❤️Pantry Staples ~ Grocery Lists & More❤️
 My grandmother, shopping in Mobile, Alabama in the 1940's.
I often think about the “old days” when I make my grocery list. I can remember my grandmother talking about the “staples” they went and bought about once a month.
Not only is a full pantry convenient, but saves extra trips to the grocery store making it frugal as well!
Amazingly, they “got by” with these simple items…(These are just the ones I can remember, perhaps they bought a few other basic items, as well.) And they grew everything else they needed. They had a garden in the summer and fall, canning it all to last through the winter until Spring arrived and they would plant again. They also had milk cows that provided milk and she made their butter; they raised chickens for eggs, meat, etc. The ice truck came by ever so often and they had the ice wrapped in burlap, and they placed it in something similar to a pie safe. It was called an Icebox. This is where they kept items such as leftover food, pies, cakes, etc. They placed milk in jugs and bottles in the spring* to keep it cold. (*A cold stream of water that poured out of the ground, and they dug a hole and dammed it up with a small spillway, to keep some of the water there.) To give you a real good picture of their way of life, they even had to haul water from the spring and it was quite a ways from their house. They washed some of their clothes in another stream as well. This excerpt is from an article written by Rachel McSwain Fullilove, for the WPA. About her life in Augusta, Mississippi circa 1860-1870. “Syrup was made from cane, and to get the sugar, the syrup was boiled low and then dripped through a sack. The sugar left in the sack was brown, but had a good flavor.” Well, back to My Pantry List. I do try to be very frugal and attempt to mimic these “old ways” as best I can. Not just to be frugal, but because I actually like living this way. My GOAL is to simplify by making some of these from scratch, such as mixes, dressings and such; and also growing MORE things! I also want to get a few goats for milk, cheese, and making goat milk soap. UPDATE on the goats: We now have goats! Although no milkers right now. ANOTHER UPDATE: We now have a milk goat that will have a little one in about March of 2022. YET ANOTHER UPDATE: We now have two female goats a Nannie and her female kid, already weaned and old enough to be bred. UPDATE: Over the past few years, my list has changed somewhat to include more organic products. MY PANTRY:
PERISHABLES:
¹Bulk *Medicine Cabinet: I'm learning more and more to depend on food, herbs, spices and other natural remedies for healing and medicine. MORE HERE “The garden is the poor man's apothecary.” ~~~Old German Proverb This is a reprint of one of my old articles from way back.
*New notations. |
~🌱🥕Seeds🥒🌱~
I HAD A BRAINSTORM, and figured a vegetable seed cache might as well be part of my pantry staple list too.
UPDATE-SEE: Gardening for a list of seeds to sustain a family for a year. A Few of My
PINEOLENE I personally knew the elderly woman from New Augusta, Mississippi that had the original recipe. I wish I had known at the time what a treasure it was, and got a copy of it. It can be purchased in some feed stores, farm supply stores, etc. locally.
PINEOLENE, L.L.C. of PO BOX 47, HURLEY MS 39555-0047 Just a little more info:
*In 2007, Chinese authorities pulled a batch of imported snack chips from store shelves because they believed the chips contained potassium bromate, a food additive banned in China. ... Potassium bromate is also illegal in the European Union, Canada, Brazil and elsewhere because it causes cancer in rats and mice. Mar 16, 2012
The Truth About Potassium Bromate | Bromated Flour - Live Science https://www.livescience.com/36206-truth-potassium-bromate-food-additive.html *The Non-GMO Project: Home
https://www.nongmoproject.org/ |