What staples do you always have on hand?

Can't wait to hear what you have to share, Carl. Also for a chance at copy of the book! I'll start the discussion with a question. What are the staples you always have on hand in the pantry in order to enable the assembly of a meal from whatever you harvest?

Hi Carol, thanks very much for the question. Having a good store cupboard really makes improvising meals from the ingredients you're presented with so much easier.

Here's my list

Dried goods: pasta, rice, pulses, grains (a pressure cooker very handy to quickly cook the pulses)

Tins: tomatoes, anchovies

Various flavours/types of oil and vinegar

Bacon, guanciale, pancetta, parmesan

Herbs or green veg preserved in oil such as persillade (recipe in book), pesto etc

Strattu (very concentrated passata preserved in oil)

A well stocked dried herb and spice drawer

All purpose, strong white, rye, spelt flours.

Sugar

Fermented chillies, green veg etc

Frozen peas

I'm sure to have missed something

I'd go with some of the same:
tinned: tomatoes, baked beans in tomato, sweetcorn, pineapple, pilchards/ sardines or mackerel
dry: plain wheat flour, wholemeal wheat flour, brown long grain rice, basmati rice, lasagne sheets, penne pasta, kidney beans, chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
oil/vinegar
herbs/spices
tartaric acid, baking soda
strong cheddar cheese
butter

I can cook a dinner with just those if I need to, or make a greater variety with additional ingredients.

I keep a good supply of the basic staples …12 Year Elijah Craig, 4 Roses Single Barreled Bottled in Bond, Jack Daniels Single Barreled Bottled in Bond, flour, sugar, honey, macaroni, egg noodles, about 100 pounds of potatoes, maybe 30 pounds of onions, corn meal.  I have a few pigs to process in the next 30 days so I have about 100 pounds of salt on hand.  

I like to keep lots of salt on hand too, just in case.

I learned the hard way to also always have plenty of onions, spices, cider vinegar, and honey on hand during summer and autumn, because sometimes there are surprises, and you end up with a huge amount of fruit or zucchini that needs turning into chutney, pickles, and other things in a hurry, and it's amazing how quickly everything disappears!

Other things I like to always have on hand: grains for milling and cooking, homemade bacon and salami, homegrown eggs, homegrown milk and cheese, greens growing in the garden, preserved tomatoes, honey, tea for kombucha, various spices, herbs in the garden, tallow and/or lard, butter.

This was kind of a fun exercise to walk around and catalog things.

whole grains: rice, oats, rye, soft and hard wheat, field corn
oils: olive, sesame, butter, peanut
fresh produce: winter squash, green chiles, cilantro, carrots, celery, garlic, onions, basils, a leafy green, potatoes.
dried spices: enumerating them all would be boring
fermented foods: kimchi, curtido, yogurt, sour pickles, nukazuke, wine, misc others
dried legumes: black beans, pinto beans, lentils, chickpeas, split peas, soybeans
canned foods: marinara, salsa, chili crisp, asian pickles, many other sauces, green beans, raspberry jam, beans, crushed tomato, tomato paste, broth concentrate, coconut milk, curry paste, olives
frozen: bread in several forms, apple pies, flours of many grains, raspberries, apple sauce, several kinds of nuts, backup spices, vegan 'meats', chiles, soups, etc
Misc: eggs, salt, pasta, gochujang, shoyu, dried seaweed, dried mushrooms, miso, mustard, cheeses, honey

this would probably take me days to write out in detail, but in general this is what's always on hand.

International stuff can be hard to get, so I try to have one backup in my cabinet for all of the:
basic japanese sauces/components (various miso, sake, mirin, dried/frozen tofu, many different pickles and ferments, soy sauce, various seaweeds and dried mushrooms)
basic chinese sauces/components (dark soy sauce, cooking wine, bean paste, chili paste, pickled mustard, peanut oil, dried spices for making chili oil or stews)
basic korean sauces/components (sesame oil, gochujang, gochugaru, dried fish, fish sauce)
ginger, garlic, onions, tomatoes
sugar, salt, oil, coffee, a week's worth of milk (here milk comes in shelf-stable tetrapaks)
fresh yogurt and some kind of lactopickle (often several)
many kinds of vinegar and salt/spice blends

I have an enormous spice drawer.
Various pastas, rices, grains, beans lentils and flours.
Tomato paste, boullion cubes or powder, tinned sardines.

In the freezer is usually seasonal fruit for baking and making juice/smoothies, and occasionally convenience meals (steamed buns, tomato sauce). I also stock frozen meat to be cooked with produce (usually ground pork and chicken, portions of beef and pork to slice thin, bacon).
I also keep frozen cubes of ginger juice and lemon juice for convenience.
When I have space in the freezer, I'll keep a packet of store bread in case anyone wants it, but it's the first thing sacrificed when I need the space.

(someone mentioned tea. I'm afraid to talk about my tea collection. I have a lot, a lot, a lot of tea -- caffeinated, herb, medicinal. That doesn't count the spice drawer stuff or the garden herbs. O-o)

Salt, sugar, flour, cornmeal, and rice.  I have lots of pasta though it is so old it take a long time to cook.  

Nancys list would work for me except for pilchards/ sardines or mackerel, I have salmon.

For baked beans in tomato I have a US product called Pork and Beans.

Tereza Okava wrote:(someone mentioned tea. I'm afraid to talk about my tea collection. I have a lot, a lot, a lot of tea -- caffeinated, herb, medicinal. That doesn't count the spice drawer stuff or the garden herbs. O-o)

Oh my, how could I forget tea! Just black tea for me, I try never to run out!

This actually makes me blush, because I have to admit, that I have 3 pantries. I like to always have at least a year’s worth of food in stock, and I grow an average of 2000 pounds of food in a year, so I need the space.
In the kitchen, I keep 2 large shelving unit for herbs and spices, and one for teas and my apothecary. We also have a small pantry with everyday stables in smaller amounts. My second pantry is very large, since I do a lot of food preservation. I have two canners and a freeze drier. In this pantry I store bulk items, canned fruits, homemade condiments, freeze dried meals, broth (a huge stable for me). We use a lot of broth in our household, so  I make 10 gallons a time. Canned and pickled vegetables are also here.
I also keep pasta, rice, homemade flour, vinegar, honey, salt, sugar, freeze dried eggs, dried cashew milk, nut milk, freeze dried berries and vegetables.
In our garage, I have a pantry for long term overflow food storage, 3 freezers and a fridge where I keep all the fermented foods I make. One freezer is for beef and pork, the second for poultry and vegetables and the third for vegetables and freeze dryer trays.
We don’t spend a lot of money on foods, since we produce most of it ourselves. We are 4 to 5 adults, depending on who is here for dinner, and we only spend around 100$ on groceries a week. In comparison our homestead has produced over 11 thousand dollars worth of food this year, and we are not done yet.
I know my pantries is a cooks dream, since we have the ingredients for pretty much anything.