storing flour

[Nate]

don asked me on another thread about storing flour for long peroids of time. 

Nate,

What is the best way to store flour long term?

I am about to pick up 2ea, 25 lb bags to long tern store and a 5 pounder to use with all this emer food prep I'm doing

all purpose flour is really the only kind that you would want to store for long peroids of time, because it does not have anysort of additives in it like self-rising and other kinds of flour and it does not have an experation date. 

if i was going to store flour, sugar, thing of that nature, i would get many packets of Desiccant, and large vaccume seal bags like you can use for clothing.  i would place the desiccant packs in the vacumme bags, suck out all the air and place in to a sealed container (like a plastic drum with a water tight seal).  i would also place many bags of the desiccant into the sealed container as well.

hopefully this is of some help to your question don?

links to desiccant:  https://www.google.com/search?q=pressure+canning+pot&biw=1455&bih=1164&source=lnms&sa=X&ei=CzZFVLLdEtHAggTo9YGQBg&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAA&dpr=1#q=Desiccant+packs

links to the vacumm bags:  https://www.google.com/search?q=pressure+canning+pot&biw=1455&bih=1164&source=lnms&sa=X&ei=CzZFVLLdEtHAggTo9YGQBg&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAA&dpr=1#q=vacuum+bags+for+clothes

[rcampbell]

Alternatively, you could just get a 5 gallon bucket of wheat, and your own electric or hand powered flour mill, and mill it as you need. The grain will keep for ages in a bucket with a lid, provided it's stored in a dry location. Just don't mill more than you need, since freshly milled flour won't keep near as long as the store-bought stuff, but it's much better for you!

[Nate]

this is true.  but finding whole un-cracked wheat is almost impossible unless you grow it yourself or happen to live close to an elevator that sells it.

[TexasRedNeck]

Not hard at all.  Mormons may be heretics but they know a thing or two about food storage. 
http://pleasanthillgrain.com/hard-red-wheat-berries-nitro-packed-superpail-bucket-bulk
Do a search for LDS food storage and many suppliers will be found that have all the mills, supplies etc.

I have several hundred pounds of bulk beans, rice, salt, sugar etc.  I'll do a write up on it soon.  My server took a siesta and I'm waiting on a new hard drive so I can recover all my photos.

Oxysorb and mylar bags and 5 gal buckets and you can story anything.  I get my mylar and oxysorb from amazon. I bought a great little mylar bag sealer but you can even use your wife's hair iron.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00967K3EQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004FRZ45K/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0073HGLC4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[TexasRedNeck]

I use the 300cc oxysorb for quart bags and 2000cc for the 5 gal buckets.

When you store sugar and salt you don't need desiccant.  Everything else, yes.  I store sugar and salt in quart bags for barter or just because it's gonna take a while to use a quart of salt or suger and no sense in having a 5 gallon bucket open to the air.

[Nate]

thank you.

[Dawg25385]

FYI I picked up my desiccant packets on Amazon for my ammo cans (10 gram packs). You can get the larger packets there too... and buy in bulk for pretty cheap. 1 gram size all the way up to 100 gram packs. I got the 10 gram packs for my  ammo cans and threw a few in each.

[TexasRedNeck]

Also for ammo cans, I keep the desiccant packs that come in various stuff that I buy and then I heat them in the oven at 250 for 15 minutes to dry them out and re-activate them.  Then they are good to go and they are free!

[Flyin6]

I use those as doggy treats!

[EL TATE]

I use the 300cc oxysorb for quart bags and 2000cc for the 5 gal buckets.

When you store sugar and salt you don't need desiccant.  Everything else, yes.  I store sugar and salt in quart bags for barter or just because it's gonna take a while to use a quart of salt or suger and no sense in having a 5 gallon bucket open to the air.

I'm curious about the sugar storage. I've always been told that sugar and salt will absorb water from the air; is the reason you don't use desiccant with these two because that moisture doesn't negatively effect them during storage?

[TexasRedNeck]

That's not saying that you don't seal the container for long term storage.  You don't want to leave it open to the elements.  There is just not enough moisture in what little air you seal in to cause them to clump.  Thus no need to seal in a oxysorb

Good clarification