Pantries Are Necessary

Cellars and Pantries

Some people, especially in more rural areas and living in older homes, likely have a cellar pantry that they can use to hold home-canned foods, potatoes and other root veggies that require a slightly moist, but cool and darkish places for long storage (1). What makes these areas great for long term food storage, is that they are dug into the ground, and are thus earth controlle, requiring no external energy. This was the high-tech for food storage in times before refrigerators (~1913), freezers (~1940), and processed shelf-food (~1950). From what I can tell, these root cellars were used throughout certain areas of the USA, even through the 1960’s.

Most people today however, have not actually seen a real root cellar. But I was introduced to this type of pantry (it looked like the picture below) nearly 50 years ago, while living with a Mormon family in Washington state; they had a religious belief that they needed to have food reserves (2), and had a dirt walled cellar near their house. This cellar contained what I thought was several years worth of home-canned food on its shelves. We would eat the front-facing food, and put the new canned food in the back of the line.

Coming back to today, California‘s urban or suburban homes, do not usually have basements, so certainly do not have root cellars. I have also heard that some people try to use the coolest corner of their garages as pantries, but here too not every California home has a garage. I for instance, have a carport.

So from a cellar (3) let me turn to my topic of pantries. Cellars are expected to feel cool, moist, and dark, whereas a pantry is expected to feel cool, dry, and dark. Root cellars are mainly dug into the ground, away from the house, and use the earth itself to keep food for longer term use. Pantries are usually built into the house you occupy and are similar to a closet, storing food on shelves. In both cases the intent is to store food longer term, for use as storage during times when food-access may be more difficult, like now.

History of Pantries

The word “pantry” is an Old French word “paneterie”. The word originally meant “bread”.  ApartmentTherapy: In medieval times food and supplies were stored in specific rooms: meats were stored in a larder, alcohol stored in the buttery, and bread was stored in the pantry.

In England, during the 1400s, there were areas called, the “butlers pantry”, where silver, utensils and other expensive serving dishes were kept under lock-and-key. These areas were transitional, between the kitchen and dining room.

• In these olden days only the butler had the key to the pantry, and he was responsible for its safety, often having his bedroom nearby.
• Later there were cabinetry furniture, called sideboards that were used as serving places and stored dishes, cutlery, etc. These were often placed in the formal dining room.

The early 1600s (called the Colonial era in the USA), had areas in houses called “butteries”, that were built in the colder, northern part of the house. These were built to keep food in a cool, dark space for longevity.

• Sometimes, and I have seen this in some very old cabins in the Pacific Northwest, there would be a cutout in an exterior wall, covered with a metal mesh to allow fresh cold air to enter the room, but keep the animals out. I was told that when it gets real cold the space could also act as a fridge or freezer. So they used these openings to control the temp, and often had shutters for that control

According to Wikipedia Japan had, in the late 1600’s, the “Tansu”, that I would describe as mobile wooden cabinets. The specific “Mizuya Tansu”, were used in the Japanese kitchen for the storage of plates, utensils, and food items. These were not locked, but had sliding doors, drawers, and some working space. (Interesting that English and American cabinets always have locks, but Japanese ones did not.)

In the recent past, most USA houses were not built with pantries until the early 1900’s. Mostly, houses in urban areas had a cabinet, 6’ high, 4’ wide, and 2’ deep, installed next to or in the kitchen. Now there are often separate little closets or pantry cabinetry in or near the kitchens.

A Pandemic Requirement

I had two thoughts this week that, combined, suggests we need to rethink our kitchen designs.

• Many kitchens these days are designed with few upper cabinets in an attempt to keep the look clean and modern. I think this approach needs to be rethought, and we should have kitchens with enough cabinets to house more food stuffs.
• One critical aspect to the Pandemic is the many “stay at home” decrees, and we do not know how long this is going to last. Or even if it will be relaxed, only to occur again with another outbreak. We need to start thinking ahead and maintain a certain stock of food on hand for the next shut down.

Obviously, I think we need to build sizable (or multiple) pantries in our houses, or remodel to add them. The reason is that while we are in this pandemic, we are learning a quick run to the store for things we need is not feasible. Right now, leaving the house is a big deal and takes thought.

But even once this pandemic is over, we know there may be a return in the Fall, and we absolutely know there will be future viruses and future pandemics.

• I have a friend, living in an apartment, who does not have a pantry or extra closets to hold all the food and supplies that she bought. So she turned a portion of her living room into a dumping ground for all the extras. (I think the chaos of that area is having her feel unsettled.)

My family is lucky as, unknowingly, we prepped for this pandemic years ago when we renovated our kitchen and added lots of cabinetry. We also added some additional pantries to provide extra storage at the same time. So we have the kitchen cabinets, and three storage spaces that are organized around certain food, paper, and medical products.

• We were also prepped in other ways, as we had a couple of boxes of gloves that were used when dealing with the kitty litter, and had face masks due to the California fires. So we had in store, plenty of protective gear.

Food Pantry Options

Kitchen Cabinets

Kitchen cabinets started being built in the 1920’s (4). As I explained above, modern kitchens seem to be going to older kitchen designs with lower cabinetry, working tables, but limited upper cabinets. The thought is to make the kitchen look light, open, and more inviting.

I prefer a kitchen that is an actual work space for storing, prepping, cooking, serving, and cleaning food. So, when we remodeled our kitchen a few years ago, I wanted cabinets up and down, for I tend to store many international condiments, spices, and dried food, and need the space.

Many people, these days, use kitchen cabinets for a pantry, keeping what they can consume for a week. As you can see from the picture above, I tend to keep my cabinets full. Also you can see my spices and dried herbs on the little shelf under my cabinets. Really I have a cook’s kitchen.

Built-in Pantries

I built my pantry (above) in the laundry room about 10 years ago. It is located just down a small set of stairs off of the kitchen. The initial reason for this location is that it is also near a backdoor, and should we have an earthquake I should be able to access the food.

• I have tents, camping stoves, gas, and other backpacking equipment in the shed out back, so can easily set up a quick home-like area even if the house partially fails.

This pantry is really four combined cabinets that are skinny, reasonably wide and tall with adjustable shelves. I can easily store the canned, jarred, and packaged food I purchase, and these shelves can take the weight.

This type of skinny cabinet takes up little space in the room, so does not interfere with laundry or walking in and out of the house. Additionally, the way this is built, I can quickly eyeball what I need to buy to keep my supplies adequate. I have not yet run into any negatives for having this pantry.

Paper Pantry

My “paper pantry” is a place to store bulk products like tp, paper towels, Kleenex (TM), feminine products, etc. I had this cabinet made to utilize space under a stair well, and it is made specifically to have the depth to hold both bathroom supplies and linens, as well as the large bags of paper products we buy at Costco.

This has come in especially handy during the pandemic. We already had a large container of the paper products we knew we would need to use during this shut-in. No need for us to go out and hunt for tp for instance, because our pantry was already full enough to last ~12 weeks. (Although each time I do go out I check to see if there are any tp to buy — so far, nope.)

Emergency Pantry

Upstairs, in between two bedrooms, there is a door that leads to a strange closet, that was here when we moved in. This closet is half-sized, with the bottom boarded off since it is the part of our kitchen where the fridge is located. Confusing to imagine, but bottom line is the door opens to half a closet top.

So this “pantry” was turned into one specific for medical and emergency supplies, along with boxes of specialty items such as a sewing kit, shoe shining kit, etc. Everything has its place.

Why 3 Pantries?

This is probably the easiest question to answer. We have three so we can separate the items being stored, and do a quick eyeball of what is in them.

• When I look at my kitchen cabinets it is a bit hard to figure out what I am missing since it contains so much, thus I keep a list as I use things
• The food pantry is easy to tell what is missing since everything has its place
• The paper pantry is also very easy to see, as I leave things in the large plastic bags, a big hole of no product is very visible
• The medical pantry is hard as well, so I am keeping a paper in there too for when things are used up

So my pantries allow me to quickly organize my “hunting and gathering” efforts. But also, having 3 pantries also allows me to store a rather large amount of stuff needed for daily living. In truth, during this pandemic, my storage alone has allowed us to say home as we do not need to go out too often for anything other than fresh fruit and veggies, and occasionally prescriptions.

Again, I have to say that we are very fortunate, and lucky because we had supplies on hand and did not need to rush out and buy staples like others. Preplanning and prepping, in this case, allowed us to phase into the “stay at home” way we are living now, with very minimal fuss. It really helps that we live in a house we have renovated to fit our needs. Including having a wonderful back yard where we can interact with nature as spring moves in and our yard blooms.

—Patty

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NEWS: The Smithsonian reports that at the height of the Irish potato famine, members of the Choctaw Nationbanded together to donate $170—more than $5,000 today—toward relief efforts, selflessly contributing despite their own hardships. Now the Irish community is giving back by adding well over $500k to a GoFundMe campaing to help the Native American Communities as they struggle through the pandemic, needing food, water, and health supplies. One Pat Hayes, for instance, wrote, “From Ireland, 170 years later, the favour is returned! To our Native American brothers and sisters in your moment of hardship.”

Recipe: Tex-Mex Salad, and Beet Goat Cheese Salad

NEWS: Sur La Table, a Seattle-based kitchen store, that also offers cooking classes, has announced it is seeking bankruptcy. Another business succumbing to the pandamic.