Several years ago, or so it seems, I began my journey into the preparedness sector of the world and life. It began with the desire I had to have food storage. At the time I began this journey we were low on money and I had no idea how to begin or where. I hadn't even heard of freeze-dried strawberries. Thus began my quest for knowledge. I dived into the internet and all it had to offer. I read books and did all I could to acquire a little bit of knowledge before finally buying products for long-term storage.
Well, I'm still low on money and don't have much in terms of long-term storage but I am farther along now than before. My desire to learn more about food storage and the like has not dissipated. I still browse the internet looking for ideas and products. There is one thing I have noticed though, there is a ton of stuff out there. There are so many websites, blogs, methods, and resources out there that it is impossible-unless you have all the time in the world-to sort through it. I've been noticing this lately with my browsing. Really, I have little time to sort through it all. There is just too much. So, my advice is to pick and choose. My plan, we'll see if I can carry it out, is to get a folder and print out the information I would like to keep and have reference to. Not only would this cut down on my needing to sort through all of my 'bookmarks' for the internet but I will have it in case the internet is unavailable.
At that, I am now giving you and whoever else happens upon this blog permission to copy and use anything they see fit from my blog.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Wheat Gone Bad
Last year, in July, I bought 50 lbs of wheat. I have since been trying to use it. I'm sure I could've used it faster but I just was lazy and didn't want to grind it or do whatever else needed to be done.
This resulted in the wheat lasting a year.
Anyhow, I planned on using my wheat fast and did not pack it for longer term storage. Normally I will at least put things in the mylar bags with oxygen absorbers so they will be somewhat protected. For this wheat I put most of it in a large storage container and the remainder in #10 cans. The #10 cans are ones that have been used before for other items and that is the wheat I use first.
A few days ago I decided to grind up the wheat for an experiment I was doing and opened up the #10 can of wheat. I don't remember when I put it in there, it was either a long time ago or not that long ago. Anyhow, I put my hand in the stuff so I could take a picture for the blog.
I'm glad I did. It allowed me to get a good look at the wheat and there were tiny little bugs crawling around all over the place. Hundreds of them! They were so hard to see though that I wouldn't have noticed unless I had done what I did. This created a feeling of loss and stupidity for me. I should've known better. How could I let this happen? I went immediately into my pantry and checked every #10 can for bugs. It turned out that was the only #10 can of wheat I had and there was no bug moving to other containers. I thought that perhaps it had to do with the fact that I had bought the wheat a year ago. That however was not the case. The wheat I kept in the large storage container was completely bug-free. So, what was the cause of my trouble?
There were a few things that could've happened, I decided. One, the lid wasn't on all the way, or two, something else happened. But what? I set the container of wheat aside. Took a few pictures and tried to take a video of the bugs moving so I could post it here. The videos didn't work. The picture did.
See those tiny little buggers?
Anyhow, I didn't know what to do with the stuff and I felt like my hands had become contaminated. I was afraid to touch anything in fear that those little monsters were hiding in me waiting to jump off into some unsuspecting place. I did manage to pour everything in a garbage bag and put it inside another garbage bag. (I'm not going to mess around with food monsters). When I emptied the #10 can I discovered something not normal when one comes to the end of can of wheat.
My guess is that I washed the #10 can out and did not wait long enough for it to become dry, even if it appeared dried, before putting in some wheat. This created a nice moisture environment for those bugs to thrive. This is all theory though and I have no proof of what really went wrong, but I'll be careful, I hope, next time.
This resulted in the wheat lasting a year.
Anyhow, I planned on using my wheat fast and did not pack it for longer term storage. Normally I will at least put things in the mylar bags with oxygen absorbers so they will be somewhat protected. For this wheat I put most of it in a large storage container and the remainder in #10 cans. The #10 cans are ones that have been used before for other items and that is the wheat I use first.
A few days ago I decided to grind up the wheat for an experiment I was doing and opened up the #10 can of wheat. I don't remember when I put it in there, it was either a long time ago or not that long ago. Anyhow, I put my hand in the stuff so I could take a picture for the blog.
I'm glad I did. It allowed me to get a good look at the wheat and there were tiny little bugs crawling around all over the place. Hundreds of them! They were so hard to see though that I wouldn't have noticed unless I had done what I did. This created a feeling of loss and stupidity for me. I should've known better. How could I let this happen? I went immediately into my pantry and checked every #10 can for bugs. It turned out that was the only #10 can of wheat I had and there was no bug moving to other containers. I thought that perhaps it had to do with the fact that I had bought the wheat a year ago. That however was not the case. The wheat I kept in the large storage container was completely bug-free. So, what was the cause of my trouble?
There were a few things that could've happened, I decided. One, the lid wasn't on all the way, or two, something else happened. But what? I set the container of wheat aside. Took a few pictures and tried to take a video of the bugs moving so I could post it here. The videos didn't work. The picture did.
See those tiny little buggers?
Anyhow, I didn't know what to do with the stuff and I felt like my hands had become contaminated. I was afraid to touch anything in fear that those little monsters were hiding in me waiting to jump off into some unsuspecting place. I did manage to pour everything in a garbage bag and put it inside another garbage bag. (I'm not going to mess around with food monsters). When I emptied the #10 can I discovered something not normal when one comes to the end of can of wheat.
My guess is that I washed the #10 can out and did not wait long enough for it to become dry, even if it appeared dried, before putting in some wheat. This created a nice moisture environment for those bugs to thrive. This is all theory though and I have no proof of what really went wrong, but I'll be careful, I hope, next time.
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