In the fourth year of my career with the Arizona Highway Patrol, I wanted to become an instructor so I was sent to instructor school which lasted a week. We had to demonstrate our ability to research a subject, outline it and then present it as a 15 minute class to our instructor class. I picked WHEAT. I explained all about wheat, it's nutritional value and how it can be stored (got in a little food storage message that way) and then the last thing was taking two loaves of whole wheat bread I had baked early that morning, sliced it up and served it to the class. Of course I got an A+ on my presentation and a couple of people even remembered it 17 years later when I retired. The last job I had and just retired from has been working for Harrah's Ak Chin Casino in Promotions. When I was there two years ago, I would make different kinds of bread and take it to work. When I came back to work last October at Harrah's, I made a loaf of New Zealand Māori Bread on the second day of orientation. Everyone loved it and kept asking when I was going to make more. What an impression home made bread made. There is almost nothing in the world that smells as good as fresh bread just coming out of the oven. So here is what we are talking about for this months goal items.
Wheat: 400 lb. per person/one year if not storing any other grains. OR: 300 lb. per person/one year if storing other grains. Start using wheat slowly, allow the body time to adjust to the increase in fiber. What is the difference in hard red/hard white wheat? Similar in protein, moisture, vitamins, minerals.
Hard red wheat: a bit smaller grain with red/bronze hue, it is stronger in taste, will sometimes cost less and has a little nuttier flavor.
Hard white wheat: blondish in color, has a lighter whole wheat taste. Bread made using hard white wheat only will naturally lift a bit higher, have a lighter color and taste.
My personal preference is hard white winter wheat. That makes up the majority of our wheat storage.
Let's talk about how to store it for long term storage for a minute. There are several ways and methods you can use. You can store it in food grade barrels, food grade buckets or #10 cans (one gallon). The way I store our wheat is in #10 cans. When we first started storing wheat years ago, we put it in the five gallon food grade buckets. It was easy and held about 45 pounds of wheat. After several years with buckets stacked on top of buckets, we found that the lids on the bottom row (we stacked them three rows high) were cracking. Our solution for this was to put a row of buckets side by side and then put a 1X12 board across the tops or the lids for the next row to sit on. This would distribute the weight of the wheat across the strong edges/seals of the buckets. All was good again. After we started using the wheat, we found that the 5 gallon buckets were just to big to keep in the kitchen and it took several months to use it all so we re-thought our plan.
We took all of the wheat out of the buckets and repackaged it in #10 cans. We had access to nitrogen at the time so we used that to evacuate the air out of the cans. Six cans will fit in the box we get from the Cannery very nicely and only weigh about 30 pounds compared to 45+ pounds for the buckets and stack nicer and more compact. You can get abut 30 box under a King Size Bed. Wonder how I know that.
Now on to keeping your wheat good for long term storage. All grains will have weevils (bugs) in them. They are in the grain as eggs and once the temperature gets up above 85, they hatch. How do you keep this from happening. There are several ways to do it. The old way was to put Bay Leaves on top of the grain in the buckets. That didn't prevent the eggs from hatching but when they did, the weevils would start munching on the Bay leaves and die. When you opened the bucket, the Bay leaves would be gone and in their place would be a pile of dead Weevils. Scoop then out, give them a decent burial and grind up your wheat. Not to appetizing but it worked.
The next method is using CO2 gas or dry ice. Using dry ice, you would put a chunk of it in the bottom of the bucket, add the wheat and close the lid. The dry ice would turn into carbon dioxide and replace the oxygen. The weevils can't live with out oxygen. The point I didn't like about this is it also makes it so the wheat will not germinate so you can't grow more wheat from the seeds or sprout them.
Next comes Nitrogen. That is what we used in our buckets and in our #10 cans when we did it. Same principle as CO2 but you can still plant/germinate the seeds.
Now we use Oxy Packs. They are easy to use, inexpensive and you can still germinate the seeds. One 300cc Oxy pack in a #10 can removes the oxygen in the can and without any oxygen, no bugs. An Oxy pack is a small bag that contains iron oxide which when it comes into contact with oxygen, it creates a chemical reaction with the iron oxide in the pack and uses up the oxygen. If you are storing your grains in larger containers than the one gallon #10 can, increase the number of oxy packs to equal the number of gallons of your storage container. You can tell if the oxy packs are working because they will start to heat up when they come into contact with air.
So what do you do with the left over oxy packs? The Cannery has a very cool bag sealer that you can use, or what I do is put the left over oxy packs into a one quart canning bottle with a good lid tightened in place and put it in the freezer. If you keep it in the original plastic bag and use the sealer from the cannery, squeeze all the air you can out of the bag before pushing the last part of the sealer together and then throw it into the freezer. The freezer will stop the heating action but the container has to be sealed.
Yeast: 1 lb. per person/one year. Purchase in a one-pound vacuum sealed bag. Keep it in the fridge or freezer to prolong storage life (about 4 to 5 years unopened). After opening, put it in a glass jar with tight lid, a zip-loc bag or my favorite, a Tupperware tub so it fits in the butter tray holder in the fridge door; keep refrigerated when not using. Once opened, dry yeast is viable for about one year when properly stored.
My preferred yeast is Saf Premium instant yeast. It's easy to use (no proofing or pre-dissolving), fast-acting and long-lasting, continuing to work for hours longer than "rapid" yeast.
I purchase my yeast at Honeyville Farms in Chandler as that is where I can get the best price. One pound vacuum packed bags are a little under $4 and a one pound bag can make 96 loaves of bread which equals almost two loaves of bread per week per person.
OK, so here is the first installment for this month on our 5th month of our Stake Food Storage Goal. Stay with us on our quest and some great recipes and fun food using wheat and yeast.
Have fun with your food storage. Bob and LouAnn Singer
Excellent article Bob and great tips on storing!
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