Wheat Keeping, or, Adventures in Sublimation

D&C 89:14 All grain is ordained for the use of man and of beasts, to be the staff of life, not only for man but for the beasts of the field, and the fowls of heaven, and all wild animals that run or creep on the earth.

When it comes to long-term food storage, an excellent place to start is with a growing supply of grains, especially wheat. Wheat is relatively inexpensive, versatile, filling... it's the staff of life!

I like thinking about Joseph of Egypt and his responsibility to store up grains in the 7 years of plenty, so that when the 7 years of famine came, the country had enough food, and to spare. Some of us might not currently be in a "time of plenty." Some of us may be experiencing our "years of famine," and are now consuming what may have been stored up for this very time.

Vance and I went through one of these times early in our marriage. Our ward had the opportunity to have a turn with an electric can sealer for #10 cans in the bishop's garage for a little while. We had just received a nice bonus and had decided to use it for taking advantage of this opportunity. Using oxygen absorbing packets and #10 cans, we dry canned flour, sugar, pasta, brown sugar (a HUGE no-no, but we didn't know!), and other staples. Later on, things got lean in the pocket book, and it was a huge blessing to have those basic ingredients stored away.

Although this method is a fantastic one for long-term storage, I did notice that when we used the flour that had been in the cans for a few years, the oxygen absorbers had left the food with a funny flavor. Their effectiveness comes from iron inside the packets which react with moisture and air in the food to create rust and neutralize the oxygen in the container. Although the rust and iron do not come into contact with your food, I could still taste the rust in the flour. Also, the oxygen packets are not a reliable and safe method to use if you're storing your food in plastic buckets.

Why do we need to worry about oxygen in the food, anyway? No matter how hard industries try to keep the creepy crawlies out of our food, and no matter how hard we try ourselves for that matter, some insects will find a way. Whether there are full-grown insects or simply eggs, something needs to be done to safely eliminate them and prevent them from infesting our food, without posing a threat to those actually eating the food. And since living things can't survive without oxygen, we remove it. We don't want to treat our foods with chemicals, either. It will compromise the longevity of the product, and when push comes to shove, we may want to sprout our grains to gain added nutrients and this can be a problem with chemically treated grains.

Oxygen packets are the perfect solution for dry goods which are being stored in cans, but what about dry goods that are packed into plastic buckets? These are not good candidates for the oxygen packet. This is where we learn a magic word. Sublimation. Kinda rolls off the tongue, huh? "Yes, I store my grains with the use of sublimation." We're fancy here. Sublimation is the process in which a solid turns into a gas without first becoming a liquid. (There's your science lesson for the day, cool experiment to follow.)

This is where our good friend, dry ice, comes into play. Sorry men, we are not going to be making dry ice bombs, root beer, or witch's brew. *Sigh* But, that same goodness that gives your homemade root beer its bubbles is going to keep your family alive 30 years from now. Is that not awesome?! Dry ice is simply frozen carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is heavier than oxygen (and un-sustaining of animal life), and that's what makes this trick work.

Instructions:

When storing dry goods in plastic buckets, place 1 ounce of dry ice per gallon of container size in the bottom of the bucket or other plastic container. (Be sure to first wipe off any ice crystals to prevent the introduction of moisture.) Pour your dry item over the dry ice to fill the bucket almost to the top. Place the lid onto the container, but don't seal it all the way (or you WILL have a dry ice bomb). This allows the oxygen to escape, without allowing a transfer of new oxygen back into your container. Wait for all of the dry ice to sublimate. You'll know it's done when the bottom of the bucket is no longer cold to the touch. At this point, you can finish sealing your container, and you're good to go for the next jillion years... Or 30.

This works because as the dry ice sublimates, the carbon dioxide begins to fill the bucket from the bottom up, pushing the oxygen right out the top, leaving nothing left for your little enemies of wheat to breathe. Dastardly.

-Katie-

For more information on long-term storage methods, visit the LDS church website, here. There you'll find information on this dry ice method, oxygen absorbers, vacuum sealers, and examples of which kinds of food are acceptable and unacceptable for long-term storage.