STORING GRAINS IN BUCKETS

Storing food items in plastic buckets is easy, cost - effective, and efficacious. I purchase my used food buckets from a nearby donut shop and clean them myself too. Plastic buckets that have held pickles or relish retain an odor, which can only be removed (in my experience) by storing grain in them for 6 months or longer...then the chickens will willingly eat the wheat! But buckets from bakers or donut shops leave no residue or aroma. A few pounds of unused cat litter in the bottom of a pickle bucket will remove residual odors relatively quickly. Then the bucket can be washed, hot, thick old coffee placed inside and swished around (thanks, Brian!), and then washed and dried again, and all is nice in the world again. 

I place a tall kitchen garbage bag inside the bucket (which provides extra moisture protection), fill the bucket, suck air out with a straw, seal the bag, then seal AND LABEL AND DATE the bucket. Then the buckets are frozen for 4 days at 0 F, and are ready for storage!

A normal food bucket as described above is about 4 gallon capacity, and will hold 30 pounds of rice, 25 pounds of pinto beans, about 25 pounds of wheat, but only about 20 pounds of oats. I also store waxed tins of tuna, corned beef, bacon, hams, etc, in buckets, omitting the freezing process. Buckets of food stuffs prepared this way may be stored in a crawl space, garage, or outbuilding, thus freeing up space in the home larder for harder to pack items.

How long will grains store in buckets safely?  Rice and wheat will last virtually forever, but beans will only last about 3 years before they get hard.  Tinned products will last 5 to 7 years, except soup and tomato products, which take on a tinny taste after 3 years or so.  Date the buckets and rotate your stock!

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