept a deep pantry before grocery stores became the kitchen extension that most fo
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00You walk down into the cellar in November to fetch a jar of last summer's tomatoes,
00:05and you stop at the bottom of the steps.
00:07The shelves are full.
00:09Jars of green beans put up in August.
00:12Crocs of sauerkraut working through its second month.
00:16Sacks of potatoes and onions in the wooden bins.
00:19Cured hams hanging from the rafter.
00:22The lime-water bucket of eggs sitting in the cool corner.
00:25And along the far wall, the deeper pantry.
00:29The long shelves of dry food in five-gallon buckets and clean glass jars.
00:35The food that does not spoil because the food was never meant to spoil.
00:40The salt that has not aged a day since the day it was mined.
00:45The honey that would still be edible if your great-great-grandchildren found it on the shelf a hundred years
00:52from now.
00:52The rice in the sealed bucket that will be safe to eat in twenty-five years.
00:58The grocery store sells you food with a best-by date stamped on the side that tells you to throw
01:05it out in six months, a year, two years at the longest.
01:10And the grocery store is not telling you a lie.
01:13The cheap, factory-canned food with the soft cans and the thin paper labels and the modern shelf-life additives
01:22really does have a finite life.
01:25But the food that has been kept by careful folks for centuries, the salt and the honey and the sugar
01:32and the wheat and the dried beans and the rice,
01:35that food does not expire.
01:39It outlasts the family that stored it.
01:42It outlasts the cellar shelves it sits on.
01:45Some of it has been found edible after three thousand years in tombs in Egypt.
01:52That is not a story I am making up.
01:55That is recorded history.
01:57My name is Elias Yoder.
02:00I am Amish and I farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
02:03Esther and I keep a deep pantry, the way our parents kept a deep pantry,
02:09the way every careful farm family in this country kept a deep pantry
02:15before grocery stores became the kitchen extension that most folks now live by.
02:21The deep pantry is the difference between a family that eats,
02:25whether the weather, the roads, the trucks, or the supply chain hold up,
02:31and a family that does not.
02:32Today, I am going to walk you through 13 foods that, properly stored, never expire.
02:40Some of them you know.
02:42Salt, sugar, honey, rice, beans.
02:47Some of them you may not have thought about as long storage items.
02:52Apple cider vinegar, wheat berries, dried whole corn.
02:58All 13 of them are real.
03:01All 13 are tested.
03:03All 13 are within reach of any family that wants to start a deep pantry
03:09without spending much money or learning anything complicated.
03:13These are the foundation foods,
03:16the ones that have been keeping families alive between harvests for 10,000 years.
03:23Quick word before we go further.
03:25The old methods my family uses.
03:28There is more of it than fits in any one video.
03:32I gathered the whole of it into a book at EliasYoder.com.
03:37The book is the long version.
03:39If you want it, it is there.
03:41I will not bring it up again.
03:45Now, the 13.
03:46Numbers 1, 2, and 3.
03:50Salt, sugar, and honey.
03:52I will treat these together because they share the same property.
03:57They are so chemically stable
03:59that none of them will ever spoil if kept dry.
04:04These are the three pantry kings.
04:06Every deep pantry starts with these three.
04:11Salt is sodium chloride,
04:13a pure mineral that has been used for food preservation for at least 8,000 years.
04:20The salt that was mined from the earth 50 years ago
04:23and the salt being mined today are chemically identical,
04:28and both are exactly as good as the salt the Romans put on their meat in the year 50 AD.
04:35Salt does not break down.
04:39Stored in a dry container,
04:41a glass jar,
04:43a sealed bucket,
04:44even just the original cardboard salt box kept in a dry pantry,
04:49a bag of plain table salt will be fine for your grandchildren and theirs after them.
04:56The only enemy of salt is moisture,
04:59which causes it to clump and harden.
05:02Hardened salt is still good salt.
05:06Break up the clumps and use it.
05:08A 50-pound bag of plain salt at the hardware store or feed store
05:12runs about $10 or $12
05:14and is enough salt for one family for many years.
05:19Sugar is sucrose,
05:21chemically a complex molecule but extremely stable in dry form.
05:25Stored in an airtight container,
05:28kept dry,
05:29it does not spoil.
05:31Like salt,
05:32sugar may harden over time as it absorbs trace moisture,
05:36but hardened sugar is still good sugar.
05:39Break it up,
05:40use it.
05:41One important note on sugar,
05:44do not use oxygen absorbers with sugar.
05:47The oxygen absorbers will pull moisture out
05:50and turn the sugar into a solid brick
05:53that you cannot break apart without a hammer.
05:56Sugar wants a clean, dry, sealed container,
06:00no oxygen absorber.
06:02A glass jar or food-grade bucket with a tight lid
06:06is all it needs.
06:08Honey is the oldest documented preserved food on Earth.
06:12Honey found in Egyptian tombs 3,000 years old,
06:16has been tested and found still safe to eat.
06:20The chemistry is plain.
06:22Honey is so low in water content,
06:25under 18%,
06:26so high in sugar,
06:28over 80%,
06:29and so naturally acidic
06:31that bacteria simply cannot grow in it.
06:35Honey crystallizes over time,
06:37sometimes within months,
06:39and folks throw it away thinking it has gone bad.
06:43Crystallized honey has not gone bad.
06:46Set the jar in a pan of warm water for 10 minutes
06:50and the crystals dissolve back into liquid.
06:53Same honey,
06:54same century,
06:56still good.
06:57These three together,
06:59salt,
07:00sugar,
07:01honey,
07:01are the foundation of any deep pantry.
07:04Buy them in bulk when you can.
07:07Store them dry.
07:08Never throw them out.
07:11Number 4.
07:12Canned meat.
07:14Canned meat,
07:15whether the commercially canned chicken,
07:18beef,
07:18pork,
07:19fish,
07:19and ham at the grocery store,
07:21or the home canned meat
07:23Esther and I put up
07:24after butchering each fall,
07:26lasts far beyond the best-by date
07:29stamped on the can.
07:30That date is the manufacturer's guarantee
07:34of best taste and texture,
07:36not the date the food goes bad.
07:39Properly sealed canned meat
07:41in undamaged cans
07:43will be safe to eat
07:44for 10 to 20 years
07:46past that date,
07:47and often longer.
07:49The reason is the canning process itself.
07:53Sealed at high temperature,
07:54the can contains
07:56no living bacteria
07:57and no oxygen.
07:59As long as the seal stays intact
08:02and the can shows no swelling,
08:04no bulging,
08:06no rust through,
08:07and no off smell when opened,
08:09the meat inside
08:11is preserved indefinitely.
08:13Here is the one safety word
08:16that cannot be skipped
08:17because it matters more
08:19than any other word in this video.
08:21A swollen, bulging, dented, hissing,
08:25or off-smelling can is a danger.
08:29Botulism toxin can develop
08:31in damaged or improperly sealed cans,
08:34and botulism is genuinely deadly.
08:37Throw out any can that
08:39bulges outward on the top or bottom,
08:43hisses or spurts when opened,
08:46has any off, rancid, sour,
08:49or rotten smell.
08:51Has any white film, mold,
08:53or unusual color inside.
08:55Is significantly dented along a seam.
08:59Never taste test a suspect can
09:02to see if it's bad.
09:04If the can looks wrong,
09:06smells wrong,
09:07or sounds wrong when opened,
09:09throw it out.
09:10The cost of one can is nothing.
09:13The cost of botulism is your life.
09:16With those caveats,
09:19properly sealed canned meat
09:21is one of the most reliable
09:22long-storage proteins in any pantry.
09:26Number five, white rice.
09:29White rice is one of the most
09:31thoroughly studied long-storage foods
09:34in modern preparedness research,
09:36and the numbers are clear.
09:38White, long-grain rice,
09:40stored properly in a sealed container
09:42with an oxygen absorber,
09:44lasts 25 to 30 years
09:47with no loss of nutritional value or taste.
09:50The reason is the absence of oils.
09:54Brown rice contains the natural oils
09:56of the bran layer,
09:58which go rancid within two to five years.
10:01White rice has had the bran removed
10:04during milling,
10:05which removes the oils.
10:06What remains is the dry starch grain,
10:10extremely low in moisture,
10:12extremely low in oils,
10:14and chemically extremely stable.
10:17The storage method is the same
10:18as we will use for several items
10:20on this list.
10:21Mylar bag,
10:23food-grade aluminum laminated plastic bag,
10:26inside a five-gallon food-grade bucket
10:29with a 300 to 500 cubic centimeter
10:32oxygen absorber,
10:33heat-sealed shut.
10:35Five gallons of rice runs about 30 pounds,
10:39costs roughly 25 to 35 dollars,
10:42depending on where you buy it,
10:43and feeds a family of four for many weeks.
10:46Stored cool, dark, and dry,
10:49that bucket of rice will be safe
10:51and good to eat in 25 years.
10:54Brown rice is not for long storage.
10:57White rice is.
10:59Number six, pasta.
11:02Dried pasta is white rice's close cousin
11:05in the long storage pantry,
11:0720 to 30 years sealed in mylar
11:09with oxygen absorbers.
11:11The reason is the same.
11:13Pasta is made from durum wheat semolina,
11:16which is dry, low-fat,
11:18and chemically stable
11:20once it has been formed and dried.
11:22Spaghetti, macaroni, penne, fettuccine,
11:25all dried wheat pastas store the same way.
11:29Mylar bag, oxygen absorber,
11:32food-grade bucket,
11:33cool, dry, dark storage.
11:35Egg noodles are slightly different.
11:38The egg content gives them
11:40a shorter shelf life
11:41of about 5 to 10 years
11:42before quality begins to drop,
11:45though they are still safe past that.
11:47A 5-gallon bucket of pasta
11:49runs about $30
11:51and feeds a family many meals.
11:54Pair it with a deep pantry
11:56of canned tomatoes and herbs
11:57and your family eats well
11:59from the deep shelves alone.
12:02Number seven, dried beans.
12:05Dried beans are the protein backbone
12:07of every traditional long-storage pantry
12:10in human history.
12:11Pinto beans, black beans,
12:13navy beans, kidney beans,
12:15great northern beans, lima beans,
12:18all of them store the same way
12:20and all of them last 25 to 30 years
12:23in mylar with oxygen absorbers
12:26in food-grade buckets.
12:28A small honest word about old beans.
12:31The older they get,
12:32the longer they take to cook.
12:34A pound of beans that would simmer to tender
12:37in 2 hours when fresh
12:38may take 4 or 5 hours
12:41after 10 years in storage.
12:43The beans are still safe and nutritious.
12:45they just need more time.
12:47Soak them overnight before cooking,
12:5012 to 18 hours rather than the usual 8,
12:53and they soften back up.
12:55Some folks add a small pinch of baking soda
12:58to the soak water to help old beans soften,
13:01though that is optional.
13:03A 50-pound bag of dried beans
13:05runs about $40 to $50
13:06and stores about 250 servings of protein.
13:10That is feed for a family for a long time.
13:15Number 8.
13:16Canned fruits and vegetables.
13:18Like canned meat,
13:20canned fruits and vegetables
13:21last well past their printed best-by date,
13:25usually 5 to 15 years past for the commercial cans
13:28and similar for home-canned jars done properly.
13:32The same safety word applies.
13:35Bulging, hissing, off-smelling,
13:38or visibly moldy cans
13:39must be thrown out without taste testing.
13:43Botulism is the danger,
13:44and the safety word is not optional.
13:47Esther and I home-can
13:49a great deal of our garden harvest each summer.
13:52Tomatoes, green beans, peaches,
13:54applesauce, pickles, beets.
13:57A properly pressure-canned jar of tomatoes
13:59from our garden,
14:01stored in the cool cellar,
14:02is good for 5 years and more.
14:05Many of the jars we eat from this winter
14:07were canned 3 or 4 years ago
14:09and are still bright and good.
14:11The key is the seal,
14:13the cool storage,
14:15and the careful checking when opening.
14:17Before I go on to the last 5,
14:19let me pause for a moment.
14:21If this video helped you see
14:23one place your home may be wasting money,
14:26join our Amish Home Savings System
14:28and community.
14:30Inside, we help you work through the rest.
14:32Groceries, utilities, laundry, repairs,
14:36pantry waste, cleaning,
14:38and monthly home routines.
14:40The link is in the description.
14:42Now, the final 5.
14:45Number 9.
14:46Rolled Oats.
14:48Rolled Oats,
14:49old-fashioned oatmeal,
14:51the kind you cook on the stove
14:52rather than the instant kind,
14:54store for 20 to 30 years in mylar
14:57with oxygen absorbers.
14:59Same method as rice,
15:01pasta, and beans.
15:02Oats are nutritionally
15:03one of the best long-storage foods
15:06in the pantry.
15:07High in fiber,
15:08modest in protein,
15:10low in fat,
15:11and extremely versatile.
15:13Breakfast oatmeal,
15:15baked into bread,
15:16ground into a coarse flour for cookies,
15:19mixed into meatloaf as a binder,
15:21even toasted and salted as a snack.
15:24Esther uses oats almost daily
15:27through the winter.
15:28A 5-gallon bucket of rolled oats
15:30runs about $25
15:32and stores about 30 pounds of oats,
15:34one of the best dollar-per-calorie
15:37deep pantry items you can buy.
15:41Number 10.
15:43Powdered Milk.
15:44Non-fat dry powdered milk
15:47stored sealed in mylar
15:48with oxygen absorbers
15:50lasts 20 years in a cool, dry pantry.
15:54I will say plainly,
15:55powdered milk does not taste like fresh milk.
15:58It has a thinner,
16:00slightly sweeter,
16:01more processed flavor
16:03that some folks find
16:04off-putting straight.
16:06But for cooking and baking,
16:08it is essentially indistinguishable
16:10from fresh milk.
16:11Pancakes, biscuits,
16:13custards,
16:14cream sauces,
16:15cocoa,
16:16oatmeal,
16:17the powdered milk
16:18reconstituted with water
16:19performs the same as fresh.
16:22For drinking it straight,
16:24mix it the night before
16:25so it can chill thoroughly
16:27in the icebox
16:28or root cellar.
16:29Cold powdered milk
16:31tastes far better
16:32than room-temperature powdered milk.
16:34A five-pound bag
16:36of non-fat dry milk powder
16:38makes about 40 quarts of milk
16:40and stores for 20 years.
16:43For families with children,
16:45this is one of the more important
16:46pantry items to have.
16:49Number 11.
16:51Wheat Berries.
16:53Wheat berries,
16:54the whole, unground kernels of wheat,
16:57before they become flour,
16:59are one of the most important
17:00long-storage foods
17:02in any traditional pantry.
17:04Hard red wheat,
17:06hard white wheat,
17:07soft white wheat,
17:09all store for 25 to 30 years
17:12sealed in mylar
17:13with oxygen absorbers.
17:15The reason wheat berries store so much better
17:18than flour is the bran.
17:20Whole wheat berries have an intact outer hull
17:24that protects the inner kernel
17:26from oxygen and moisture.
17:28Once you grind that hull off into flour,
17:31the inner germ, which is rich in oil,
17:34begins to go rancid within months.
17:37That is why store-bought flour
17:39has a best-by date of about a year.
17:42The oils in the ground germ go bad.
17:45But the unground wheat berry
17:47can sit in the deep pantry
17:49for a quarter century,
17:51waiting to be ground fresh
17:53whenever flour is needed.
17:55The catch is that you need a way
17:57to grind the wheat berries
17:58when the time comes.
18:00A hand-crank wheat grinder
18:02runs about $100
18:04and lasts a lifetime.
18:06Esther uses ours about once a week,
18:09grinds enough flour for the week's baking,
18:12then puts the rest of the wheat berries
18:14back in the sealed bucket.
18:16Fresh ground flour
18:18from your own wheat berries
18:19makes better bread
18:21than any flour you can buy.
18:23And the deep pantry
18:24stays full of wheat for a generation.
18:27A 50-pound bag
18:29of hard red wheat berries
18:30from a feed store
18:32or whole grain supplier
18:33runs about $35 to $50.
18:37Stored properly,
18:38that bag is bred for a family
18:40for many months.
18:42Many, many months.
18:45Number 12.
18:47Apple Cider Vinegar
18:48Apple cider vinegar
18:51in a sealed bottle
18:52has an indefinite shelf life.
18:54The acidity,
18:55about 5 to 6% acetic acid,
18:58is naturally antimicrobial.
19:01Nothing harmful can grow in it.
19:03Esther and I keep
19:05apple cider vinegar in the pantry
19:07the way other families
19:08keep aspirin
19:09in the medicine cabinet.
19:11It is used for cooking,
19:12for pickling,
19:14for cleaning,
19:15for salad dressings,
19:16for folk medicine purposes,
19:18for taking the sharp edge
19:20off the smell when butchering,
19:22and for a hundred other small uses
19:24around a careful household.
19:27A gallon jug runs about $10
19:29and lasts a long time.
19:32One small note for the folks
19:34who notice such things.
19:36Apple cider vinegar
19:37may darken slightly
19:38over the years in storage.
19:41That is normal.
19:42The vinegar is still good.
19:44The color change
19:45is just the slow caramelization
19:47of the trace sugars.
19:49If you want vinegar
19:51that stays perfectly clear
19:52and uniform-looking
19:54for decades,
19:55plain white vinegar
19:56holds its color better.
19:58But apple cider vinegar
20:00is the one
20:01with the broader range
20:02of uses in the kitchen
20:03and the pantry.
20:05You may also see
20:06the mother,
20:07a stringy,
20:08jellyfish-looking clump
20:09of beneficial bacteria,
20:11develop at the bottom
20:12of an old bottle
20:13of apple cider vinegar.
20:15That is also normal.
20:17That is the living culture
20:19of the vinegar.
20:21Strain it out
20:21if you want to
20:22or leave it in.
20:24Either way,
20:25the vinegar is good.
20:27Number 13.
20:29Dried Whole Corn
20:31The last one on the list
20:33and the most genuinely
20:35Pennsylvania Dutch
20:36of all of them.
20:37Whole dried corn kernels,
20:40the same field corn
20:42or flint corn
20:43the old folks raised
20:44for cornbread
20:45and corn mush,
20:47store for 25 to 30 years
20:50in mylar
20:51with oxygen absorbers.
20:53The same as wheat berries,
20:55the whole unground kernel
20:57keeps far longer
20:59than the ground meal.
21:01Dried Whole Corn
21:03becomes cornmeal
21:04when ground
21:05for cornbread,
21:07johnny cakes,
21:08polenta,
21:08and our family's
21:10traditional Pennsylvania Dutch
21:11corn mush.
21:13It becomes hominy
21:15when soaked in lime water.
21:17Yes,
21:18the same hydrated lime
21:19we used in the
21:20water glassing eggs video
21:22on our cooking channel.
21:24It becomes animal feed
21:26for the chickens
21:27and the livestock.
21:28It can even be popped
21:30if it is the right variety,
21:32though most field corn
21:34is not the popcorn variety.
21:36One bag of dried
21:38whole corn stored
21:40in the deep pantry
21:41opens to dozens of meals
21:44across the years.
21:46A small, honest word
21:48for clarity.
21:50Cornmeal that has already
21:51been ground,
21:52the soft, yellow,
21:54flour-like product
21:55you buy in the store,
21:57only stores for 5 to 10 years,
22:00even in mylar,
22:01because the germ has been exposed
22:04and the oils start to go off.
22:07Buy whole dried corn,
22:09store it whole,
22:11grind it as needed.
22:13That is the rule.
22:15A 50-pound bag
22:17of dried whole corn
22:18runs about $20
22:20at a feed store
22:21and is enough cornmeal
22:23and hominy for a family
22:25for a year of regular use.
22:28Now let me give you
22:30a brief word
22:30about how to actually
22:32store these foods,
22:33because the storage method
22:35matters as much
22:36as the food itself.
22:38The standard method
22:40for the long-storage dry items
22:42rice, pasta, beans, oats,
22:46powdered milk, wheat berries,
22:48dried corn,
22:49is what they call
22:50the mylar and bucket method.
22:53Take a food-grade
22:555-gallon bucket.
22:57Line it with a
22:585-gallon mylar bag,
23:00food-grade
23:01aluminum laminated plastic.
23:04Fill the mylar bag
23:06with your dry food.
23:08Drop in an oxygen absorber
23:10sized to the bag,
23:12a 2,000 to 2,500
23:14cubic centimeter absorber
23:16for a 5-gallon bucket.
23:18Squeeze out as much air
23:21as possible.
23:22Heat seal the top
23:24of the mylar bag closed
23:26using a close iron
23:27set to a moderate heat
23:29or a hair straightener clamp
23:31or a vacuum sealer
23:33with a sealing function,
23:35pressing the seal closed
23:37across the full width
23:39of the bag.
23:40Snap the bucket lid
23:42on tight.
23:43The bucket provides
23:45physical strength,
23:46mouse-proofing,
23:48and stackability.
23:49The mylar bag provides
23:51the seal against oxygen
23:53and moisture.
23:54The oxygen absorber
23:56pulls the last bits
23:58of oxygen out
23:59and creates a low-oxygen
24:02environment where bacteria,
24:04mold, and insects
24:05cannot live.
24:07The combination of all three
24:09is what gives you
24:11twenty-five to thirty-year
24:13shelf life.
24:14Anyone alone
24:15gives much less.
24:17The old folks
24:19did not have mylar bags.
24:21They used stoneware crocks,
24:24glass canning jars,
24:26lard tins,
24:28dry root cellars,
24:29and the cool,
24:31dark corner of the pantry.
24:32And they got five,
24:34ten,
24:35sometimes fifteen-year
24:37storage from those methods.
24:39The mylar and bucket method
24:42gives you twice that life
24:44because it is better
24:45at sealing out oxygen.
24:48Use the modern method
24:49for the deep,
24:51long storage pantry.
24:53Use the old methods
24:54for the kitchen shelf items
24:56that get rotated
24:58through faster.
24:59Both methods work.
25:01Both have their place.
25:04Storage environment
25:05matters as much
25:06as the container.
25:07The rule is
25:09cool,
25:10dark,
25:12and dry.
25:13Below seventy degrees
25:15is the cutoff
25:16for proper,
25:17long storage.
25:18And the cooler
25:19you can keep it
25:20within reason,
25:22the longer
25:22the food lasts.
25:24Every ten degrees cooler
25:27doubles the shelf life.
25:29A pantry that stays
25:30at sixty degrees
25:32year-round
25:33gives you nearly twice
25:34the storage life
25:36of one that sits
25:37at seventy-five.
25:38A root cellar
25:39that stays at fifty-five
25:40is the ideal
25:41traditional storage,
25:43which is one of the reasons
25:44every careful farmhouse
25:46in this country
25:46once had a root cellar.
25:49Now I want to take a moment,
25:51because here is where
25:52it all comes together.
25:54Look at what we have
25:55walked through.
25:56Thirteen foods
25:57that properly stored
25:59never expire.
26:01Three pantry kings,
26:03salt, sugar, honey,
26:04that have been stored
26:06by every careful family
26:07for thousands of years.
26:10Five long storage
26:11dry staples,
26:13white rice,
26:14pasta,
26:15dried beans,
26:16rolled oats,
26:17powdered milk,
26:18that give you
26:19twenty to thirty years
26:20of safe,
26:21edible nutrition
26:22for the cost
26:23of a small,
26:24one-time investment.
26:26Wheat berries
26:27and dried whole corn,
26:29the grains that become
26:30bread and meal
26:32and feed your family
26:33for a year
26:34on one bag.
26:35Apple cider vinegar,
26:37the one preservation liquid
26:39every careful pantry
26:41has on its shelf.
26:43And canned fruits,
26:44vegetables,
26:45and meats,
26:46the bridges between
26:47fresh and dried,
26:49well past their printed dates
26:51if the cans stay intact.
26:53Total cost to fill
26:55a deep pantry
26:56with all thirteen?
26:57If you buy carefully,
26:59in bulk,
27:00at feed stores
27:01and warehouse stores
27:02and from farm sources,
27:04roughly four to six hundred dollars
27:06buys you a year's worth
27:08of basic food
27:09for a family of four.
27:12For longer storage
27:13and larger families,
27:14scale up.
27:15That is less than
27:17one month
27:18of grocery shopping
27:19for most American families today.
27:21A one-time investment
27:23that protects your family
27:25against weather,
27:26storms,
27:27illness,
27:28supply chain trouble,
27:29and the simple comfort
27:31of knowing
27:32the seller shelves
27:33are stocked.
27:34There is no money
27:36in the grocery store industry
27:37in teaching folks
27:39that they can buy
27:39six months of food once
27:41and not need it again
27:43for a year.
27:44There is a great deal
27:45of money
27:46in selling
27:47that same family
27:48bag by bag
27:49of groceries
27:50every week
27:51forever.
27:53So the deep pantry knowledge
27:55sits in the old farm cookbooks
27:57and the Amish
27:58and Mennonite homes
27:59that never stopped
28:01keeping one.
28:02And most American kitchens
28:03have a refrigerator
28:05full of food
28:06that will spoil
28:07in two weeks
28:08and nothing else
28:09stored anywhere.
28:11That is fragile.
28:13The deep pantry
28:14is the cure.
28:16You can be one
28:17of the careful ones.
28:18So here is what
28:20I want you to do.
28:21This week,
28:22walk down to your own
28:24pantry or cellar
28:25and look at what
28:26is on the shelves.
28:28Be honest about
28:29what you actually have.
28:31For most families,
28:33the answer is
28:33two weeks of food,
28:35maybe three.
28:37That is not enough.
28:39Start small.
28:40Buy a five-pound bag of salt,
28:43a five-pound bag of sugar,
28:44and a quart jar of honey.
28:46That is your foundation.
28:49Twenty dollars.
28:51Lasts you for years.
28:52Then add one bucket project
28:55a month.
28:56Rice in mylar
28:57in a bucket this month.
28:59Beans in mylar
29:00in a bucket next month.
29:02Oats the month after.
29:03In a year of monthly additions,
29:06you have a deep pantry
29:08full of food
29:09for your family.
29:10Thousands of meals
29:11in storage.
29:12Every single one of them
29:14safe and nutritious
29:16for the next 25 to 30 years.
29:19The cost is spread
29:21across a year.
29:22The peace of mind
29:23is permanent.
29:25And remember the storage rules.
29:27Cool, dark, dry.
29:29Below 70 degrees.
29:32In sealed containers.
29:34With the oxygen absorbers
29:35in the dry goods buckets.
29:37Honor the storage
29:39and the food honors you back.
29:42Tell me in the comments below
29:44what is the one food
29:45on this list
29:46you already have
29:48in your pantry
29:48and what is the one
29:50you have never stored before.
29:52And if your grandparents
29:53kept a deep pantry
29:55and you remember
29:56what was on the shelves,
29:58share what they kept
29:59and how they kept it.
30:01The old farm pantries
30:03varied region to region
30:04and the memories
30:05are exactly the kind of knowledge
30:07that gets lost
30:08when nobody writes them down.
30:10I read every single one.
30:13Next time,
30:15since we have been speaking
30:16of the deep pantry,
30:17I am going to show you
30:18the old way
30:19our family renders lard
30:21from a side of pork.
30:23The slow heat,
30:24the cracklings,
30:25the clear white jars
30:27on the pantry shelf
30:28that store for a year
30:30and become cooking fat
30:31for everything Esther bakes
30:33through the winter.
30:34It is the natural next step
30:37after today.
30:39Until then,
30:39fill the buckets,
30:41seal the bags
30:42and remember
30:42that the deepest pantry
30:44is the one
30:44that does not need
30:45the grocery store at all.
30:47That is how the old folks did it.
30:49That is how it is still done
30:51in any farmhouse
30:52that remembers.
Comments