fundamentals-storing wheat

FRIDAY FUNDAMENTALS-STORING WHEAT


The de facto wheat storage is five gallon buckets ( The Five Gallon Bucket Book: 105 Uses and Abuses for the Ultimate Recyclable. But there are many more ways to store it. There are also many different ways to “decontaminate” the stuff ( kill the bugs/remove the oxygen ). There are the frugal ways and then there are the Yuppie Scum ways. Yuppie Scum, when they actually pull their head out of Trader Joe’s 100% Organic and Fair Trade Emporium ( The I Love Trader Joe's Cookbook: 150 Delicious Recipes Using Only Foods from the World's Greatest Grocery Store ) and admit to the necessity of using wheat for food storage rather than spending ten grand a year on storage food so that their incredibly delicate and sensitive palates won’t be offended by bland peasant food at the end of the world, still manage to over complicate and overspend on storing grain. It ain’t rocket science and it doesn’t have to be pricey.

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I’m sure we all know a person who is a Sickly Sally. They obsess over germs and anything unclean, then they constantly get sick anyway. A lot of people, when discussing prepping, remind me of Sally’s. OOOOooohhh… I couldn’t possibly survive without freeze dried meat or something that shoots semi-automatic. The first ones into the stewpot, because they pamper themselves. If the lack of basic supplies don’t kill them, their attitude will. They can’t conceive of roughing it. A little bit of pesticide or leeching plastics are not going to kill you. Starvation will kill you faster. Is it optimal to store your wheat in trash bags or POSSIBLY slightly toxic buckets? Of course not. Might they cause health complications? Of course. And you might get run over tomorrow crossing the street. Stop trying for the perfect solution if you can’t afford it. If all I could afford was to throw my grain in black plastic leaf trash bags and store that in an old refrigerator or metal filling cabinet, that’s what I would do to have food storage. Yes, there is the possibility of contamination or toxicity. But we do live in a polluted world and chances are real good you are already exposed to chemicals of equal harm on a daily basis.

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If you have no money for containers, but have plenty of room, just store your wheat in clean dried two liter plastic soda bottles which are trash in most places and made of food grade plastic. If you can afford metal trash cans or barrels, and don’t mind storing in trash bags, you can make several layers of bags. Coat the contents of each bag ( holding enough so as not to be too heavy to hold and juggle ) with food grade diatomaceous earth ( Diatomaceous Earth-Food Grade-10 Pounds by: Nature's Wisdom ). Not pool filter DE, food grade DE. If your feed store doesn’t carry it you’ll have to mail order it ( about $2 a pound which is about four cups or fifty cents a five gallon bucket ). One cup per five gallon bucket is the general rule. Dump, mix around to coat and you have bug proofed your wheat. With DE coating and a metal container you have effectively insect and rodent proofed your wheat. A thirty gallon trash can for thirty bucks holds half a years worth of wheat. Six buckets do the same. Which cost half as much for the unknown toxicity Home Depot buckets or the same price for food grade buckets ( 14 Food Grade White 5 gal. plastic pails without lids )( Diatomaceous Earth, Food Grade 50 lb. Bag ). If you don’t mind the trash bag storage. If all this is confusing and presents too much choice, just go to http://www.beprepared.com/ and buy their storage wheat.

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I hate dry ice wheat storage, or in-the-freezer-for-three-days-to-kill-bugs storage. Both introduce condensation. I would rather use DE and keep things dry. If you aren’t moving anytime soon, there is always, if available, those cola syrup barrels you buy surplus from the bottling plant and clean out at the car wash ( more hot water, soap and high pressure ). You can mix up wheat and DE five gallons at a time then funnel into the barrel. But being three hundred pounds of grain, you can’t move these about much. Although you will have a very cheap food grade container. If you can get the thrown away metal coffee cans ( say, from work where they go through a few a week ) you can always have the best of both worlds, free, non-toxic rodent proof containers. Clean and fill, put in the appropriate amount of DE, place the lid back on, roll around to coat wheat, turn upside down so the plastic lid is underneath and the metal bottom now faces up. Unless the rat knocks over the can they can’t get into it ( thanks- loyal minion suggestion ). Always compare your wheat storage system as cost per pound AFTER storing.

END FUNDAMENTALS SECTION, scroll down for daily drivel.

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It has been several months of every friggin weekend you got guest articles.  Not this weekend.  No Soup For You!!

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The Druid Dude ( The Ecotechnic Future: Envisioning a Post-Peak World ) is back from vacation. And one that was sorely needed as he is trying to save the world, as opposed to yours truly that merely tries to insult the few readers who foolishly admit to associating with me. And he is back in high form, ripping back the flimsy curtain on quantitative easing. If I had said anything you would just have rolled your eyes and given me a stern look and pleaded with me to stop shouting that the sky was falling and give it a rest already. But this is the Druid Dude we’re talking about, the three hundred year long collapse guy. He never panics, not wishing to piss off his adoring legions of fans. Then he would have to go back to work rather than doing important Druid stuff ( yes, I’m a bit jealous ). Read all about it at http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/
If the so-many-words of our intrepid Druid that DOES NOT PANIC, we have now officially started down the road to ruin and there are no places to turn around or exit. Indeed, if he did panic, this would be where he tells you that we are all headed to the stewpot. Several things to keep in mind are that we are borrowing the full amount of our debt ( Captain China no longer to the rescue ). And you can almost certainly bet the entire ranch that it will be far in excess of the admitted $600 billion. The idiots on Wall Street, if they are actually exercising free will and the markets aren’t in fact rigged, are busy rejoicing that more free money is on the way for some other sucker to buy their worthless paper. I hope they take their profits and buy beans and bullets.

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My e-mail is jimd303@netzero.com
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