My Pantry Is OVERFLOWING!!! 2022 Pantry Tour from a Working Homestead!
This year we've been working harder than Ever to fill up our pantries get all Stirred up with food before winter hit And it's a good thing because winter Just landed and it landed really hard And with a fury so I think we're going To be in for a Long Winter and we'll Really enjoy what's in the pantry I Wanted to take you guys along on the Tour and show you what's in the pantry The freezers and maybe even some other Spaces It's pretty normal for us to have a Really full Pantry when it comes to our Canned goods but there's some things That have happened a little bit Differently this year and I'm excited to Show them to you I want you to keep in Mind that in this house we're usually Feeding about 13 to 15 people every Single meal so we have a lot of food Stored you may not need this much Storage this will get us through the Winter very nicely with a little bit of Extra but this isn't a prepper Pantry This isn't stocking up for the end of The world this is what we actually need To get through the year so let's take a Look at what we've got this has just a Lot of our canned goods and at this Point of the Year we're actually still Butchering and so we don't have a lot of Meat products on the Shelf yet that's Coming in the next few weeks but what we
Do have is a lot of fruit and a lot of Vegetables something we're really Excited about this year is the amount of Freeze drying we've done because we love Getting to use the freeze-dried food it Actually tastes really fresh when you Rehydrate it so let's look at some of The things we have a whole lot of Freeze-dried Tomatoes over here I love Freeze-dried tomatoes because I can just Run them through the dicer stick them Onto the freeze dryer trays push a few Buttons and in about 24 to 36 hours I Have something that I can store I just Vacuum seal them right into the mason Jars with just a touch it will Completely crumble I can turn this into A tomato paste I can turn it into a Sauce I can turn it into just diced Tomatoes just all depending on how much Water I put into it and how much I Powder it before I do it so I really Like this because it becomes incredibly Versatile and the flavor is amazing Let's see we've done freeze dried corn That rehydrates really well we have Cases of freeze-dried green beans these Are green and purple beans and again you Have to figure out how to rehydrate them Right these take a little bit longer Than some of the other things some Things you just kind of put them add Some water and they rehydrate instantly These take a couple of hours to
Rehydrate at room temperature but they Turn out great when you do so we really Like them we're doing a lot of cooked Pumpkin this year even though we could Just be pureeing it and sticking it into The freezer one the freezers are all Pretty full but two we found that when We do this we can powder it and when we Rehydrate it it makes the silkiest Smoothest pumpkin puree for a pumpkin Pie or custard or whatever we want to Use it for so we really like this this Is something we grab for all the time This is a bell pepper and onion mixture Just run through the dicer and and then Laid out on the sheets and you know done Completely raw and this is great you can Just throw this into anything you're Making and it almost instantly Rehydrates We've got quite a bit of fruit down There and this is another thing that I'm Really liking this is new for us this Year this is the first year we have Grown mushrooms and so here we were able To grow a lot of wine cap mushrooms this Year I mean a lot I mean probably Several bushels of them and so we just Chopped them up and freeze dried them And they turn out great they rehydrate Perfectly they also turn into a perfect Powder so if you want to make an almost Instant cream of mushroom soup it's Really easy to do with this okay what
Else do we have over here we have some Of our hard ciders that Josh and I like To make obviously at the moment I'm not Drinking a lot of them but this is a Pear cider this is an apple cider that Has a lot of crab apple in it so it's Got a real nice Tangy flavor and then That is just a pure hard cider down There we like to have those on hand for Summer drinking or anything like that Then we have our canned goods right here We have a whole lot of different jams And jellies and condiments there's a lot Of applesauce this is a crab apple sauce Isn't that a beautiful color it's really Tangy so we tend to mix it like one jar Of this with one jar of regular Applesauce because it is pretty sour but It's so good it's absolutely delicious Yeah lots of fun this is actually a Little beef broth put on this side this Is usually the fruit side but just a Little jar of beef broth we've got Relishes This is a corn relish that I really like So if we have any extra corn I always Make sure to make a corn relish Okay let's take a peek over here pickles Jams lots of pickled beets more Freeze-dried stuff and this is some of The lard that I'm still working off of From when I rendered lard in March We have just butchered the pigs and so We have a whole nother round of lard to
Do so this shelf is going to fill back Up with lard we'll have to move these Things off somewhere else but we'll keep Using these up first you can see we have Different grades of lard these are ones That I overcooked just a little bit they Still are great they're darker in color We just use these for braising or for Roasting for vegetables anything like That this lard over here Is actually mostly used for things like Baked goods or for pastries so it's nice And white and the flavor is amazing We do have some meat stashed in here This is just plain beef and this will Probably get used up pretty soon because This has been in here for a little bit Plus we're about to bring in a couple More Venison and those will have to get Canned because there's no more room in The freezer so we'll be adding a lot of Venison onto the shelves in the next few Weeks same thing we've got quite a bit Of chicken still this is great to go for A nice long time it may be ugly but it's So amazing to have this sitting on your Shelf ready for meals to go it is Delicious really amazing to have I Really like it this year we had a bumper Crop of plums and so we have a ton of Plum jelly just absolutely boxes and Boxes of it and that's really nice this Is what we tend to use as our go-to and We'll use this for peanut butter and
Jelly sandwiches or when we're doing any Sort of baked good that requires a jelly Glaze or anything like that so we really Like this stuff now in case you were Thinking that we make absolutely Everything that we eat here that's just Not true there's a lot of things that I Can't make or maybe we had a bad year on And so I'll buy them in in bulk and make Sure we have them on hand that goes for Things like olives can you tell we Really like our olives we love getting Really good olives usually I bulk up on Things here's canned olives we can Absolutely not grow these in Idaho we'll Usually do bulk orders from Azure Standard and get in a lot of really good Produce in canned form through Azure Standard this year's fruit because we Had such a late spring did not produce Very well and most of it you know went Into the freeze dryer or into jams and Jellies so we went ahead and stocked up On some good organic pear halves and Even some peaches just so we can have Some nice options for breakfast I always Like to keep on a few random things like Coconut cream or coconut milk I love these things I grew up with these And I haven't been able to replicate Them really well yet so I still buy some Of these here and there I like to keep a Little bit of canned tuna and a little Bit of canned salmon on hand maybe some
Clams and a few things like that extra Soul says a little bit of anchovies for The pregnant woman because Just because there's also more Freeze-dried onions we still have some Coming in we had a great onion year so We have a lot of onions and we were able To put a lot of them up and a lot of Apple cider so that's what's mostly in The downstairs Pantry let's go take a Look at the bulk bins [Music] We actually bulk buy in a lot of things Like grains and flowers and sugar and Salt so we have quite a few barrels Sprinkled around the place where we can Find to fit them and a lot of five Gallon buckets this year I went ahead And just purchased bulk pasta and it's Been amazing I really like it so we've Been able to get all different types From penne macaroni to Spaghetti even a Little bit of orzo and just brought Those in so that we have them on hand Ready to go I really like making Homemade pasta but this year there just Wasn't the time and so this was a great Way to go the other things that we like To keep in bulk we have all sorts of Five gallon buckets that we keep around Most of them are in the upstairs Pantry Which is the working Pantry it's right By the kitchen and so I'll show you Those in a few minutes but the other
Things we like to grab are gallon jugs Of different things that we we're going To use now for these I try to make sure I'm only getting what I'm going to use In about a year space but we get honey We're not making our own honey yet Hopefully that'll come the next few Years molasses coconut oil peanut butter Vinegars things like that and we like to Bring those in in gallon jugs I tend to Do a big stock up every fall to make Sure that I have it all on hand so that When the winter storms hit I don't Really have to worry about going Anywhere if I don't want to it just Takes the stress out of having to go to The grocery store we don't have a root Cellar proper yet so we've been Experimenting with different areas Around the house that'll keep root Veggies cold And moist without Frozen and so this Year we're trying out a new area and This is an area in our basement it is Underneath the storm door so the stairs Would normally come down here but we've Removed the Treads now that it's winter And all we have is the metal Non-insulated storm door up here now and Then this is the insulated door so we Have this face It's slightly underground so it's not Completely freezing but we're keeping an Eye on things because it has been
Getting down to three degrees at night So that's really cold and I don't want All my root veggies to freeze so at the Moment they're all covered up with Blankets but in here we have boxes of Homegrown potatoes beets carrots a lot Of parsnaps and some cabbage and they Should be okay in here totally covered For a short amount of time but one of The really important elements of a root Cellared space is not only the cool and The damp but also air flow so these Blankets won't be able to stay on here All winter we're gonna have to get them Off as soon as the overnight low Temperatures come back up a little bit Hopefully that'll be next week This next area is our actual working Pantry it's right off the kitchen and I Gotta tell you guys it's kind of a mess We've got a lot of people working out of This pantry and so it gets destroyed Really quickly but I wanted to show you What I've got going on in here anyways Not only is it messy but it's also very Cold in here and that's because this is An exterior wall and so I have access to Windows on both sides of this so when The weather is like this and it's really Cold I can open the windows and I can Actually get this down to refrigerator Temperature in here and have an Additional walk-in refrigerator which is Really nice but I do have to watch and
Make sure things don't start freezing Right here we have an area that we call Our Appliance bar I don't really prefer All my appliances just hanging out on my Kitchen counter I feel like it makes it Really cluttered and so I like having Them all set up right here This is the egg shelf and you can see we Are still overflowing with eggs we are Getting in about 40 to 50 eggs a day so We're still freeze drying eggs we're Still eating a ton of eggs and that is a Huge blessing this time of year now if You look up you can see some of the Things I've got going on and hanging I Tried out a Victorian era grape Preservation technique this year and I Was able to make my grapes last fresh For about six weeks longer than they Normally would have if I had just Brought them in now we need to start Eating them they're starting to shrivel A little bit they turn into raisins if I Left them too long But it's been really neat to see how Long just by hanging them in a cool Space I can make them last I've got a Lot of overflow herbs up here I have my Cayennes actually still finishing Ripening and drying down and by the end Of the week I am going to have slabs of Bacon hanging in here because I've been Preserving bacon the old-fashioned way Check it out it's all the way back here
Into the end Oh This is an old-fashioned cured bacon It's still in the curing process Tomorrow I'll be ready to pull it out Wash it dry it and hang it up for a few Days before I'm going to give it a good Smoking and then it will literally hang Back here in the pantry until we use it It'll be completely preserved and ready To last just like this and the flavor is Absolutely amazing store-bought has Nothing on this this is so good like This the rest of the stuff we have going On in here this is just a lot of Overflow spices and things that we grab Really quickly baking ingredients things Like that that we like to keep kind of On hand close to the kitchen [Music] Here we are out in the garage and this Is where we keep a bunch of our freezers Now we have to have a lot of meat about A ton of meat for our family to eat for The whole year and since we grow it Ourselves we need to be able to do it All at once and store it for the year Until we use it up we usually kind of Butcher everything in the fall and so This is the moment where our freezers Are absolutely at the fullest so let's Take a look [Music] Foreign
So far this year we've butchered about 150 chickens about three turkeys a Couple of geese two pigs three deer from Hunting a beef we're about to butcher About two sheep this weekend and so all Of that at the moment is piled into this Now usually it's a little bit more Organized than this is but right now a Lot of this meat is the meat that we're Setting aside for grinding whether it's Pork or venison we're gonna have a big Grind day and get all of our grinding Out of the way we'll make ground meat of All different types sausages and venison Snacks dehydrated venison snacks out of All of it and it's going to be really Good Thank you This is the last bit of space available In the freezer and it will clear out a Little bit more because a few of the Things that we like to keep on hand is Well one we've got all of that pork fat That we're going to render into lard but We also find that our dogs do much Better if we save as many of the bones From butchering as possible and keep Them available to feed the dogs in Addition to dog food all throughout the Winter winter they just hold their Condition so much better and they always Come out of the winter much healthier And much happier again this is a ton of Food and your family probably doesn't
Need this much food but I really Recommend that you start figuring out How to bulk buy how to store food how to Start preserving some of your own food And you get it put up for leaner times Whether that's winter or inflation or Whatever you need if you want to learn How to bulk store food and buy it check Out this video right here
