gift
The Humble Soapnut - A Guide to the Laundry Detergent that Grows on Trees ebook by Kathryn Ossing
will be released to subscribers in: soon!
  • Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Nancy Reading
  • Carla Burke
  • r ranson
  • John F Dean
  • paul wheaton
  • Pearl Sutton
stewards:
  • Jay Angler
  • Liv Smith
  • Leigh Tate
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
  • Timothy Norton
gardeners:
  • thomas rubino
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • Maieshe Ljin

Composting Bags of Flour

 
gardener
Posts: 1346
Location: Tennessee
872
homeschooling kids urban books writing homestead
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Five bags of organic whole wheat flour from the scratch 'n' dent have been in my closet for two years (exp. date 2022, bought for food storage and never used), and I want to compost them now. (They must be very rancid, right?) But  I do not want them to turn my compost pile into a gluey mess. Suggestions for composting 25 pounds of flour?

Thanks!
 
steward & bricolagier
Posts: 14661
Location: SW Missouri
10093
2
goat cat fungi books chicken earthworks food preservation cooking building homestead ungarbage
  • Likes 13
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Taste that flour before you toss it. I buy organic whole wheat stoneground flour and I have some stored since 2018 that's not rancid. I store mine well, but my point is don't assume it's rancid if you didn't taste it.
:D
 
steward and tree herder
Posts: 8373
Location: Isle of Skye, Scotland. Nearly 70 inches rain a year
3971
4
transportation dog forest garden foraging trees books food preservation woodworking wood heat rocket stoves ungarbage
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Oh what a pity!

The easiest is probably to mix it is with your normal composting a little at a time. I wonder whether bokashi would work though?
 
gardener
Posts: 2187
Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)
894
homeschooling kids trees chicken food preservation building woodworking homestead
  • Likes 9
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I agree with Pearl to check and make sure whether it has actually gone bad before getting rid of it.

If it has gone bad, I would probably get rid of it slowly like was suggested. If you want to get rid of it more quickly, what about sprinkling it around your garden and lawn as if it was a soil amendment?

Also, I wonder if you could add water and spread it out on cookies sheets to cook it briefly? Would that reduce the glue-ness in the compost in order to get rid of it all at once?
 
out to pasture
Posts: 12484
Location: Portugal
3346
goat dog duck forest garden books wofati bee solar rocket stoves greening the desert
  • Likes 11
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Matt McSpadden wrote: I wonder if you could add water and spread it out on cookies sheets to cook it briefly? Would that reduce the glue-ness in the compost in order to get rid of it all at once?



My dog would never forgive me if I baked cookies and then composted them without him being an intermediary stage...
 
master gardener
Posts: 4228
Location: Upstate NY, Zone 5, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall
1712
monies home care dog fungi trees chicken food preservation cooking building composting homestead
  • Likes 10
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
My approach to composting flour involves sprinkling some to make a thin layer, then mixing, followed by another layer, then mixing.

Too much in one spot once wet will form gluey lumps, kind of like if you add flour too fast to a gravy and don't mix it thoroughly enough.

Time will compost it down either way.
 
steward
Posts: 16058
Location: USDA Zone 8a
4272
dog hunting food preservation cooking bee greening the desert
  • Likes 7
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I use the smell test to determine rancid.  If it doesn't smell bad the taste some.

Usually rancid stuff leave an unpleasant after effect in my mouth.

Even rancid brown rice tastes okay after being cooked. I have not tried eating more than a taste.  The dog thought it was delicious.

I like the suggest Timothy made about adding the flour to the compost.
 
Rusticator
Posts: 8566
Location: Missouri Ozarks
4541
6
personal care gear foraging hunting rabbit chicken cooking food preservation fiber arts medical herbs homestead
  • Likes 9
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I think Pearl & Matt are spot-on. I don't go by dates, for most things. I'd check it before I tossed it. If it doesn't smell or taste 'off', I'd still use it, though I'd be more generous in using it, in order to make sure it doesn't go to waste.

It could be used to make clay or glue, as a temporary sealant for cracks or separations in steamers/ copper distilling pots (rye is commonly used, for riveted essential oil stills, but wheat would work, too).
 
Posts: 483
130
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
If the flour is really too old to use (sniff & taste first), it can be used as "worm chow", equal parts flour, corn meal and oats with a small amount of grit.

Or as Tim suggested, thin layers in your compost pile, it may still clump somewhat, but it will break down in time.

Peace
 
Rachel Lindsay
gardener
Posts: 1346
Location: Tennessee
872
homeschooling kids urban books writing homestead
  • Likes 11
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Wow, y'all had a lot of ideas! (I knew you would though, which is why Permies is the first place I go with my wonderings.) I will soon see if it seems off.

Could it be fed to chickens in any form?
 
master pollinator
Posts: 4987
Location: Canadian Prairies - Zone 3b
1351
  • Likes 7
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Rachel Lindsay wrote:Could it be fed to chickens in any form?


I'm no expert on chickens, but generally speaking the grains fed to animals are not premium grade (though they still may be safe enough for human consumption).

If the flour is not too far "off" this could be a component of a cooked chicken mash / porridge fed in small amounts alongside their regular rations. Veggies, a bit of cheap oatmeal, squash bits, peas/beans, whatever is handy. Bet they'd love it. (Actually this seems like the stuff humans should eat as well.)
 
gardener
Posts: 1487
567
12
homeschooling hugelkultur trees medical herbs sheep horse homestead
  • Likes 9
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
You can feed it to meal worms!   They can live on old flour and you have great free chicken feed!
 
Posts: 103
Location: Zone 9b, Coastal Southern Oregon, 700 ft elevation
42
  • Likes 14
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
That's a lifetime supply of raw material for  "Dough balls" fish bait, which is excellent bait for catfish/carp.

Invasive carp are a big problem, can taste good, compost well, and are a lot of fun to take on lighter tackle.

Fish your surplus away!
 
steward
Posts: 12418
Location: Pacific Wet Coast
6989
duck books chicken cooking food preservation ungarbage
  • Likes 7
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Rachel Lindsay wrote: Could it be fed to chickens in any form?

I would absolutely mix it with water or some other reasonable liquid, +/- other treats. My friend makes a porridge for her banties and always adds crushed egg shell, and medicinal spices, not to mention other leftovers she happens to have.
 
pollinator
Posts: 424
162
  • Likes 11
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
If it's too bad to eat, and you want to compost it rather than doing any of the other nice things that have been suggested, maybe you could make a jumbo batch of sourdough starter, and either just pour it on your compost pile little by little, or somehow use it in the place of bokashi bran? Sourdough starter contains wild yeasts and lactic acid bacteria, right? Might be yummy for your compost...
 
gardener
Posts: 1804
Location: Zone 6b
1124
forest garden fungi books chicken fiber arts ungarbage
  • Likes 13
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I do quite a few things with old flour or dough balls:
1. Feed yeasty dough to chickens. It's funny to see them keep wiping beaks to get rid of the goo.
2. Mix with borax to make application of boron easier
3. Make sticky high nitrogen slurry to mix and coat high carbon materials for composting. The increase in surface area enables the microbes to multiply exponentially and the pile will heat up quickly.
 
Rachel Lindsay
gardener
Posts: 1346
Location: Tennessee
872
homeschooling kids urban books writing homestead
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Jeff Lindsey wrote:That's a lifetime supply of raw material for  "Dough balls" fish bait, which is excellent bait for catfish/carp.

Invasive carp are a big problem, can taste good, compost well, and are a lot of fun to take on lighter tackle.

Fish your surplus away!



Carp fishing--that's my brother-in-law's specialty. Too bad he lives a thousand miles away from us (literally; he is up in New England)! I would love to give him all this flour.
 
Rachel Lindsay
gardener
Posts: 1346
Location: Tennessee
872
homeschooling kids urban books writing homestead
  • Likes 10
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Jay Angler wrote:

Rachel Lindsay wrote: Could it be fed to chickens in any form?

I would absolutely mix it with water or some other reasonable liquid, +/- other treats. My friend makes a porridge for her banties and always adds crushed egg shell, and medicinal spices, not to mention other leftovers she happens to have.



I gave the flour to my mother who has all the chickens from our spring adventure, and a few more. I will suggest the above to her now! Thanks.
 
Posts: 10
Location: So far outside the box, space telescopes can't find me (Zone 7a)
7
  • Likes 7
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I once retrieved from a dumpster a case box of ready to bake bisquits in those pop open cylinder containers... some had
already popped open and were past their "best if used by " dates. The intention was to bake them and give them to the dogs
and chickens as treats. Left on the back porch too long in the summer heat and more of them had popped open. Black soldier
flies  took advantage and turned it into a huge mass of BSF larvae.

Well the dogs missed out on any bisquits, but the chickens feasted like royalty on the larvae for quite a while. So yeah, go
ahead and mix the flour with some water (and/or with  some outdated milk like I did with some dumpster sourced milk) and
make dough out of it and put into a plastic tote put up out of reach of critters with a window screen to keep house flies out.
Add a few pieces of corrugated cardboard for the BSF to lay egs in.  (when the eggs hatch, the larvae are small enough to crawl
through  the screen and drop down to the food for them below.)

The fly larvae dispatched the dough pretty quickly so it never really got the chance to get stinky at all... which is what they can
do with just about anything  foodlike you toss in for them to consume ... like leftovers from butchering of any animals etc.

Well that would work where black soldier flies can be found anyway.
 
Be reasonable. You can't destroy everything. Where would you sit? How would you read a tiny ad?
the permaculture bootcamp in winter (plus half-assed holidays)
https://permies.com/t/149839/permaculture-projects/permaculture-bootcamp-winter-assed-holidays
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic