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.
Dry bulk storage: beans
I typically store these in their own Cambro container. One container per bean variety. I only have a few varities as there aren't many recipe I cook beans with other than soups. E.g., navy beans (BBQ baked beans), chickpeas (hummus or air-fried chickpea snacks)
Dry bulk storage: flours
If you have opened the packaging the flour came in store the package inside a resealable bag or a glass jar with a lid. Otherwise, store the unopened packages in a resealable food-safe plastic or glass containers to keep pests out.
Those of you with organic flour, you should consider storing unopened flour in the freezer to kill off any pests and pest eggs that live in the flour.
I have a large glass container with a rubber-lined lid to store 10 pounds of flour. Yes, I really do go through this much flour in a year. It is mostly for making pancakes, bread, crackers, pizza dough, tortillas, etc. At Fred Meyer, a ten-pound bag of store brand unbleached flour used to cost less than $4 and now it costs just above $5 per bag. Still, much cheaper than buying pancake mix, cake mix, or other bread mixes.
Dry bulk storage: noodles
These can stay in their original packaging. Store the opened packages in a container that can be closed and/or re-vacuum sealed. This is just to keep pantry pests out of the noodles.
Coconut oil:
Seems to be fine in its original container (typically glass) and in the pantry or in the cupboard at room temperature. During the summer it liquifies and that is great because then I don't have to melt it prior to using it in a recipe.
