How do you store your bread?

How do you store your wonderful, delicious, home made bread?

This is particularly an issue for me during 'Fruit Fly Season' - which is right now!  (Drosophila melanogaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drosophila_melanogaster ) Those little sneaks can get under any edge, through any crack, and spread mold.

A cloth bag would be great to store fresh sourdough.

I wish I still had my bread box that I sold when we sold the homestead.

I thought about buying another one though I just don't have any counter space.

Make yourself one of these!!
https://littleeaglehomestead.com/linen-bento-bag-tutorial/
(I actually made a lined one, based on this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PelOxoUQ0A )
there are a gazillion videos out there. And I've made a bunch, they make great gifts.

I prefer paper bags, but for the right sized l have used a pant leg.
I save my denim pants legs for pot holders, and I some times make bags out of them.
I gather and zip tie one end, but wiring or actually sewing it shut should work.

Whatever bag it's in , I keep the loaves in a metal drawer.
I have a counter that sits on top of three identical filing cabinets.
We store food and dishes in filing cabinets to.proyrct them from mice.

We have a vintage Hoosier cabinet with a metal bread drawer.  It does a fantastic job of keeping bread.

Paper bag on the counter for the amount we're going to eat in three days -- the rest goes in the freezer. Never in the fridge.

Pretty much any bag that you can close tightly, will keep the flies & fruit flies out & off of your bread. Christopher was right too, about not putting it in the fridge. (Not that I'm an expert in ANYTHING)

But, if you want to also keep it fresh, longer... Make (buying is ridiculously expensive) beeswax infused cotton or linen bags - this is what is used by both the Amish and Mennonite communities (whom I've purchased from, directly, and talked with, extensively, not ai stuff I found in the web). A blend of beeswax, pine resin, and food safe oil, provides protection and shelf life extension for bread, in an easy to rinse (cool to tepid water), supple, very long-lived bag. This recipe works well for both food wraps and bread bags (unfortunately, I can't recall, for the life of me, where I found it):

Pine Resin Wraps:
The quantities given will cover about 2 yards of fabric cut to various sizes. As long as you stick to the ratio of 4 parts each beeswax and pine resin to 1 part jojoba oil, you can scale the recipe.

8T beeswax pastilles
8T powdered pine resin
2T jojoba oil

How to Make Beeswax Bags/ Wraps

Set up a double boiler with the pot and bowl. Fill the pot with water to just below the bottom of the bowl, and bring to a simmer. Pour the beeswax pastilles, resin, and oil into the bowl. I used powdered pine resin, which completely melts in about 20 minutes. Stir the mixture occasionally to blend the ingredients.
While the wax and resin are melting, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, and preheat the oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Set up a place to cool the bags/ wraps. They won’t be drippy when fresh, but will stick to flat surfaces until they cool, so hanging is best. A string between the upper cabinets in the kitchen will do.
Arrange the bags/ pieces of fabric on the cookie sheet, and when the wax mixture is fully melted, use the paintbrush to spread it evenly on the fabric. It’s OK to have slightly thick or thin spots, but avoid heavy drips or completely bare areas.

(Edited to add: the fabric should be medium weight, very densely woven, not gauzy.)

I agree with Carla about the beeswax cloth - this is the best thing for bread.

Also agree about not putting it in the fridge.

We don't have those flies here, and we go through bread quickly, so I don't usually put any effort into storing bread. I often bake bread at night so it has to cool down before I could store it properly anyway. What I have set up is a cooling rack inside a cupboard - I leave the door ajar when the bread is the first stages of cooling, and then close it, so that nothing can get in.

Another thing you can do with hot bread, if you want a soft crust, is as soon as it's baked, wrap it in a tea towel or cloth bag, and that way it's cooling down and being stored all at once.

Here's mine, I have two.
Heavy cloth, beeswax-lined.

Lovely, Thomas. I love the closure method.  That would absolutely keep fruit flies out.

They are just seasonal - fall when there's a lot of fruit both outside and in, some of it giving off wonderful smells! If I want lots of apples, pears and plums, I have to be prepared to accept that small critters want me to share!

I store mine in the freezer, then I make toast out of it after I pull it out.      

I always prefer fresh bread, but this is second best for me.      Here in Florida bread molds fast, this is the best option I have found for me.

What I do is store the bread in cloth bags; of course, it dries out, but then I toast it to bring back the flavor.