Just went to Sam's Club last week and picked up 50 pounds of pinto beans for long term storage. I'll be storing it all the same way I stored the white rice a while back, which is in one gallon Mylar bags, with a few 1gm oxygen absorbers tossed in each bag. The bags will be sealed with a hair straighten iron, bags labeled with the date, and place inside food grade (HDPE 2) five gallon buckets with sealing lids. The buckets protect the bags and the bags keep the environment out.
My research indicates this should keep the beans good for over twenty years. If I find anything that would indicate otherwise I'll let you know. If any readers have input, please comment.
I do the same with rice, beans, flour, grits and grains. Then we can and dehydrate a lot of other fruits,veggies and meats. We never worry about eating if a hurricane knocks out power...I wouldn't have to go to a grocery store for almost a year.
ReplyDeleteWhat methods are you using to pack and store all of those items?
ReplyDeleteWith the grains, rice, beans and such, we freeze them to kill off any parasites that may be in them. Then we vaccuum seal them in usable sized batches and put them into food grade 5 gallon containers with dry packs.
ReplyDeleteDehydrated foods are pretty much the same way with the vaccuum seal and dry pack bucket storage.
The canning is done in a pressure canner unless it's stuff we use throughout the year like blueberry, blackberry, loquat and scuppernongand/or muscadine preserves...(or wine if we have a big enough harvest.) Then we just can them hot bath method.
It's a good thing that I love beans and rice...I have about 50 pounds of each stashed so far...not to mention that it's about time to put the new plants in the garden soon.