First off: Forget DRY CANNING
At large in the internet wasteland are those who purport to ‘teach’ us how to dry can wheat berries/beans/lentils/corn etc. Dry canning is packing bulk dry food in jars, heating the jars in the oven, screwing on a lid before it cools, forming a seal. But not a good seal.
If you’re considering this method, be advised, The Cooperative Extension, The University of Georgia; authors of the incomparable ‘So Easy to Preserve’ , and the National Center for Home Food Preservation all say don’t use dry canning. That should be reason enough to use simpler, easier, faster means. If not, here are 7 reasons (abbreviated) from the National Center for Home Food Preservation not to do this.
They say dry canning:
1) is not really canning at all. [Real canning is putting moist foods in jars, heating the jars in boiling water, steam from food in the jars escapes under the lid as it’s boiling (which is why you only put canning jar rings on finger tight). As food cools the temperature change sucks down the lid while keeping oxygen out.]
2) doesn’t kill all bacteria in the jars.
3) may trap moisture in jars as they cool which can facilitate bacteria growth.
4) has never been proven to work.
5) can lower food quality and promote rancidity.
7) waste of time, energy, resources.
If you’d like the complete list of why dry canning isn’t good, here’s the link.
https://preservingfoodathome.com/2020/04/16/dry-canning-isnt-canning-to-me/
* If that’s not enough here’s one more: in an extended food emergency you may want to sprout your seeds and beans. That won’t happen if you’ve baked them in the oven.
With that out of the way, here we go with: Long Term grain/beans/lentils/corn storage
Whether you’re storing in Mylar bags or food grade buckets, for long term storage you want to add a desiccant (near the bottom)and Oxygen absorber (0n top just before you seal it).
Desiccants and oxygen absorbers: Desiccants are those little square packs you find in commercial bags of beef jerky. They absorb moisture. Oxygen absorbers are little square packets of something that reacts with/and absorbs oxygen pulling it out of the air inside the bag in a chemical reaction. Air we breathe is about 80% Nitrogen and 20 % Oxygen. So, a quart container with nothing in it has 1,000 cc of air. 20% of that is Oxygen. Since you’re filling containers with food, the amount of air in the container is less. How much less depends on how dense the food is.
Note that people are all over the place as to how much Oxygen absorber you need. Sometimes even the people who sell them differ even on the same page. My own rule of thumb is 100cc to 150 cc Oxygen absorber per quart (I don’t store grains or use desiccants in quarts), a 5 gram packet of desiccant and 500 cc of Oxygen absorber per gallon of grains. And you want to keep them separate.
Mylar bags: these come in: pint, quart, 2 quart, gallon, 2 gallon, 5 gallon sizes. Bag thickness is 5 mil or 7 mil. Why would anyone get 5 mil? I dunno. 7 mil is thicker, obviously, and will keep oxygen out longer. The first four sizes come with a gusset or non-gusset, and self- sealing (like a Zip lock freezer bag–but even though they self-seal you still have to heat seal them), or non-seal. The 2 and 5 gallon bags don’t have gussets and don’t self-seal. 35 pound pounds of grain takes up about 5 gallons. Since the food takes up so much space you can be comfortable with 20 g of desiccant and a 2000 cc Oxygen absorber. If you’re putting it away for years, sealing it up in a 5 gallon Mylar bag is fine but for me, a pair of 2 pound bags and a 1 pound bag is better because once you open them your grains will begin to absorb oxygen, atmospheric moisture and so on. 2 pound bags without a gusset press more flat than gusset bags if you don’t over fill them. That makes them more compact for storage.
Buckets: Whatever buckets you use, make sure they’re food grade. That designation should be stamped on the bucket and lid. Buckets usually come in 3, 5, 6, or 7 gallon size. Lids are usually standard to fit buckets between 3 and 7 gallons. Again, a 5 gallon bucket will hold about 35 pounds of dry grains/beans etc. The drill with desiccants and Oxygen absorbers is the same as with Mylar bags; desiccants near the bottom, Oxygen absorbers on top. There are 3 type of bucket lids to choose from: 1) light lids that are easy to get off but may not keep Oxygen from getting into the bucket. 2) heavy lids with a gasket that are hard to put on and nearly impossible to get off. 3) Gamma lids (or the similar design Tight-lock) that are two-part lids. The outer part stays on the lip of the bucket while the inner part screws onto the outer part of the lid. Makes life much easier.
Grinders: Oh yeah, those. You can eat whole grains cooked as hot cereal, but if you want flour, you’ll want a grinder. Here are three: All hand crank because cranking is easy and needed when power goes out. Bear in mind that with low-end or rusted mills, some of whatever the grinding parts are made of will end up in your flour.
From left: Komo Hand Crank Mill: Beech wood, corundum ceramic stones.$350. Over 6 month wait. Worth it. These grind hard grains like hard red winter wheat. Middle: Marga Mulina: from Italy: has three steel rollers for crushing softer grains. around $200. Manufacturer says don’t us wet grains. Users say you can soak harder grains then let dry overnight, I haven’t tried that. Mostly use for crushing oat groats to oatmeal flakes. Right: Corona grain mill: the old work horse. some kind of metal grinding wheels, no idea what kinds of metal alloys. About $50 new, lots of used ones around for less. Grinds wheat, corn, coffee, pretty much anything.,
