Our Main Pantry

In an earlier post I showed everyone pictures of my little fridge side pantry, which is the pantry that we put things in to immediately grab them. But, I did promise to show everyone pictures of our main pantry, which is where the bulk of our food is stored. Now keep in mind that this pantry is storing anywhere from 2 to 3 years worth of food. Each shelf is six quart jars deep and it can hold at least 50 rows for a total of 300 quarts a shelf and 300 half pints a shelf when it is at its max total. We are currently using four out of the five shelves with the top shelf being used for storing empty jars. Our pantry can hold a total of 1200 quarts and 1200 half pints for a max total of 450 gallons of food. Our smaller side pantry can hold close to 100 quarts on four shelves and the fifth shelf we use for holding smaller jam and jelly jars which can total around 80 to 100.

Now, you might be asking yourself this question, “Why would anyone canned so much food?” Well, because we can control the quality of our food and the way that it is grown and processed for starters. Then there is the reality that if we wish to feed a family of four off of the pantry stores for at least one entire year we must consider the fact that that there are 52 weeks in each year. If we were to let’s say eat 1 quart of carrots per week for 52 weeks we would run out at week 35 because we only have 35 quarts. So, the reality is that though it may seem like a lot of food, it truly is not, especially if we were to eat at least one different vegetable every night or every other night. When you think about it like that planning out a garden to grow enough food to last an entire year once it is canned takes a whole different new way of thinking. Learning the amount that we can grow and get even on a lean year like this year is an important concept to understand in order to get enough food to last.

Our goal is to feed the family 80% of the time off of the food in the pantry and to only purchase 20% of food that I do not grow or process. It takes a good deal of commitment on mine and my families part in order to accomplish this goal of eating mostly our own organic food. Also, something to consider is the cost of buying organic food in the supermarket, which is something that I most definitely cannot afford to feed my family off of 80% of the time. So, in exchange for the cost at the grocery store what we spend is time growing and maintaining a garden and processing food. Growing and processing our food rather than buying it also guarantees us a chance to get closer to our goal of eating the amount of organic food that we want. There is also other healthy benefits to be gained by this activity, which is the wonderful family time spent together picking and processing food and the exercise that comes with doing garden work that is both good for the body, mind and the soul.