![\"Quiet-Cove-Norway-1\"](\"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/quiet-cove-norway-1.jpg\")
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When we were preparing Wind Horse<\/em> for our cruise to Europe in 2008 we knew that food would be more expensive than the States. So we loaded the basement and freezers (there are two) with everything we could fit.<\/p>\n We thought that you might be interested in what we have found on longevity.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We’ll start with the photo of dinner. The shrimp are from Trader Joes, and at this eating 13 months in the freezer. They don’t compare with fresh of course, but they taste pretty good in the curried prawns dish.<\/p>\n The tortillas are an amazing story. These are remnants of a big stack we bought in Mexico spring of 2007 – now over two years old. We vacuum packed them originally, but these have been in the freezer in a Ziploc bag for the past year. Really tasty too.<\/p>\n Beer, on the other hand, does seem to have a shelf life. About four months and it starts to really lose its taste.<\/p>\n The key with the freezer is vacuum packing items to be stored any length of time. We are still eating beef, sausage, pork, and chicken from 2008 at the end of the summer in 2009.<\/p>\n Most cereal seems to do OK in its normal packaging. However, if cereals are just boxed, and not sealed in a bag, we vacuum bag these. We are still eating our stores from 2008.<\/p>\n If olive oil gets too cold it will congeal and turn cloudy. We had this happen with six bottles last winter. We tossed them before finding out that if you shake it vigorously it will be fine.<\/p>\n Nuts will last a year or more if vacuum packed or frozen. With normal packaging, on the other hand, and they need to be consumed within six months or so.<\/p>\n Chips also have an eat by period. We had a bag of tortilla chips left over from last year and they were stale.<\/p>\n We have three large (2.5 pound) bags of coffee beans left over. The vacuum packed beans look like they will last forever. The other two are not vacuum packed, but have not lost their flavor as of August 2009.<\/p>\n When you are buying for long periods check the “consume by” dates on the labels. Often there will be fresher stock in the warehouse. Be wary of special promotions as these are often on items with soon to be out-of-date contents.<\/p>\n Finally, a word on Ruben’s Burritos. This most precious of all commodities still exists in our inventory. Of the 40 we departed with in April of 2008 just two treasured burritos remain, as of our haul out in mid-September 2009. These were zip locked and vacuum bagged and maintained their wonderful flavor (especially at 79 degrees north).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"