Dry Pack Canning

This week I checked out a dry pack canner from the LDS Cannery to can items for my one year long-term food supply. If it is hard to get a appointment at your local LDS dry pack cannery (I can't get an appointment for the St. George cannery until April 2009), you can request to check out a canner. Then, buy grains and beans in bulk, along with the cans and oxypacks (you can buy all of this at the cannery) and do it at home.

I had members of the ward (congregation) sign up for times to come do their own canning. One of the items I packed was black beans. I canned about 50 pounds of black beans in this session.

In my garage I had a fairly good set-up for doing all of this. I put the cans up on the work bench, and had a small table to the side for setting the large bags of food. Because I was doing all of this by myself. I filled all of the cans first before getting the oxypacks out.

Below is a picture of the can with an oxypack in it. This are meant to keep the food fresh for a longer period of time. They have a limited amount of time to be exposed to air, so I put these in the cans after I have all of the product in the cans, put the lids on, then start sealing the cans.

I was able to get about 12 cases of food canned in about 2 hours. That is 72 cans of food for my long term food storage. I will gradually use and replenish what I have, and always have enough food on hand for my family. If you are unfamiliar with long term food storage, go to http://www.providentliving.org/ for more information. I will store about 300 pounds of grains per person/year and about 60 pounds of beans per person/year for my household.

The items I drypacked this time around came from both the cannery and Costco. I put up Calrose rice (our family favorite), black beans, fruit drink powder, hot cocoa powder, white beans, oat groats and dehydrated apple slices.

If you would like to store food items in the #10 cans, but aren't into doing the work, you can actually go in and purchase certain items already canned. This includes rice, pinto beans, hard red wheat, oats, or a starter kit with each of these products in the case. You can get additional information at http://www.providentliving.org/ .