Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.
Made the trip to the local LDS cannery the other evening. It was interesting. Im not a social critter, I really dont like having to participate in group activities that require me to interact with new people. It just feels awkward and Im very used to doing my paranoid apocalyptic preparations by myself. On the other hand, the Mormons appear very big on group activity and ‘many hands making light work’. So, I smile and behave and do my best to get along. I think I made an okay impression, although next time I should try to appear a bit more clean-cut.
A customer of mine let me tag along with him, so thats how I got in on this. We arrived early and I got the tour of the facility..a nondescript building near the airport. There was a large warehouse-size room with racks of tall steel shelving and pallets of various bulk and canned foods, in another room was the dry-pack facility which was a standard commercial kitchen type affair – tile floors, steel tables, hair nets, etc, etc. The two things that interested me most were the electgric canning machine and the mylar bag sealer. Both would be extremely handy for my own needs, but theyre priced for larger outfits than my small circle of like-minded individuals. I can seal mylar bags just fine with an iron and a flat surface, but the foot-pedal operated rig they had was, admittedly, really sweet. The machine for sealing up #10 cans was nice and you can find hand-operated ones on eBay but the electric ones are the way to go. Spendy though.
When everyone who was going to arrived had finally showed up it was time to start the show. It was a little disorganized at first but that improved as people started finding things to do. There were about ten people in attendance plus the volunteer who was in charge of the facility that day. The guy in charge gave a little pep talk about how everyone who was there was doing a great thing by being responsible and taking precautions to protect themselves and their families and that they should be proud of themselves for taking these steps, etc. Really nice…the sort of reinforcement most of us don’t get in this field. There was an opening prayer too and I just kinda looked at my shoes and analyzed the floor tile while that was going on. I think it wasnt a secret that I wasnt in their church, but Im pretty sure no one knew just how far out of their church I was. Everyone made a list of what they wanted, those lists were added up and then an appropriate amount of food was moved to the canning area. For example, if three people wanted four #10 cans of wheat, then an amount necessary to make 12 cans was removed from the bulk area. It was all wheeled into the kitchen area and the work begun. Hairnets, beard nets (as necessary), aprons and gloves for all. Empty #10 cans were filled with product and passed to another person, that person weighed the cans and adjusted the amount as necessary, the can was then passed to the next person who added an oxygen absorber to the can, passed to the next person who put the can in the sealer and closed it up, passed to the next person who labelled and date stamped the can, passed to the person who arranged the cans in the boxes. A very simple setup once everyone finds their particular role. Efficient too. I dont want to be critical but it seemed like there was a need for people to specifically be instructed at the begining who will do what rather than just sorta falling into whatever role was open or appealing. But..I was a stranger there and perhaps its usually more organized. Im sure not going to complain…the folks took things seriously enough to be there and to have a dedicated facility for this sort of thing. I respect that.
In addition to the canning, I got to play with the mylar bag sealer and I liked it alot. Sure an iron and a 2×4 work, but this thing was nice.
In addition to food being available, what really made my day was the packaging supplies that were available. One-gallon mylar bags, in bulk. Oxygen absorbers! And cardboard boxes that’ll fit six #10 cans per box (which I need very much for my loose cans of Mountain House floating around.)
Also interesting, the desk in the office had a rechargeable 12-volt battery sitting on it, hooked up to a trickle charge, some radio gear, and a statewide map showing various call signs across the state. So, in addition to the cannery they also have quite the radio network.
Get on these peoples good side now, I suggest.
All in all, I had a good time and Id very much like to go again. It was nice being around people who dont look at you funny if you talk about storing drums of corn and wheat, MRE’s, freeze drieds and whatnot. Matter of fact, a couple of people expressed some interest about getting in on the next Mountain House group buy.
If it wasn’t for that whole religious angle I’d sign up just for the networking and access to resources. Sadly, there are no affiliate memberships for non-believers.
