What do you put in your buckets of wheat and such to keep them fresh and from sprouting?
As long as your wheat is kept sealed up and in a cool, dry place, you shouldn't have a problem with it sprouting. Abbie keeps her wheat in 5 gallon buckets with a gamma lid so she can open it and then seal it back up again as she uses it.
What are other types of grains to store in addition to wheat - I'm new to all this!
What is the best non wheat to store for someone who is allergic to wheat? My daughter gets horrible eczema when she eats it. I have lots of oatmeal, but even when ground that doesn't always bind very well. Do you have a good blend?
The above questions were similar so I'll answer them together. There are lots of other grain options to choose from. I'll admit, I'm not a HUGE fan of wheat. While I do store a lot of it, I supplement it with a few other things that my family enjoys: oats, corn, barley, rice, quinoa, and couscous are all good ones. Hopefully soon we'll have some recipes to share with you that use quinoa and couscous. If you have some, share them in our test kitchen!
Why do long-term food storage lists always call for the kind of wheat that you have to grind before you can use it? Is that stuff better than just buying and storing pre-ground flour?
First of all, wheat is much more functional as a whole grain. Once it's ground, you can only use it as flour, but wheat as a grain can be used in many ways: wheatberries, cracked wheat, etc. Also, once wheat is ground up into flour, you need to use it soon or freeze it, because it doesn't contain any preservatives like the store-bought wheat contains. White flour from the store can be canned up long term, however. I don't know about store-bought whole wheat - has anyone canned that before? Since it has the preservatives, I don't see why you couldn't, but don't trust me on that. If YOU know the answer... comment on this post and let us know!
Do you ever sprout seeds? If so do you have good luck with them
I would like to learn more about sprouting. Do you cover this process in your e book?
These two questions were similar so I'll answer them together. Yes, we've sprouted wheat, and it worked out great! Abbie wrote a step-by-step post about it last January, so check it out. Last Monday someone asked us about Vitamin C storage, and sprouted wheat is actually a great source of that.
We didn't include the sprouted wheat article in the e-book, but it's available in our archives.
5 comments:
Storing wheat berries vs. flour: you cannot store wheat flour you grind yourself long-term because of its oil content and it loses nutritional value over time after it is ground. At most, it will only last a few months if you store it in your freezer. Therefore, you would have to store white flour. White flour has very little nutrition in it, but whole wheat/whole wheat flour has a lot more nutrition. I would still store some white flour as a smaller part of your 1-year supply or your 3-month supply, mostly for making bread since a loaf made with only whole wheat flour can be rather dense, but half whole half white usually ends up quite good.
My understanding is that whole wheat flour from the store will not last any longer than 6 months, even when canned. No references on that, sorry. That's why you store berries. Whole wheat that you grind yourself has a much shorter shelf life.
The wheat flour that you purchase in the store is exactly like the wheat that you grind at home (except it is already older and has lost many nutrients). Wheat flour can be stored for up to 6 months. It will quickly go rancid. Storage in the freezer is ideal.
White flour stores longer because of extra processing, not because of added preservatives. LDS home storage center orders state that white flour can be stored up to 10 years if properly packaged.
Love your blog, by the way.
Wendy
iPrepared
(http://iprepared.blogspot.com)
SO this has nothing to do with the wheat post because I am catching up reading the past posts. It has more to do with water storage. Where is the best place to find the larger 30 or 55 gal water containers. Are the containers that you get from food plants safe to clean out and use. We found some locally that were used for vanilla extract. I was thinking that I could clean them out and fill with water. What are your feelings on that.
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