~~LDS Canneries~~
Well, the rumors are true....mostly!
The good news is that the part of the rumors that are true yields happiness to my life! Not so long ago, rumors within the church, was that the Canneries would be closing. This is the NOT true news! The other rumor was that they would be open for retail sales only on pre-packaged items. This got my feathers ruffled a bit. But with a recent announcement from the church, the word on the street now is that even though it is only the pre-packaged items, they are offering more items to purchase than what was previously offered, such as pre-packaged milk, apples, spaghetti, elbow macaroni, etc.
Photo: Courtesy of www.lds.org
I am so happy to hear this. This will make food storage so easy for so many who have busy lives. Before, trying to make a canning session fit into busy families' schedules basically kept people from actually getting food storage at a great price. Now, it's just a purchase. No cannery sessions. You can even order from the church and it be sent to your home if a cannery is not In your area. I am very fortunate that a cannery is located in my area within 20 minutes from my home. I feel so blessed to have this and I know the members of my community are blessed as well. The cannery in my area, has approximately 40% sales to members of the church. That means 60% are non-members utilizing the canneries. As happy as I am to hear of non-members seeing a need to have food storage, I am hoping with the new convenient way to obtain food storage items, that the number of members using the canneries will increase.
Not to be preachy or anything, BUT, members of my church are to have a minimum of 3 months food storage for all members of their families, if they are following the council of the church leaders, in which they have sustained.
Here is the direct quote from the LDS Newsroom:
According to the Church’s Providing in the Lord’s Way pamphlet, “Members should build a three-month supply of food that is part of their normal diet; store drinking water in case the water supply becomes polluted or disrupted, and gradually build a longer-term supply of food that will sustain life.”
If you are not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints faith, the Cannery welcomes anyone to use their services. There are 101 locations nationwide. For more information or to locate a cannery near you, go to:
www.providentliving.org
or click on this link:
LDS Canneries Locations
The canneries will be fully functional and ready for retail purchases starting November 1, 2013!!!!
Yeaaaaaa!!!!!
~~Wheat~~
Why store Wheat?
I asked myself a million times, why would I store wheat. I took one look at the stuff and said "what in the heck would I do with it?"
Friends would say, "how do you store your wheat?" I would say, "I don't".
Well, times have changed and now I store wheat.
True Story.
When I first decided I would have a food storage, I bought all kinds of things in bulk. I had some shelves in my garage. Just threw a 25 pound bag of flour on the shelf and that meant I had flour in my food storage. About a year later, my friend said, "how do you store your flour." I said, "it's on a shelf in my garage." She looked confused and said, "I know, I mean do you have in it 5 gallon buckets or smaller buckets, or barrels?"
I'm now the confused one. I say, "I'm suppose to put the bag in a bucket?"
Well, I have come a long way since then.
Now I do store my food correctly and that's when I realized all the flour I have been storing has a short term expiration. Some as early as 5 years and up to 10 years for others, depending on how you store it and the climate and conditions it is stored in.
Now, here's why you store wheat.
Wheat, after grinding, becomes Flour.
I swear I never knew that! I'm not the cook in my house.
It's shelf life, if stored properly, has a shelf life of 30 years and some believe longer than that.
So, now I store wheat!
Here's a picture of my latest purchase.
I had about 200 pounds of wheat. I just bought 300 pounds more.
Here is what 300 pounds of wheat looks like.
50 pound bags of Hard Red Wheat.
I bought 6 bags on a recent trip to Utah. Where I got such a great deal on the wheat. It was like $17 per 50 pound bag.
In the past, the wheat I had bought was from the same place and I bought it for like $13 for a 50 pound bag. So, the price has jumped in $4 in 2 years time. Once again, proving to myself that food is actually an "investment".
A 50 pound bag of Wheat fills up a 5 gallon bucket and a half of one. So, using three 5 gallon buckets, you can store 100 pounds of wheat.
Storing wheat!
2 options.
Read below for the 2 ways you can store your wheat.
Under the heading:
Diatomaceous Earth
or
Oxygen Absorbers
Both work. And in some of my buckets, I have both.
The main thing to know about storing Wheat, is that bugs call weevils can develop in your storage.
Is that not the most disgusting thing????
No thanks! So please read on about Diatomaceous Earth and/or Oxygen Absorbers. Those two things will prevent weevils.
~~ Diatomaceous Earth ~~
Yea, "what is that? Diatomaceous Earth? Never heard of it"!
Let's abbreviate that! I'm calling it DE.
DE is a mineral that is high in silica. Silica is a mineral that is actually something humans require. When reading up on DE, I have found some people are actually taking this on a daily basis. Ummm, that's great but not why I have been looking and researching DE. My need for DE stems from wanting to keep my Wheat from having bugs in it! Turns out the stuff is good for human consumption so I need not worry about mixing it in with my wheat. Turns out, it also keeps wheat from "sprouting". Until I started storing wheat, I had no idea that Wheat "sprouts". So also good to know the bug cure is also a sprout cure.
So here is the whole reason I am researching DE.
I wanted to know how much I needed to put in my 5 gallon buckets.
For a 5 gallon bucket, the standard answer I found was:
1 cup of DE per 5 gallon bucket.
A good way to mix it in with the wheat is to fill bucket 1/3 of the way with wheat and then mix in 1/3 cup of DE. Continue that with the next third and so on.
I found that this is a great way to store Wheat. There are some people who use Oxygen Absorbers for their wheat. This is not a wrong way to store wheat. Oxygen Absorbers are an option. However, I have decided to go the DE route, to keep the wheat from sprouting too!
Where do you get DE???
I asked my mother-n-law that very question. She sent my father-n-law downstairs to the basement and he came back with a jar full of it and said "here you go"!
Pretty sure that isn't going to work for whoever may be reading this.
In looking around the internet about DE. I found that Amazon.com has many retailers selling DE. This isn't very hard to find online.
It's pretty affordable. Although cost is not the only consideration when choosing DE, the most important thing I tell myself is: How mad will I be 20 years from now I go to use my wheat and find that it is crawling with critters and there are little plants sprouting??? Pretty mad actually.
~~ OXYGEN ABSORBERS ~~
Well, the rumors are true....mostly!
The good news is that the part of the rumors that are true yields happiness to my life! Not so long ago, rumors within the church, was that the Canneries would be closing. This is the NOT true news! The other rumor was that they would be open for retail sales only on pre-packaged items. This got my feathers ruffled a bit. But with a recent announcement from the church, the word on the street now is that even though it is only the pre-packaged items, they are offering more items to purchase than what was previously offered, such as pre-packaged milk, apples, spaghetti, elbow macaroni, etc.
I am so happy to hear this. This will make food storage so easy for so many who have busy lives. Before, trying to make a canning session fit into busy families' schedules basically kept people from actually getting food storage at a great price. Now, it's just a purchase. No cannery sessions. You can even order from the church and it be sent to your home if a cannery is not In your area. I am very fortunate that a cannery is located in my area within 20 minutes from my home. I feel so blessed to have this and I know the members of my community are blessed as well. The cannery in my area, has approximately 40% sales to members of the church. That means 60% are non-members utilizing the canneries. As happy as I am to hear of non-members seeing a need to have food storage, I am hoping with the new convenient way to obtain food storage items, that the number of members using the canneries will increase.
Not to be preachy or anything, BUT, members of my church are to have a minimum of 3 months food storage for all members of their families, if they are following the council of the church leaders, in which they have sustained.
Here is the direct quote from the LDS Newsroom:
According to the Church’s Providing in the Lord’s Way pamphlet, “Members should build a three-month supply of food that is part of their normal diet; store drinking water in case the water supply becomes polluted or disrupted, and gradually build a longer-term supply of food that will sustain life.”
If you are not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints faith, the Cannery welcomes anyone to use their services. There are 101 locations nationwide. For more information or to locate a cannery near you, go to:
www.providentliving.org
or click on this link:
LDS Canneries Locations
The canneries will be fully functional and ready for retail purchases starting November 1, 2013!!!!
Yeaaaaaa!!!!!
~~Wheat~~
Why store Wheat?
I asked myself a million times, why would I store wheat. I took one look at the stuff and said "what in the heck would I do with it?"
Friends would say, "how do you store your wheat?" I would say, "I don't".
Well, times have changed and now I store wheat.
True Story.
When I first decided I would have a food storage, I bought all kinds of things in bulk. I had some shelves in my garage. Just threw a 25 pound bag of flour on the shelf and that meant I had flour in my food storage. About a year later, my friend said, "how do you store your flour." I said, "it's on a shelf in my garage." She looked confused and said, "I know, I mean do you have in it 5 gallon buckets or smaller buckets, or barrels?"
I'm now the confused one. I say, "I'm suppose to put the bag in a bucket?"
Well, I have come a long way since then.
Now I do store my food correctly and that's when I realized all the flour I have been storing has a short term expiration. Some as early as 5 years and up to 10 years for others, depending on how you store it and the climate and conditions it is stored in.
Now, here's why you store wheat.
Wheat, after grinding, becomes Flour.
I swear I never knew that! I'm not the cook in my house.
It's shelf life, if stored properly, has a shelf life of 30 years and some believe longer than that.
So, now I store wheat!
Here's a picture of my latest purchase.
I had about 200 pounds of wheat. I just bought 300 pounds more.
Here is what 300 pounds of wheat looks like.
50 pound bags of Hard Red Wheat.
I bought 6 bags on a recent trip to Utah. Where I got such a great deal on the wheat. It was like $17 per 50 pound bag.
In the past, the wheat I had bought was from the same place and I bought it for like $13 for a 50 pound bag. So, the price has jumped in $4 in 2 years time. Once again, proving to myself that food is actually an "investment".
A 50 pound bag of Wheat fills up a 5 gallon bucket and a half of one. So, using three 5 gallon buckets, you can store 100 pounds of wheat.
Storing wheat!
2 options.
Read below for the 2 ways you can store your wheat.
Under the heading:
Diatomaceous Earth
or
Oxygen Absorbers
Both work. And in some of my buckets, I have both.
The main thing to know about storing Wheat, is that bugs call weevils can develop in your storage.
Is that not the most disgusting thing????
No thanks! So please read on about Diatomaceous Earth and/or Oxygen Absorbers. Those two things will prevent weevils.
~~ Diatomaceous Earth ~~
Yea, "what is that? Diatomaceous Earth? Never heard of it"!
Let's abbreviate that! I'm calling it DE.
DE is a mineral that is high in silica. Silica is a mineral that is actually something humans require. When reading up on DE, I have found some people are actually taking this on a daily basis. Ummm, that's great but not why I have been looking and researching DE. My need for DE stems from wanting to keep my Wheat from having bugs in it! Turns out the stuff is good for human consumption so I need not worry about mixing it in with my wheat. Turns out, it also keeps wheat from "sprouting". Until I started storing wheat, I had no idea that Wheat "sprouts". So also good to know the bug cure is also a sprout cure.
So here is the whole reason I am researching DE.
I wanted to know how much I needed to put in my 5 gallon buckets.
For a 5 gallon bucket, the standard answer I found was:
1 cup of DE per 5 gallon bucket.
A good way to mix it in with the wheat is to fill bucket 1/3 of the way with wheat and then mix in 1/3 cup of DE. Continue that with the next third and so on.
I found that this is a great way to store Wheat. There are some people who use Oxygen Absorbers for their wheat. This is not a wrong way to store wheat. Oxygen Absorbers are an option. However, I have decided to go the DE route, to keep the wheat from sprouting too!
Where do you get DE???
I asked my mother-n-law that very question. She sent my father-n-law downstairs to the basement and he came back with a jar full of it and said "here you go"!
Pretty sure that isn't going to work for whoever may be reading this.
In looking around the internet about DE. I found that Amazon.com has many retailers selling DE. This isn't very hard to find online.
It's pretty affordable. Although cost is not the only consideration when choosing DE, the most important thing I tell myself is: How mad will I be 20 years from now I go to use my wheat and find that it is crawling with critters and there are little plants sprouting??? Pretty mad actually.
~~ OXYGEN ABSORBERS ~~
Rookie Move Alert!!!
I put Oxygen Absorbers in my SUGAR!
This is apparently a huge no-no!
I was at the LDS Cannery, doing some canning of items in #10 cans.
While I was there, I noticed signs around the cannery above canning stations that said "All items get an Oxygen Absorber except Sugar".
Hmmmm....
I knew I had 5 gallon buckets of about 30 pounds of Sugar at home in my Food Storage. Hmmmmm
Not wanting to sound like I have no clue what I'm doing, I casually said halfway through the canning station to the group, "So, why doesn't sugar get an oxygen absorber?" The response in the room was pretty much what I expected. I was in fact, the only one in the room who did not know the answer. The answer (in unison) was that "Sugar is made up of moisture", "There is moisture in Sugar", "Sugar has moisture", "Sugar has water in it"....
You get the idea. They continued on, if you have them in your sugar, it will dry it out and then when you go to use it, it will be no good. "Not even edible for the dog" said one person.
So, on the ride home, I told my husband about the conversation. It occurred to us....newbie logic here....If the Oxygen Absorber absorbs Oxygen and Water is made up of Oxygen (i.e H-2-0), then it probably breaks up the water molecules leaving the sugar hard and un-useable.
Ok, so not sure if that is the proper chemical reason but it sounded good to us. We knew we had alot of buckets to go through. We opened all our 30 pound buckets of sugar and pulled out the Absorbers. In some of them, I had 2-3 Absorbers. I was being over-cautious on loading my food storage up with these nifty little items.
So, with this new news to me....I decided maybe I should actually do a little research on Oxygen Absorbers.
So here is a list of a few things I found:
- Do not use with Salt or Sugar (your sugar will turn to concrete and hard as a brick)
- Generally one abosrber per gallon of dry goods should do, also depends a little bit on how much air space there is as well.
- Prevents mold and bacteria from growing.
- Keeps food as fresh as possible.
- Takes all Oxygen out of the bucket or can, and leaves the voided space with just nitrogen.
- Insects, weevils, germs cannot live or thrive without oxygen. They will keep your food safe from any critters.
- Do not expose them to air for more than 15 minutes at a time.
- Do not store them in a ziploc bag. Store in a jar with a sealed lid.
- Do not buy more than what you will use up in a year.
- Use with Dry milk, Eggs, Meats, Dehydrated foods, Freeze Dried Foods, Grains, Beans, Oats, Barley, Brown Rice, Soybeans, Peanuts, Whole Wheat Flour, White Flour, Wheat, Cornmeal, White Rice (Note: Not all these items are sensitive to Oxygen, however, you still want to keep the environment free of Oxygen so insects and bugs cannot live).
Where to buy Oxygen Absorbers???
I buy mine from a local LDS Cannery for 10 cents a piece. I have seen they can be found on Amazon.com or other places. Just keep in mind, they are relatively inexpensive. So if you are paying more than 10 cents a piece, you may be paying too much. Try to only buy what you will use. When buying in bulk, try not to buy no more than what you would use in a year's time. If more than a year old, you may want to consider tossing them and getting new ones. Better safe than sorry.
~~ Gamma Lids! ~~
What an awesome invention, right???
Why use a Gamma Lid? What purpose does it serve?
Gamma Lids are for Food Storage that you want to rotate and Food Storage that you get in an out of.
I have a few 5 gallon (food grade) Buckets that have Gamma Lids on them. I am a little eccentric about Food Storage, so mine are color-coded!
Red is for Sugar
Blue is for Flour
Orange is for Oats
Black is for Beans
Yellow is for Rice
You get the idea!
First you place the sealed rim on the bucket.
Our method is banging a 2x4 with a hammer to get the buckets sealed.
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Then you just screw on the lid to the sealed part of the lid.
This is what I call "Rotating Food Storage".
I fill it with food. Typically a 25 pound bag of anything will fit in most 5 gallon buckets.
This is the bucket that I get in and out of to fill a #10 can.
A #10 can is about the equivalent of a gallon of food. So when my #10 can is empty, I go to the Rotating Food Storage and fill the can up and put the can back in my pantry.
To me, this is the most effective way to buy food in bulk (particularly 25 pound bags of food) and store it. An awesome way to save money! I usually find the 5 pound bags of food in the grocery stores are the same price as the 25 pound bags from Costco, Sam's Club, Cash and Carry, the LDS Cannery or WinCo. So much more cost effective to buy in bulk!
You can buy Gamma Lids online at Shelf Reliance from My Online Store
I have also seen these lids at WinCo and Macie's Grocery Store in Utah.
I have seen them on Ebay and I believe there are other companies online that sell this product.
No matter where you get it, you will find them to be awesome lids!
I love them!
~~ Cansolidators!!!! ~~
Is that a misprint? Nope!
Cans-olidators!
I bought 5 of these things, thinking it would be cool to have a way to rotate my old can goods to be used first before new can goods get used.
These things are brilliant!!!
This is a product from Shelf Reliance.
I love them!
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The idea is that you load your cans in the Cansolidator. You grab the one on the bottom row out to use, and then the cans roll forward. When adding new cans to the cansolidator, they get loaded from the top row. This ensures that you are cooking the oldest can in your pantry first.
I did NOT need my hubby to put these together.
After loading up 3 of the cansolidators with food in my existing pantry and placing them in my disaster of a pantry, I was able to see how much more valuable they were than just keeping your rotation of canned goods with current dates. One other thing my husband and I noticed, was that, as soon as we were loading up, we found cans lost in the back of the pantry that we forgot we had. I had no idea there was a can good of Pineapple Chunks. I think I bought that 2 years ago! Now I can see it and now I can use it!!!
I love my cansolidators! Well worth the investment!!! Even if used out in the garage for your food storage instead of in a pantry, they do come in handy!
I feel so organized now!!!
Doesn't this just SCREAM organized???
Can you believe these things hold up to 40 cans??? They have some that hold 60 cans and some that hold 20. I like th 40 I chose that fit great in my pantry. You can't really see how many cans are in each row, but 10 cans in a normal size row is easy to achieve!
THUMBS UP! SHELF RELIANCE!
Here is another place I used my cansolidators.
I use them in my food storage room.
I connected 2 together, to create one more row actually. So instead of 80 cans, it's more like 90 cans of storage in this configuration.
The cansolidators are strong enough to also hold my cases of canned foods on the top of them.
Shelf Reliance stuff is so awesome!!!!
If you would like to order yours, just check out the cansolidator products with Shelf Reliance by clicking here for My Online Store
Here is another place I used my cansolidators.
I use them in my food storage room.
I connected 2 together, to create one more row actually. So instead of 80 cans, it's more like 90 cans of storage in this configuration.
The cansolidators are strong enough to also hold my cases of canned foods on the top of them.
If you would like to order yours, just check out the cansolidator products with Shelf Reliance by clicking here for My Online Store
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