If you had asked us a year ago about whether or not we had a year’s supply of food (per this counsel received from our Latter Day Saint prophet back in the late 90s), we would have looked at you and laughed—we barely kept more than 3 months of food on the shelf, although J has always told me that I can spend as much money as I want on “food” (he is a big eater!) and “education”. We blame our lack of a bulk food supply on the fact that J is in the military, and living overseas in Japan for three years at the beginning of our marriage didn’t allow us to get a good start on provident living. Ask us today, however, and we can honestly say we have a one year’s supply of food, and other miscellaneous supplies, to boot!
Jared put together 4 shelving units to help store our food in the garage.
Each of those white boxes with the colorful labels holds six #10 cans of various legumes, wheats and dried fruits and vegetables. Each label allows for you to see the nutritional value of an item, and when necessary, cooking directions. An individual label and the date is also conveniently stamped on every single #10 can, just in case you want to take the #10 cans out of the boxes.
One of the things that made it difficult for us to accomplish this food storage undertaking was our physical location in proximity to a cannery—we never lived terribly close to one. Our move to AZ put us within a 75 mile drive of the Tucson Cannery, so it was the first location in which we were able to commit the time necessary to complete the task.Our ward goes to the cannery once a month, usually the last Saturday of the month, to can food storage orders submitted 3+ months prior to pick up (apparently it takes SLC that long to mail the food supply to us). You can order everything from white flour to pinto or black beans, and even potato pearls. Jared was out of town the last time I went to the cannery, so one of my YW from church, Clairanne, donated a Saturday to me (I helped pay for her trip to girl’s camp this year), and learned the tricks of the trade. Also, not enough members of our stake had submitted orders, so they canceled the trip for the month. Tucson East Stake was kind enough to allow us to join them.
The biggest rules that are important to remember are: 1) Wear close-toed shoes and 2) Wear a hair net and gloves, and change gloves every time the item being canned changes in order to prevent cross-contamination.
First you wipe off the table. 
Then you start scooping or pouring the item in to the can.
Then you tap and shake to settle the contents.
Next you top off with the item and place an oxygen absorber on top (except for sugar!).
Finally, you seal the lid and lable the individual can. After packaging, you can clean up. 
While we canned, other church members boxed our order for us, so all we had to do was pay for it, verify we had everything, and roll it out to the truck. Very clever way to do it--we probably finished a lot sooner because people were working different angles of the cannery at the same time.
Now that we have our supply, the most important thing to do is ROTATE! We need to use it up and make sure nothing spoils. Judy (Jared's mom) is also purchasing an electric and a manual wheat grinder for me for my birthday, which will make it easier for me to try out new recipes for my very own, hand-milled cream of wheat, egg noodles, and tortillas. It feels good to be prepared and living within our means. I am grateful we decided to get serious about it!
P.S. - I know this post is dated for nearly 6 weeks ago, but I figured I would put a date in that would allow me to look back with accuracy when trying to remember when things happened!
Several of my colleagues and I were inducted into Lambda Epsilon Chi, the National Paralegal Honor Society, for graduating in the top 10% of our class and with a 3.9 0r higher (I had a 4.0!). The hard work paid off--I was provided a special honor chord to wear during graduation, and a framed accomplishment certificate along with a lapel pin. :)
