by Sherry Christensen, Stake RS Temporal Welfare and Self-Reliance Specialist

 Are you adding to your food storage items regularly? It might be wise to check your inventory just before the New Year!

 This year has brought us a great drought – have you increased your water storage (either more bottles or larger containers) ?

 TIP: Try saving $ next year by RE-USING canning lids. I have done it for 3 years now, roughly 300 lids each year. I’ve used Ball, Kerr, and off-brand lids – very few have failed me. Be careful not to damage lids as you remove them from jars (inspect each one). Then, after washing them thoroughly, dry and then store for next year. I cross out the previous date written on the lid and just add the new one. This is how I know I have RE-used them. Some I’ve even RE-used twice!!!

 TIP: As you empty and wash canning jars, store upside-down on shelf so the jar remains relatively clean. This makes cleaning so much easier next year. Store empty jars behind current filled jars, then as the rows empty of full jars, they will fill with empty jars, ready to use again the following year.

 TIP: Bottle 2 years of each item at a time, and then rotate what you plant each year. For example, if you bottle both carrots and beans, plant and bottle carrots one year and beans the next – this automatically rotates crops and makes it easier to do your bottling.

 TIP: If you make jam/jelly from berries, place berries in zip-loc bags… adding berries to a previous bag that didn’t quite get filled up… and freeze until berry season is over. Then, during those cold winter days when you have nothing to do, pull out all of the berries and make jams and jellies. It prevents having to do ALL of your canning during autumn, AND, by the time you do jams and jellies, more jars have become available. You don’t have to gather so many jars all at once.