Rice Storage

[duke3522]

I foumd 20 pound bags of Jasmine Rice for $4 each. I am think of putting some into my emergancy stores. Can I safely store this rice in quart canning jars. Any other long term storage ideas welcome.

Thanks
Duke

[Terri]

personaally, I would want to freeze a grain product before I stored it. That way, if there are any weevle eggs they will not hatch and destroy the rice.

[duke3522]

Hi Terri,

Thanks for the advice. Do you think I could put the rice in the mason jars and then into the freezer? That way i won't have to handle it twice.

Duke

PS how lonf in the freezer? Will over night do?

[whiterock]

You can use the jars, I would go 3-4 days or longer in freezer. If you don't freeze in the jars be careful of condensation!!!

[OD]

If you have access to a vacuum sealer that has a jar attachment, you can put it in the jars & vacuum seal them & you won't have to freeze it. I have several half gallon jars of rice that I sealed 2 years ago without freezing. I was a little worried that they would get bugs, but I check them regularly & they are fine stored in the closet.

[duke3522]

II just can't believe this. I have plenty of jars, but no one in town has any lids. None, not a one. What are we coming to when you can’t get canning jar lids. They all say “well they’ll be in soon.” Big help.

So should I go ahead and put the rice in the freezer and wait until I can mail order some lids, or should I just keep it in a cool, dry area until I can get some lids? Because OD’s idea of freezing in the jar sounds like the way to go.

Also, can anyone steer me to a good place to mail order canning supplies.

Thanks
Duke

[Don Armstrong]

Presumably the rice is in plastic bags. Freeze it right now to stop any weevils right now. Leave in freezer for anything up to a fortnight, then you can just leave it lying around until you've got the lids or whatever. Maybe even seal the rice in its own bags into BIG zip-lock bags.

[hollym]

I put 20 lbs into a BIG tupperware type mixing bowl with a lid and kept it in the freezer for over a year before we used it all up, and it was fine. I guess if you kill the bugs you could take it back out as long as it is able to be kept dry?

hollym

[dla]

Got to agree w/Don on the bags.

For long term storage, you really can't beat the cost of freezer bags. (Dont try the regular type. Been there on the ones not made for freezer - saved a few pennies and got freezer burn on many many pounds of venison after the regular bags went brittle on me!)

If your freezer is not completely full, the rice bags will make it more economical to keep cold. The bags also make it easy to fit it into small or odd spaces. In addition, you can take out what you want from a bag, and then reuse the bag when it is empty! (wash it, rinse it, and hang it upside down on the refridgerator with a magnet inside to dry.)

Of course a plastic bag won't keep out mice! :no: so it's no good for a regular pantry.

But golly, at that price - for jasmine rice!! I hope you enjoy it!

[duke3522]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for all the great advice.

Right now the rice is in woven plastic bags, 20 pounds to the bag. I already stuck one bag in the freezer and left the other 3 out in the truck under the topper. And tonight it’s going down to 18 degrees so mother nature can help get all this rice frozen.

Then, for long term storage, I am going to pull everything out of the freezer, give it a good cleaning, and put two of the bags in the bottom of the freezer and reload everything else back on top. I also thought I might go ahead and wrap the woven bags in either trash bags or some foam backed sheet plastic I get from my cousin to help protect the rice from spills. One of the other two bag I will divide up into jars and freeze. Then I can put those into the pantry. The other one my DB wants, but I don’t think he knows what he’s getting into. This is a bunch of rice. I might just offer him a few jars in trade for helping me put in some raised beds this spring.

You know it’s a good feeling to have plenty of rice in the freezer (or on it’s way there) and 72 cans of albacore tuna (another bargain at $0.50 a can) in the pantry. And a selection of other stuff that I have in the emergency pantry. Back when I stocked up for Y2K possibilities DW thought I was nuts, but those supplies are what got us through when she got sick and we had little or no income for 10 months. Now, when I do something like bring home 80 pounds of rice or a 100 cans of tuna, she just keeps her comments to herself.

Now if I can just figure a way to heat this place if the electric goes out. Oh well, that’s another thread.

Thanks Again

Duke
In Sunny But Cold Central Indiana

[John_in_Houston]

Would CO2 kill the weevils and prevent eggs from hatching? I've got a CO2 tank left over from my beer making days that I've been wondering what to do with...

[Jenn]

I had mice trouble and weevil trouble but was also feeding a baby many cans of formula so I would freeze all my grain (and flour for that matter) before or after putting it into the metal (like a coffee can) baby formula can with snap on plastic lid for a week or so then store it in the pantry. Luckily the mice weren't so desperate as to chew through the plastic. Might take me a few months to get a whole big bag of grain frozen and 'canned' since I had no big freezer or cold weather.

[duke3522]

Hi Jenn,

I don’t have to worry about containers. My mom used to buy mason jars almost any time she would see them at a rummage. I must have two to three hundred of them in the basement. Found some down there last month that still have green beans in them, and since she’s been gone since 1992 I think those are going in the compost pile. My problem is rings and lids. I am going to be on the hunt for some this summer at the rummages.

Duke

[westbrook]

Don is a fortnight 2 weeks?

[ajaxlucy]

I buy rice in 20 or 40-lb bags which I put in the freezer for a week or two. After that I just store them in my kitchen or pantry. The one time I didn't freeze it, little brown bugs (weevils?) appeared. The chickens got the rest of that bag.

[BCR]

Consider setting the bags ON if not IN a plastic bag on the shelf. This helps decrease any condensation from the freezer itself and decreases the possibility of the bag freezing to the shelf and ripping as you remove it. I always leave my flour in the paper bag it comes in and then in a plastic shopping bag on the shelf. Never a problem.

Instead of buying all those lids/rings you might want to simply store the unopened bags of rice in a wellsealed can, preferably metal-maybe even a new large trash can or a clean old one lined with clean plastic. I put my smaller bags of rice into the metal popcorn tins that I have people save for me. Works like a charm keeping out any critters/bugs after the freezer treatment.

[Don Armstrong]

Originally Posted by westbrook

Don is a fortnight 2 weeks?

Yep. I presume the derivation is fourt(een) night(s).

[duke3522]

Hi everyone,

I think the term ‘Fortnight’ comes from the mid to late 1700’s when the British had a series of forts established throughout the area of what is now Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois. They tried to place their forts so that a traveler could travel from one fort to the next in about two weeks. Hence the name Fortnight became a slang term for two weeks.

At least that’s what they taught us in high school, and I take all that info with a grain of salt. LOL :haha:

Duke