The snowstorm thing baffles me too. I grew up in upstate New York and then in South Dakota, a blizzard both places could be serious and getting literally ‘snowed in’ for days at a time happened several times. It was understandable that people always did a quick grocery run for milk and such, before a major storm. But now I live in the Philadelphia area, where people panic and dash to the supermarket like the world is ending when we’re supposed to get a foot of snow in 2 days (which melts within the week). It’s just silly - even with feet of snow (which we almost never get), unless you’re in a bad neighborhood in the city roads are in good shape within 12 hours after snow stops falling…
I picked ‘slim’ as I eat mostly highly perishable food, so I go shopping every 6-7 days in order to have fresh eggs, dairy products, meat, fish, fruit, veg. I don’t eat dry goods like grains, beans flour, sugar, or even bread/crackers/cereal.
But I do always have some meat, veggies, broth, and berries in my freezer, and some cans of sardines, and some extra potatoes and onions. So I’d have enough to eat for a couple weeks without shopping - as long as I had power to keep my fridge and freezer cold. I just wouldn’t get to have my usual breakfast (eggs, fruit and cream, yogurt) or lunch (fresh salad greens with cheese and meat or fish).
A lot of people I know keep barely any food in the house. Or they have a lot of stuff like crackers, pasta, chips, cookies - but very little fresh food.
Honestly, about 1.5 to 2 months; longer on half rations. We used to keep close to 2-3 months worth but we’ve been steadily trying to reduce inventory. We also typically keep enough essential toiletries and chemicals (toilet paper, paper towels, laundry soap, dish soap, etc.) to last for 2-3 months. We have about a year’s worth of wine and beer (we could have the equivalent of one bottle of wine a day for more than a year).
The vast majority of our food is dried or tinned, and thus not subject to electrical outages (such as frozen/refrigerated items), and we have the means to indefinitely cook anything without gas or electricity. And because we live in the “inner suburbs” we have two large supermarkets within short walking distance.
Absolutely a month, but it would get monotonous pretty quickly - basically whatever pallet-o-foodstuff my wife picked up at the warehouse store most recently. We never go near the supermarkets when snow is forecast.
It’s not that I don’t want food in the pantry. I just don’t want to buy a bunch of food and have it go bad before it gets eaten. As long as the food is nonperishable, and we’ll eat it eventually, I don’t mind stocking up. We usually have enough that we could make it a few days if there was a snowstorm.
I have a limited food budget so I buy what I need for a few days. I can’t be wasting money on something that I don’t want to eat soon. I also like fresh bread and other short life products for my meals, thus I buy food the day before a major storm.
I keep a big pantry – single male, 34 y.o. I don’t have any real reason, but I like to have the option of not having to run out to the store for bread (flour+yeast+salt) or any imaginable sort of dry or canned goods.
Exactly. There’s a balance between buying lots because it’s on sale and buying as much as we can reasonably eat before it goes stale/bad/gets mealy worms/whatever.
We live in NYC and have limited storage space in our small kitchen, plus we have that frustrating problem where it is only my husband and I, so often the smallest available size of a perishable item isn’t used up before it perishes. I really make efforts not to buy any “extra” at all.
At this point, I’ve been living this way most of my adult life, and I’m not sure my shopping habits could change even if we suddenly had an enormous increase in storage space.
We could probably go a week, but the end of the week would be a lot of dry cereal.
I like to be able to make almost anything I like to eat if I’m in the mood for it at any time, so we tend to be stocked. It drives my spouse crazy.
Go on: put in an order, I’ll tell you if I could make it for you right now.
I’ll take that, plus dover sole a la meuniere, roast duck, and more French Fries, this time with half Yukon Golds made into cubed hash browns. And a few crusty slices of baguettte with a side of glazed carrots (NOT cut into coins, but on a bias).
Also a glass of wine, s’il te plait.
The scary thing is I could pretty much make this with my pantry, minus the fish, which I don’t find freezes too well with my little rental refrigerator. Do your worst, jellyblue, i don’t think you have the STUFF.
Well, I don’t get many hankerings for duck fat or salmon myself, but how about we fry them in bacon fat and grill you up some nice marinated mahi mahi? Side of roasted zucchini and a cream cheese-filled chocolate cupcake for dessert?
What is it with you people and the duck, eh? What did duck ever do to you? I have flounder, the hash browns, the baguette (spousette bakes that from scratch) and the carrots are no problem. I have 2 cabs, a red Zin or champagne.
not saying anything…I like duckling, and I’m French, so blame my people, not me. I’ll happily drink your wine, though, toujours modestly. I think I’m the only one I know who buys many many pounds of carrots and cuts them properly, though, so I’ll keep that secret to myself (sharp knife and a food processor!)
You’re going to need a brisk jog around the block or two after that one!