This morning I went to the cannery for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mukilteo. I've never been to a cannery before... it was a wild experience!
And the fact I went today was particularly apropos, since there was an article in the Seattle Times this week about the cannery. Go me for doing stuff when it's newsworthy!
Anyway. So you place an order for a bunch of canned goods, like flour, sugar, oats, whatever, and then you have to come on a certain day and can all your stuff yourself. Yes, they emphasized that if in fact I had not shown up to can my own stuff, my order would have been canceled. No one would have canned it for me. My, those Mormons sure are industrious, are they not? I think it only makes sense that the logo for the cannery (and a bunch of other Mormon stuff for that matter) is a beehive.
But, back on track: What happens is, it's not like I canned a can of flour, a can of oats, and a can of rice and then took my three cans and went home. There were 15 of us, and we all had little jobs. I was in charge of spaghetti. I filled and sealed 15 five-pound pouches of spaghetti. Some people took huge bulk-buy bags of sugar and poured them into #10 cans. (Number 1o, not 10 pound.) Someone else shook the cans so the sugar leveled. Then someone sealed it with the canning machine. Which was loud. And in the end, every can that was ordered was filled.
Basically, I felt like I got my "money's worth" (and time's worth) since I went home with 27 cans, or 4.5 cases (6 cans in a case). Contrast that with someone else there who had 18 cases... which is too many cans for me to count. I think her bill was over $650. Dang. So, my point being, if I only wanted like one can of wheat, I would have been totally jipped into doing everyone else's dirty work for just one can. So I guess my advice is, if you're going to go to the cannery, go all out.
I feel pretty good. It's nice to know we have some food storage. I mean, I need recipes still and the creativity to USE the food storage, and heck I also need a wheat grinder because what will I do with little wheat kernels if there is an emergency? But I feel like we've taken a step in the right direction.
I've been encouraged to have food storage on hand for actual meals for 3 months, and food storage on hand for sustenance only (i.e., you won't die) for 9 additional months, for a total of a one year's supply. I think I'd like to do it.
So I add another huge project to my list. Why do I do this to myself?
3 comments:
Way to go. My mom has a recipe (and maybe you can look it up online) where you grind wheat with milk in a blender to make a pancake mix with it - it's really good. So, I know you can grind wheat in a blender if you add liquid...something to look into and might save you actually buying a wheat grinder. :)
If you have a KitchenAid stand mixer, you can buy a wheat grinder attachment.
Also: I'm so glad you wrote this because I've been a member of the church all my life and have NEVER been to the cannery. I was curious about how it actually worked, and now I know! I'm totally going to do it next year when sign-ups are available.
yay Angela! If you ever had an emergency and had no wheat grinder, you can soak the wheat kernals in a thermos full of hot water and it makes an oatmeal kind of cereal. So I hear...I've never actually tried it. But my friend swears that it is great.
My friend Carlene (link to her blog from my blog) is quite the food storage expert, so check her blog out and her sidebar links for more ideas.
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