I wonder if you couldn't do what I've done with my rice - freeze at zero degrees for about a week. That kills all the little critters eggs. I did this to six 5 gallon buckets of rice not to long after 9/11 and the ones I've checked are still good. I don't know if that would work on wheat or not?

I keep a lot of rice on hand too. Goes with everything and when stored right it keeps a long time. I also keep a variety of dry beans and pasta's like garden rotini.

You dont have to put grain in the freezer all you have to do is put it in a mylar bag then into a 5 gallon bucket with lid. Then fill with nitrogen from the bottom to the top. Then put on with a twist lid that will be air tight.... no bugs.

Keep in cool dry and no light. This way when the power goes out you dont have worry.

Too add nitrogen to bucket:

Insert the nitrogen tube into the 5 gallon bucket and cautiously push the tube to the bottom of the Five gallon bucket. Care should be taken not to damage the bag with the tube. Now open the nitrogen valve allowing nitrogen into the bag. We're not talking about a lot of gas. Think of a gentle to moderate blowing through a drinking straw, as a guide for how much nitrogen to allow into the bag. Flush the nitrogen while holding the bag vertically. Nitrogen is heavier than air and will settle, forcing the oxygen out the hole at the top, so do not restrict the air from escaping from the bag. The nitrogen gas will be cold so you will feel the bag getting cooler as the nitrogen replaces the oxygen.

I wanna know where you can get 100lbs of wheat for $5. Maybe out in the country from a grain mill?????

I went to the prepare website. Under water storage, they mention siphoning the water with garden hose with a "cottontail" stuffed in it. I was visualizing stuffing a rabbit into a garden hose. Further down, I find out that they meant "cotton balls". Whew!

yeah, but they're talking about 700 pounds! <img src="/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Odds are, they are talking about a feed store, but buying it in 20 pound bags. And they did say that some weeks would be more than five bucks, others less. The $5/wk is an average.

I'm not sure when this list was produced. Either that, or we're getting hosed on food and feed costs around here. I was in a feed store a few weeks ago, and it would cost a bit more than five cents a pound right now for wheat. For any kind of feed grain.

Yeah, I wasn't banking on $5 a week.. Maybe in Utah ;-)

The reason why I forwarded or linked to the message is to let everyone know that you CAN get a years supply of food on very minimal out of pocket expenses.. It'll just take longer. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Oh, heck yeah. You can do a month in two milk crates, and that has luxuries and inefficent packaging it, along with a couple of colman canisters and batteries. Slide them under the bed, behind the couch, whereever they fit. Keep the cats away from the flour bags though- they think it's fun to turn into ghosts. Best to put that in the middle of the crate.

You can also use dry ice (carbon dioxide) in the bins instead of nitrogen, or now they have oxygen tablets which remove the oxygen from the bin (they absorb it).

The best way to use wheat in the long term is to sprout the wheat and either make juice, eat them raw or make bread from the sprouts. If eaten raw you get the full use from the enzymes, vitamins and minerals in the wheat grain. This is very beneficial in an emergency situation.

You can live for a very long time on sprouts and be healthier at the end. However, living mostly on bread in the long term will have a very bad effect on your health.

Also, after a few years of storage, the grain will probably not sprout, so if you want to do sprouts I would keep a fresh supply. Hey why not incorporate sprouts into your regular diet <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> it will keep your supplies fresh and you healthier. Plus it will keep you in practice.

It is very important to remember with any long term storage of foods that any cooked food is dead. We need vitamins and enzymes (raw food) for long term health. In a time when you will be using long term stored food it is pretty safe to say that medical care will be hard to find. So think about live foods which can be stored and cycled, in addition to the dehydrated and cooked foods.

Remember, eating only dead food will kill you in the long run, after many health probems.