Do you freeze your wheat??

[moonstar]

I just got my first 100 lbs of hard red wheat... I plan on vacume packing it, (like Darlene does) but does anyone freeze it first like we do rice, flour etc???? I normally put my rice, flour, beans, in double freezer ziplocs, then let them thaw 2 days or so, then I vac seal it. I've started leaving it in one of the ziplocs to help cushion, but leaving the ziploc open. Any advice would be appreciated, I plan to put the vac sealed in buckets. I plan to start stocking on the wheats, still haven't got a grinder yet though. Banana's are on sale .25 a lb, so maybe if I am lucky this weekend I can can some of them, I have not water bath canned yet, so I am excited.

[westbrook]

freeze for at least 72 hours.. let it sit out for a week then freeze again for 72 more hours and vacuum seal.

 

I started to do a study on the live of a weevil and got side tracked.. this would give me the life of a weevil, age to reproduce, egg maturation and etc.

 

this then would tell me how long to freeze, how long to let sit out and then freeze again to kill all bugs.

 

what I do is freeze, coat with a little DE then vacuum seal. But I would like to eliminate some of the process. try freezing 1000 pounds of wheat!

 

so the rule of thumb is to freeze, let it sit out, and freeze again.

 

but vacuum sealing removes any oxygen which would kill any living thing too and makes it unnecessary to freeze.

 

I like to store my wheat forever so I do an overkill procedure.

[moonstar]

Thanks Westie, I will do the freeze, sit, freeze and vacume seal!!!! I want mine to last too, and I don't want to worry about it. It will be fun just processing 100 lbs, it will take me a while to build up...... ( I still have never caught up to you with the can hams.....)I can't imagine 1000 lbs, but Lord willing I will get there someday. I said a while back I could not imagine 150 lbs of rice for a family of 3, but now that I have that, I am itching to get more!!! I appreciate the quick response I still have the wheat in the hallway floor in the original bag it came in. I want to get it sealed up and in the freezer as to not spread lil buggies in the house, if it has any.

[HighAltitude]

Well, I've been known to simply pour the bagged wheat into a 6-gallon bucket and pound the lid on. Our 1988 wheat is still good.

 

However, as a precaution I have since tried to put the 6-gallon buckets of wheat outside for a 24-hour winter freeze treatment. Haven't had a weevil--yet.