The past few weeks I have been pretty busy waiting for the piggie flu to infect my world, watching way too much news coverage, and hoping ol’ Bloomy will just decide to shut down all schools so that my brood and I could take off to the Keys pre 100 degree weather.  It has all been very time consuming. Now I will admit that most of my news watching has only aided in increasing my already slightly neurotic germaphobia, but there has been a tiny kernel of enlightenment.

So…here it is.  Living in one of the world’s biggest cities that literally never shuts down, I haven’t done too much planning in terms of stocking a pantry in case of a food shortage. After 9/11 my husband went through a period of evacuation prep. but this didn’t really extend to the scenario of being shut in without incoming supplies. Watching Mexico City shut most of its doors in quarantine made me think of whether I would be well stocked if such an event happened here. Fortunately for Mexico City, it didn’t last long and things never seemed to get to the point of food shortage, but it isn’t difficult to imagine what would have happened had the virus taken a different turn for a longer period.

After my husband got fairly ill last week and was in bed for 3 days with what turned out to not be the flu, I realized that our supplies were foolishly low. Thankfully, due to urban communal living and having amazing friends and neighbors whom I can rely on for the basics, a short term personal quarantine is livable. But what if we all got sick, or the city simply didn’t have incoming supplies for anyone? Would I, would you, be prepared for a large scale city shutdown or a long term personal quarantine?

So then I had to consider what constitutes a well-stocked pantry. (Keep in mind that space is always an issue.) I decided to approach the question by thinking of the basic nutritional needs met in non-perishables….grains, produce, protein, and fat. (I also had to think about what we would actually want to eat…a choice between Ebola and canned Lima beans would be a really, really, really tough call.)

So…here is what I’ve started with….

Produce : canned peaches and pineapple, apple sauce, fruit preserves, raisins, canned tomatoes, apple juice, Fruitabu (All organic except the peaches, pineapple, and tomatoes.)

Grains : organic brown rice, whole grain packaged pasta, dry cereals, organic oats, packaged granolas, granola bars, whole wheat and white flour and other bread making staples, canned corn, falafel mix

Protein : Dried and canned beans in case cooking isn’t an option, dried lentils, peanut butter, peanuts, almonds, canned tuna, canned salmon, anchovies, turkey jerky, tahini

Fat : sealed olive oil, peanuts, almonds and peanut butter count here too

Convenience Items : salt, pepper, mustard, soy sauce, red curry, various spices, coffee, tea, etc.

Now there are a few things that didn’t thrill my inner greenie about this adventure. One…not everything I wanted could be found readily in organic….like no sugar canned peaches and pineapple. (There are organic tomatoes but in my haste to get the job done I bought what was in stock at the store.) Also…obviously part of the preservation of the products is that they are well and heavily packaged in plastic…meaning bulk and paper is pretty much out. And the whole local thing…not so much. (I plan to try to rectify this a little with the upcoming CSA season…more on my cluelessness in that area later in the week.)

So…what have I missed? What other fruits and veggies can survive the can?   Any tips? What do you consider pantry must-haves? How do you reconcile longevity with sustainability? Or when they shut down your city do you just plan on eating the neighbors?

This entry was posted on Monday, May 25th, 2009 at 6:38 pm and is filed under CSA/ Local Food, family, projects. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.