sugar storage...

Deb&Al · #1 02/24/08, 06:50 AM

hi everyone,
with the price of everything going up and up, I'm buying 2 five-pound bags of sugar every week when I do the grocery shopping, in anticipation for this summer's canning. I put up about 100 quarts each of pears and peaches, plus I do another couple hundred quarts of things like applesauce, apricots, all in a light syrup. Plus, I do grape juice, and jams and jellies.

my question is...
should I just leave it in the bags they come in in put it in the panty? I have a food saver but one time I tried vac sealing and when I opened the bags the sugar was ROCK hard. I had to break it with a case knife.

any suggestions? I would appreaciate your opinions.
debbie

Up North Louie · #2 02/24/08, 07:46 AM

When I cooked and baked professionally, we would store about 1000 pounds of granulated sugar at any one time, for up to 3 or 4 months. We left it as is, but stored it in the driest places we could, away from heat and humidity.

Once it was open and in the bin, we would mix in a loaf of stale bread to absorb humidity, but that meant running the sugar through a big round tammy sieve before using it, which could be a pain in the bahookie. We only did that when high environmental humidity demanded it; the sugar bin was NOT air tight.

When they would seize up in the bag, we would just gently drop them from a foot or so onto a concrete floor, flip, drop, flip, drop, until they busted up enough to be usable.

Good luck.

Don

giddy · #3 02/24/08, 07:53 AM

I use a rubbermaid tote. You can put several bags in it and I haven't had any trouble. I believe it was an 18 gallon one.

RevlonEyes · #4 02/24/08, 07:53 AM

Deb, I put mine in quart size canning jars. I started doing that about a year ago and have not had any problems with it getting hard. Did find a bag about two weeks ago I over looked in my efforts. Here it had a bug in it. So I was glad I had put the others in the jars. Maybe you or others could answer the one question I had along this same line. Can you put sugar in the freezer to kill the larva of bugs with out it getting rock hard? Seems we are thinking along the same lines. Anything to save some money down the road, hard to tell what the price of sugar will be till canning season.

Kmac15 · #5 02/24/08, 08:35 AM

I have been putting it in gallon ziplock bags, pushing the air out and then placing them in a bucket. I also have 2 gallon jars full. The oldest I have opened is 6 months but it was fine.

paulaswolfpack · #6 02/24/08, 09:46 AM

I have not been able to find 5lb bags for a long time now they all come in 4lb bags now.
I have heard that people want smaller pakages for easy handyage but the price does not go down,Paula

Ode · #7 02/24/08, 10:03 AM

I have never had bugs in sugar, so I can't answer that question. I store it in 2 ways...half gallon canning jars and in foodsaver bags. When I use the foodsaver, I just use the sealer, not the vacuum part. That keeps it from turning into a rock. With Brown sugar, you really want to remove it from the plastic bag it comes in before storing it. I have had the bags get strange on me over time, sort of sticky or gummy. And the bags it comes in aren't as air tight as foodsaver bags or glass.

You could also use mylar if you want something really sturdy, although again I wouldn't use an oxygen absorber or vacuum the air out before sealing it up. You could use the 5 or 6 gallon pails and put a bunch of sugar up at once, or use totes and just package up smaller quantities, depending on your regular useage requirements.

Mrs_stuart · #8 02/24/08, 12:11 PM

I have several hundred pounds of sugar most of the time and I just put it in 5 gallon buckets. I have never had any bug problems with it. It has stayed in there for a year or so at any given time.

Belinda

texican · #9 02/24/08, 12:23 PM

I don't have enough space or jars to be putting sugar in them, just so the sugar doesn't become hard. I've found 'hard sugar' relents pretty quickly when I schmack it a few times on different sides of the bag, against the tile (cement

) floor. The hardness doesn't affect the sugar... a little chunk, when added to the jelly isn't going to harm it any...it's gonna melt or dissolve pretty quickly. Sugar is cheap right now (around here at least... dollar bags last week), so I've stocked up.

Deb&Al · #10 02/24/08, 01:10 PM

wow, you all are so wonderful. thanks for your tips. I am worried about next summer. we're on a tight budget now and I'm looking ahead to can/dry/freeze, grow extra if I can.

I'm going to drift my own thread here...
does anyone have any plans to can extra, in case the following year is worse than this upcoming year, just to have something put by?
deb

MisFitFarm · #11 02/24/08, 02:35 PM

Deb, I plan to can and store anything extra that I possible can! My daughter and I will be increasing both the garden, and our livestock this year. Of course, we're also doing that in hopes of becoming even more self sufficient. I always have four to six extra bags of sugar around, and have never had a problem with them being hard, except the time that I didn't pay attention because I was in a hurry and bought it that way. I make home made bread all the time, and I store flour in buckets with lids. I haven't had any trouble with bugs in all the years that I have been doing that, so I may start doing it with the sugar.

Kmac15 · #12 02/24/08, 04:38 PM

Although we live in the deep south our area tends to have late frosts that take out the fruit trees and bushes. 2 out of the last 3 years we got no local blueberries or figs, so when we do get a good year I put up enough to last several years. I freeze, jam, can in syrup or make syrup of all kinds of fruit. As my DH says I never let free fruit go to waste.

Delrio · #13 02/24/08, 04:39 PM

We just put ours in 5 gallon buckets. They'll store for just about forever!!
Also, can everything you can get your hands on. You never know if next years garden will turn out or if there will be food in the stores. It always pays to be prepared. And your canned stuff will last a long, long time.

mary,tx · #14 02/24/08, 07:03 PM

Sorry in advance for this thread drift, but have you noticed that the price of flour is half again what it was last year? It's going to keep going up, with more farmers planting corn for ethanol, and less wheat getting planted. I have a plan to buy a bag or two of that every shopping trip for awhile, and store more wheat, too.

shar · #15 02/25/08, 08:22 AM

I have found some good deals on sugar and just put them in gallon zip lock bags. We have atleast a 100 lbs. I also can and freeze everything that I can and this year will do even more. The prices have gone up on just about all the groceries so Iam buying whats on sale and stocking up, on the things that we can't grow or make. Start stocking up on those canning jar lids and rings as they will probably go up as summer gets here. We also just bought another 50 lb bag of flour (Costco) divided it up into large food saver bags and put it in the freezer.

TexasArtist · #16 02/25/08, 08:34 AM

have you ever thought of maybe checking in a phone to see if their is a restaurant supply place that might sell 25 or 50 bag of sugar? Maybe you could call them and find out if they are open to the public and what the price it instead of buying a hundred little baggies.

Delrio · #17 02/25/08, 12:43 PM

We called a few restaurant supply places and all their prices were much higher than buying "those little baggies".

Mysticdream44 · #18 02/25/08, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deb&Al

wow, you all are so wonderful. thanks for your tips. I am worried about next summer. we're on a tight budget now and I'm looking ahead to can/dry/freeze, grow extra if I can.

I'm going to drift my own thread here...
does anyone have any plans to can extra, in case the following year is worse than this upcoming year, just to have something put by?
deb

I plan on canning, dehydrating and freezing as much as I possibily can this summer. It was a lifesaver this past summer when my DH had a job loss. Also I put my sugar in 1/2 gallon glass jars if possible, and in smaller jars if I don't find any more of those. I stored a 5 lb bag of sugar in my double door cabinet one time and about a week later it was covered in ants, so now I make sure I put it in something as airtight as possible. I tried put sugar in the freezer but it came out really hard, so I had to bang it a little with the rubber mallet but it was ok. May I make a suggestion? It may be better to go and get a membership at Costco or Sam's and get their 25 lb or 50 lb bags of sugar, that may save you some money in the long run. Big bags of all purpose flour too for baking. If you get some one gallon ziplock storage bags and then put in buckets or maybe popcorn cans (those you can get at yardsales) everthing should be ok from bugs, mice , etc.

CrossCreek Mom · #19 02/26/08, 08:10 AM

I've had very good luck using 5 gallon frosting buckets. In most cases, they have a rubber seal (gasket) that keeps the sugar quite well. You can check at bakeries, either wal mart, other stores or independent bakeries. They are often free, but usually not over $2 anyway.

stranger · #20 02/26/08, 11:27 AM

I put my sugar in food savor bags, but don't use so much vacume that the sugar is a solid block, i keep it loose and it should store easy 5-10 yrs or more.. from there it goes in another plastic storage bin from wally world..
caution, anyone buying buckets, make sure that they are food grade and not used wall board compound buckets ect.