Preparing for Round 2

I'm really hoping that 2020 has already thrown its worst at us.  But just in case...

There's a chance there could be some civil unrest after the election.  The absolute worst case scenario would be the three Pacific states seceding, which actually would suck much worse for the rest of the country than Cal-Or-Wash.  We have most of the food and a decent amount of the oil, the nation's largest commercial seaport, plus a major TP factory.  The rest of the country has beef and wheat, but there are far too many gluten-free vegans out here to care about that.

Just in case the supply chain goes to hell again because of a rush on items, I'm getting a few things now.  We know what people hoard after the March debacle.  I'm not stocking up on much.  Got the TP a bit earlier than I normally would.  Stuck a bag of flour in the freezer.  Picked up holiday kinds of groceries two months early, especially after canned pumpkin became hard to find.  Finally got some at Ralphs (Kroger).

I spent half as much as I did six months ago, to cover the same period of time and all the end-of-year holidays.  I'm buying reasonable amounts of inexpensive staples, enough to work with for 2-4 weeks.  I've learned how long things last, especially proteins, given my personal portion sizes.

• Dry beans, lentils, and rice: 12 servings/pound
• Cheeses: 8 servings/pound
• Meats: 4 servings/pound for land animals, 3/lb for fish
• frozen veggies: usually 2 more servings per bag than the package says

There will still be things on grocery shelves, even if they're the weird items no one else wants.  I'm also assuming that some people are still working through the non-perishables and frozen foods they bought six months ago.  All that salt that got bought out is going to take a couple of years to use.

I didn't "put up" any extra canned goods of my own.  Just made the strawberry lavender jam that I was planning to and bread and butter pickles from the cucumbers in the garden.  I let those cucumbers get too big and had to use wide-mouth jars.  Ralphs had canning lids too, while most stores are out.  I am going to plant a full winter garden in a couple of weeks.  I'll have lettuce, radishes, and peas to swap with the neighbors, and hopefully spinach if the markets run out of frozen again.

The hard part about this project is not digging into the hoard now.  I've ingrained in my psyche since the original Pantry Project that storing more than a few weeks' worth of food is wasteful.  Maybe that's why some people put their emergency food in a cabinet or the garage.  I would forget about it and it would go bad, so I'm keeping all of it in the pantry and chest freezer.

And while I bought some frozen hash browns and canned sweet potatoes, I am not buying another bag of russets!  I swear, that was my whole year's quota.  I'm going to be having PTSD from that mistake.