We prepare to live in very remote, isolated islands with very little access to modern grocery stores. It requires a lot of planning, shopping, organization, and storage. This blog outlines our process to prepare the boat for the provisions.
We have a 7-page excel spreadsheet with our “normal” provisions. It includes everything we use on a daily basis like spices, cheese, pastas, cleaning agents, beauty, oils, sauces, etc…It takes me 2 days to go through our inventory and check it against our current stock, then notate it on the spreadsheet to determine what is needed. I pull everything out of the cabinets, pantries, and drawers to check expiration dates, quality, and stock.
Once I have my list I show it to Matt, the chef to ensure he is happy with the new shopping list. And off we go.
Big Box Stores
We are lucky enough to have one Costco in New Zealand. The problem is that it is located in Auckland. So, we borrow our friend’s car and make a big run to the “city.” Strangely enough, NZ Costco does not accept US Costco members so we have to join the NZ Costco. While we are there, we also stop at Martha’s Backyard which has a lot of American items. We also swing by the Dive Doctor to get compressor oil, and a few other stops.
We come back to empty the car and head back out again to Pak N Save. This will be the first of many stops to the grocery store. But since we have a car, we decide to get the heavy items (canned goods, water bottles, etc…)
Can you tell I love to bake? We have (3) 5lb bags of flour (to go with the 15lbs we already have on the boat), 6lbs of white sugar, 6lbs of brown sugar, tons of granola bars, and 12 bags of baking chips (to go with the 4lbs onboard).
We purchased a lot of meats at Costco. This requires us to unwrap each package and vacu-seal the meat. Vacu-sealing the meat helps the meat last longer, prevents freezer burn, and helps us store the meat more efficiently. But it does take a lot of effort.
While Matt is vacu-sealing the meat, I am marking each can with its ingredients, pealing off the labels, and wrapping the bottom of the can with painters tape. We remove the labels because “weebles/bugs” like to hide in the glue. We tape the bottom of the can as it prevents them from rusting. It is all a process.
Matt re-packed 48 chicken boobs, 12 packs of bacon, and 6 packs of pork shoulder (future pulled port). We later went back and got several racks of ribs, and meat and veggie patties.
More Provisions
We ordered our beer from Countdown (Woolworth) because they deliver. I spoke to the super helpful liquor manager and he was able to procure Matt’s beer (never stored cold). I then ordered our Allan Scot Rose and my Malibu pre-mixed drinks from Wine.central.com and they delivered. Much easier for us. This should last us awhile!
And two more large provision runs…
Our blog posts run 10-12 weeks behind live events. This blog post occurred in Mid-May. We complete the final touches on Sugar Shack just before we splash.