# Self Sufficiency/Living off the Land or Off the Grid > Cooking, Food Storage, & Preserving >  Long term storage of All Purpose flour.

## #1WVBonBonQueen

Hello Y'all,
I was wondering if anyone has any good information on long term storage of All Purpose flour?
I was thinking that if I am prepping, and can't for some strange reason, like a SHTF situation, go to the store I will need some flour for our bread, for we do like our bread.  Does anyone know of ways to store it long term, not in a freezer for if SHTF happens, we won't have electric for said freezer.  
I have seen videos about storing Rice and Beans in Wide Mouth Canning jars, and putting them in the oven and then sealing them, and was wondering if anyone has ever stored flour the same way?
Thanks in advance for any insight you all can share to me and others who want to read this for I am sure it will be a good bit of information and helpful too. 
Merry Christmas!!!    :Santasmile:

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## Rick

You got me. Processed flour contains mite eggs and I have never kept flour for a long spell that they didn't erupt in a full blown condominium of mites. I've never had trouble with weevils but every brand of flour I've bought and held for any length of time has given birth to mites. Even flour in sealed glass containers has done it.

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## randyt

you are probably better off to keep the grain as a whole grain and grind it as you need it. And as a added bonus the grains can be cracked and made into porridge and also sprouted.

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## #1WVBonBonQueen

Well Rick, I have never had mites, nor weevils. Maybe I am lucky? Don't know.  I do keep in in a freezer, but I am trying to find other ways to store it long term, if the electric goes off.  Thanks for the help tho. I do appreciate it. 

Randyt, I may check into the wheat berries and storing them before they are ground. I do know they are easier and don't go rancid as fast as ground wheat does.  Thanks for the input I do appreciate it all. 

Merry Christmas!!

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## Rick

I've never placed it in the freezer so maybe that's the difference. Hmmm.

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## LowKey

How small are the mites? Every once in a while I see weevil worms in the sifter. I always blame the store where the flour came from. But if the mites are too small to see, they might just be making my bread extra protein-fortified.

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## #1WVBonBonQueen

I haven't seen mites of weevils in my flour for so long, I almost forget what they look for.  I know that you can check your flour for mites or weevils by smoothing the top of the flour, with a spoon and watch it for movement, if it moves, then you have mites or weevils.  
That is how I was taught to check my flour for "protein" that I wasn't wanting in my bread.

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## Rick

Weevils are about the size of a grain of rice apparently. The mites are super tiny rascals. I pulled some flour that was in a glass container in storage and it had a gray half inch layer on top and when I move the jar the layer moved. This is not good I thought. All the stored flour went into the trash. So much for that. I guess we eat the eggs on a daily basis with cooking killing them. There's your bon appetite tip for the day.

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## #1WVBonBonQueen

Thank you Rick for the information on Mites and Weevils.  I will be looking for these tell-tell signs for sure.  I do keep flour in the freezer now, but was looking for a way to store it long term, if the SHTF and there is no electric.  
Still checking out the information I am finding here, and by googling it too. 
Thanks again.

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## crashdive123

This reminds me of days gone by.  Since there was no "store" to replenish supplies when we were at sea, you could always tell when weevils were in the rice.  The cooks stopped serving plain, white rice.  It was always "seasoned" to hide whatever else might be hiding in it.

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## old soldier

old thread but here it is, always take flour, rice home and put it in the freezer for a couple weeks to kill any of the critters that Rick was talking about.  rice can be stored long term after spending a couple weeks in the freezer to kill critters, take it out, put  a Mylar bag In a Homer bucket and fill it with the rice, put in some o2 absorbers and seal it up, good for maybe 25 years, depending where you store it,. Flout can not be stored long term, store wheat just like the rice, just don't put it in the freezer first. whole wheat flour will go rancid faster than bleached flour because there are some oils still in it... you could use some food grade diatomaceous earth in the rice and wheat.

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## crashdive123

Several years ago I stored quite a bit of rice, both white and brown.  I stored it in 2 liter soda bottles.  I had heard (and read) that brown rice goes rancid because of the oils in it.  I stored it inside where it is a bit more temperature controlled.  The brown rice is 8 years old and tastes fine.  The white rice is 12 years old and tastes fine as well.

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## old soldier

I started storing rice, beans, wheat in those Ocean Spray bottles back in the middle eighties, I didn't really know anything about bugs, o2 absorbers, diatomaceous earth to kill them as back then, no computer yet. I had everyone around saving us bottles, we still have a couple hundred bottles  filled with water in the basement. then I heard about Bobs Red mill, Honeyville grain and made the UPS driver earn his pay for a while, every week for a while he was dropping off  boxes of wheat, red and white, all different kinds of beans, lentils. groats,corn  then a Country Living grain grinder .I bought probably two hundred homer buckets and mylar bags. I bought sugar, popcorn,  at BJ and sams, they were only about thirty miles away. salt, I bought at the feed store. it's been about 25 yrs now and everything seems fine, it seems like the beans take a little longer to  cook, but the wheat still make great bread. anything is better that eating snow or bark.  I tried using our oats and corn, but it didn't work out..

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## JohnLeePettimore

Those juice bottles seal up really well.  I bought some rye seed (regular seed, not the expensive stuff you have to order), stored it in 2 types of containers:  those juice bottles, and Rubbermaid pitchers.  The pitchers weren't really air-tight, and after a while they looked like an ant farm.  The juice bottles never showed a sign of any change.

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## madmax

> Several years ago I stored quite a bit of rice, both white and brown.  I stored it in 2 liter soda bottles.  I had heard (and read) that brown rice goes rancid because of the oils in it.  I stored it inside where it is a bit more temperature controlled.  The brown rice is 8 years old and tastes fine.  The white rice is 12 years old and tastes fine as well.


He made that rice on a campout and neglected to tell me how old it was. I didn't get sick.

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## Rick

Yeah, but we've seen what you'll eat so.....

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## madmax

Yeah...well... uh... but... I've never drank my own pee.  I have that going for me.

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## crashdive123

Well, there was that time when you drank mine............ooooops............I guess I wasn't supposed to tell people.

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## Rick

I just threw up in my mouth a little.

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## Chī

To OP consider growing corn if you could. You can eat it safely without processing unlike many grains. It grows easy and grinds into corn flour well (who doesn't like cornbread). There are many things you can grind into flour (acorns included). But you can do so many things with corn it's kind of amazing. Just store enough flour to last until your corn is ready and you would be set. Of course if you are in a city you may not have anywhere to grow but when SHTF good luck getting out of a city anyway.  Corn has always been gold on this continent.

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## nell67

> Well, there was that time when you drank mine............ooooops............I guess I wasn't supposed to tell people.


 Um, eewww, LOL. You definitely shoulda kept that under wraps.

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