Comments on: Step 5: Grains

By: Frank

Frank — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 19:52:00 +0000

Enriched White Flour
Uses – Cakes, biscuits, etc. Types – Bleached or unbleached. —- chlorine, while unbleached is aged and bleached naturally by oxygen in the air. Storage – If unopened, optimum shelf life is 5 years. If opened will last about 6-8 months.
“if unopened” what possible protection is an un-opened bag or box, they provide no barrier to air infiltration.

By: Richfab4

Richfab4 — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 01:32:00 +0000

A friend at work just found out rats have no problem getting into cans. Keep cats close and buy mason jars.

By: Barb

Barb — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 23:08:00 +0000

Another idea to keep around plastic containers is mint leaves to deter bugs/mice.

By: charles

charles — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 22:41:00 +0000

you made me hungry gonna cook rightnow. nice work ladies. I’ve got a lot to do, and you’re planning is going to help Alot! thx

By: Jodi - Food Storage Made Easy

Jodi - Food Storage Made Easy — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 03:46:00 +0000

These are just the ones listed on basic food storage calculators. We definitely recommend that people experiment with other grains and quinoa is one of our favorites!

By: bethalope

bethalope — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 19:57:00 +0000

why is quiona not listed? It’s a complete protein, easy to cook and delicious!

By: Richfab4

Richfab4 — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 23:28:00 +0000

Just remember insects are easy, mice & rats will get thru plastic and mylar bags. Keep cats around the plastic containers. Cans and glass containers are rodent proof but have their problems. Cans can rust and glass can break. Im putting alot of my dry goods in mason jars. Publix has the best price for quart ones and Ace has the larger sizes for two dollars a piece(comes in six pack). Cans can be waxed.

By: KT

KT — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 17:06:00 +0000

Wheat can be stored in 6 gallon buckets lined with a mylar bag. A 6 gallon bucket can hold about 46 pounds of wheat berries. I get my 6 gallon buckets, lids, and mylar bags from USA Emergency Supply. An alternative to your question would be to break down your wheat storage into smaller bags, but it would be more cost effective to use a vacuum sealer and vacuum sealer bags with oxygen absorbers in them. They are cheaper than mylar bags. Then each vacuum sealed bag can be stored in your mylar lined 6-gallon bucket. You can choose a size bag that work for you. If this would be your active bucket, I’d recommend using a gamma seal lid on it. You could use a more permanent lid on your longer term storage wheat. If you use a lower quality vacuum sealer like a Food Saver, their bags are thinner and more likely to puncture when sealing hard products such as wheat and rice. However you can reduce the risk of this happening when the bags are smashed against each other in storage by wrapping each finished vacuum sealed bag in a layer or 2 of saran wrap. A nicer near commercial quality vacuum sealer for home use is a Weston Pro 2300, that uses thicker better quality bags. You can also use the food saver mason jar adapter with the Weston. Lastly, food stored in vacuum sealed bags with oxygen absorbers doesn’t have to be stored in buckets, which are less conducive to efficient space usage when storing bagged food. You can get a giant dark opaque rubbermaid tub, put a couple 6 gallon mylar bags in there, and then put your vacuum sealed bags in those. This would be good for dry food you intend to use in 1-2 years.

By: Jodi - Food Storage Made Easy

Jodi - Food Storage Made Easy — Wed, 11 May 2011 03:58:00 +0000

I think it’s a great idea to split it into multiple mylar bags. Basically
once you open a bucket/bag you lose the benefit of the oxygen absorber. The
idea is that you may have 10 buckets sitting there in storage and as you
rotate through it you will open one at a time. It may take a year or two to
rotate through a bucket of wheat, but that one bucket will be fine left
without being so carefully preserved for just a year or two. It’s the
buckets that will not be opened for 20 years that you need to worry about.
If you think that you will go through it more slowly then that, another
option is to store in #10 cans so you only have 1 can opened at a time. Or
else your mylar bag inside a bucket option would work well also. Hope that
helps a bit!

By: benedictus

benedictus — Wed, 11 May 2011 00:42:00 +0000

Have a question about long term food storage for grains. Normal storage is 5 gallon bucket, mylar bag and oxygen absorber. Could you package (10) 1 gallon mylar bags of grain then put it in the 5 gallon bucket? That way you only take out what you need without disturbing the freshness of the rest of the grain in the bucket. The only negative I can see to this is extra costs of extra mylar bags. Any thoughts? If you only use (1) big mylar bag, what happens to all the grain in the bucket when you open the bucket multiple times to retrieve what you need? Do you add another oxygen absorber each time you open it? Thanks!