How To Stock A Food Pantry Like Your Grandma Did In The 1930's

Not only is a "Great Depression pantry" a sentimental tribute to the past, but it's also a tried-and-true strategy for long-term food storage that keeps you ready for any emergency. In this day and age, I suggest you start putting away what you can in your own pantry. Keeping a stocked pantry with items you know in the back of your mind that no matter what happens, you and your family will have what they need, is a feeling like no other. I hope to be able to help you with that today!

Stock it up!Photo byRichelleg

Keep It Simple: Return to the Fundamentals

A Great Depression pantry's core is completely shelf-stable goods. Stock up on ingredients for easy meals that you and your family will eat. Soups, stews, and chilies are great ways to use up your pantry supplies. Food that can be stored for years but still provides much-needed calories and nutrients. Canned veggies, canned meat, canned fruit, dry rice, pasta, dry beans, and water. Please don't forget to store fresh water.

Be Frugal

Basic components are more affordable and have a longer shelf life than pre-made meals. You will keep more food and have flexibility in your meal planning by cutting costs. Obviously, canning or drying fruits and vegetables that you grow in your garden is the most cost-effective way to put a lot of food away. Think about a self-sufficient "Victory Garden" that will feed your family all year long, even during a crisis.

However, if you haven't started a garden yet, buying canned food to get items in your pantry now may be your best bet.

Discover How to Do It on Your Own

This involves more than just storing food; it also involves knowing how to maximize and utilize what you already have.

Well stockedPhoto byRichelleg

As I began to assemble my own Great Depression survival pantry, I found that I was lacking a few skills that would make the whole process easier. Canning my own food, growing enough of my own food, and being less afraid of canning chicken or beef is something I had to get over. I had to roll up my sleeves and learn how to do it.

I also discovered that gardening and putting away my own food is very rewarding. I learned what different foods and techniques of preserving them to ensure that if my family ever needed to eat out of this survival pantry, we'd be eating pretty close to normally, where other families may be eating powdered potatoes for awhile.

Understanding Your Own Families Pantry

Understanding precisely what to store and why is essential for a well-organized and easy survival pantry. Below is a summary of what you can think about using. However, remember to only stock what you and your family will actually eat!

Grains

In a Great Depression or survival pantry, grains are the foundation. Wheat kept in plastic bins can be kept fresh for more than thirty years! Yes, you will need to grind your wheat into flour in order to use it. In addition to being used to make tortillas, bread, and biscuits, flour also thickens soups and sauces. You're even capable of making spaghetti!

Grains and beansPhoto byRichelleg

Things like rice, quinoa, and millet can also be utilized in soups and other meals. You can add oats, flax, buckwheat, and rye to cereal or bread. Cornbread and tortillas can also be made with ground corn. There's a reason grains are referred to as the staple of life!

Beans

Dried beans and lentils are a cheap, durable source of protein. Beans keep well in an airtight container and taste best when used within a few years, but they sure do last a long time and don't take up a lot of space. Soaking dried beans in salted water for four to twelve hours is the key to using them. Beans make a delicious side dish, soup, stew, or salad.

I even made patties out of them by pressing them together with a little oil and seasoning, which I then grilled like a hamburger. Add pinto beans, chickpeas, lentils, black eyed peas, navy beans, and kidney beans to your pantry.

Fruits and Veggies

You can purchase canned fruits and veggies now to store them for later. If you have a garden, you can can your own with ease. You'll need fruits and veggies stocked in your pantry just as much as you'll need anything else to keep healthy. You can also store fresh produce that stores well, like apples or potatoes, in something like a root cellar if you have a cool, dry place.

Stored in jarsPhoto byRichelleg

Another approach is to use your oven as a food dryer. Toss in your fruit and vegetables at a thickness of about ¼ inch (or ½ cm), preheat your oven to the lowest setting, and bake for 6 to 8 hours, or until the moisture has completely evaporated.

Additional Crucial Pantry Items

Beside these essentials, I also stock my survival pantry with several other items. Spices, sugars, and leavening agents like baking powder or baking soda. Herbs I grow myself, vinegars. When maintained properly, sugar and honey have an endless shelf life. Bullion is another pantry staple most people don't think about, but it offers a savory option to "shelf soup" that literally just requires boiling water to make a nutritious start to a meal you can store by the hundreds in a small, dry space.

A little bit of everythingPhoto byRichelleg

Attributions:

My own grandmother's notes and stories about her Great Depression pantry

Shrader, M. B. (2024, June 21). How To Build Your Great Depression Pantry. Mary’s Nest. https://marysnest.com/how-to-build-your-great-depression-pantry/