An overstuffed, bug infested pantry drawer.
The other evening when I started rubbing flour and butter together to make biscuits, I discovered bugs in my flour. Grrrr. Kinda gross, but it can happen even in the best of pantries. But my cupboards are not a showcase of tidiness.
So I tore them apart today, wiped the surfaces clean and tossed all the open wheat-based products and bug-tasty things. In went some of my precious spices I had stored in not-bug-proof ziplocks, including the whole mace and the nutmeg. Anything expired got chucked into the bin, too.
My pantry was a portrait of a forgetful mind. I found three partially used bags of powdered sugar and two of brown sugar plus four unopened packets of unsweetened cocoa. We like variety, too. We had eight kinds of salt, six different chile peppers and two jars of anchovies. (Don’t panic, Tod. I kept all the salts.)
A tidy cupboard (but for how long?)
Now my pantry is clean, neat and bug free (I hope). Hooray! Plus I unearthed a few of the interesting ingredients that I’d gotten while traveling earlier in the year, so there will be feasts on the table next week.
Everyone wins but the bugs.
Posted by kuri at November 29, 2006 06:02 PMExtra protein! Last year, we had teeny tiny ants that infested our pantry. I had to clean three times, and I thought my pantry would stay orderly for at least a year. It lasted about three months and is again, as you aptly put it, “a portrait of a forgetful mind.”
Posted by: Jenn on November 29, 2006 09:15 PMa friend of ours says that he freezes his flour before storing it and that this kills the bug larvae. I haven’t tried this, but i haven’t had any weevils in my flour in quite some time, knock on wood.
Wow, an organized pantry! I’ll have to try that sometime. But that might take the adventure out of opening the cupboard.
Posted by: holly on November 30, 2006 01:36 AMSuch a recognizable story. Yes, one can let things go for quite a while. And then, when the spirit moves you it is such a joy to throw out old stuff, clean out all the drawers, cupboards and storage spaces and feel the satisfaction of a clean and well organized pantry!
Posted by: Yolie on December 2, 2006 06:09 AMWe’ve had the same issue but they’re small white worms. I found them originally in the rice, even in some of the sealed bags. Icky, Icky, Icky. I thought they were gone with a good cleaning and sprinking some salt in the bottom of the drawer. But yesterday, opening some older hershey’s kisses from a different cabinet, we found they where chocoholics also. A quick cleaning, some zip lock bags and a trip to the store for some new kisses may have solved that. We’ll see.
Posted by: Seth on December 4, 2006 01:08 AM