You can read this method in this article but hard red winter wheat stores very good at around 31 years. That red winter is mostly what we grow here. My opinion rice and barley would depend on varieties as well. Wild rice it’s my understanding stores a very long time. The names soft and hard wheats imply they have different uses as they do. One wheat is for bread another pasta. You can use whatever grain for whatever you want ofcourse. Food Storage: How to Store Wheat So It Is Still Delicious 31 Years Later – The Provident Prepper
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It may not be quite that bad -I buy fifty pound bags of ground organic wheat flour and it keeps nicely in my cool basement for months.
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I live in suburban purgatory with a postage stamp garden. Although grains still fit as ornamental plants in place of ornamental grasses. I was looking at rice since I could grow enough to enjoy a bowl or two. I’m going to try Carolina Gold next season. I want it more for ornamental reasons, although harvesting and prepping rice is not that hard.
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Probably not. What I like most about the wheat, is out in my region you can easily get it bulk at $6 or $7 per bushel(55lbs±) so it is really cheap too.
If I could locally get whole rice for double that I would store a 55gal drum(5 bushels±).
Oh ok nice, that makes sense:
Wikipedia says:
When we first moved to kansas in 2009 i stored about 5 barrels of wheat using the FGDE method I described. I still have 2 barrels and they still sprout and grow fine and make flour etc so that is a 12 year test. 
Back when I did that I read that KSU had been doing tests since the 1960s and if memory is right the article written after 2000 said wheat stored in 1968 using this method was still fine.
One thing to look for is, many things marketed in the store as “whole wheat”, while better than white, are often not really pure whole they remove the parts that spoil fastest making a longer shelf life and then add back just bran for fiber % and color.
Here is a good article showing things like vitamins and health benefits, as well as a warning that not all “whole grain” is really what we often first assume.
Here is the Food Grade Diatomaceous Earth I buy it is available local at the bulk cattle supply for less than $20 per 50lb!
That is great! Yeah I have been thinking of growing a small bed myself and found great info from John Sherck in North Indiana he has tested many types and supplies rare early season seeds that perform in northern dry upland and cool short season conditions.
I got some seeds that I plan to test this spring.
Yeah here is what he shared with me:
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Great info thanks! I decided to grow Carolina Gold since it was the main rice grown here for some time before the civil war. Some reports say it was brought here in 1685. It is a very special rice.
From an article written by Keith Pandolfi for Serious Eats
After listening to so many people sing the praises of Carolina Gold, I decided to order some for myself from Carolina Plantation Rice. It arrived in a yellow cloth bag, impervious to the light damage Roberts says is detrimental to rice’s flavor. At first, I tried it plain and simple, preparing it in my rice cooker on a weekday afternoon. As I sat at my kitchen table waiting for it to finish, I could already tell it was different based on the smell alone.
Unlike grocery store rice, which just smells starchy, the Carolina Gold filled the room with a nutty, earthy aroma that had me craving white rice more than I’ve ever craved it before. Biting into my first spoonful, I could feel the firm texture of each and every grain in my mouth. It had the satisfying bite Shields told me about, the nuttiness, even a floral quality I hadn’t quite expected. Yes, it was exactly what I wanted rice to taste like.
Later that night, I cooked more of the rice into a simple purloo of shrimp, bacon, and crushed tomatoes. And, while the shrimp was fresh, the tomatoes juicy, the bacon bacon-y, it was the rice that stole the show. Eating the purloo at my dining room table, I remembered something Sarah Simmons had told me when I talked to her about Carolina Gold. “It’s spoiled me,” she said. “I can’t eat bad rice anymore. A part of me dies every time I see my parents use the grocery store stuff.” I get that now. I’m as spoiled as spoiled can be. And, as far as rice is concerned, I’ve found my new gold standard.
My wife worked with some very nice Pilipino ladies and we use their mix of 3 kinds of rice to make our rice blend. We got hooked on it. But I do want to try this wild white rice for sure. Much of the hybrids today started with this grain.
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Ok good deal. I hope it does good for you up there
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Where do you buy
food grade
diatomaceous earth
and how much would 5 gallons of wheat need?
Check local farm stores or especially if there is a bulk cattle feed/mineral supplier in your area.
This site has a list of distributors, you can call one in your state and ask if they have a retailer in your region:
https://www.perma-guard.com/
Make sure it is “Food Grade”. Perma Guard Fossil Shell Flour is what the cattle feed supplier in my area sells, it is high quality food grade as above link explains.
I think you can order it direct from them too but you may save shipping if you find a local retailer.
Type in “Perma Guard Fossil Shell Flour” in google shopping. Lots of hardware stores and stuff can order it too.
Even walmart.com offers it through a 3rd party for like $55 with free shipping(or pickup at walmart?).
https://www.walmart.com/ip/EasyGoProducts-Perma-Guard-Diatomaceous-Earth-DE-Food-Grade-100-Organic-OMRI-Or-Clear/540310906?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=4435
But that is high.
My local cattle feed/mineral bulk supplier sells it for $17 per 50lb. Food Grade Perma Guard Fossil Shell Flour.
Any retail feed store should be able to order it for you. Call around locally.
Your local hardware stores can probably order it for you for no more than $30 per 50lb.
And places like Tractor Supply usually carry a 5lb or 20lb bag for more per lb.
Make sure it is the pure food grade…
All you need is 1.5 cup to 2 cups per 5 gal bucket of grain/beans.
Also I put some in my vegetable seeds I save… Makes them keep way longer…
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I found a quart of bean seeds from 2003 in a jar…been through a lot of summers and winters outdoors.
Should have had those in a freezer!
In spring I’ll still try to germinate a few.
They’re not wheat, but similar conditions apply.
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I store most of my garden seeds(bean, tomato, okra, squash etc) in our basement in quart or gallon jars(some in paper packets in the jar), with enough Food Grade DE to coat the seeds good. They last long term. I have planted 10 year old beans that did fine. From 2003 is getting old, but i bet the seeds in my basement/DE setting would still be good at that age
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I stumbled across a video on youtube of how you can buy a bag of brown rice at the store and almost all germinate. I am going to experiment with a few hundred or so and plant out a little patch… my thinking is it could be almost perpetual free chicken food. The patch in question is always soggy and nasty… i think thats what rice likes. The wild rice has me curious…maybe that would be a better option. Or maybe both.
I did a little research and i cant find much concrete evidence by study as for bulk food storage… one site says just about every grain and spaghetti can be kept for 30 yrs.
I found a couple of university studies about white rice and oats lasting 30 yrs.
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Actually, another quart of the same seeds in freezer…I took some in 2019 and I think every seed must have come up. I moved in Jan '04 and this jar of seed must have been unloaded from the Ryder amongst the plants and not spotted until yesterday! Located among Bradford pears in 15 gallon pots for around 20 years that I never did sell to anyone.
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True. Any of them will last a long time, and the same storage method works on them too.
I like whole grains. My main bias for wheat is that I can get it bulk cheap ($7 for 55lbs). Otherwise I would prefer brown rice.
I think the brown rice should work in your muddy area, it will be interesting Id love to hear your results, how it works for you!
Wow that is something! Im surprised they did not mold and ruin. It will be interesting to see if they grow! Id love to hear results!
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Like the way you think. You might want to read this thread https://growingfruit.org/t/self-sustainability-or-self-sufficiency/28853 . Wild rice or better types of rice that self seed are very interesting to me. One option people use in the south is they grow crawdads in their mud ponds with rice. We know we could also raise ducks or geese or other things as well.
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If i was going to be a prepper…this idea looks pretty good as far as saving food.
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For those that are interested in the history of wheat in America i just read a really good short story…very interesting.
" Smart early-nineteenth-century homemakers bought flour, or had wheat milled into flour, as they needed it. It didn’t keep well. The presence of crushed wheat germ in un-refrigerated flour made it go rancid; excess moisture made it turn musty. And infestation by grain moths, rodents and other critters was always a risk.
Housewives back then had to be conversant with all the agents of contamination in wheat and flour. These included the natural scourges that ruined quality as well as those that dishonest millers might deliberately introduce. In her 1839 book, The Good Housekeeper, Sarah Josepha Buell Hale, an American domestic expert of her day, wrote, “Fresh ground flour makes the best and sweetest bread. If you live in the vicinity of a mill, never have more than one or two bushels ground into flour at a time.”
Hale recommended washing wheat first as a precaution, especially if any smut was present. (This fungus disease turns the grain it infects into a dark mass of spores.) After washing wheat in multiple changes of water until the water ran off clean, the wheat had to be dried completely in the sun."
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I’m still working on the 6 cans of Hard Red Winter Wheat I bought from the LDS place, and I think I gave a couple away. I seldom use more than 1/3 whole wheat when I make bread.
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Paul In Kansas you brought up trying some types from John Shereck In North Indiana for early season in dry area upland saw Sonoma Wheat so you could try that as well (if you already didn’t know of it.(
about rice Here a article about some that almost went extinct In south Carolina (golden rice)
(,and purple straw wheat is also one that list that is being saved )
These South Carolina foods were nearly extinct, but are being revived
Also Brian Ward the guy that brought that straw wheat, and other crops back into Commercial use
also made a organic Fertilizer process from bacteria found in the stomachs of cows in a bioreactor
So I hope to hear more of that as well.
Purple straw wheat (and may white/red wheat) on Golden rice Foundation (listed in Above Article)
(Ark of food slow food foundation quote to text)
https://www.fondazioneslowfood.com/en/ark-of-taste-slow-food/purple-straw-wheat/
(search triticum
(quote slow food foundation)
https://www.fondazioneslowfood.com/en/?s=triticum
" Purple Straw Wheat (Triticum aestivum v. Purple Straw) is one of the great heirloom wheats of the Southeast, predating the founding of the United States. It is said that it is the oldest wheat crop grown in Virginia. When Purple Straw Wheat is milled, it produces soft flour with a low gluten content. This makes it a wonderful flour to use for pastries, piecrusts, pancakes, and gravies because it produces delicate baked goods. Its distinctive baking qualities are one of the characteristics that make Purple Straw Wheat stand out from other wheat varieties.
Highly adaptable, Purple Straw Wheat can be grown as spring wheat because it does not require vernalization, meaning it does not require exposure to cold temperatures in order to induce flowering. It can also be overwintered, sown in the fall and harvested in early spring to go to market. Its principle advantage over other varieties in the early 1900’s was its early maturity, and higher protein content. It is also fairly resistant to native diseases, which gives it a genetic advantage over growing other wheat varieties in the Southeast. This is also an environmental advantage, the early maturity and disease resistance allow for Purple Straw Wheat to be cultivated in a sustainable fashion, without the use of pesticides and fertilizers.
Once its growth was established in the South, Purple Straw Wheat remained fixed in certain areas well into the twentieth century. It ceased being a crop wheat in the 1970s and 80s when the new green revolution wheats became widespread. These hybrid varieties outcompeted Purple Straw in the market, and thereafter it was a considered a rare heirloom variety, grown solely in patches in its old cultivation area. Despite its advantages in both genetics and taste, this historic variety was replaced by conventional wheat crops.
The preservation of the most ancient and enduring grains employed in America is one of the first level priorities of anyone concerned with protecting agricultural and culinary heritage. Cereals supply the staples of local cuisine – the breads, porridges and brews – the ones that have shaped the taste of foods for centuries in the southeastern region and the ones most in need of advocacy. Purple Straw Wheat is one of the great heirloom wheats of the Southeast, and it deserves to be restored it to the American table.":
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Interesting. Maker’s Mark Distillery puts wheat in their bourbon,
and has a bunch of test plots trying old varieties and custom hybrids.
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Ground and using more of that wheat!
Tostadas, (nothing fancy as me and my brother are batching it as our parents are out of state):
And I used it for the crust of this pumpkin pie(actually its Queensland Blue Keeper winter squash[very rich flavor!])
My brother made biscuits out of it the other day:
Fresh wheat does have more flavor for sure.
It can be more coarse(depending the grinder you use), mine has multiple settings i like to grind some coarse for Cream of Wheat, very flavorful!(i add lots of butter so i need a Jersey!)
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