Like most of the cruisers we know, the crew in charge of marketing for Wind Horse tends to over-buy food when we’re getting ready to head out. We’ve found it is best to stock up when we can acquire the foods we like at reasonable prices. New Zealand is a great place for this, especially if one is heading to the tropics where supplies may be limited and will almost certainly be more costly.

Prior to going on our spree in Auckland, we scientifically created a spreadsheet for calculating what would be required. We then looked this over carefully, and divided most totals by between two and four.

So much for science! We still over-bought, and now – 15,000 miles and sixteen months later, we are just finishing off items that were supposed to be consumed eight months ago.

This does, however, provide an interesting look at longevity.

Take peanut butter for example. As critical to us as lube oil is to the engines, we’re happy to tell you that the last jar of ETA Crunchy peanut butter was still tasty after sixteen months of storage.

Almost as important, especially on long night watches, are crispy potatoe chips. There are still a few of these bags left and the latest to be opened, shown above, is as good as those we opened in New Zealand.

When we left, we carried a substantial inventory of “Just Juice” fruit juices, soy milk, low fat cow’s milk, and goat milk, all in foil-lined containers, similar to what is found in most grocery sections. We’re just now finishing these off. They all have “used by” dates which are six to eight months past due and seem fine.

We’re still working our way through a few jars of jelly and olives, and various cans of beans and fruits.

The freezers still have some stores as well. There are a few loaves of Vogels bread left, a couple of cuts of meat, and some frozen berries. All of this seems fine as we work our way through it.

We should also mention our “invention” of frozen yogurt. Steve is a fan of Trader Joe’s soy yogurt. This is a bit of a problem as it only lasts six to eight weeks in the fridge, and is not readily available in the better cruising areas. So we decided to test freezing it.

We’re happy to report that once frozen, it appears to last indefinitly. Thawed, it loses something. But we’ve discovered that eating it while still frozen is very nice, and the time required to consume a small container is much longer than when it is soft.

Part of our discovery is the use of grapefruit spoons. The serrated edges scrape off a thin layer of iced yogurt. This takes effort, burning calories, so that you actually lose weight eating it (just kidding here). While we’ve only tested this approach on one brand, it appears to have a more universal application.

A key factor in the data above is we never buy foods with preservatives. So, the packaging has to do the job on its own.