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Food storage question??
dreher
Member Posts: 8,786 ✭✭✭✭
Living in the south, the problem of bugs, always has to be factored into the storage of many types of foods.
With the uncertainty of our current national and world situation my wife wants me to put up some flour. My thoughts are if I just put up some flour, 6 to 8 months from now, should we need it, I can easily envision opening up a bag of flour and looking at a bunch of worms, or whatever, happily eating away.
My thoughts are to roll a bag of flour up in a trash bag, put it in my freezer for 6 weeks, then when we need it, it will be bug free.
Thoughts on this approach. Any other ideas??
Comments
My wife bought an attachment for the Foodsaver vacuum sealer. You place your product in a canning jar in put a lid on it. The device pulls a vacuum on the lid and seals it.
https://www.amazon.com/FoodSaver-FCARWJAH-000-Wide-Mouth-Regular-Accessory/dp/B016OL1AB6/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwt-6LBhDlARIsAIPRQcKvo68ToLyaro7SPEF0XGaApEiKrZfcb3X0oLiHYipsf0HoHOjWl38aAgtREALw_wcB&hvadid=295293398323&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1027041&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=9138242108774130470&hvtargid=kwd-329759641335&hydadcr=20217_10157732&keywords=foodsaver+jar+sealing+kit&qid=1635512681&qsid=143-6901977-6621734&sr=8-2&sres=B016OL1AB6%2CB08PWWVRRQ%2CB097LJ6Q94%2CB08SRV3NX3%2CB093FXK7FJ%2CB01C464ZCQ%2CB00DI342IW%2CB00DI342B4%2CB01D5TMBE0%2CB01MDRSCVF%2CB08DHKPBHS%2CB086FRJYHJ%2CB08BDHZ1PV%2CB07VSVRNFH%2CB08W9W58JR%2CB0114CZYJE&srpt=VACUUM_SEALER_MACHINE
I see nothing wrong with your plan countless sites on the internet about food storage the prepper's have countless post and video's not to mention the off grid or just old methods of preserving food of course the bugs just add protean .
as a kid I seem to remember meal worms ( what I remember them called ) by now I would hope they have found a way to kill them off when packing the flower and corn meal ? they had to have eggs laid in the grain and hatch out later on in the product no way could bug get into a sealed package ( assuming its been sealed the whole time )
just do some internet searching you will find all you want on food storage
That should work, I would think. Once we ended up with 200 pounds of bulk sugar. I put it in gallon zip lock bags (about five pounds) then put four of those bags in five gallon buckets with lids. Kept in the garage real good. We also have two non working upright freezers in the garage that we use for pantries. Slow temperature swings, and sealed up tight against bugs/rodents.
Never had to worry about this and after reading your post I wondered if freezing would kill the bugs or just make them dormant. A quick search found this;
Looks like freezing will do the little critters in and then storing in a airtight container will accomplish your goals. Bob
flour keeps for about a year. whole grain hard red winter wheat keeps for 25 years. so does corn.
buy a 5 gallon bucket of each and a hand cranked grinder and you will be all set.
Best solution, keep it in the freezer and use as needed......it will keep it's powdery form and not get hard. At normal storage temperatures even sealed up grain weevil eggs will hatch unless chemically treated which you don't want.
"Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee
Then reason I asked this question here as opposed to just going on line to look for the answer is that anytime I go online looking for information on a topic such as this, I get such a volume of information, about half of which isn't correct, it isn't worth my time reading all of the info available. Most of you learned individuals have already been down this path and have found out what works and what don't work!! So I'm being lazy and picking your brains for what you have already learned!! 😁
beans are also a wonderful food. if you dig around on the internet you can find one gallon cans of dried beans, and corn and wheat. keep for 25 years in the cellar. here is my Corona grain grinder.
i keep many grain products in my freezer, even self rising flour seems to work as it should for at least a year.
Sealable plastic containers exist.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
Though pricier you can buy canned flour. Use the vacuum sealer jar attachment and they will keep for a long time. You can freeze them after sealing if you want.
The important thing is to use the oldest and replace with new. Food storage is a great idea but stocking up in things you don't use just leads to throwing it out when it gets to old. There are some large low cost bulk items you can do that with if you want to be ready for extended need such as beans and wheat.
You can use the jar vacuum sealer for many things to keep critter out. Sugar, brown sugar, flour, corn meal (freeze the cornmeal for sure), macaroni, other pastas, the list goes on. Different sized jars make it easy.
Put it in the freezer .
One main process not mentioned is if you grind the grain yourself do NOT forget to sift, it'll remove the live weevils (and trust me, they're in there) but sifting does not remove the insect eggs, that's what freezing takes care of. Whole grains stored in containers long term will most likely be powder when opened.
"Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee
these 5 gallon buckets and one gallon cans are nitrogen packed. i have eaten these foods that were 5 years old and they were just like new. Taste good! Certainly not dust, and no weevils. Bugs cant live in a zero oxygen environment.
From many accounts i have read, you can store hard red winter wheat in this fashion for 25 years and it will be fine to eat.
Faraday cage : Pyramid Power ...
Insect eggs are in a lot of flour, corn meal, everything else.
Sealable containers just keep the insects in, when they hatch and grow
Yes. My understanding of the original question may have been swayed by the supposed regionality of the infestation. I errantly presumed the intention was to keep bugs OUT that weren't already IN. mea culpa.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
No insects in bleached flour.
As in most endeavors, there .is a right way and a wrong way to store grains long-term. I am talking 25 to 30 years. I have seen a 25 pound plastic bag of wheat for sale. Probably great food but it wont last 2 years. As others have said, weevils will destroy it.
There are two ways to store wheat, or corn or beans long term.
put them in a nice basement or cellar and these foods will last 25 years or more.
You guys can feel free to use my deck for a couple weeks. If I want to preserve / sterilize something I package it and set it out there for a couple weeks of -20 to -40F. Kills everything.
Thank you for the offer!! Off the top of my head, the transportation costs might be a little excessive!! 😁
No charge on this end... as long as there's some steaks in the pile.
I did that one winter, a cooler half full of meat out on the deep freeze / deck. I forgot about it, it got covered in snow.
Next August or so, I thought "I wonder what's in that cooler?" and opened it.
I just closed it again and threw the whole thing away. Good LORD that was a bad smell.