Food and Food Storage Forum
Storing quantities of locally acquired grain
* Plans & Questions Jim Smith 10/09/97
* likewise art welling 10/09/97
* Good thinking Will Richards 10/09/97
* dry ice j Werner 10/10/97
* >How long does it last? As long as you can keep the carb... Al Durtschi 10/15/97
* Homebrew desiccant ken Seger 10/10/97
* 55 gallon barrels where? drbob 10/30/97
* strictly local Art Welling 10/30/97
* >Does this appear to be a workable approach using fall '97 g... Al Durtschi 10/15/97
* A short review of various methods ken Seger 10/10/97
* Bugs and diato Will Richards 10/10/97
* Diatomaceous Earth ken Seger 10/10/97
* >I KNOW the mix figure is in some book I have here, someplac... Al Durtschi 10/15/97
* >Could Diato(etc.) earth be used in large bins? Sure. Th... Al Durtschi 10/15/97
* getting rid of bugs carmon 10/15/97
* Fumigating Will_richards 11/09/97

Date: October 09, 1997 04:52 PM
Author: Jim Smith (jdsmith1@hotmail.com)
Subject: Plans & Questions

There are several discussions around this topic, but I thought I'd start a new thread so we could gather them in one place.

Now that it is autumn, my daily commute involves dodging huge trucks delivering their loads to the various grain elevators in town. Al, I'm sure that Idaho/Montana grain is wonderful, but it seems a little silly to ship it all the way here when there is so much available locally.

The pages on your web site and the misc.survivalism pages really helped me understand what is involved in sourcing and storing grain. As the person found with the $4.50/50lb corn, the grain itself isn't very expensive. In fact, depending on how you store it, it's possible that the storage container may cost more than the grain itself (an irony that I'm sure is not lost on the farming community).

Here is my plan. I know I'm committing the common mistakes in food storage, but I feel that I will be responsible for the lives of AT LEAST 23 adults (my immediate family without the assorted in-laws) and no one else has the means or motive to put away food. Like some of the other posts have mentioned, I'm going to try to store large quantities of wheat and corn (and use it up with Geri's cornbread recipe!)

After finding no luck with local food suppliers, I found a firm that sells reconditioned food-grade barrels. They have been cleaned and re-coated with a food grade material. They are available for $15 apiece.

I would like to get the barrels, line them with two new food-grade liners. Using nitrogen from the local welding gas supply house, I'll displace as much oxygen as possible. Then throw in about 5 oxygen absorbers per 55 gallon drum and seal the liners with duct tape. I'm going to leave them in six different locations (basements). When it comes time to use them, I'll transfer the grain to a 5-gallon bucket with the fancy lid for the kitchen (or grind it into another bucket). This should give me a total cost of less than $400/ton for wheat and less than $300/ton for corn. Questions: 1. Does this appear to be a workable approach using fall '97 grain?

2. Based on the various warnings, I would like to put a dessicant in the barrels. Do you sell any? Other ideas?

3. Do you sell food-grade 55 gallon barrel plastic bags? Is twisting the tops and sealing them with duct tape likely to stay air-tight (the tops are supposed to be air tight, too.)

4. Any other thoughts?

(http://garynorth.entrewave.com/forums/Index.cfm?CFApp=16&Message_ID=3857)









Date: October 10, 1997 03:17 PM
Author: ken Seger (kenseger@hotmail.com)
Subject: A short review of various methods

This is old stuff for people like "Will" but newcomers might like this.

On storing grain you have two problems, rot and bugs.

On rot, the grain should be nice and dry, example the wheat I get from Knorr Farms is guaranteed less than 10% moisture. Oxidation can't occur if there is no oxygen, hence displacing the air with nitrogen from a cylinder or CO2 from a cylinder or dry ice are two common cheap harmless gases to do this with. O2 absorbers is another method, which I'm not familiar with.

On bugs, if you have wheat - you have weevil eggs. You can choose to let them hatch, the grubs will eat your wheat, and you can feed the grubs to your chameleon or fry the grubs in a bit of oil and eat them yourself (trading off some calories for a high quality protien source). If you prefer pancakes, you have to prevent the eggs from hatching or kill them quickly thereafter. Removing the oxygen will kill the critters very nicely. Putting diatomaceous (sp?) earth into the wheat is what Knorr does. Diato(etc.) earth looks like dust but it is the bodies of microscopic animals that had little exoskeltons that looked like a cross between razor wire and guar gum seed pods. These microscopic razor bladed spheres will slice the sides of the hatching grub causing it to lose its precious bodily fluids, end of bug. Diato(etc.) earth is harmless to you and just a few teaspoons (if memory serves me) is enough for 100# of wheat. It needs to be mixed throughout the grain to be effective.

Cool storage is better for anything than hot, as there is less oxidation or autoxidation.

(http://garynorth.entrewave.com/forums/Index.cfm?CFApp=16&Message_ID=3949)