We get a lot of questions about how and why to store wheat berries and the various grains we offer here at Yah’s Manna Grain Co. Below you will find how we store our family’s grains for long term storage and these are our recommendations. However, we urge you do your own research on the proper ways to store grains long term as there are many different ways and reasons to store grains long-term. At the bottom of this blog you will find links to products we buy and use. We sell 5 gallon food grade buckets during most bulk orders so watch for those when we have our next bulk order, but if you need them now, there is also a link for those below too!
Why should we store grains for long-term storage?
Food security, shelf stability and pest or mold prevention are the main reasons to store your grains long term. We never know what the future might bring in this chaotic world and having grains stored away properly can be a life saver for some of us! Grains are a perishable food and they will not last for years in the pantry unless they are stored properly. Some grains are subject to pests and/or mold. So storing grains in long-term, air tight packaging can help grains go from lasting a year or two to lasting 20-30 years!
Food Security
Not everyone thinks of grains as a good long-term survival food, but they are! Wheat berries and beans are full of both carbs and protein. Rice offers a lot of carbs that can help sustain our energy levels. Grains are full of essential vitamins and minerals our bodies need. Like in Jacob’s Story in the Bible, the whole world was sustained for seven years by the wheat Jacob stored in Egypt during the seven years of plenty! Wheat berries alone have everything we need to survive and thrive: protein, vitamins, minerals, fiber and carbohydrates. Hurricanes, pandemics and wars all bring food insecurity and it’s best to be prepared, especially in this day and age!
Shelf Stability
A lot of people assume grains are naturally shelf stable and they are to point, but they need to be stored properly to last. Some grains can last for years in a dry environment, but our environment is not always dry. Oxygen, humidity and temperature changes can ruin our grains. Long-term storage solutions like the ones we recommend below can help make grains last for decades!
Pest or Mold Prevention
Some grains are subject to mold and some are subject to pests and some to both!
Wheat berries are subject to infestation with wheat moths or weevils. These pests are naturally attracted to wheat berries and try to find their way to them! Also, wheat berries come from fields that have weevils and wheat moths in them and their larvae! One of the major reasons the farms clean their wheat berries with several different sorting machines is to get rid of all the wheat moth and weevil larvae! Wheat berries, even when meticulously cleaned can still have these larvae present. So long term storage solutions can help prevent the larvae from ever hatching and help prevent pests from finding and eating your long term food stores before you do!
Rice, beans and corn are not as prone to pests and larvae issues as wheat is. Rice is prone to mold more than it’s prone to pests. It’s important that rice is stored in a cool, dry place or it can very easily get moldy and be ruined. Beans are also subject to mold if not stored properly although not as much as rice. Corn can also have issues with mold if not stored properly.
How do we store our grains for long term storage to minimize and prevent these issues?
Okay, so now that we know why we need to store grains for long term, how do we go about doing it? Well it’s not as hard as it sounds and it’s much easier to do than it is to think about, so don’t hesitate to get started on the process if you haven’t already! And again there are many different ways to store your grain for long term storage, but this has been the way we store our family’s grains and it’s the way many farms store their grains!
How soon do you need to store your grains for successful long term storage?
When you order wheat berries from any source, it should be stored within 2-4 weeks to prevent any larvae from hatching.
Rice can last for 1-2 years in the original packaging you buy it in, if it’s kept in a cool, dry place. But for best results it’s good to store it properly as described below within 6-12 months of purchase.
Beans are least likely to spoil, mold or get infested but within 2 years of purchase, it’s best to store it as described below for long term storage!
As for other grains, do your research before buying to see when you need to securely store them by for successful long-term storage.
Long Term Storage of Wheat Berries, Rice, Beans, Corn and other grains:
We store our grains in 5 gallon, food grade buckets with rubber gasket lids or gamma lids.
Rubber gasket lids seal air tight and are for long term storage. Once opened you need to buy a new lid to replace it or add a gamma lid. Rubber gasket lids are cheap and easy to replace. However, gamma lids are easy to pop on and they screw open and close allowing easy access to your grains anytime you need them. And they seal your buckets closed air tight like rubber gasket lids do. However, gamma lids are anywhere from $10-15 each. So we store the majority of our grains with rubber gasket lids. However, we keep one bucket of each grain we have and we put a gamma lid on it so we can access that grain as we need to cook with it. For example, we may have 10 buckets of hard white wheat berries in storage, but one bucket of those buckets has a gamma lid on it so we can use the hard white to make bread when we want to access it!
Note: Some people store their grains in mylar bags, smaller or larger food grade buckets and even 50 gallon drums. Some people buy 5 gallon mylar bags to line their 5 gallon buckets with. They even make 50 gallon mylar bags for 50 gallon drums. But we do not use mylar bags, we just use the buckets mentioned above as many of the farms we buy from only use the buckets as well.
Wheat Berries are not subject to mold as much as rice, beans and corn are. So for rice, beans and corn we use food grade desiccants or silica packets when we store these specific grains. We do NOT use desiccants when we store wheat berries, but you can if you have to store your buckets or containers in a humid environment where the temperature is not stable. Desiccants remove all the moisture from an area. There are desiccant calculators online if you want to use a different size container, but we add 25 grams of food grade desiccants or silica packets to the bottom of our 5 gallon bucket and then we add the grain on top. They come in various sizes so we make sure to add as many packets until we reach 25 grams. So if we buy 5 gram packets, we place five, 5 gram packets on the bottom of our bucket. DO NOT EVER OPEN THE DESICCANT PACKETS BUT PLACE THE WHOLE PACKETS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BUCKET.
30 to 35 lbs of grain fit in 1 five gallon food grade bucket. We pour in our grain and weigh our buckets until they weight 30-35lbs plus the weight of our bucket.
On top of our grain, we place 1000cc of oxygen absorbers. Oxygen absorbers absorb all the H2O or oxygen out of the bucket and this keeps the wheat as fresh as the day you bought it and also starves any wheat moth or weevil larvae of oxygen preventing them to hatch! So the oxygen absorbers kill the larvae and keeps your wheat berries or grains fresh and stable for decades! The oxygen absorbers come in all sizes, 100cc up to 2500cc packets. So if you buy 500cc packets you will place 2 packets on top of your grain. DO NOT EVER OPEN THE OXYGEN ABSORBER PACKETS BUT PLACE THE WHOLE PACKETS ON TOP OF THE GRAIN.
Note: It’s important to separate the oxygen absorbers and the desiccants otherwise they will cancel each other out. This is why we put the desiccants on the bottom of our buckets and the oxygen absorbers on top of our grain.
Note: Oxygen absorbers come in sealed plastic bags and some come individually wrapped. It’s important to reseal the plastic bag they come in if they aren’t being used right away. You can reseal it with a hot iron of some sort if you don’t have a sealer. We prefer the individually wrapped oxygen absorbers for ease of use. Do not take the oxygen absorber out of its plastic bag until you are ready to seal the bucket. They immediately start absorbing oxygen.
Note: We know the oxygen absorbers are working when the lid on the bucket starts to bow inward towards the grain within 4-8 hours of closing the bucket. We recommend checking your buckets every 3-6 months to make sure the lids are still sucked in tight and bowed concave toward the grain. If you find a lid that went back to being flat and straight, you know you either have a defective lid or a defective oxygen absorber. At that point take the lid off, add a new oxygen absorber and a new lid and close it tight.
Once our desiccants and oxygen absorbers are in place, we close the bucket right away with a rubber gasket lid using a rubber mallet and a lot of force making sure the lid is sealed tight all the way around
Note: Some people freeze their wheat berries for 48 hours to kill any larvae that might be present. This works as well, but we still recommend using oxygen absorbers to kill the larvae and to keep the wheat fresh for years to come.
We store our grains inside a cool, temperature controlled room or storage room. Temp changes can cause condensation inside your buckets causing mold. (But again, if you have no choice but to store outside, use desiccants along with your oxygen absorbers and monitor your buckets frequently to prevent mold from forming.)
And that is all! This method can make your grains go from lasting a few months or years in your pantry to lasting decades in long term storage.
Here are links on where to find the items mentioned above but you can also find these same products at Walmart, Lowe’s, Home Depot and Tractor Supply:
5 gram Food Grade Desiccants:
500cc Oxygen Absorbers:
5 gallon Food Grade Bucket with Rubber Gasket Lid
Gamma Lids
If you have any questions don’t hesitate to call
or text us at 830-822-0393!❤️
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