Deep Pantry for people who like food

Jackie Frobese wrote:

Jocelyn,  My sister has these containers for her flour sugar etc on the counter. They do have an effective seal and are easy enough to get the lid on and off. So I would give them a thumbs up. Just figured a review may be helpful for you.

Jocelyn Campbell wrote:

Jackie Frobese wrote:

Jocelyn,  My sister has these containers for her flour sugar etc on the counter. They do have an effective seal and are easy enough to get the lid on and off. So I would give them a thumbs up. Just figured a review may be helpful for you.

Yes, a review *does* help! Thank you, Jackie, that is very good to know.

Morgwino Stur wrote:I didn't read everything, so forgive me if its been mentioned before. Mylar bags, which can be vacuum sealed or toss in an oxygen absorbed and seal with a flat iron. other way of doing it can be an actual CO2 canister and filling it with a hose. as stated, Nitrogen is the gold standard, but unless I'm mistaken, that is because Nitrogen is an inert noble gas. would probably be better, but perhaps more expensive.

Anyway, you can reseal mylar bags, though you lose a small bit each time, depending on width of the seal. You could repackage the grain into however much would fit in a jar at once, then just open one to refill the jar.

Freeze drying is good for fruits, veg and meat but i don't know how much good it would be for grains, since ideally they don't have much moisture to begin with. long term consideration/concern would just be the maintenance on the freeze-dryer itself.

Tom Rutledge wrote:Just be careful with vacuum.

junaid ahmed wrote:It seems like the grain storage problem has already been handled by the local grain elevator, and doesn't really benefit by home storage methods. Flour also seems like a problem that is best solved by the mill. Is there a reason why you want to store more than a month worth of dry grain or flour? Am I missing part of the goal? Or is experimenting with different preservation techniques the goal?

Denise Cares wrote:I agree with what Kate Muller has said about reasons for having supply on hand.  My problem is how to prevent those pesky grain larvae from getting into everything. Even buckets with tight lids do not keep them out. They get into glass jars too. I'm missing the secret. Maybe need to remove the oxygen as many describe. Putting the whole bag of grain thru the freezer before sealing in a bucket would be difficult as freezer space is very limited. So even dividing up the 25 lb sacks would pose a major logistics issue. Multiply that by several large sacks - not feasible. Once a single moth finds "where you keep the goods" (pantry, shed, garage, closet), it's nearly impossible to keep them out thereafter.

Jocelyn Campbell wrote:You beat me to posting this, Adrien. Erica nails a lot of wonderfully key issues in her post. I especially appreciate her "par" approach. We're still developing our "par" here at base camp with fluctuation numbers of folks to feed, changes in cooks and food preferences, and still sourcing (not yet growing) a lot of our food.

6 out of 8 of the adults here eat grains. So we are purchasing 25-50 lb sacks of whole grains of many varieties.


I also want to prevent these whole grains from going rancid. I don't want to "dry can" them, so we are left with freezing or refrigerating (in air-tight containers only), or we are also experimenting with burning a candle to replace oxygen with CO2 in some of our containers.

I'd love to hear what other people do to keep large quantities of whole grains fresh over long-term pantry storage.

Here is a 2 gallon glass crock we're using for a variety of things (Amazon affiliate 2 gallon glass crock link):

When we have flour or cornmeal in it, we put a tea candle on a plate on top, light it, put the lid on, and let it burn until it goes out. The candle goes out before it runs out of wax, because, in theory, it has used up most or all of the oxygen, and replaced it with carbon dioxide. CO2 is heavier than oxygen, so it should work to infiltrate down through the canister of grain. The goal being to prevent or at least slow the oxidization that leads to rancidity. I am concerned that if the lid gets bumped (there is no seal for the lid on this one - the lid just rests on top of the canister), oxygen will get into the jar again. I'm not sure how much the CO2 displacement will remain in a jar without a seal.

Jocelyn Campbell wrote:You beat me to posting this, Adrien. Erica nails a lot of wonderfully key issues in her post. I especially appreciate her "par" approach. We're still developing our "par" here at base camp with fluctuation numbers of folks to feed, changes in cooks and food preferences, and still sourcing (not yet growing) a lot of our food.

6 out of 8 of the adults here eat grains. So we are purchasing 25-50 lb sacks of whole grains of many varieties.

Paul and I want our food stored in glass () or plastic containers ASAP after purchase to reduce bug and rodent temptation.

I also want to prevent these whole grains from going rancid. I don't want to "dry can" them, so we are left with freezing or refrigerating (in air-tight containers only), or we are also experimenting with burning a candle to replace oxygen with CO2 in some of our containers.

I'd love to hear what other people do to keep large quantities of whole grains fresh over long-term pantry storage.

Here is a 2 gallon glass crock we're using for a variety of things (Amazon affiliate 2 gallon glass crock link):

When we have flour or cornmeal in it, we put a tea candle on a plate on top, light it, put the lid on, and let it burn until it goes out. The candle goes out before it runs out of wax, because, in theory, it has used up most or all of the oxygen, and replaced it with carbon dioxide. CO2 is heavier than oxygen, so it should work to infiltrate down through the canister of grain. The goal being to prevent or at least slow the oxidization that leads to rancidity. I am concerned that if the lid gets bumped (there is no seal for the lid on this one - the lid just rests on top of the canister), oxygen will get into the jar again. I'm not sure how much the CO2 displacement will remain in a jar without a seal.

Denise Cares wrote:I agree with what Kate Muller has said about reasons for having supply on hand.  My problem is how to prevent those pesky grain larvae from getting into everything. Even buckets with tight lids do not keep them out. They get into glass jars too. I'm missing the secret. Maybe need to remove the oxygen as many describe. Putting the whole bag of grain thru the freezer before sealing in a bucket would be difficult as freezer space is very limited. So even dividing up the 25 lb sacks would pose a major logistics issue. Multiply that by several large sacks - not feasible. Once a single moth finds "where you keep the goods" (pantry, shed, garage, closet), it's nearly impossible to keep them out thereafter.