Canning Dates for the Rest of the Year

Below are the Canning Dates at the Church Regional Cannery for our stake and a reminder about the cannery guidelines.

For more information about Canning at the Cannery, see the How do you get your food storage? post and Policy Change at the Cannery Post.

Canning Dates:

Sep 11, 9 am - 2 pm
Oct 9, 9 am - 2 pm
Nov 6, 9 am - 2 pm
Dec 4, 9 am - 2 pm

Basic Rules:

1. All orders must be received one month before the canning date. Orders should be on the form provided on providentliving.org and e-mailed to the Peacocks at rpeacock8123@yahoo.com
2. Bulk supplies may not be brought in from outside sources for canning in the cannery.
3. Those operating machinery must be at least 16 yrs old.
4. Those receiving canned food must attend the canning session or be babysitting for someone who is canning. You can't can the food for others who are not participating.
5. Children can not be accommodated. There is no place for them to play.
6. Everyone participates on canning everyone else's orders and helps cleanup. Therefore, a person is there for the full canning session.
7. Payment is preferred by check or it must be exact change. Prices may change slightly from what is on providentliving.org and the prices at the cannery due to price changes.
8. Bulk supply orders may be picked up at any time during the session. Note: As soon as the orders are filled and cleanup is done we leave and the cannery is closed. This has been as early as 10:30am.

Policy Change at the Cannery

The Cannery has recently become more available. As opposed to being only allowed to can on the stakes assigned canning date, you can can at any time between 8am and 4pm, Tuesday through Friday. The Stake Family Canning Coordinators suggest calling ahead to make sure a canning worker will be there to help you. The Cannery people often close up shop early if no one is there to help.

Bishop's storehouse/Cannery phone number is 281-537-1785

Let me know if you have any questions about this change.

Thanks!!!

July Cannery Date Cancelled

I recently got an email from the Stake Family Canning Coordinators. They will be out of town in July, so the canning date in July is cancelled.

How do you get your food storage?

Obviously, there are many ways to get food, but I believe the best way is through the Church. The Church's regional canneries provide foods storage items of good quality and economical cost.

To order from the cannery...

1. Save the Family Home Storage Food Products order form on your computer


2. Type in what you want in the "Number of cans," "Number of pouches," and "Number of packages," and/or "quantity" columns.


3. Click on "Order Total" on the bottom right to have the total calculated for you.


4. Save your changes.


5. Email the form to Brother and Sister Peacock (our stake's canning coordinators) at rpeacock8123@yahoo.com.

The Peacocks would like to receive all orders one month before the next canning date, but if the next canning date is less than a month away, email them and ask if there's space for your order to be canned that day.

To get what you order...

1. Go to the cannery on the scheduled canning date (see Canning Schedule post)


2. If you ordered cans, you and everyone, who ordered cans, work together to can everyone's order. Also, everyone who ordered pouches will be sealing pouches together. Essentially, everyone will help out until everyone's order is filled. If you ordered in bulk, though, you can either simply pick up what you ordered and leave or help others out.


3. Drive home with your order. :)

For more info and guidelines, see the Canning Schedule post.

Ordering Online

I finally found where you can order your food storage online. It's at ldscatalog.com. It is more expensive (case of 6 No. 10 cans of quick oats $20.50 vs. $13.25) to cover shipping, but it might be worth it for you. To see the online catalog for food storage items, click here.

The rest of the information here was in the Longer-Term Supply post, but for clarity purposes, I moved it here.

So...how should I store the food? In No. 10 Cans, Pouches, or Bulk?

When we were first looking into buying our food storage, I didn't know whether to buy it in No. 10 cans, pouches, or bulk. Since then, I've talked to several people about what they've done, and I've found that it all depends on how you're planning on storing it and use it once you get home. For our family, we went ahead and got all boxes of No. 10 cans. They stack well. They're protected against bugs and rodents, and when I open a can, I don't have to worry about how to store the rest of the food I don't use. The No. 10 cans I bought came with plastic lids.

Some people are die hard pouch fans. One advantage is that pouches are cheaper to buy and hold a bit more food than the No. 10 cans. Also, you have more readily available opportunities to pouch than to can your food (if you pouch your own food). I believe every ward has a pouch sealer, and some members have even bought their own sealer. One disadvantage is that although pouches protect the food from bugs, they are not rodent proof. You'd have to store the pouches in another container (i.e. large plastic bins with covers or 5/3 gallon drums). Also, once you open a package, you're opening a bag as opposed to a can with a lid.

Buying in bulk is definitely the cheapest way to buy, but you run into the problem of how to store the food once you open the large bag. This is where having access to a pouch sealer comes in handy. After you buy 25 lb bag of _____ and a bunch of empty pouches from the cannery, you borrow the ward's or a friend's sealer, and then, bada bing bada boom, you'd have your food storage.

Canning on your own requires more planning. The stake has a canner you can borrow for five days (talk to Sister Peacock in Sugarland 3rd ward), and a sister in the Mablewood 2nd ward (Sister Margarita Trudo, I believe) has a canner. With canning you should remember, it's difficult to can more than one type of food item at a time because you have to meticulously clean between each food you'd like to can.

According to Sister Trudo, it's best to setup canning parties where only one food item is being canned. For example, you want to can wheat, so you invite all your friends with wheat to come join you and can wheat for a couple hours. During that time, your kids play together, everyone bring treats (hehehe), everyone helps clean up, and then everyone goes home happy with their canned wheat. Then you set up another date (the next day or the next time you borrow a canner) with all your friends who want to can oats.

Sound's good? Well, personally, I think it's easier to order canned food items from the cannery, go to the cannery on our stake's schedule day, help everyone fill everyone's order, and go home happy with all of what you ordered already canned, but don't necessarily take my word for it.

Well...Happy Food Storage Building!

Longer-term supply

The fourth and final topic of the Family Home Storage Pamphlet is the Longer-term supply. The pamphlet simply says that "for longer-term needs, and where permitted, gradually build a supply of food that will last a long time and that you can use to stay alive, such as wheat, white rice, and beans."

The following chart shows what the Church recommends storing and at what quantities for a single adult.

So, if you want to build a year supply for two adults, the church recommends you getting 600 lbs of grains (25lbs * 2 people *12 months) and 120 lbs of dry beans (5lbs * 2 people *12 months). My husband, Nate, and I decided to just get 9 months worth of grains and dry beans since we already had a three month supply of food.

The Church also says on providentliving.org that "you may also want to add other items to your longer-term storage such as sugar, nonfat dry milk, salt, baking soda, and cooking oil. To meet nutritional needs, also store foods containing Vitamin C and other essential nutrients."

Having grains and beans, I believe, is a good starting point for your foods storage. That is all Nate and I have right now. Soon, I do want to add the rest of the food mentioned above (sugar, nonfat dry milk, etc.)

Random thought: I'm finding that nonfat dry milk is a good item to have now that milk is getting more and more expensive. By itself, I'm not a big fan of dry milk's taste, but it's a good economical substitute for milk when cooking/baking.

Please note that the Food Storage Pamphlet says "to gradually build a food supply that will last a long time." It said to "gradually build" not to have a headache buying it all at once, and it said that you should get enough to last "a long time" not specifically "for a year." I think, however, building enough food for a year is a good goal.

How do you get your food storage?

Well, I actually made this information a post of it's own.

Canning Schedule for 2010

Below are the scheduled canning dates for this year and the guidelines/rules set up by the stake's Family Canning Assistant Coordinator, Sis. Peacock.

Canning Dates
Jan 15, 9 am - 1 pm
Feb 12, 9 am - 1 pm
Mar 13, 9 am - 2 pm
Apr 16, 9 am - 2 pm
May 14, 9 am - 2 pm
Jun 12, 9 am - 2 pm
Jul 10, 9 am - 2 pm
Aug 14, 9 am - 2 pm
Sep 11, 9 am - 2 pm
Oct 9, 9 am - 2 pm
Nov 6, 9 am - 2 pm
Dec 4, 9 am - 2 pm

Basic Rules:

1. All orders must be received one month before the canning date. Orders should be on the form provided on providentliving.org and e-mailed to the Peacocks at rpeacock8123@yahoo.com

2. Bulk supplies may not be brought in from outside sources for canning in the cannery.

3. Those operating machinery must be at least 16 yrs old.

4. Those receiving canned food must attend the canning session or be babysitting for someone who is canning. You can't can the food for others who are not participating.

5. Children can not be accommodated. There is no place for them to play.

6. Everyone participates on canning everyone else's orders and helps cleanup. Therefore, a person is there for the full canning session.

7. Payment is preferred by check or it must be exact change. Prices may change slightly from what is on providentliving.org and the prices at the cannery due to price changes.

8. Bulk supply orders may be picked up at any time during the session. Note: As soon as the orders are filled and cleanup is done we leave and the cannery is closed. This has been as early as 10:30am.