Post-Pandemic Pantry Management, pt 2

How you store food items makes a big difference in how long the food can be safely stored.

Apples can stay firm for about a week without refrigeration (in the Pacific Northwest); but as it gets warmer and there is less humidity in the air, the apples will start to wrinkle and become not as firm. They'll start to rot after four weeks at room temperature without refrigeration during winter/spring, maybe faster during summer/fall. They can last a lot longer when kept in a sealed plastic bag in the refrigerator for a month or more; but not longer than six months. 

During each year of the pandemic, I dehydrated about 40 pounds of organic apples, some with the skin on and some with the skin peeled off. That is another way to create a sugar-free snack with a very long shelf life. I would recommend that you eat these dehydrated apple rings before the following year; but the apple rings are still edible, they're not as tasty as when they came out of the dehydrator.

Is that too long? Hahaha. By then, the apples, if you got them on sale and have not done anything with them, you could still chop them up and cut off the bad parts and use the fruit in a pie or bread or make applesauce.

Fresh lemons and limes can be stored in lidded Cambro containers (food-safe plastic). Costco now carries the 2-quart Cambro containers ($15/4 containers) which is a great price; considering that I used to buy these containers from a restaurant supply store. I generally put as many as the container can hold, up to three lemons and/or limes a quart-sized container. If you want, you can also add a clean folded paper towel at the bottom to absorb any condensation. Stored in the refrigerator, these fresh fruits can keep for about a month without wrinkling or drying out.

Fresh eggs:

Always refrigerated. I reorganized the shelves in my refrigerator so that these egg flats can fit on the top shelf. However, I also buy 4 dozen organic eggs at a time (from Costco) and for me, it's about a month's worth of eggs.

Butter/Ghee:

I typically store 4-8 pounds of butter; half in the freezer and half in the refrigerator. And generally, one stick of butter sits on a dish in my cupboards at room temperature regardless of the season we're in. Except for summer when the cupboard temperature rises above 80 F, then it gets stored in the refrigerator.

I keep ghee in a mason jar at room temp.

Washington State's apple season

This would likely explain why my franken apple tree (has 5 varieties of apples grafted to its trunk) only produces 1-2 apple varieties per growing season. Each major branch represents a type of apple. Though, the identification tags have fallen off the tree. At least one of the varieties is golden delicious.

Washington State's apple season typically runs from August to November, with the peak harvest occurring in September and October. The harvest dates vary depending on the apple variety, with some varieties ripening earlier or later than others.

By apple variety:

• August: Gala, Fuji, Honeycrisp, and Pink Lady

• September: Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, and Jonathan

• October: Braeburn, Cripps Pink, and Mutsu

• November: Empire, Rome, and Stayman Winesap

Post-Pandemic Pantry Management, pt 1

The pandemic and risk of COVID-19 certainly changed how I shopped for groceries and how often I shopped at which stores for particular food items: 

• seasonal organic fruits and vegetables (Chuck's produce)

• organic dairy and snacks (Trader Joe's)

• bulk pantry items such as rolled oats, toilet paper, fresh eggs, fish, or rice (Costco)

• meat, packaged food, canned goods (Fred Meyers)

Pre-pandemic (2019 and earlier) Chuck's, Trader Joe's, and Fred Meyers' groceries were purchased on an as-needed basis, mostly weekly visits. Costco purchases are at most once per month, or less. During the pandemic where protective masks were mandatory for retail stores, Chuck's, Trader Joe's, and Costco stores were visted once per month or less; and Fred Meyers became my go-to store for every day fresh produce and groceries. 

Today in 2023, with inflation and supply chain issues affecting food prices, I am visiting Fred Meyers less than once per month, but about once per month for the other stores. Primarily, this is because Fred Meyers does not carry a decent selection of organic anything (meat, eggs, fruits, or vegetables) at a reasonable price.

The quality of fresh items such as fruit, vegetables, and dairy became an issue during and immediately after the pandemic from both Chuck's Produce and Trader Joe's. Refrigerated dairy spoiled faster than the "use by" date and fresh vegetables rotted quicker. Don't even get me started on apples. The apples from Chuck's Produce, especially when purchased off-season, were all rotten inside. The apples certainly still looked pretty on the outside, but once you cut into the apple, the apple flesh looked as though it had been in cold storage for a year. It was awful.

New rules to prevent food waste:

• purchase enough fresh fruit or vegetable for a week

• eat or cook the recently purchased vegetables within a week of purchase

• always check expiration dates on packaged dairy (milk, cottage cheese, yogurt)

• seasonal produce from farmed produce (e.g., apples from WA state, pears from OR state, oranges from CA, grapefruit from TX/FL) - only buy these fruits when in the producing state's season

• you'll get mixed results between sweet and terrible when buying "seasonal" fruit that comes from outside the US (e.g., grapes/peaches/nectarines/plums from Mexico; kiwi fruit from Australia/New Zealand)

• bananas are an exception since they ripen after harvest