Be Prepared Channel: Getting Started

So in this episode we are going to get down to some nitty gritty. We are going to do a demonstration on how to buy, and vacuum seal up some items for your storage. I know if you read my last post on www.ready.gov and are looking at those lists you may have your hands full with shopping lists. Not to worry we will be circling back and doing some more on the various items in the list.

Today we are going to give you the list of things that you will need to start storing some of your own food items. So as we demonstrate this we will need you to have the following so you can participate in the fun:

Shopping List:
- Food saver vacuum sealer with canister sealing ability
- Canister vacuum sealer top, preferably the wide mouth top
- Canning jars, preferably the wide mouth top, rings and lids
- Various beans, lentils, pasta, dehydrated fruit that you like to eat(all items need to be dry)
- A canning jar funnel
- A sharpie marker, a pen or pencil, and a notepad to begin building your inventory.
- Optional, oxygen absorbers

Foodsaver:
Now for the Foodsaver. I own a couple of these and the key to the Foodsaver is to get one that has the canister port on the unit. The most recent model I purchased is the V2040. It was the cheapest one I could find and it has the canister port on it. Here is a picture of the unit:

So this doesn't have to be a fancy unit. I believe I paid $75 shipped to my door. This unit comes with the hose needed for the canister sealer top, but did not include the large mouth jar sealer. You will need to buy that seperately.

Jar Sealer:
It is called a Wide Mouth Jar sealer. You can find them on Amazon and a number of other places. I couldn't seem to locate these at my local Walmart with the other canning items, or over where the Foodsaver items are, but you might check your local Walmart to see if they have these. Here is the picture of the jar sealer:

Jars:
Now you need some canning jars. Depending on how many people you are going to have will determine to some degree the size of these jars and the amount of food you will want to store. I find with a family of 4 that dry pack items can be put in the largest jars I can find. I ended up ordering 1/2 gallon Ball canning jars to get the largest size I could find, but I have also been buying the regular quarts and pints size jars to meet the variety of needs that I have for canning. So for this exercise find yourself some jars with lids and rings. We can talk about the number of jars and details a little later. Right now we just want you to see how easy this process is so that you will know you can do this on your own.

Food:
Now onto the important stuff. The food. You will want to get a selection of beans, lentils, rice, pasta, and other dry items that you will want to store and will eat. I simply went over to the section in Walmart where they have beans, lentils, and rice and picked some up for the purposes of this demonstration. They come in 16 oz bags, and are very affordable. You can get between 3.5-4 lbs of beans or lentils into a jar depending on the item and how much it will settle when shaken down during the filling process.

Canning Jar Funnel:
This is a very helpful item and I highly recommend getting something like this to make the job of filling jars much easier and much less messy. They are inexpensive and worth the investment. You can get them in plastic or stainless steel. For dry pack items like this the plastic is fine, but for wet items I will use the stainless steel.

Optional: Oxygen Absorbers
Now to some this might be controversial, but I have had good results both ways with and without the oxygen absorbers. It is just peace of mind if you have them. For the purposes of this demonstration I won't have the oxygen absorbers, but please keep them in mind. You can find these at Honeyville Grain online. It is a great place to buy items already dehydrated, canned and packed if your looking to purchase items and their shipping cost cannot be beat. So check them out. The 100cc oxygen absorbers are what you need and I would toss a couple of them in each jar. Below is an image of the various sizes of absorbers that are available: