# Another newbie question - flour



## vondonna (Mar 24, 2012)

I asked a question about oats and the replies made total sense... don't buy 'em if you don't eat 'em. I have to say that I don't think I've ever made anything other than oatmeal or oatmeal cookies out of oatmeal.

I know that every prepper board there is talk about the absolute need for oats. I don't understand why (not being cocky, I'm really lost and trying to understand).

If you are going to use the oats (or corn/wheat for that matter) for grinding up and using as flour then why don't you just store flour?


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## Emerald (Jun 14, 2010)

Whole grains store without going rancid much longer than ground flours do. So by storing them whole you have a fresher product than storing flours..


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## longtime (Nov 22, 2009)

I would like to ask you a question. Since you call yourself a newbie, what else have you done?

I did not store large amounts of wheat until I had a base of other everyday supplies, and that did include about one years worth of flour (which I keep in the freezer and rotate). 

Only after I built up a short term pantry, did I add large amounts of bulk wheat and oats. I now store over 2000 lbs of wheat, but that was long after I started. 

You need to be able to use what you store, don't store something just to have it in storage. 

We currently use about 100 lbs of wheat a year as HW flour.


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## vondonna (Mar 24, 2012)

Okay, a boring story about me....

I live on a 500 acre family farm. My personal slot of yard/land is about 5 acres. I was the director of operations for a national non-profit for 20 years and when the economy tanked non-profits were the first hit so I lost my job along with hundreds of others. Since then I've applied for well over 3,000 jobs and even with 3 letters of recommendation from my CEO, CFO and board president I've not been able to get a job. So I've been creative... I do every odd job under the sky. I babysit, I cook meals for a family twice a week, I sew dog bandanas for a local dog groomer, I've detailed cars, I've cleaned basements... you name it.

What I've done in regards to prepping....

There is only me and my other half here (along with 3 dogs and 4 cats). That sounds easy enough to take care of, but my family, who pretty much live in total denial, all live within 2 miles of me so I would imagine I'll end up helping them as well.

When I lost the job that I never thought I'd lose, I realized just how vulnerable we all are. I decided I had the time and room so I started raising chickens. I started with 12 and 3 years later I have 60. My thinking on that was that if we were hungry we'd always have eggs and chickens to eat as well as something which with to barter.

This year I installed a pellet/corn stove. I know it's not a wood stove, but the pellet/corn stoves are so much safer. I realize that pellets will be impossible to get when/if things go to hell in a handbasket, but I have silos and silos of corn. I bought a generator to run the stove when we lose power. I know that gas will be pretty much impossible to get so my goal on that one is to install some sort of solar panel that will run it. I've been reading on this, but at this point I've not been able to afford it.

Please remember that everything I do is on a very restricted budget because these little side jobs provide just enough to get by with very little to spare. I'm doing little by little, but staying with it. It adds up.

Going back to sustainable things that I can use and barter, I have read up on beekeeping. A good friend, who is also starting to prep, has 2 beehives. I couldn't afford to purchase 2 hives and 2 colonies of bees ($600) so I purchased plans to build the beehives and I'm working on those now. I probably won't be able to purchase the bees until next Spring.

Security... I live about 1/10th of a mile off of a State Road about 7 miles from the nearest town, which has a population of around 13,000. The nearest large city is about an hour away. I have 2 shotguns. I want to purchase a handgun, but again with finances, I will have to do with these shotguns until I can afford to make that purchase. I have about 200 rounds of ammo. I know that's not nearly enough, so I buy a box here and there as I can.

As far as food/water, etc. go.... I have 300 gallons of drinkable water stored in food grade 50-gallon barrels. I have 100 gallons of water stored in non-food-grade barrels that I can use for the toilet, cleaning, whatever. I have canned fruits, vegetables, meats that I estimate would last for a month, longer if we're careful. I try to buy a few extras each time I go to the store. I have 50 pounds of flour, probably 30 pounds of sugar, a few boxes of powdered milk, a few boxes of Bisquick and things like that. I'm trying to understand the rice situation. I never knew there were so many different kinds! I can't find bulk plain white rice. Can I store long grain rice that I can find in 50lb bags or does that go rancid?

I have a small amount of medical supplies (bandages, etc.) and have saved antibiotics, tylenol, rx ibuprofen, alcohol, peroxide and things like that. I have anti-diahrea meds, cough/cold meds. I need to amp those up because I don't have that much, but some is better than nothing.

I purchased a dehydrator last fall and have dehydrated some fruits over the winter. I want to purchase a pressure canner. I grew up with my Mom/grandmother canning, but like many other things, it's gone to the wayside.

For cooking, if there is no power, I have made a couple of the little rocket stoves. I have saved lots of cans so I can make more if needed. I have a dual fuel coleman stove and about 20 gallons of Coleman fuel and access to about 200 gallons of unleaded fuel (if it's not stolen). I want to make a solar oven. I live in norther Indiana so while it's hot in the summer, it can be downright frigid in the winter so I don't know if a solar oven would even work in that weather. I also have a little Coleman oven that can be put on top of a Coleman stove or even the little rocket stove.

So that pretty much sums it up. I have basics of the basics covered with SOOOO much more to do. One step at a time. Now I'm trying to understand some of the things that I just don't understand.... like I never knew that flour would go rancid or which rice can be stored long term? How do you know these things?! 

I stumbled across your forum in my search of knowledge and I have found it. I hope you'll bear with me as I continue that search.

Thanks a bunch. Sorry to have bored you... bet you wish you'd never asked. LOL


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## neldarez (Apr 10, 2011)

hi there Vondonna! welcome to the forum. The folks on here are not only brilliant they are so happy to share and teach!! I don't have too much to offer to the forum except much appreciation. You'll learn so much and it's fun learning, They taught me how to pressure can and now I'm dehydrating chili!! go figure! You'll have fun on here:wave:


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## stayingthegame (Mar 22, 2011)

when knowledge is not shared and is horded, it is knowledge lost.


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

vondonna, I grew up eating rice with chop-sticks and I normally purchase the large bulk bags of rice from the local warehouse. Personally, I like the "*Rooster Brand Jasmine Rice*" - it works very well all around when cooking up a stir-fry, eating plain, doing a fried-rice, makin' congee (congee is basically a rice-based porridge very similar to cream-of-wheat), etc. There are many more choices including Basmati which I find is quite nice as well.

Personally, I store my rice in glass-jars on my counter (the kind with the lock-down clamp) for every-day use and I have 6-gallon buckets with GammaSeal lids for the longer-term storage (it doesn't really last long in my house). I got my buckets and lids from a local supplier (Briden Solutions) ... you can get the same GammaSeal lids and buckets from all kinds of other suppliers through other mail-order houses (like Amazon.com) as well.


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## vondonna (Mar 24, 2012)

Thank you all for the welcome.

Jasmine rice doesn't go rancid?


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

vondonna said:


> Thank you all for the welcome.
> 
> Jasmine rice doesn't go rancid?


I haven't had it go bad, but that being said, I have never had a 50lb bag of rice last more than a year in my house ...


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## Rachel (Mar 5, 2012)

We have been eating a bag of jasmine just stored in a plastic tote since 2008...tastes fine.


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## Emerald (Jun 14, 2010)

I buy the Jasmine rice in the 25lb bags at Sam's club and we eat it up before it can go bad also. Not sure of the brand but it is a bright yellow bag. I do not use the instructions on the bag tho..

The topic of bee keeping.. if you build your hives see if your friend will let you set one near the other hives he has and then if one of his hives decides to swarm(which they do) they may go right into your empty one.(they may not tho.) or if he gets calls to clear swarming bees you could maybe get a free swarm for the collecting.


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## oconnor1981 (Jul 22, 2011)

To address why grain berries will keep for longer while ground wheat, oats, etc will not. I'm a newbie as well but I grew up using fresh ground flour and I am an avid baker. First there is a strong belief that an unground wheat berry, rice, etc. harbor all of the nutrients if they remain unground. So if your making bread for example they say from a nutritional standpoint that it is best to grind the wheat just prior to making the bread. Secondly, I would have to imagine that regardless of storage container, storage location, etc. that ground flour is always going to be suseptible to taking on moisture which without notice can quickly lead to mold, botulism, etc. I currently am not to the point of having a grain stock but I would imagine that if you have them properly stored they would keep for years. I personally don't think I would recommend wanting to use flour that is even 6 months-year old. It helps of course if you freeze it. Of course push comes to shove it probably would be fine to eat but just not as nutitional or tasty. I'm also a newbie so no expert advice but just food for thought.


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