I’m cleaning out my parents house right now. My father died last year at 90, and my mother at 92 just moved into an adult care facility.
they were preppers. Not only are there 15 boxes of “mormon food” (no, they were not mormon), but many bags of beans that expired 16 years ago. I’m living on the canned food in the pantry, much of which “expired” ten years ago. But canned food is pretty indefinite. The expiration date is really just the date they guarantee the flavor and texture. So far I’m doing fine. :)
I could survive a couple of months on that canned food.
Your folks were the same age as mine. Depression Era; nothing got thrown away, especially not food. Good luck.
+1
I recently ate an 11-year-old can of corned beef with no problems.
How did the flavor and texture hold up on those canned foods? Are there any foods that have stood out as more or less affected by long storage than the others?
My dad did the same thing heading into Y2K. Soon after the apocalypse never came, my family put its collective foot down and insisted he only get what would actually fill the shelves of the walk in pantry, and no more. He finally got the hang of it with some coaching.
Mom and Dad did entertain groups of friends 10 at a time, so they did create a balance between large amounts of food and using it up.
Depression era kids had a hard time of letting go of food especially. I expect that there will be some kids caught up in that same mindset since lockdowns forced so many people to lose their livelihoods. Thanks Democrats, for nothing but misery.
I’m in a somewhat similar situation - my mother died just before Christmas and I’m trying to empty her place and settle the estate. She wasn’t a prepper, but I was buying more food than normal during pandemic (I had to come and stay w/her because she was just diagnosed with cancer when the pandemic broke). I’ve got tons of lentils, pasta that I’ve been living on so far. And I also donated some to a local food pantry.