Mystery solved

For a few weeks there has been a foul, foul stench in my pantry.  It smells like rotting something.  Maybe a tiny animal corpse, maybe an onion, I don’t know.  All I know is that when I open my pantry, the smell hits me, and try as I might, I can’t find it.  After a couple of minutes my nose becomes immune and I can’t smell the stink at all.  So I move a bunch of cans and packages around and then give up.  

My pantry is quite roomy, but it’s not gigantic.  I should have found the source of the odor by now.  Or it should have gone away.  But it continues to reek. 

Tonight I went into the pantry hoping for an extra onion to materialize out of thin air.  I pushed aside all the paper plates and napkins left over from parties-gone-by, and there was the stinky culprit!  A bag of rotting fingerling potatoes marinating in their own goo.  I picked up the bag and was pleased to see a bunch of squiggly larvae underneath. They’d leaked under a neighboring bag of sugar (25 lbs. down the drain!)

It’s a good thing I have a strong stomach because that is the grossest science experiment ever to have happened chez  Jennie.  

| Filed under Bad Things, Yuck

10 thoughts on “Mystery solved

  1. i have had that same thing happen with potatoes– i’m almost embarrassed to admit, more than just once! it is amazing how foul that smell is and how completely raunchy they can get! (when was the last time i used the word raunchy?)

  2. ooh yeah, baby! we’ve been waiting and waiting for that nothing bundt cakes to open. it was pretty much the most exciting day of our lives so far. we had cake this week for no reason. next week for my dad’s birthday. the week after that “in honor of” chris’ sister’s birthday. the week after that either in celebration of the baby or to comfort me in my final weeks of pregnancy. then halloween, of course. then my birthday. then chris’ birthday. then thanksgiving. then it’s december, where you’re required to eat cake all month long (in my world). we are PRETTY excited to have nothing bundt cakes in our world again. even it if is a 30 minute drive and a $3 toll from chris’ work in north austin. TOTALLY WORTH IT!

  3. Oh! Thanks for the dieting inspiration of the day. I suddenly don’t feel so hungry…

    But I agree, it’s always fun to solve those stinky mysteries!

  4. EWWW! That turned my stomach! I haven’t had this happen before exactly…. My worst was rotting fish left in the fridge. The smell lingered for MONTHS. It even leaked over into our freezer which produced fish smelling/tasting ice cubes that I was able to enjoy in my drinks for weeks after.

  5. That happens to me ALL the time. My potatoes sit on the floor under the bottom shelf. I never see them, and if they get back there too far and I buy a new bag, the new bag goes in front…

    But now I know when I smell that smell to look for potatoes!

  6. Yep. Had some similar finds around here–what is it about potatoes…they’re like the ninja mystery pantry smell…they lurk and look all fine and dandy and then whammo–you’ve got smell….

    Glad you got a giggle from my amazing hairdressing skills and frugal tips….;o)

    Blessings!

  7. That is unfortunate because those potatoes would have been good, before they started their downward death spiral. Glad you solved the mystery.

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