# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > General Homesteading >  Wheat storage....How long?

## hunter63

Wasn't sure where this belongs....food preparation, storage, prepping...?

Anyway...
I have a 5 gal food grade bucket with a #25 (?) bag of wheat berries.
Bucket has been sealed with a gamma seal...with desiccant packs.....for maybe 10 years.
Was stashed in the back of my storage shelves...in a temp controlled basement...ave temp 60 degrees.

I really don't want to open and check it....In the house...or even in my yard...JIC of bugs or????

Plan is to haul it to "The Place" then check it....a dump if necessary....LOL

Thoughts?

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## LowKey

How's the humidity control in the basement? Dessicant only lasts so long if exposed to air. If gamma sealed? Who knows.
Did you purge the buckets with dry ice or put in oxygen absorbers? Either would kill the bugs.
Remember to leave a note, "this is what we ate."

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## hunter63

Didn't purge it...dry ice a PITA to come by....thought about it.

Plan was to use a wheat mill ....Country Living Grain Mill....found on sale.....but so much other stuff was happening...didn't use it.
Manual with the mill it says,wheat will last about 10 years...(not sure...always mark you preps with dates)...If stored properly? 

Country Living Grain Mill
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http://pleasanthillgrain.com/country...MaJBoCqlTw_wcB

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## hunter63

Doing some more poking around found this...

http://extension.usu.edu/foodstorage/htm/wheat

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## crashdive123

I was just about to post the same link to USU.  Here's a snippet for those that don't want to go to the link.




> Shelf life. Develop a program to utilize stored wheat on a regular basis. As stored wheat is used, replace it with containers of new wheat. Identify each container for variety and storage date. A good rule of thumb is to rotate wheat so that no stored product is older than 5 years.  However, older stored wheat did make acceptable bread. A B.Y.U. study indicated that, regardless of headspace oxygen level, wheat packaged in No. 10 cans throughout 32 years of storage at ambient or cooler temperatures made bread acceptable to a majority of consumers.

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## Rick

I doubt there will be any bugs in there after 10 years. If there are they will probably come out of the bucket gasping for air so it should be easy to pick them off. Small caliber suggested.

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## hunter63

Crash......Thanks for the quote. 

They can be a lively group.....
Not in a bucket....
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Interestingly enough I have spread this thread around to several other places.......
You would be surprised how much advice there was  basically saying "Well Dumas you should have use it and rotated your stock".

That made me laugh...."Well, No Ship Sherlock....if I would have done that....there would be no need to even ask?"

The "I Told ya so vibe is strong...."
LOL

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## finallyME

When my grandpa died, I took all his wheat.  Maybe 10 buckets.  30 years old.  That was maybe 6 or so years ago.  Some of it is pushing 40.  All of it has been good.  Still makes great bread.  Won't sprout though.  Of course, we have only really used 2 buckets so far, in those 6 years.

Wheat lasts a REALLY LONG time.  Especially if you put it in an aluminum bag inside a bucket with oxygen absorbers... or use dry ice.  None of my grandpas wheat was in an aluminum bag, so...

Hey, they found a jar full of wheat berries in Egypt in a tomb.  Thousands of years old.... was able to grow it.  

I put wheat in the same category with rendered tallow/pemmican, and honey.  Put it in a cool/dry place, and forget about it.  Don't worry about shelf life or rotation.  Use when you need it.  Your kids will use it after you die... if you don't use it first.

I am also trying to find other stuff that never goes bad.  Any ideas?

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## hunter63

Good question...
Scotch, whisky bourbon, etc...most any straight liquor....maybe not "food" per se but can be nectar of the gods....

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## kyratshooter

I find that the "processed" boxed packages like Bisquick or Jiffy Mix will have weevils in a very short time.

Regular bagged flour will last a long time if kept properly.  I just used the last of a 5# forgotten stash that was stored in Tupperware for 8 years.  No purging, no dry ice, no oxygen absorbents, just dumped into the Tupperware.  It made biscuits just like new flour.

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## finallyME

> I find that the "processed" boxed packages like Bisquick or Jiffy Mix will have weevils in a very short time.
> 
> Regular bagged flour will last a long time if kept properly.  I just used the last of a 5# forgotten stash that was stored in Tupperware for 8 years.  No purging, no dry ice, no oxygen absorbents, just dumped into the Tupperware.  It made biscuits just like new flour.


My experience with white flower is that it will last a while, but only because there isn't much in it.  Whole wheat flower goes bad pretty quickly with weevils.  Kind of amazing that if you leave the berry intact, it lasts so dang long.

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## Fixit

I know that I have wheat from 97 . Every once in a while I will use a bucket . Never had a problem . If you don't like dry ice take you a at of vinegar and some baking soda . Put the vinegar I a jug you can cap that has a vent tube. Run the tube to the bottom of your wheat . Place a lit tea candle on top of wheat . Put baking soda in vinegar and cap . When tea candle goes out you have flused the O2 out with CO2 . Gently remove tube and put the lid on .

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## Rick

Now that right there is science at work. We're going to change your name from Mr. Fixit to Mr. KnowsWhatHe'sTalkinAbout. (It's a little long but you get the gist).

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## wantit

Hard winter wheat supposedly lasts forever. The claim is that some from King Tut's tomb would germinate,  4000 years old.

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## kappydell

Mormons (or latter Day Saints) have as a religious goal to store food for 1 year.  They have been doing research on food storage for years & years.  The older info (pre oxy absorbers) listed a 'basic four' that had the longest shelf life - even without oxygen absorbers, gamma seals or mylar bags (they used to store in metal cans for long term).  Been doing food storage about 20 yrs now and still rely on the 'Mormon basic four' as my rock bottom basic storage: wheat berries, sugar, salt, and solid shortening (lasts longer unopened in the can than oil).  Nuclear War Survival Skills book influenced me to add noninstant dry milk as well (no fat so it stores around 5 years).  Those are my rock bottom basics and there are many things you can make with them.  Shelf life for the basic four was around 10 years back in the day; with oxygen absorbers, sealed in mylar and kept cool its more like 30 years.  Some sources add dried beans as they too store 30 years, and the proteins of beans & wheat are complementary.  Plus if you sprout the beans you have extra vitamins, and the wheat can be used to make gluten "meats" which are actually quite palatable (I made some, and although you knew they were not real meat, they were a nice fake meat to enhance a limited diet).  

Other very long term storage foods (from the LDS site) lists new life sustaining storage maximums as follows:
whole wheat, white rice, whole corn kernels, sugar, pinto beans, rolled oats, pasta, potato flakes, and dried apple slices - 30 years
Nonfat powdered milk and dehydrated carrots - 20 years
Properly packaged, low-moisture foods stored at room temperature or cooler (75°F/24°C or lower) remain nutritious and edible much longer than previously thought, according to recent scientific studies. The studies, which are the first of their kind, increase the estimated shelf life for many products to 30 years or more (see chart for new estimates of shelf life). Previous estimates of longevity were based on best-if-used-by recommendations and experience. 

Though not studied, sugar, salt, baking soda (essential for soaking beans), and vitamin C in tablet form also store well long-term (10 years or more). Some basic foods do need more frequent rotation, such as vegetable oil every 1 to 2 years.

I started with those.

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## JohnLeePettimore

Wheat, and other grains, have phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors that prevent them from sprouting and help preserve them.  As others have noted, if they were sealed, they should be fine.

If there were bugs in there, you'd know it. We stored some rye, without using any oxygen absorbers, and the gamma seal lid cracked under the pressure that developed because of their activity.

Search "soaking grains".  That stuff that preserves the grain also interferes with digestion and absorbing the nutrients.

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## yuandanzou

It become so popular, in actuality, the Epic Games itself acknowledged the failed rescue effort by posting the movie in all its glory on the Mmogo Fortnite Twitter account, where you can watch it for yourself under.

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## pete lynch

what??????

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## Rick

And that's what happens when you let a toddler loose on the keyboard.

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## JohnLeePettimore

Sounds like Nancy Pelosi.

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