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Good morning!
Today is the first of three days from Emily, a guest writer. For the next three days she will tell her story of how one loaf of bread that she had rising on the stove turned into the most expensive and time consuming pantry clean-out that she's ever had. I assure you that reading her story will have you racing home to clean out your own pantry and become very aware of the groceries you have accumulating. Thanks to Emily for sharing her story, visit again the next couple days for days 2 & 3 of her experience!
Day 1:
This week my pantry came to life, and I don’t mean that in a good way. I reached into my pantry to pull out a box of barley, and was horrified to discover that it was covered in tiny bugs, crawling in and out. As I started to pull things out, I found the bugs in my flour, rice, pasta, sugar, salt, macaroni, muffin mixes, and crackers…you get the picture.
I always thought bugs in your pantry was something that happened to “other” people – those who don’t clean their kitchen, who keep moldy food around, who buy questionable food products from clearance bins at the discount grocer. But my kitchen is clean, these were mostly products I use on a regular basis, and these were brand name products from major grocery stores. I did, however, make some mistakes. One, there were two or three items that I had been storing for far too long, and some had been opened but were still in the original container. Two, I use food storage containers for pantry staples like sugar and flour, but they aren’t big enough to hold an entire 5 pound bag, so I would fill up the container, then roll the bag over and set it on top of the canister until there was enough room.
Before you start thinking that you don’t have a problem, think about this: I made bread with some heavily infested flour and it was rising on the stove before I realized what was going on. I’m not entirely sure what I had, my bugs were very small, and looked like grains of sand that were moving (note to self: do NOT do an Internet search for “pantry bugs picture” unless you actually want to look at the pictures). They were very difficult to see, unless there were a few and you were very close, holding very still, and specifically looking. So don’t be too sure that you would notice it immediately!
Stay tuned for tips on prevention, as well as what to do if you find some unwelcome guests in your pantry.
This week my pantry came to life, and I don’t mean that in a good way. I reached into my pantry to pull out a box of barley, and was horrified to discover that it was covered in tiny bugs, crawling in and out. As I started to pull things out, I found the bugs in my flour, rice, pasta, sugar, salt, macaroni, muffin mixes, and crackers…you get the picture.
I always thought bugs in your pantry was something that happened to “other” people – those who don’t clean their kitchen, who keep moldy food around, who buy questionable food products from clearance bins at the discount grocer. But my kitchen is clean, these were mostly products I use on a regular basis, and these were brand name products from major grocery stores. I did, however, make some mistakes. One, there were two or three items that I had been storing for far too long, and some had been opened but were still in the original container. Two, I use food storage containers for pantry staples like sugar and flour, but they aren’t big enough to hold an entire 5 pound bag, so I would fill up the container, then roll the bag over and set it on top of the canister until there was enough room.
Before you start thinking that you don’t have a problem, think about this: I made bread with some heavily infested flour and it was rising on the stove before I realized what was going on. I’m not entirely sure what I had, my bugs were very small, and looked like grains of sand that were moving (note to self: do NOT do an Internet search for “pantry bugs picture” unless you actually want to look at the pictures). They were very difficult to see, unless there were a few and you were very close, holding very still, and specifically looking. So don’t be too sure that you would notice it immediately!
Stay tuned for tips on prevention, as well as what to do if you find some unwelcome guests in your pantry.
Hey Shannon-
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the link to this post! Thanks to Erin for sharing her story! I have linked to this post from my page HERE!
Jamie
I keep my flour and sugar in the fridge. But now I wigging out over the pasta and stuff. Guess I'll be buying some storage containers.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments and for the link Jamie, it's scary to think about and I know I'll be watching for food storage containers to be on sale now! Shannon
ReplyDeleteweevils is what they sound like. we were infested very badly many years ago from a bad bag of dog food I ordered from an online wholesaler. I finally traced all the bugs in the house to the closet where I'd stashed that bag. O-M-G! But once we cleared out the bag and fumigated the closet, all was well again.
ReplyDeleteMy mom (a nutritionist and dietitian) once told me that flour always some eggs - it's just the way things are in the grain world - but if it's used in the normal time frame and kept in a cool, dry place, nothing will hatch. I try not to think about that sometimes when I'm making bread :) But I do know that the few times I've used up most of a bag of flour then rolled it up and stuck it in the back of the pantry, I've been very sorry when I eventually found and opened it. Now I put everything in airtight containers. At least if one batch of anything goes "bad," I don't end up tossing everything - it's quite a lesson to learn.
oof, proofreading - sorry. That should read "once told me flour always *contains* some eggs..."
ReplyDelete