shelf life of wheat berries?

[Tracy Rimmer]

I want to lay in a stock of wheat for grinding for flour. How long is the "shelf life" on this stuff -- I buy organic.

I mean, I know it can last centuries, but realistically, how much should I plan to store?

[Spinner]

Most places say about 20 years to 50 years if it's stored air tight.

[uncle Will in In.]

Stored wheat can get weavels in it. I'm not sure if putting it in a sealed container will prevent them or not. Freezing it works.

[Spinner]

Yep, I should have added that it needs to be frozen for about a week to kill any unwanted additions that come in the berries. After freezing then you want to store it in an air tight container. There are several ways to do it. A.T.Hagan has a page that explains it real well, I'll try to find a link for you.

edited to add: found it. http://athagan.members.atlantic.net/...#Storing_Grain Scrol to the bottom of the page and you'll find links to several types of storage for wheat and other grains.

[Tracy Rimmer]

Thank you kindly!

Tracy

[WisJim]

For many years (since the mid-1970s) we have been storing our wheat in the 50# bags it comes in, in metal garbage cans, in our basement root cellar. I have not had any weevil or moth problems with the wheat, other grains, flour, or rolled oats that we store like this. Some of the wheat was 8 or 9 years old when we used it a couple of years ago, because I had sort of lost track of which bag was which (my markings on the bag and on the can weren't clear), but it tasted and baked fine, and samples of the wheat sprouted well, which I feel shows that it was still "al;ive" and healthy.

If you can, it probably wouldn't hurt to freeze it before storage, and I think you can store it for decades. If I was intending to store more for a long period of time, I would probably shoot some CO2 into the storage container after the wheat was in place, to smother insects that might be there.

Anywhere from three years to thirty or more years. It all depends on how you have it packaged and the storage conditions that you're keeping it in. I cover most of the practical ways of putting up grain for long-term storage in the food storage FAQ that Spinner references above or via the URL in my signature below.

.....Alan.