My Food Storage Deals: How I store my long term grains

How I store my long term grains

>> Saturday, March 21, 2009


MY FOOD STORAGE BASICS: FLOUR, WHEAT, RICE, SUGAR, OATS, BEANS

I have still had several questions from people wondering how I store my grains (in my pantry). Well..if you read this post before Wednesday and you live in Utah, Maceys is having a great sale on their 5 gallon food storage buckets. I went and bought six of them (with lids) and have put my long term food storage items in them that I use the most (wheat, rice, flour, sugar, beans, oats). I then keep them in the bottom of my pantry so that I can easily access them when I need to use them in my cooking or fill my canisters on my counter. I have really enjoyed this method! If you have the money to invest in Gamma Lids, they will screw on tightly to your bucket and make for easy access to your food. They are expensive ($5.99 ea. lid) but only need to bought once and will keep your food fresh and sealed for years!

The key to making sure you rotate through your food storage is to make your food storage items accessible. If it requires too much work, you most likely will not use your food storage. You need to get it out of your storage room and into your kitchen. That is where you will use it and rotate through it.

Posted by Shandra at 10:02 PM
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12 comments:

Austin March 21, 2009 at 10:38 PM  

This may be a silly question, but how do I get the lids on tight. I have tried using a hammer, but they always pop off. Is there a trick or secret I don't know about?

Heidi March 22, 2009 at 1:53 PM  

what type of grains are in your six buckets?

Angie March 23, 2009 at 9:39 AM  

Most food storage aisles have the bucket opener tools (kind of like a bottle opener) for sale for around 3 or 4 dollars. I found mine in the painting section at Home Depot for 99cents. Not a bad savings. Just thought I'd share!

Angie Tolman March 24, 2009 at 10:26 AM  

Austin, Try using a rubber mallet. And watch for the seal of the lid to go around the top of the bucket.

Shaylyn March 26, 2009 at 1:47 PM  

I have invested in gama lids for my flour, sugar, cornmeal, and rice buckets and it works perfectly...very easy to get into those items.

Jen March 28, 2009 at 10:39 PM  

I also store grains, flour and sugar in 5 gal buckets in my pantry. This may be a stupid question, but, how do you store wheat in your long-term food storage? I'd like to stock up on 25 lb bags of wheat. Do I need to get buckets for all of it? If I store it in the bags, will it get wheavels? I've heard that wheavels often come from the packaging -- like the paper bags. Is this true?

Thanks for all your help and info on this site!

About us... April 1, 2009 at 4:51 PM  

I find that to insure that insects do not find there way in if a lid is left ajar is by using diatemaceous eartch. It has been a life saver.

Sybrina April 9, 2009 at 6:06 PM  

I have completed our dry pack storage using buckets and it is a great way to store food. However I recommend you really do your research on it before you start investing in all that food.

From the research that I've done through the LDS church dry pack, the life span of your grains is only good for many years if you seal them properly -using oxy packs(except don't use them with sugar unless you want it to go hard). Using plastic buckets with oxy packs alone will eventually cause the buckets to crack because of air pressure. It makes sense - the oxy packs are used to limit oxygen to prevent weavil from infesting. The only way that I have found to use the buckets is to line them with mylar bags (similar to the ones the church uses), drop in a couple oxy packs, and seal them up. You can buy ziplock mylar bags which makes them reusable! Then you don't have to worry about finding a sealer to seal them with. I do think you need to make sure each one you seal them well-pushing down to make sure no air escapes the zipped seal. I also use the gamma lids, as they are so much easier to open.

See my blog to see a couple pictures. I'm not an expert on this. But, this is just what I figured seemed to work for us.

http://stewartship.blogspot.com/2008/07/crazy-about-food-storage.html

And, here's the link for the mylar bags:

https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/emergency_supplies/mylar_food_storage_bags.htm

Also note you should not store plastic buckets directly on cement floors.

Unknown April 16, 2009 at 1:50 PM  

How long will the buckets be okay using just the oxygen absorbers? Why not put the buckets on concrete? I am expecting a large shipment of grains very soon. I was looking for other info and came across this - I have never heard either of these two topics before. I have done quite a bit of reading on grain storage and this is new to me. Any and all help apprciated greatly.

Thanks
Pat~Momof2inMO

Sean Lewis April 18, 2009 at 8:28 PM  

Do you know where we can get the OXY packets online? Also, which Basic items did you bucket?

Unknown May 2, 2009 at 8:58 AM  

I have seen hundreds of food storages. I have helped organize & consult on what to have
included in your food storage. I share the ideas that I have accumulated over the years.

Along with your wheat, beans & rice, your canned foods etc. Some even have MRE's & freeze
dried items. Whatever it is you have in your food storage, I just want to give you a few
ideas & suggestions. I am also open for suggestions, after 17 years, I still come across
great ideas.

First, make sure you have a good variety of spices. You can eat the same beans or rice a
lot easier when one day they taste like taco spices & the next day curry etc. A variety of
spices will make anything easier to eat long term. I personally have many bottles of
tobasco. I can eat bugs with tobasco, crickets, worms etc. I am serious.

In many emergencies clean water is a big problem. You will go through hundreds of gallons
of water in just a few short weeks. Make sure you have a good water filter with your food
storage. You use a lot of water to cook with & drink. A water filter that you hand pump will
turn rain water, canal water or saved water from cooking etc. into good drinking water again.

Have some good vitamins. Make sure they are good natural vitamins that your body will
digest & absorb. 90% of vitamins pass through you & end up clogging the sewers. True.
I came across Lifecaps, that is what I have in my food storage, 72 hour kits & bug out bags.
They digest & get in your system within 20-25 minutes. All natural.
You can survive on lifecaps & water alone for months. They have all the vitamins & minerals,
also iodine & a little natural sugar to keep your blood sugar level stable. I bought 25
bottles before I found a coupon code & then bought 75 more bottles. The coupon code is
"healthcap" (save 33%) & you can find out more at lifecaps.net.

Keep hand sterilizer with your food storage & hydrogen peroxide. In an emergency people get
sick & die from simple infections. In an emergency, you lose your appetite & forget to drink
water, under stress. Your immune system suffers tremendously & small infections grow large.
Under stress TAKE YOUR VITAMINS & DRINK WATER! You will have more energy to deal with the
emergency & have a healthy immune system. Keep your hands clean when dealing with food &
use the hydrogen peroxide even on small cuts as a precaution. It can save your life.

Sybrina May 5, 2009 at 8:18 PM  

Hi everyone! Not sure who will check back here. but, just i case, here's a few links I thought some of you might be interested in -answers questions about oxy packs and cement floors:

Regarding oxy packs you can get them on the church website. They have an explanation about how to use them here:

http://www.ldscatalog.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10151&storeId=10151&productId=39361&langId=-1&cg1=10002&cg2=&cg3=&cg4=&cg5=&sortId=1&sortOr=1&retURLtext=Back

Also, check out this one. It contains a lot of good basic information about what to store etc.

http://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=66b227cd3f37b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1

And lastly, I would recommend this link...Cause I just like it. It's cool. :)

http://ldslivingmagazine.com/articles/show/681

As for what I have stored -I think that it ranges based on each family's usage and what they will really eat. We pretty much did the basic ones the church sells:

Dry Milk, Sugar, Flour, Wheat, Rice, Apples, etc.

Now to work on our wet pack! And...probably learn to use dry beans more!

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