Question about grains

If you have lids with good seals, yes.

I used to store staples - flour, oats, rice, dry milk, different beans and including peanut butter in 40 gal. qty - in stacks of plain old 5-gallon buckets all the time. Of course, with three very hungry mouths to feed a well as a nephew who was usually over (never could fatten that kid up ), the stores were always being rotated, it seemed. But I never had trouble with bugs or spoilage as long as I kept every thing set in a cool, dry spot out of the sunlight or in a closet so warmth from the woodstove wouldn't affect, etc.

Now I wish I still had those buckets . But I'm working on it.

You can also, for short-mid term storage, use a large garbage can with a lid to set your bags of whatever into. The can shouldn't have been used for anything else, of course, but a 32 gallon one at Wal-Mart (curse their name) sells for about $14 and is pretty heavy. Not for really long term storage, but rather mid-term in which you parcel out. For instance, I keep gallon glass jars on the counter or on the shelf of stuff like oats and dry milk to use 'every day' but the remainder of those bags (ranging from 25 lb to 55 lb) are in the big can tucked away. It'll take us a little while to go through those quantities, especially now Spring is coming (and fresh veggies, yay!) but storing these particular bags away for long term then breaking the seals each month would be wasteful and a real hassle.

 

Just askin here but i had ammo that was put inside a cardboard box and wrapped in wax. Now what about if in a deep can you release N2 gas pu your staples inside and then rewax the box opening. Only reason i am throwing this out is because it made my ammo water proof and when i opened one of these boxes the ammo/brass was shinny like new?

 

Similar but not the same. One is a silicate clay, the other actually fossilized skeletons.

Fullers Earth is typically used in cosmetic applications (great for acne); DE comes in two grades - food/human and horticultural.

 

So where is the best place to get food grade 5 gallon buckets with sealed lids at? I have been looking for a while but everything is order our I guess i will be stuck mail ordering since no one local has them in food grade?

 

Is there by any chance an Amish comunity in your area? If so they generaly have a dry goods store and theones I have been to usualy seem to have (sometimes in back and you have to ask) food grade buckets since they use them a lot also. Other than that, you could get the big (30 gallon or what ever) ziplock bags and line the buckets with them then fill it up and seal it so whats in contact with the food is food grade and the bucket can be a regular CLEAN bucket with a sealing lid to protect from rodents or other damage to the bags.

One other option for food grade buckets might be if you talked nice to the managers at local fast food joints (and maybe even offer them a couple bucks each) you may be able to get theirs. I know pickles come in them though getting the pickle smell out is near impossible but also so other sutt comes in them at a lot of the places and the pickle flavor would only mess with taste maybe but wouldnt hurt you.

 

just asking here but if you have lets say 200lbs of beans and break them up into 5lb vacuum sealed bags can you then use any 5 gallon bucket. I know you wont be maximizing the amount you can put in the bucket but at least you know if you do open a bucket you arent going to have to eat all the beans if you cant get the O2 out?

 

I would say any CLEAN bucket. I wouldnt want to use one with chemicals still stinking it up but like the ones you get new from the hardware store and such should be fine.

 

A friend of mine is married into a Chinese family, so they eat rice like the Irish eat potatoes. They take bulk rice, put it into clean 2-liter soda bottles, then store them on their sides on shelves (kind-of like old artillery shells).

 

I was reading the Backwoods Home Magazone book "Emergency Preparedness" and there was a good tip about storing flour and grains. The author of the article is Jackie Clay and she freezes packages or buckets of grains before storing them away. Freezing is supposed to kill the moths and moth larvae.

Moths were the worst problem we had several years ago when we just stored grains in our pantry in their cardboard boxes. It took several tries of dumping all grains out and scrubbing the pantry with a bleach mix to finally eradicate them. Now even fast used up foods like breakfast cereals as well as longer term ones like rice and oats are stored in the plastic containers with gaskets.

I just bought 20# each of several bulk grains and put them into 1 gallon freezer ziplocs, then 3 of those into inside 2.5 gal ziploc bags and finally several of those into into 20 gallon storage bins. Some I just put into 2.5 gal ziplocs and those into 10 gal ziplocs. With salt, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda that makes at least a two month supply.

I just read about this freezing idea so I am going to try that over the next couple of weeks. for larger storage I will probably go with the 5 gallon buckets (you can even get some at Home depot) with the gamma lids and some mylar bags then either try the CO2 or the nitrogen. But even then I will freeze the grains and flours in small batches after putting into 1-3 gallon ziplocs.

 

You threw out the grain? We have had bugs get in our grain before and just pick out what we could and ate the rest.

OGM

 

Isnt that what sifters were invented for? Get out the big bug pieces and make the rest less noticeable.

 

Yep.

OGM