Pantry Preparedness – Assurance Through Preparation

Food storage is one of those things that most everyone thinks about at one time or another, but food storage seems so boring. Is it possible to store fun things like candy? Candy that is packaged correctly can be stored long term, preserving the appearance, freshness and flavor. This can easily be accomplished by vacuum sealing in mason jars. There are so many ways to take your food storage to the next level, here are the candy storing details you will need to get started. What Type of Candy Can Be Stored? When it comes to storing candy, almost anything that you can imagine can be stored. When coming up with the types of candy that you want stored, you would do well to ask your children for help. I promise that they will be valuable in the choosing process. I have personally seen many types of candies stored including m&ms, smarties, tootsie rolls, mike and ikes, hershey's kisses, suckers, jolly ranchers and many more! All of these candies store really well and not only are they fun to look at, once you open them up you will be surprised to find that they still taste amazing! Candy That Does Not Store Well In some of my candy preserving experiences I have come across some sweets that have not preserved especially well. Either they didn't taste as good when we opened them back up, or when we processed them, they couldn't take the pressure. The main one that comes to my mind is cherry chocolates.... yes we did try to preserve cherry chocolates. I can only imagine how good a delicious chocolate covered cherry would taste after the world fell apart and you were living on bread and water. The problem with the cherry chocolates was that during the process of removing the air from the jar, the outer chocolate cracked and all of the sugary goo spilled out, leaving us one large gooey, chocolatey, cherry lump. Did it taste good? of course it did! But it was not pleasing to the eye, and it was quite messy. The other candies that come to my mind are Reeces peanut butter cups. These do store well for a while, but because of the peanut butter they might not last as long unless you add a moisture absorber in the jar before you seal it. Mixing and Matching One thing to be aware of is during the life of your candy, it will begin to taste like the other things in the jar. So if you choose to mix your candy together, that is totally fine, just know that everything might end up with the same flavor. When I was young my mom took all of our excess halloween candy and she vacuum sealed it all together. We got to taste it every now and then, but over time, everything just started to taste like tootsie rolls. Storing candy is as easy as....well taking candy from a baby. (and then putting it in a mason jar.) What You'll Need There are a few special tools that you need to do this project. The vacuum sealer is the most speedy, but it is extremely multi-purposed and is definitely worth every penny. Prep work: First you will want to identify the type of candy you plan to store. Purchase the amount you wantTake clean glass mason jars and fill them with the candies of your choice. If you don't already have one, you will need a Food Saver Vacuum sealer. (Found on Amazon) and the lid attachment. What is the Candy Preservation Process? Now you are ready for the Vacuum sealing process. (which is extremely easy) Place a new lid on your mason jar.Press the lid attachment securely over the top of the jar. Insert the hose into the lid attachment.Press Start to begin the sealing process. If it is able to make a tight seal, it completes the process in under 30 seconds. If it takes longer, then wipe the rim of the jar with a dry cloth and check for any nicks or cracks. Then repeat the process. How Long will the Candy Last? This is the number one question when it comes to home storage. How long will it last? And while it is nice for the food tat you store to last a long time, this might be the wrong question to ask. (Especially when it comes to storing candy.) Typically, you will want to open the candy to try it long before it would "go bad" Storing candy is also great because of the little nutritional value. Yes, there is some value to sugars, but this is mainly for enjoyment. So you won't have to worry about it losing its nutritional value. Overall I would suggest checking your jars once a week for the first 2 weeks after you seal them to make sure that the seal is strong. After that, checking the seal every 6 months to a year should be sufficient. Usually after a few months after I seal candy, I'll pop the lid open and do a taste check, then I'll seal the jar back up. Repeat this every three months so you can know when it looses it flavor. Benefits of Adding Candy to Your Long Term Storage Many people who start their food storage, do it with a survival mindset. That is a good thing, because having the food that will allow you to survive is great. Personally I want to do more than survive. I want to enjoy myself, and chewing raw wheat doesn't sound like my kind of fun. While you are working on building your home storage, take the time to add a few things that will bring you comfort in a difficult time. I Want to Eat the Candy Now Yes, this is a common concern. Whether its you or the kids, someone always wants to break into the candy supply. The way we have done it in the past has worked well. If you are bottling other foods, take one of them out of the box or put the candy with another group of preserves. At one point we had a #10 can full of jolly ranchers, but we labeled it broccoli and you can bet that kept the kids away. Find a responsible adult and have them hide it. Then at least it will be a fun game. Experiment! Preserving candy is a great way to get everyone excited about food storage and it will give you leverage when you are trying to get them to eat the food storage meals. Have your kids and spouse choose the candy they like and try to preserve it. You can write dates on the lid to remember when it was packed and it will be fun for everyone to open their favorite candy every now and then to see if it is still good. Food Storage is fun!

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