Simple Living in Practice, Lesson #9
Welcome back after the weekend. We will continue our little series about practical aspects of simple living today with a few words about keeping things in stock.
Generally speaking, it is a good idea to have more goods stored in your cabinets and on your basement shelves than those you will eat within a week. "House and riches are the inheritance of fathers: and a prudent wife is from the LORD." (Pro 19:14) So be prudent, and stock up. Here are some guidelines as to quantity, independent of household size.
First of all, keep in mind that not every kind of food can be kept in stock. Some fresh produce you better not try to buy for weeks at a time, or you will end up with a lot of waste. In case you find a bargain on one type of produce or another, or your own garden produces a large surplus, you can either can, dry or deep freeze for storage. The internet provides a variety of recipes for all kinds of produce, though I suspect you will be hard pressed to find a recipe for making lettuce last. Some types of produce are simply not suitable for storage, and you should keep that in mind both when you plant your garden and when you find bargains. Another thing to consider is the season - if you want to be a good steward of creation, produce yourself or buy locally and according to season as best as you can, and avoid products that have been transported around half the globe just to land on your plate or in your cabinet.
Secondly, make sure that you always have enough canned, dried or deep frozen goods stored away in a suitable place in case of an emergency. We keep about 10 cans of each canned vegetable or fruit we usually use in stock, and restock what we use between trips to the grocery store. It is important to store the newer cans in the back and the older ones in the front, otherwise, again, you will have a lot of waste after a while. Similar rules apply for dried and deep frozen foods, though we keep a lower quantity of those in stock, depending on how long they will keep.
When it comes to flour, sugar, oil oatmeal and other basics, make sure that you always have one closed bag or bottle in your cabinet, and buy new as soon as the one you are using is running low. Opened bags of flour, no matter which type, should be protected from bugs as best as possible, and kept in a dry place. If you have a large freezer, keep them in there.
Non-food products should be kept in stock as well, from toilet paper to laundry detergent (or the ingredients to make laundry detergent and other types of soap yourself).
To put it in a nutshell, the prudent way to think is this: Imagine that you will not be able to go grocery shopping for at least another week (or another two weeks, if you have a two week rhythm), and make sure that you will still have everything your household needs and not run low on anything, as best as possible.
Let me make one last comment about a different kind of stock - vegetable stock. Keep all your onion (no matter what kind), squash, zucchini, eggplant, mushroom, carrot and potato trimmings as well as spinach and parsley stems, pea pods and celery leaves in a special container to make soup stock from them every once in a while. If you have a small household, you might want to keep the trimmings in the freezer, but if you can collect enough within a week, keep them in a closed container in the fridge. Soup stock from vegetable trimmings and leaves is a healthy, tasty and cheap alternative to bought, dried soup stock that usually contains a tremendous amount of salt, unnatural substances, and fake meat.
Technorati Tags: simple life, stock keeping, soup stock, Christian ladies, God's creation, nature, homesteading, self sufficiency, separation, SAHM, plural marriage, polygamy, dominion covenant, multi-generational family, Joshuah's House
Generally speaking, it is a good idea to have more goods stored in your cabinets and on your basement shelves than those you will eat within a week. "House and riches are the inheritance of fathers: and a prudent wife is from the LORD." (Pro 19:14) So be prudent, and stock up. Here are some guidelines as to quantity, independent of household size.
First of all, keep in mind that not every kind of food can be kept in stock. Some fresh produce you better not try to buy for weeks at a time, or you will end up with a lot of waste. In case you find a bargain on one type of produce or another, or your own garden produces a large surplus, you can either can, dry or deep freeze for storage. The internet provides a variety of recipes for all kinds of produce, though I suspect you will be hard pressed to find a recipe for making lettuce last. Some types of produce are simply not suitable for storage, and you should keep that in mind both when you plant your garden and when you find bargains. Another thing to consider is the season - if you want to be a good steward of creation, produce yourself or buy locally and according to season as best as you can, and avoid products that have been transported around half the globe just to land on your plate or in your cabinet.
Secondly, make sure that you always have enough canned, dried or deep frozen goods stored away in a suitable place in case of an emergency. We keep about 10 cans of each canned vegetable or fruit we usually use in stock, and restock what we use between trips to the grocery store. It is important to store the newer cans in the back and the older ones in the front, otherwise, again, you will have a lot of waste after a while. Similar rules apply for dried and deep frozen foods, though we keep a lower quantity of those in stock, depending on how long they will keep.
When it comes to flour, sugar, oil oatmeal and other basics, make sure that you always have one closed bag or bottle in your cabinet, and buy new as soon as the one you are using is running low. Opened bags of flour, no matter which type, should be protected from bugs as best as possible, and kept in a dry place. If you have a large freezer, keep them in there.
Non-food products should be kept in stock as well, from toilet paper to laundry detergent (or the ingredients to make laundry detergent and other types of soap yourself).
To put it in a nutshell, the prudent way to think is this: Imagine that you will not be able to go grocery shopping for at least another week (or another two weeks, if you have a two week rhythm), and make sure that you will still have everything your household needs and not run low on anything, as best as possible.
Let me make one last comment about a different kind of stock - vegetable stock. Keep all your onion (no matter what kind), squash, zucchini, eggplant, mushroom, carrot and potato trimmings as well as spinach and parsley stems, pea pods and celery leaves in a special container to make soup stock from them every once in a while. If you have a small household, you might want to keep the trimmings in the freezer, but if you can collect enough within a week, keep them in a closed container in the fridge. Soup stock from vegetable trimmings and leaves is a healthy, tasty and cheap alternative to bought, dried soup stock that usually contains a tremendous amount of salt, unnatural substances, and fake meat.
Technorati Tags: simple life, stock keeping, soup stock, Christian ladies, God's creation, nature, homesteading, self sufficiency, separation, SAHM, plural marriage, polygamy, dominion covenant, multi-generational family, Joshuah's House
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