How's your quarantine stockpile holding up?

[amycurl]

We have done a good job eating out of our freezer and our pantry the past 8 weeks. I did buy a extra pack of paper towels at Costco and haven't opened them yet, but we were down to our last roll or two when I purchased them.

I wished I had bought one pack of the Costco wipes when they last had them in stock in early March. At the time, I had two unopened packs of a three pack, but I gave my mom a pack, and now I am almost done with the other unopened pack. (We do a daily wipe down of commonly-used surfaces every morning. It's probably more of a mental health ritual than anything else at this point. I had wished I had purchased a new thermometer at Costco right at the beginning of the #quarantimes, because it turns out the one we had wasn't really working. But my mother ended up getting us a one when she was in a CVS one day about a month ago.

We get fresh veggies delivered to our house every week via a CSA, supplementing with things from our farmer's market, which re-opened in a cool pre-online-order/drive-thru pick up format about two weeks ago. (Before then, I was doing a "neighborhood" order directly with a local farmer, buying 12-14 dozens eggs and then distributing on my porch for my neighbors.) I tend to do a small grocery run every 7-10 days for things like milk, OJ, snacks, and other odds and ends that, while not *crucial*, make cooking at home easier/more enjoyable. I've been doing a larger Costco run every two weeks (which is like, whoa, because usually I am a 2-3 times a week Costco person, LOL!)

Still have plenty of meat in the freezer. Monday will be the beginning of week 9. We've been doing #takeoutTuesday, and my mother has been doing take out for us on Fridays. All in all, I feel we are managing well, planning trips judiciously, and staying safe. It's a sign of our privilege that we are able to do so.

RE: yeast. Everyone is deciding to bake their own bread these days because 1) they finally have the time to do so, 2) it's a great, kid-friendly activity that can occupy young children successful for most of a day, with a tasty treat at the end and, 3) it's a daily staple that, if you make it at home, can limit your need to go to the store. This has meant a run on yeast. My mother and I split a Costco-sized bag back in the early fall, so we are yeast-rich. That, and a sourdough starter that dates back to the Alaskan gold rush, means we're all set. Here's a good article explaining the strain on the yeast supply chain:
https://slate.com/business/2020/04/yeast-shortage-supermarkets-coronavirus.html

 

[amycurl]

Also, great salad greens (like what we get from our CSA) deserve great, homemade salad dressing. Homemade ranch is pretty easy to make, as is homemade vinigarette.

 

[Passepartout]

We're doing fine. I make a lap of the perimeter of the grocery store about once a week for perishables when milk gets low.. They conveniently stock meat, dairy, pharmacy and produce around the perimeter. Darn few aisle detours. The TP aisle looks pre-CV19 normal. Get as much as you want whenever. They've been limiting meats to 2-3 packages but that lasts us a week. There are small private butchers here so we aren't dependent on Midwest processors.
Paula signed up with a 'food co-op' last week. $20 a week for a box of 50/50 veggies & fruit. Yesterday was our first pickup day and there was waaay more than the two of us could eat, so I took some of it around to the neighbors to share the largess. There was cauliflower, kiwis, oranges, potatoes, asparagus, carrots, romaine.
We'll probably keep it up. It helps us, and helps the local farmers. Truth told, $20 buys a lot of veggies so this isn't a red-hot deal, but it felt good to do it.

Jim

 

[Panina]

I have a specific question regarding "stockpiling", to which I am hoping someone here might know the answer.

I am not a baker (and I don't play one on TV). I have no need or use for yeast and wouldn't know what to do with it if I had some.

That said, I have heard a continuous and steady stream of complaint from a fair number of unrelated people for some weeks now that (supposedly) no one can find any yeast anywhere in any quantity --- not in any store, not anywhere online, not nowhere no how.

So, whassup with yeast?

Yeast has not been available in every supermarket in my area except for Aldis. They have as much as you want. Seems many are baking bread now.

 

[amycurl]

As we drove to the local dairy last Sunday, we had a great conversation with our daughter about how one of the reasons that we decided to settle in NC was that almost all of our food--dairy, meat, veggies, fruit--can be grown, sustainably, within a few hours of where we live. We felt it was strategic: even if gas went to $12/gallon, or ground water supplies got sparse , or, like what we are seeing now, mass food system supply chains get disrupted, we can purchase directly from local producers to fill our needs, all without necessarily growing it all ourselves. I am definitely feeling that during this pandemic, and am doing my best to support local producers.

 

[Passepartout]

Yeast has not been available in every supermarket in my area except for Aldis. They have as much as you want. Seems many are baking bread now.

A local restaurant re-branded themselves as a grocery. They sold 1 lb blocks of active dry yeast for $8. we've shared with family and friends.

 

[pedro47]

Yeast can use for making bread and fermenting wine.

 

[Luanne]

A local restaurant re-branded themselves as a grocery. They sold 1 lb blocks of active dry yeast for $8. we've shared with family and friends.

There are restaurants in this area doing the same thing. I don't know if they had to re-brand themselves, but they are offering grocery boxes containing things like flour and yeast.

 

[Luanne]

I have a specific question regarding "stockpiling", to which I am hoping someone here might know the answer.

I am not a baker (and I don't play one on TV). I have no need or use for yeast and wouldn't know what to do with it if I had some.

That said, I have heard a continuous and steady stream of complaint from a fair number of unrelated people for some weeks now that (supposedly) no one can find any yeast anywhere in any quantity --- not in any store, not anywhere online, not nowhere no how.

So, whassup with yeast?

More people are baking more bread. They have the time, it's a fun activity to do with kids, and it feeds their bread habit.

 

[Passepartout]

There are restaurants in this area doing the same thing. I don't know if they had to re-brand themselves, but they are offering grocery boxes containing things like flour and yeast.

They didn't really re-brand. It had been a breakfast place, and breakfast doesn't work for take out. Who wants cold eggs or pancakes? So they took orders for food-service type stuff. Flour, yeast, eggs, condiments, slab bacon, steaks, shredded frozen hash browns, toilet paper, napkins. Then they would take orders on Thursdays and the next Monday you had a time to pick up your order.

 

[normab]

Well, we are fine for food and paper goods. But I can’t find DI water for the iron and CPAPs....and today I was in Winn Dixie and walked past the paper isle and it was still depleted. I don’t get it...we are open now in my town. Why are people still hoarding?

 

[DaveNV]

Well, we are fine for food and paper goods. But I can’t find DI water for the iron and CPAPs....and today I was in Winn Dixie and walked past the paper isle and it was still depleted. I don’t get it...we are open now in my town. Why are people still hoarding?

Not sure if it's hoarding at this point, or suppliers being unable to restock certain things. An empty shelf at the grocery store may only mean their supplier hasn't delivered what usually goes there.

Dave

 

[normab]

Hi Dave,

You may be correct, but neighbors say they are still lining up for the store openings so I think there is still some hoarding going on...the cashier at Aldi told me they stock daily and things disappear in the first half hour...

Probably a combination of the two.

 

[Passepartout]

Well, we are fine for food and paper goods. But I can’t find DI water for the iron and CPAPs....and today I was in Winn Dixie and walked past the paper isle and it was still depleted. I don’t get it...we are open now in my town. Why are people still hoarding?

Don't know about de-ionized water, but when there was a shortage of distilled here, a grocery stocker told me that tropical fish stores make distilled water and were providing it free for CPAP users. In Mexico I paid roughly $4.00 a liter for medical grade distilled. I ended up using purified drinking water with no adverse effects.

 

[cman]

Need some help here. Is there a way to preserve lettuce? We by the lettuce salad mix from Costco, but it comes in a large bag and wilts after a while. Can it be frozen? What's the best way to preserve it?

 

[DaveNV]

Hi Dave,

You may be correct, but neighbors say they are still lining up for the store openings so I think there is still some hoarding going on...the cashier at Aldi told me they stock daily and things disappear in the first half hour...

Probably a combination of the two.

Sounds like you're right, then. Somebody is hoarding things. But here in Washington, it's also much the same - some items are easy to get, other things are impossible. It's definitely hit or miss.

Dave

 

[DaveNV]

Need some help here. Is there a way to preserve lettuce? We by the lettuce salad mix from Costco, but it comes in a large bag and wilts after a while. Can it be frozen? What's the best way to preserve it?

Google say this: https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/tips-tricks-keep-lettuce-fresh/

Dave

 

[cman]

Google say this: https://www.tasteofhome.com/article/tips-tricks-keep-lettuce-fresh/

Dave

Thanks you. I'll follow those tips. But has anyone tried to freeze it?

 

[DaveNV]

Thanks you. I'll follow those tips. But has anyone tried to freeze it?

You might try it with some and see how it does. The variety would likely matter too - a leaf lettuce like Romaine would probably freeze better than head lettuce like iceberg. I'd think the water content in iceberg would really destroy the cellular structure if it was frozen, then thawed. But then, I've seen salad bars use a bed of ice under lettuce, so what do I know?

 

[cman]

You might try it with some and see how it does. The variety would likely matter too - a leaf lettuce like Romaine would probably freeze better than head lettuce like iceberg. I'd think the water content in iceberg would really destroy the cellular structure if it was frozen, then thawed. But then, I've seen salad bars use a bed of ice under lettuce, so what do I know?

Taking your advice. I'll try it and let you know how it turns out. I'm quarantined, I need thing to do anyway.

 

[VacationForever]

Well, we are fine for food and paper goods. But I can’t find DI water for the iron and CPAPs....and today I was in Winn Dixie and walked past the paper isle and it was still depleted. I don’t get it...we are open now in my town. Why are people still hoarding?

Because we don't go grocery shopping and also not use personal shopper delivery type service, we bought a home water distiller for about $200. We need distilled water for hydroponics that we started growing last week and for my husband's CPAP. So far it has worked well. It generates up to 6 gallons if you run it 24 hours a day.

 

[VacationForever]

We don't go to the stores and don't use personal shopping type service and everything is delivered to us by UPS/FedEx/Amazon/GLS/OnTrac. We are on 3 subscription services, 1 for farm produce, 1 for meat and 1 for mixed of produce and meat. Our fridge, freezer and pantry are filled to the brim. I have used up half of the open floor space in one guest room for stockpile. By nature I am an online shopaholic and SIP has turned me into Godzilla of online shopping. I need therapy!

 

[Sea Six]

We are LOADED with steak, filet, you name it beef, chicken, lobster tail, pork chops, etc, etc. BUT we run short on the fresh veggies we want as sides. So, we go to the store for produce, but are glad to have the freezer full of MEAT. Nothing we can't get around here, but we stocked up on meats and seafood recently based on the stories about shortages. Which so far appear to be false.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

My SIL spent much of his childhood in what was then Czechoslovakia, prior the USSR collapse. We have some interesting conversations.

One of our interesting conversations involves shopping. In his childhood, when you heard that a store had something available you went to the store and bought it even if you didn't need it. Or if you needed two, you bought ten. Because you didn't know if it would be available in the future if you needed it. Or if you had it and didn't need it, you might be able to barter it for something you did need. So when the opportunity to purchase was available, you took advantage.

I find myself doing the same thing now. When I go to the store or try to place an order on-line, there are things I want that are not available. So when something is available now that I think I might want sometime in the future and it's shelf stable or can go in the freezer, I buy it. Every grocery shopping event, I come away with more stuff than we can use. So our supply of "pantry items" has been steadily increasing.

I don't like living this way. But I don't have confidence in supply chain reliability right now. I do about two-thirds of my work in the food processing business, including fruits, vegetables, and proteins. And I'm not hearing good things from my clients about their situations right now.

**************

I was reflecting on this a couple of days ago, and I thought of my parents. They were both products of the Great Depression. My mother grew up in very harsh conditions, as the daughter of a sharecropper wheat farmer in North Dakota. And then I thought about how often my parents would scour ads to see what was available for sale or on distress, and they would buy more than what they needed, just because it was available at a bargain price. And they would find a way to make do with what was available instead of what was wanted.

so ..... we hear a lot of discussion about a "new normal". I wonder if that isn't a misnomer. Maybe what we think of as "normal" is really an abnormality - just a brief quirk in human history in our modern first and second world societies. And the the "new normal" that we face now is actually just a return to "true normal".

 

[geekette]

Because we don't go grocery shopping and also not use personal shopper delivery type service, we bought a home water distiller for about $200. We need distilled water for hydroponics that we started growing last week and for my husband's CPAP. So far it has worked well. It generates up to 6 gallons if you run it 24 hours a day.

Fascinating! I saw a Homestead Rescue that built one, but, uh, you know, BIG.

Thanks for the tip.

Also, wishing you good growing on the hydroponics. I bet you will taste the difference.