Best methods to store flour long term?

[JimB..]

Couple thoughts.

Soda bottles and the like are gas permeable. It isn’t just that the lids leak, gasses pass through the plastic. They are not ideal for long term storage because of this.

Using dry ice to evacuate oxygen might work in AZ, but in NC the water vapor in the air condenses on the dry ice, so I’d be sealing in a lot of moisture. I don’t know, but isn’t the fog from dry ice really very fine water droplets…like in real fog?

If you’re buying 6 months worth of flour at a time, storage isn’t too critical, any sealable container kept in a closet will be fine. I still freeze it first. Speaking of which, I seal it first, then freeze so as to avoid any condensation on the product when taking it out of the freezer.

Oxygen absorbers are great, but the guys that make them say not to use them in combination with a desiccant. Your humidity is so low that you wouldn’t bother, just wanted to point it out.

FWIW, I like glass containers in the pantry, even though they are fragile. Mylar bags in buckets is probably better if you’re stacking really deep.

[Thumbcocker]

Any Amish store will have bags of wheat berries of different sizes. Also rolled oats and other grains. I bought 2 10 pound bags to sow on the garden plots for a cover crop.

[BJK]

I buy my grain from a health food store. It's special order (I buy full sacks every time) so I tell them what I want and have it next week. There are also places online to buy.

[memtb]

I guess that it depends upon what you consider “long term”! Flour does not store well long term, even when stored it plastic buckets, Mylar packaged with oxygen absorbers….it loses much quality after a few years.

Long term….wheat berries (whole grain) store in the above mention method will last 25+ years. You just need a grinder/mill to make your own flour! memtb

[MT Gianni]

My wife grinds her own with a mill for the Kitchen aide. She has had the same mill since the early 80's. We usually split whole wheat 50-50 with bread flower. We grind and keep about 5 lbs of flower at a time. She has some packets that absorb oxygen she puts in the berries before storing them.

[fiberoptik]

If you don’t have room in deep freezer you can always “toast” in the oven on cookie sheets. We have done our oatmeal and some rice that way.


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[Geezer in NH]

We store wheat berries, red and white, we also store oat groats along with popcorn. Grind all in our Whisper Mill and have a Country Living Mill for when the electricity is gone. I grind 16 cups of berries at a time and store the flour in a Rubbermaid cereal storage container.

We just bought a corm grinder from Amazon to make our own chicken feed supplementing the feed store purchases.

[MaryB]

I have 200+ pounds of wheat berries on hand, all spent 6 weeks in the deep freezer then went into 5 gallon buckets with gamma seal lids. I have a Retsel flour mill with real stones, there are also many cheaper mills out there if you don't mind an arm workout! The old Corona flour mills come to mind. Do a double grind with them for fine flour.

Little Ark Retsel mill with the pulley flywheel(I motorized mine) $310 https://retselusa.com/store/index.ph...2ks6e48uslhki5 Retsel customer service doesn't exist, expect 6-8 weeks for delivery...

Corona mill, slow, takes time to grind enough flour for 4-5 loaves of bread, $90 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00838YC5A...sp_detail_page millions of them in use, parts readily available, can be motorized by modifying a pulley. Keep speeds slow!

Heat is the enemy of flour so the cooler you keep it while grinding the better, slow is better than fast!

Best price on gamma seal lids. When putting the adapter ring on the bucket use a rubber mallet and keep working around the rim until every hit is solid, if you don't the bucket won't have a tight seal. I see people reporting their buckets leak, they post pics and you can see the ring is not on straight so not all the way seated into the O ring. https://freckleface.com/shopsite_sc/...roduct514.html

If you buy old strains of wheat you will find that people with gluten issues really don't have a gluten issue. They have a problem with a protein that modern wheat has in 10 times the amount old varieties have. Grocery store bread gives me stomach issues if I eat to much... old varieties of wheat I grind myself? I can eat as much as I want.

I use a food strainer(mesh type with a handle) to sift out some of the bigger hunks of bran when making bread. Makes a lighter more airy loaf. Can save the bran to make muffins, add to cereal...

Store excess ground flour in the fridge to preserve nutrients. Every day it loses some and at 2 weeks it has lost a LOT of its nutrient levels. I use excess to make a batch of sourdough waffles that I freeze. Take 2 waffles out, drop in the waffle maker to reheat them and crisp them up.

Sorry this got long!

[Jim22]

Usually, the bugs do NOT get in it. The bugs are already in the flour, or maybe I should say the larvae is in the wheat that the flour is made from. If you read the label, there is always "inert" ingredients listed. The "inert" ingredients are insect larvae and possibly weed seed. Freezing the flour should make a difference.

He's right. Maybe not larvae but at least eggs. People nowadays don't know why it became popular to run flour through a sifter. It's to sift out the weevils and such. Bakeries buy flour by the truckload - like ready mix outfits buy cement. Those bakeries have huge bins that the flour goes into. It gets automatically sifted as it is scaled and used.

Jim

[dverna]

Aldi’s sells popcorn tins of soda crackers. They make excellent storage containers. Or a thrift store!
Try sourdough.
http://carlsfriends.net

Survival foods—great info. Try the 3.3 cent breakfast!
https://www.survivalplus.com/category/survival-foods/
Also has info on grinding flour cheaper. (Corona hand crank grain grinder)

Buy in bulk from Sam’s/Costco/BJ’s/Tractor Supply Co./Farmers market/Co-Op, etc.

We bought 50 lbs. of wheat berries (feed, not treated seed) from the grainery years ago. We put the wheat in the commercial cottage cheese buckets, topped off with a paper towel, added a chunk of dry ice, & waited till the fog ran over the top. Put lid on, marked & dated it. We finished it off 12 years later. Still good. No bugs. It no longer would sprout, but ate just fine.

Link does not work

[Geezer in NH]

We have 2500 lbs plus of red berries from Walton feeds. My late sister was a Morman. Also have equivalent of the 4 for survival stored due to her influence.

Wheat berries inside a sealed Mylar bag inside a plastic bucket. 02 absorbers in each sealed mylar bag. Our combined order for pick-up at her church took 3 trips with a 1500 Chevy and trailer. (She bought for 6 pepole, we bought for three)

We use between 2-3 bucket a year and replace every year or 2.

I buy the white berries wholesale and store in our own Mylar bags using 02 absorbers, then in the mpty buckeys from the first purchase. The buckets get a Gamma lid from a previous purchase of a gross of them at an auction cost $2 per lid.

Sorry for typos and grammar it's raining heavy and my artyritus is bad today.

[fiberoptik]

[/URL] https://www.survivalplus.com/the-per...ent-breakfast/[URL]

Cooking in a thermos
[URL]https://www.survivalplus.com/saving-money-with-a-thermos-bottle/[URL]

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[Geezer in NH]

neat link thanks. her is the link to the book my sister gave to everyone in the family.


https://www.amazon.com/Passport-Surv.../dp/0394492285

Passport to Survival: Four Foods and More to Use and Store Hardcover – April 1, 1974
by Esther Dickey (Author)

[fiberoptik]

Her daughter’s book looks even better!

https://www.amazon.com/New-Passport-...=Esther+Dickey


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[Idaho45guy]

I had no idea what a wheat berry was. Never heard of the term. I grew up next to thousands of acres of wheat fields. We use to go grab a head of wheat and roll it in our palms to separate the chaff from the kernels, then eat the kernels for a tasty snack.

Turns out, those are wheat berries. Learn something new every day.

[oldscool]

^^^^^
Same here.

[Iron369]

I just buy 12lb bags of all purpose flour. Vacuum seal them in mylar bags with O2 absorbers. Store them buckets for easy transport. Usually 3 12lb bags fit nicely in a 5 gallon bucket