# Ask the guy who just ate some 20-year-old canned vegetables **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 22, 2010, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-just-ate-some-20-year-old-canned-vegetables/540413 "2010-05-22T23:48:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-just-ate-some-20-year-old-canned-vegetables/540413/21 "2010-05-28T01:19:59Z")
> [@RhapsodyInBlue](#): > > You should contact [Steve](http://www.thesneeze.com/steve-dont-eat-it/)! He specializes in this sort of thing. I haven’t seen an update in a while, sadly. ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-just-ate-some-20-year-old-canned-vegetables/540413/22 "2010-05-28T19:11:42Z")
> [@spoke-](#): > > I’m still here, in case you were wondering. And yes, I will be eating my leftover stew for lunch today (not injecting it into my forehead). > > Y’all scoff now, but when the apocalypse comes, you will thank me for my bold experiment. 😉 As you rummage through the basement of some old ruined house you will stumble across a cache of veggies that were canned decades before the Darkness fell. And then you will think back to this thread and say “Hmmmm…” And if it does end up killing you we can still use your example to guide us! Either way, your contribution to Doper scientific advancement will be remembered. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-just-ate-some-20-year-old-canned-vegetables/540413/23 "2010-05-30T19:44:11Z")
One fine day, circa late 70’s, finding little of interest in the fridge or visible portion of our pantry to sate my mounting late afternoon hunger, I rooted deep into the heretofore unforeseen pantry bowels in anticipation of procuring a suitable culinary prize. Like an arcade claw machine, I lowered my hand onto a can, gripped and raised it for inspection—only to drop it back down upon noting its gastronomic lameness (e.g. canned okra, really? green with mucus consistency does not an edible food make). After a half-dozen or so claw retrievals of this sort, I came upon an item of interest: drab green can, no label, feels “he-man filling” to the shake…_hmmm_, I’m intrigued, my taste buds are aroused. In the interest of scientific inquiry I opened the can and inspected the contents: lima beans and ham, my favorite vegetable combined with my favorite ungulate (_maybe God does exist…something to contemplate later, when I’m not so hungry, of course_). I’d like to say what I did next was also in the interest of scientific inquiry, but this being the 70’s and my being a typical college student home for the weekend, it may (allegedly) have had more to do with delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol acting all “Republican” (i.e. deregulatory) on the appetite regulating portion of my hypothalamus: I heated the origin-unknown can of Lima Beans & Ham on the stove and ate the contents, all of it—and it was good…a little stale perhaps, but not bad…a little flatulence inducing perhaps, but not terrible…a bit of projectile vomitus and diarrhea producing perhaps, but not…well, you get the idea… A few hours later—still hugging the porcelain, a bit electrolyte depleted, but starting to regain full consciousness—I heard my parents come home from dinner and settle in the kitchen. It did my stomach no good hearing what I heard my dad say next: \* “who opened my WWII C-Ration can?”\* :eek: At least I’m still alive to tell the story. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-just-ate-some-20-year-old-canned-vegetables/540413/24 "2010-05-30T20:45:15Z")
I just finished the last bit of leftover 20-year-old-veggie stew. Still delicious! I shall have to make another batch soon. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-just-ate-some-20-year-old-canned-vegetables/540413.md?page=1)