Pantry pictures
A few of you asked to see our pantry after all the canning. My kitchen is not especially huge, but I’m lucky to have a really nice-sized pantry. The space is triangle-shaped, with two sides of the triangle taken up with deep shelving and the third side of the triangle being double doors for easy access. This first picture is the right hand side of the shelving, looking in. Each shelf fits about 30 quart jars. As you can see, I’ve got pint jars stacked in some places, so there are actually more than 30 jars on several of the shelves.
You may also be able to see the 2-quart jars at the back of the bottom shelf. Those jars are from my grandmother. I sometimes can grape juice in them, but more often I use them to store dry goods like wheat germ, popcorn, Ethiopian shiro (ground chickpeas), and cornmeal. Below the bottom shelf, out of the picture, is a space big enough to keep an 18 gallon Rubbermaid. In that Rubbermaid I store opened 25 pound bags of flour, sugar, rice and oats. The Rubbermaid keeps these opened bags bug-free until I need to use them. I have smaller bins of each of these items close to my baking center.
This next picture shows part of the left side of my pantry. A cupboard blocks me from getting the whole thing. The shelving is actually a couple feet wider than the picture shows. There’s also one more shelf below for small appliances, and floor space below that where I store potatoes and dry beans in small bins. The lowest shelf visible in the photo usually contains cans of food from the store, not canned tomatoes. But I took this picture at the end of September when my home-canned goods were peaking, and my store-canned goods were all eaten up. However, in truth I do not buy many canned goods. Tuna, salmon, condensed milk, pineapple, and occasionally coconut milk are almost the only canned goods I buy.
This final picture is of the food we got during our last run through the garden before the frost. Besides what you see in the picture, we also got about 2 bushels of green tomatoes, which we wrapped in newspaper to ripen in the garage. Using this tactic, we usually have fresh tomatoes to eat until December. They are not quite as wonderful and juice as summer-ripened tomatoes, but they are still better – and cheaper – than store-bought!
I want your storage space, that looks wonderful!!!!!
Truly inspiring!
All I can say is WOW!!
Thanks for sharing!!!
Sunnie
Very cool (and dare I say, beautiful)? So excited, your book arrived in my mailbox last Thursday – so I let the kids run around the front yard (we actually had cool weather down here, a wonderful 80!) and poured through the pages. I started my price book, finally, and made the Corn & Cheese Chowder last night – which my husband RAVED about!!!! He wants me to try it with shredded chicken (he HAS to have his meat, darn Aussies). A winner for my hubby is a winner in my book, and yours definitely is! Thanks
I’m impressed. You look ready for winter!
Wowzer! And I thought my 8 quarts of canned sauce (and 13 frozen) was a lot!
Incredible! I just found your blog through another link, and all I can say is … I am SO excited to go through the archives!!
oh.my.stars. the only other pantry i’ve seen like this is jeff’s grandmother’s. i was in awe of her (and grandpa). in their 70’s and 80’s they were still gardening about an acre of land by hand, and canning everything. it was amazing. i wish i would have had the forethought to gleen/glean ??? how-to’s from them. they were amazing. WOW, can’t wait to win your book. ;o) of course, it i don’t win it’s going on my wish list.
i contacted our library this a.m and wanted to send you the email but couldn’t find your contact info.
have a blessed day.
That is one organized pantry. I think I’ll turn off the computer for a while and do a bit of organizing myself. My house is in serious disarray!
Wow…Praise the Lord for His provision…you have convinced me that I NEED to have a garden…now the question is HOW…
since I have the black thumb of death…tomatoes is the thing I want to have the most, so maybe I will start with just one of two things…Thanks for sharing your pantry…
C~
How lovely!! I’m impressed. It’s always wonderful to open the pantry and see it lovingly stocked with food.
I also have a little tip to pass on I learned from my grandmother — if you put a fresh bay leaf in a (5 lb) sack of flour it will keep the bugs out. Works like a charm! However you may need several, what with your big container!
I would love to try gardening too. However, with my “black thumb” combined with my Lab who is a fervent digger, I think I’m doomed to fail before i even begin, heh.
hugs and blessings
Moon
I love it! Now I should organize all my home canned goods on the same shelves (not scattered) and take a pretty picture too.
Wow! That is amazing. I wish I had the gumption to do that.
Smiles!
Beautiful!
I am at loss of words! My kitchen would still be hot from all that canning. Looks yummy!
This is my first year canning, but my pantry definitely doesn’t look as amazing as yours! Fantastic job!
Love it! Wish I could get tomatoes like that. I love home grown tomatoes. My oldestest eats them like apples.
love your web site. What shape of Rubbermaid containers do you use for flour storage? Is it the rectangular roughneck totes? How long does flour stay fresh in there?
Yes, just Rubbermaid roughnecks. Dry goods are fine for at least 6 months in those.
Wow, I long to have a garden that can produce that much amazingness!
Mary:
I’m a bit concerned with the soundness of the shelves under the weight of all those jarred goodies. (It is evident from the pictures, that they are buckling somewhat.) You should have that handy husband of yours reinforce those shelves. What a nightmare it would be to lose even a drop of the goodness that you have preserved for your lovely family.
While you may think I should mind my own business, I only mention this as I had a whole shelf of jellies and preserves give way. What a horrible mess! Not only was I heartbroken to have lost so many wonderful treats, but it was a bear to clean up.
Jealous….so jealous…..so very very jealous.
What gorgeous photos!!
Would you post photos of your garden? I’m curious the size and layout. Yes, I would love to see a photo or two, even though I read that it’s going dormant for the winter.
Do you can the tomatoes plain and/or as sauce and use spaghetti seasoning at meal time or do you actually season before canning?
Allie
Sooo pretty!!!
Where is the disorder? The chaos? Where is the dusty floor and the crumbs that reach into places of the pantry where noone dares to go? I love the sparkly glass. Thanks for sharing!!
I’m greatly enjoying peeking in my “pantry” every now and then when I walk by it. I think I know who I got it from.
Very satisfying.
This reminds me of my Grandmother’s pantry shelves!
You’ve convinced me to go get some canning jars today!
Ann
[...] speaking of stocking up–remember me mentioning wrapping green tomatoes in newspaper right before the first frost? Well, they ALL got ripe at once. The kids [...]