12 Inexpensive & Healthy Pantry Items that NEVER Expire [for at least 10 years]

When you soak your beans that are older add some baking soda to the water. It will help them soften and cook all the way through.

Our whole concept for the last twelve years has been to gradually becoming more self sufficient and independent. First it was just extra stored food mostly canned from the store, along with extra flour, rice, beans, etc. Nowadays we're in our 70s raising 2 teenage daughters and are thriving on a 11 acre homestead. Now we have 10,000 sf of no-till garden which is producing unbelievable amounts of food. We have 20 laying hens, growing 40 meat chickens, and can about 800 quarts a year. Our long-term storage is all in mylar with oxygen absorbers. 3 emergency water sources, backup off grid solar and purchasing a Harvest Right freeze dryer this year. We're still eating canned foods from 2019 and 2020. God has blessed us with good health and a path to be successful in our homestead and life. I always enjoy your videos. I highly recommend a no-till garden to anyone that is starting to garden. Thanks Melissa great video

We had ten year old beans i was about to throw out when my good friend told me an amazing remedy! After rinsing your beans, place them in a large bowl and pour BOILING water over them…add some salt, let sit overnight. Next morning, rinse the beans, place in a slow cooker, pour boiling water over them again, add salt and allow to cook on HIGH for 3-6 hours till thoroughly cooked. These turned out FANTASTIC….and made wonderful Chile. Now….not sure what the nutritional benefits are with ten year old beans…..but if my family is hungry…..and things in the world have turned upside down, I’m just going to be very happy to have those beans!

Dried beans that are too old can be made into bean flour- great for breading, binding (meatloaf) , and thickener. You can also stretch out hamburger if meat is tight budget. 1 cup of whole dried pintos = 1 cup flour, 1 cup garbanzos = 2 cups flour, 1 cup black beans = 1 1/3 cups flour, 1 cup of navy beans = 1 1/4 cups flour.

I tapped one of my maple trees for the first time this year. I got aprox 6.5 gal of sap and turned it into aprox 2 pints of the purest sweetest syrup in a few hrs.I use it as a natural sweetner for my tea.There is food all around us for free.

My mom grew up literally dirt poor and she always had a lot of food available to eat/fix. Almost an obsession. We are lucky we have never known hunger here in this time and age.

My dad lived during the depression so he was always saving everything and we had a huge garden. And canned or fermented everything. We had a basement full of potatoes. Lol.

I’m laughing when you said that freeze dried fruit would last for a long time. My first run after the bread run was sliced strawberries. The vultures…I mean my children decimated them in minutes. LOL!

Me too my parents went through the great depression, it left such a lasting impact on them. It changed their life. I heard such stories that they were so hungry that my grand mother had to put a lock on their refrigerators. My parents said they lived on pasta and beans beans and pasta. My mothers father got together with all males in family and went up state and hunted their food while making moonshine.

When I lived in Washington State I would top a couple thousand Stinging nettle plants, dry into powder. Delicious and probably the most nutritive plant in the U.S.!!!!!!!!!!!!! Youth formula I call it, been doing this for years and this Stinging Nettle plant keeps me youthful at 56 and I have not been to a doctor in 30 plus years sense I left the Army. Seriously!!!!!!!!!!! Holy Basil is another adaptagen.

My father also grew up during the depression... He used to tell us to eat everything on the plate cause there may not be food tomorrow... He never insisted..

For honey, if it doesnt crystalize, then its not pure honey, regardless of what the label might say. Most commercial honey in the US is contaminated with corn sweetener and labeled as “pure honey”. So as you shop for honey, go organic, go local, and buy the jar that is crystalized, so you know what you are getting.

Prepare when times are good, have peace of mind when times are bad.

I have personally used dried beans that were 7 plus years and haven't had any problems with them being to tough. I did once cook up some mixed beans that once had one type of bean in the blend that was too tough. But if you get beans that are too tough you can grind them into flour and make refried beans or add the flour into foods you cook to add nutrition.

Regarding commercial pasta I would recommend that when brought home from the grocer that you place the packages in the freezer for 24 to 48 hours to kill any critters or eggs before repackaging in your own airtight and air excluded containers. We've had too much pasta go to the chickens in the past until we routinely started doing this.

Last year I couldn't do enough canning. Veggies, fruits, beef, poultry, pork. This year I'm already getting creative finding room in the pantry. I shop the Wednesday grocery sales. This week my favorite store didn't have a lot, so I picked up some staples and compared prices. The Suddenly Salad I paid $1.25 for is now nearly $4 a box. Plain flour is over $2 from $1.49. If this is a trend, those who don't cook from scratch will be suffering. Then we went to the local U-Pick fields. It took us less than 10 minutes to pick a 5 gallon bucket of ripe tomatoes. Cost $12. Result 10 quarts plus sandwiches and cooking fresh. With the heat, timing is everything. I can pick a bucket of butterbeans (they have Fordhook beans this year and King of the Garden!) in 90 minutes and a bucket of peas in an hour. I can pick a bucket of each if I start at 6 before it is too hot here. Then Sue brought me half a bushel of corn! I have 2 pressure canners happily jiggling right now and enough to do another 2 after they cool. Melissa, my parents were teens during the first depression. We will survive the next and teach/feed others!

I have canned 30 year old beans in the pressure cooker and they were just like a can of beans you buy at the grocery store. Pressure cooking is the only way to refresh them.

We ate all of our 11 year old dried beans and they were fine! No issues at all. No super special packaging. In Mylar bags, no oxygen absorbers. Stored in a cool dark place. I like to can my beans now, but still have dry.

A good use for dried beans that might have been sitting in jars for a bit too long is to use them as seed.

I have been eating dried beans that are over 10 years old that I put up in small Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers in them.