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!

One thing you can do with old beans is grind them to make up bean burgers with mixed veggies, etc. or even a bean base soup. Having them ground up would make the difference. My mother was a depression baby/child and taught me tons of things she learned while being raised on a farm.

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

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..

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

My family is in the Shenandoah valley region of the Appalachias. Needless to say, extreme poverty has historically been prevalent there. Even now, with a few coming into extreme wealth from an accident, they still farm and grow their own food.

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.

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.