Last week I wrote about the importance of using the pantry principle in your food storage. This basically means that you are storing what you eat on a regular basis and rotating through it as you go. This method can save you a lot of money, and your family will be able to continue to eat the foods that they enjoy on a regular basis.
For this principle to work you need to set a good rotation system. Ideally it should be one that is easy to use and implement and which requires very little effort on your part. Otherwise you will likely eat the food that you bring home each month, instead of the food you already have in the pantry. One easy way to do this is to build or purchase a shelving system, which allows you to easily rotate food.
The easiest way to do this is to have a system where you load in the top and take from the bottom. Good examples of this are the CanSolidator or the racks that store Campbell’s Soup in the grocery store. You can also load the system from front to back. It is fairly easy to buy shelves that you allow you to do this. This system works especially well if you have a large area to store food.
You can combine the two systems by taking items from your food storage and moving them up to your pantry in which you have a system like the CanSolidator. This will keep your food fresh and easy to rotate. This works as well if you buy cans in case lot sales or in large amounts.
The key to making this principle work is to buy foods that you will actually eat on a regular basis. I once bought a case of mixed vegetables only to realize that no one in the family would eat them. There was nothing wrong with the vegetables themselves, but we are not the mixed vegetable type of family. If you are unsure about introducing a new brand or type of food into your diet, you should buy one or two cans to try them, and then if they pass the test you can buy a good supply when they are on sale. As you buy cases mark the date that you bought them so you will be sure to use the earliest dates first.
You can find examples of canning systems at www.shelfreliance.com or www.foodstorageracks.com. Both of these sites have items, which you can purchase or you can build your own shelves after looking at the examples that they have.