My shoes!! Had a pair that the rubber just disintigrated on.

Nothing really. We’ve been food shopping and eating as usual. But I think my feet have got wider from only wearing slippers, sneakers and walking boots for two years. I still have eye shadow I bought when i was 17, so out of date make up is definitely not an issue for me.😉

I bought ”too much“ basic flour because they were out of smaller bags, and I'm less inclined to spend time, which I'm short of, baking with so much more easily available, but it's properly stored and hasn't gone rancid, so I have no intentions of throwing it in the compost.

The main thing I've noticed is that I have a bit too much pasta, and so I'm trying to use a bit more of it than I usually do.

The other thing that I have too much of is the canned tomatoes. I thought I was buying six 28 oz cans of tomatoes, but I ended up with six 105 oz (6# 9oz) cans, and I've only used two so far. When I open one can, I have to freeze 3/4 of it for later use, and I still have some on the freezer. The cans were so cheap that I thought they were the 28 oz. cans, and so I was buying based on price instead of weight. I don't know how long canned tomatoes are supposed to last, but my guess is that it is not more than two years. At least they were not a huge investment.

I've been using the tomatoes mostly for pizzas, which is why we haven't been eating pasta, but I can make a switch back to pasta, which is easier anyway.

I've been worried about my feet getting wider also, but I don't think that has happened. I haven't been wearing tight shoes for about five years now, since I have not really worked in a office since 2017.

Oh! I didn't even think about shoes. I wonder how many of mine even fit after two years of slippers and Berkinstocks. 🙄

I didn't really have anything go old. I've kept a stocked larder for years, and during this pandemic, I've just kept up the habit. I did have a couple small bags of AP flour go to the moths- but that's because I screwed up and didn't freeze it proper oncce I got it home from the store.

The shoes thing makes me smile a bit. I busted up a foot real good in '19, so it's taken me the last couple years to replace all my old bad for my feet shoes with new proper footwear for my foot. I've little feet so I have to travel a bit to get proper footwear, heh.

I kept a good labeled/dated uncharacteristic rotation going in the freezer and a bit larger pantry stock, but we have been letting those thin that started last year.

Forgot about the flour. I portioned a big commercial bag into measured-for-the-boule recipe into zip-locks. Started freezing when room appeared but probably 5 pounds went to waste.

Ironically, we didn't change our buying much during the pandemic, and I think odd food shortages are not going away, and I don't think it is pandemic related, I think it is related to the drastic changes in agriculture over the past 30 years and I don't see the trends reversing. Concentrating production means supply is vulnerable if that concentrated production facility or region has any type of issues that interfere.

We are still working on finding resilient food suppliers. We won't starve, but I still haven't found my ideal farmstand or U-pick set of farms to frequent. We tried growing our own stuff, just didn't work for us, having the right growing conditions was too difficult for our community garden plot, it wasn't well managed. There are farms around, I just have to try harder to root them out . . . I'm talking about farm prices for canning, not upscale farm markets that just sell for seasonal consumption. I am much more likely to travel to a farm now than during the pandemic, but that isn't because of the pandemic at the farms, I just have more time to be away from home now since someone else is sharing the task of looking after my aging father . . .

Our freezer got a great workout during the pandemic but summer windstorms gave us sketchy electricity so I am not as likely to keep the freezer full up to the gills anymore. Not going to change until I get a generator, which I am waiting on. That is pandemic supply chain related. Not the generator, it's the gas company and the meter upgrade. And this is just MY gas company, the other two in the state do not have this supply problem so it probably has to do with behind the scenes dealer issues. Again, don't think it is entirely pandemic related, manufacturing was already in the throes of big changes anyway. The pandemic just pushed some facilities over the edge that they were already dangling on.

LOL and totally off topic, but I too let my shoe game go all to heck during the pandemic and I totally am on the lookout for some better footwear. Hard to find good stuff in the stores anymore, at least within a reasonable distance from my home.

I did stop going to the farmers' markets during the pandemic, but I'm comfortable returning to them now, especially since I've had three boosters, in addition to the vaccinations.

In my climate in L.A., I could grow almost anything year 'round, but that's not how I want to spend my time or use my back yard. I had an artichoke plant when I lived in Venice, but that ended up taking too much space, but I did like having long stems on the artichokes. The stems are very good to eat, and are tender, if you peel them. I don't know why they cut them so short for the grocery stores - such a waste IMO.

I haven't been to farmers' markets in the desert, but they do not have them here in the summer, and I think the season is over already. Most things have to be brought in from places like Imperial Valley, which is very close, but dates are grown in Coachella Valley - otherwise this is not much of an agricultural area, due to the lack of rain, plus high heat in the summer.

CA produce is a fantasy land Lars! I always feel faint when I've been to farm markets in LA. I decided not to try to grow too much food on my own as well. We grew 50 tomato plants last year and I processed a LOT of them for canning of every product imaginable--sauce, whole, hot sauce, salsa, relish, pizza toppings, etc., etc. Then I see huge bushels of canning tomatoes on FB Marketplace for 20 bucks, pennies on the dollar of what it cost me in time and materials to grow all my tomatoes from seed to stakes to watering and weeding time and fertilizer . . . I hope I can get hooked up with some of those tomatoes this year!!

We have great local produce during the season in MI, I just have to find out all the farm fresh sources. I live far away from the good markets so harder to find places close. There used to be more fresh produce farms ringing my town, but no more, long gone.

We have good u-pick berries--strawberry, raspberry and blueberry, and good localish apples, but my favorite peaches and cherries are a ways away. The fruit region of MI is at least an hour away if not a little farther . . . Rhubarb is hard to come by, which is why I planted some in my yard. It's not difficult to grow thankfully, pretty much grows like a weed.

We have big asparagus farms but too far away. Bugs me that my local asparagus comes from CA and Mexico! I'd have to drive two hours to reach the asparagus belt of MI . . . That's another plant that grows like a weed but I don't have enough sunny space for it . . . It's not the greatest plant for preserving anyway. How many pickled asparagus spears can one gal eat? It freezes but as I said, my freezer is not reliable. You can pressure can a lot of garden vegetables, but most are better frozen, IMHO. I would not want to eat pressure canned asparagus.