Autumn Pantry Plan: What to Use Now and What to Stash

Practical home cooks stock up with a plan: some ingredients get used within a week or two, while others can keep a month or even a month and a half.

Take bell peppers and eggplants, for example: frozen, they can be saved for holiday meals.

If you’ve dried eggplant the way they do in the Caucasus—sliced thin like mushrooms—you can stretch it from fall through spring.

Eggplants, zucchini, and peppers, wrapped in paper and then plastic, can be stored in the fridge or on the balcony until New Year’s.

Autumn is the season for potatoes, cabbage, and pumpkins — not everyone’s favorite, but they’re nutritious — along with tomatoes, pickled cucumbers, and late-harvest apples. These ingredients make great fall salads.