Explore these hacks on how to organize kitchen pantry food preserves and different long-term food storage ideas.
Growing up in the country, I helped my family in our large garden and kitchen, harvesting our food, preserving it, and putting it up in my mother’s large food pantry. At the end of the gardening season, shelves were filled with the most colorful varieties of fruits and vegetables: green beans, red tomatoes, purple grape juice, yellow squash pickles, and orange spiced peaches, just to name a few. But what made it unique was the lacy shelf paper and a 3-inch edge that hung over the wooden shelf. When family or visitors would stop by, Mother would say, “Come see my food pantry!” And it was a sight to behold. The filled jars represented hours of work that would feed a family through the cold winter months ahead.
These preservation and storage practices were just common-sense ways of living that country folks knew and used. I continue following these same methods passed down by my family and offer them as “hacks” for the modern homesteader learning how to put up and use up a harvest. They worked then, and they still work today!
How to Organize Kitchen Pantry: Food-Storage Tips
If you have a food pantry, you’re fortunate, indeed. A well-lit pantry or closet will make meal planning easier.
Tennille Short, an extension agent in Madison County, Tennessee, is part of the West Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center in Jackson. Established in 1907, this institute has advised thousands of country folks on keeping records and organizing their summer produce for canning, freezing, and drying fruits and vegetables from summer and fall gardens. Short says, “We recommend a one-year shelf life of canned fruits and vegetables. After this time, use it ASAP. It may still be safe, but you need the space for new fruits and vegetables you’ll process during the current year. Always label and write the date on the jar or frozen package.”
Short adds, “With care, most canning jars will last about 10 years. After that time, you run the risk of chipping or cracking. Always run your finger around the rim to check for any chips or cracks that may be present.”
Here are some more tips for keeping a well-run pantry.
- Keep your pantry organized. Place similar foods together for easy selection. Place labels on shelves indicating where items belong.
- Keep an eye on expiration dates to monitor the quality and safety of your canned and packaged food.
- Check cans for any dents or rusting around the tops, and discard those.
- Discard any home-canned jars with raised lids, as these didn’t seal properly and the food is unsafe to consume.
- Rotate items on a yearly basis. Place newer canned goods at the back of the shelf. Place last year’s canned jars at the front and use ASAP.
- Plan meals from the front of the shelves first.
- Store only food in the food pantry. Don’t let your food pantry become a “catch-all” for other household items, as they’ll take up room.
- Before making a shopping list for groceries, check your shelves for what you already have on hand.
- For items used often, purchase in duplicate to save a trip to the grocery store.
- Don’t store food your family won’t eat.
- Purchase items that have a high nutritional value.
Get the recipe for how to make bread and butter pickles from scratch with this 150-year-old family recipe.
Learn more at the National Center for Home Food Preservation at the National Center for Home Food Preservation.
Originally published as “Hacks for the Country Food Pantry” in the September/October 2024 issue of GRIT magazine and regularly vetted for accuracy.
Carolyn Tomlin lives in Jackson, Tennessee, and has used these hacks in storing and preserving food that were handed down through her family for generations.