Those of you interested in stocking up on foods should track down their nearest LDS cannery. I went to the Houston one last night, had a great time helping package the stuff, and left with forty-five #10 cans of assorted rice, beans, wheat, sugar, macaroni, powdered milk and more for $178.

The process is simple, just call the local cannery and ask when you can come. The Houston cannery runs two shifts a day, one starting at 9am and the second starts at 7pm. When you arrive for the shift you hand them this form with your choices. Everyone else also hands the person in charge their forms and it all gets totalled up. Then the bulk packages are brought over from the wharehouse and you split into teams to fill, label, and seal the cans. As they are sealed others sort them into boxes according to the form you submitted. Once a bulk bag has been opened its entire contents need to be canned. This results in some overstock of stuff. Once all the shift's orders are filled you can pick stuff from this overstock to add to your order. You do have to pay regular price for it, but the prices are so low it's hard not to throw in a few extras (I grabbed three extra #10 cans of flour for $2.90 each).

The labels are all preprinted with nutritional data, storage lengths, and in the case of dehydrated stuff directions on rehydration. I had the smallest order of the 10-12 people there but even so we finished canning everything up in less than three hours. The people were all really nice and there was no issue with me not being a Morman and there were no attempts to convert me. A very non-denominational prayer was said at the beginning, but I couldn't tell any difference bewtween it and the prayers at my church.

Technically non-Mormans are only allowed one trip to the cannery, but this rule isn't always enforced, especially if you work hard and pleasently.

Anyway, I thought a few people might be interested in this so there ya' go.

-Blast

> Technically non-Mormans are only allowed one trip to the cannery

For life?

It's mainly up to the person in charge of the cannery. Back at Y2K people were coming in repeatedly, buying tons of stuff and then reselling it. This caused tax issues for the church and so they put the one-time-only clause in for non-members. The lady in charge of the Houston cannery seemed pretty mellow on this rule, basically if she liked you you could come back. She mentioned one non-member that had been back many times and was even allowed to borrow equipment to can stuff at home.

-Blast

Thanks Blast! Good Info.

Very nice idea... and worth looking into

Wow. That's very cool.

Thanks for the info, Blast!

If I visit the cannery, what are the chances I might exit the cannery in a #10 can labeled Soylent Green?

Will they let you bring stuff, such as ammo or survival gear, and seal them into cans???

That is an exceptional idea!

Are the folks in the Houston cannery familiar with the people in Carrolton (Dallas)?

At one time they did, I don't know if they still do. Now days you might just be limited to the bulk dry foods they carry. Call and ask, though maybe you don't want to mention ammo. Ask if there's anything you aren't allowed to bring in and put in a can.

You can buy heavy-duty mylar bags and oxygen absorber packets from them to seal stuff up at home. The mylar bags can be heat-sealed with a regular iron, there are directions on the internet.

-Blast, always trying something new.