So this weekend i bought 200lbs of oats from a local farmer. I plan to put in a light cover crop on our fields but was also thinking about storing some. I bought 4 of the Walmart HDPE 2 5gal buckets this weekend and I'm wondering how I should go about storing these. I don't have a vacuum sealer yet so i am basicly stuck putting these in the buckets with oxygen absorbers and bay leaves. Is this okay? Should i do anything else to insure there are no bugs ect? Has anyone ever stores whole oats? My plan is to get a Norpro Grain & Wheat & Oat Grinder Roller Crusher Mill - eBay (item 290540824180 end time Apr-01-11 18:36:27 PDT) and use them for granola and cream oatmeal. I paid $20/100lbs Thanks Jason
O2 absorbers will work in a sealed bucket i have some stored that way. I also got mylar bags on line for a buck each put the oats in the bags with the O2 absorbers then sealed with a cloths iron. Did you check on what you need to do to prep the as for cooking? There is a difference between whole oats and rolled oats whole can be ground for flour but need to be rolled for oat meal.
Yep I knew i needed to roll them for oatmeal. The oat roller is cheap enough to get. Didn't know i could use them for flour but stands to reason. Jason
I've seen this before and have done it but don't know why exactly. I think it is to kill of the crawly things right. Wouldn't it be better to freeze after you seal so nothing else crawls in?
WalMart buckets ARE NOT food grade ...... need to use the mylar & O2 for max storage term ....... no need to freeze grain prior to storage ...... no air/no bugs
I don't guess it would matter when you froze the grain,and as IW said,you may not need to.I'll take every advantage I can get,so I'd freeze it anyway.In some cases redundancy doesn't hurt,right?
Are the oats dehulled? If not, forget it. if they are dehulled, you really need an oat roller to get oatmeal. As to storage, o2adsorbers should be fine without bay leaves. Without the mylar, you will get oxygen through the bucket over time, but it will still store for a long time. I wouldn't worry about packing gains in non food grade new buckets. I'm pretty sure the grain bin, grain scoops, auger, tub, grain truck, etc were not all food grade. If we were talking about some sort of wet pack food, this would be a different issue.
The secret to long term storage is getting rid of the moisture and bug supporting atmosphere. I have Argon(welding gas) so I rigged up a tube on a regulator to "shoot" the containers full. I use two food grade bags individually sealed inside the containers. Nitrogen or CO2 will do the same job. To use grains you will need a mill to grind it to flour, cornmeal, etc. You can easily store any dried bean/pea and pastas the same way. If you are local to NC/SC you can see a demo at our April gathering. Really a simple process with great results.
