To provide myself with food at low cost, I tend to look back in history rather than have a modern food cupboard. Lots of people would probably open my pantry and think how boring my ingredients are. There are no fancy packets that can only be used once. My cupboards are full of ingredients that have multiple uses. Despite this, we eat well and have lots of variety, especially when I intergrate my garden.
This is my formula for providing a resilient kitchen.
1. Focus on cheap staples first. These provide the calories, the fibre, the protein. Things like lentils, rice, flour, pasta, dried beans, and barley. That way we will never be hungry. 
2. Buy fresh when in season, things that store without a freezer, or can easily be preserved. Squash, onions, potatoes, swede, cabbage.
3. Grow perennial fruit and vegetables that cost nothing each year but add treats and nutrition. Rhubarb, a hedge of currants, raspberries, a tub of strawberries. I also have Jerusalem artichokes and some perenial leeks.
4. Have foods that are multi purpose, and flexible, like oats, beans, eggs, milk, tomato puree.
5. Forage for free foods. This can just be basic foraging of things that are easily recognisable. Start with basics like apples and blackberries. As your skills and knowledge improve, so will your pantry.
6. Avoid over complication. Make simple meals with few ingredients. Use old recipes. Replication with a twist is strength, not weakness.
7. Bulk buy a few spices and grow a few herbs to change, or enhance the taste of simple meals. These can also be used for teas.
8. Grow fast growing crops that take little space. Radish (can go in stir fries, stew, as well as salads), spring onions, salad leaves, etc. All of these can be done in containers.
9. If you have more space grow beans, beetroot, carrot, potatoes, chard, and courgette, as they all produce a lot of food for little effort. I also like to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and chillies to preserve but these take more care and work. Grow what you enjoy to eat.
10. Avoid waste. Use up everything. Egg shells can become plant food. Peelings can make snacks, soups or stock, bones can make broth, left overs make new meals.
Modern kitchen cupboards often have abundance, but no structure, or things to make many complete meals. Top up shops are often needed. Shopping has been done with convenience in mind. Ready meals, imported food, and things like bagged salad make that household vulnerable, especially to price hikes or shortages. A simple, old fashioned, kitchen, built on basics, is more resilient. It relies on few ingredients, has less spoilage, and less expense. Even just a small edible corner of the garden can enhance the weekly menu and provide more security, too. It saves more money and gives more pleasure than you think. This is especially correct if meals are well planned to avoid waste. Is your kitchen resilient?
Shared. Good read, we start our garden larder this year and I am hopeful we can boost the indoor larder more as we get better at it.
Great blog.
These points needs to be a mindset to be sustainable but we all begin with small steps. The waste one is so important, I’m always amazed at how much waste we have in society.
I’ve shared your wise words, thank you.
Some really helpful ideas here,
I think if we all lived with these in mind not only would we be better off but a lot healthier to.
Some very sensible advice. Thank you.
Down to earth, sensible advice. Thank you.
Thanks for your kind feedback
A good thought provoking read. Have shared it.
A very good post and it works as we have always had rhubarb and herbs growing through the years but never until I joined this group did I preserve rhubarb, unless in jam and as for wild garlic I never knew it existed. Now when we sow seeds it is with the thoughts of what and how we can preserve some for the long winter.
A good post, one spelling first paragraph, propagate, not as you have it x
Very sensible advice, easy to read and easy to understand
Helpful post. Lots of people will be thinking about resilience at the moment and there’s lots of helpful advice here. Thank you
Good advice! I’d like to read more on making the most of bones. I made a lamb stock yesterday from my Easter roast by just chucking it in the slow cooker with some water. But then I wondered should I have done anything different to get the most out of it, should I have cracked the bones (and how?!) to get the goodness out, does vinegar help
Thanks, interesting read and very topical for today’s cost of living challenges.
This is a comprehensive, useful post, so thank you x
Great advice. Point 6 is something I deffo live by, keep it simple! So many recipes call for something you’d only use for that one dish and then it sits in the cupboard until it goes out of date. I also find growing your own is not only good for your pocket but also good for the soul :-)
Another great blog Toni. Ive learnt so much from you and others on this frugal page. Im very pleased with all my staples i now have and purchased 1 kg of cinnamon, I use a lot of it, and big tub of smoked paprika to, definitely save a lot of money buying these items in bulk in the long run. I’ll share your blog. Thanks x
Brilliant advice. Maybe add a few simple recipes for people who are struggling. You are a genius in that department too. Good luck
I will attach some links to the post when I have time. Thanks.
good advice …. keeping stocked up with staples really does make a difference; if you have rice, potatoes, pasta, lentils, beans, tomatoes and spices you can always have a meal with very little effort.
Absolutely.
A really interesting blog Toni , we have a small veg patch , but try to grow things that are more expensive in the shops . Fine green beans , fancy lettuces , managed to overwinter purple sprouting broccoli, which is always expensive. Keep a stock of staples , pulses, rice , tomatoes .
Great plan. Yes I wouldn’t be able to afford berries if I didn’t grow them.
Great blog Toni and my Pantry is pretty much the same no fancy ingredients just the basics that have always stood the test of time and wouldn’t be without.
Brilliant. That way we can always throw a meal together x