Help!!! Bugs in my grain!!
— 11/27/07
This isn't so commonly cried in the winter months but more often in the summer months but today I got the cry of "HELP" that went like this:
"Hi! I received your bread baking dvd and loved it! I learned some wonderful tips. I have a mill and a bosch and was all ready to use it until....I find teeny tiny little bugs in my grain. My fear is that I'll have to throw it away. I don't want to do anything to make us sick! Is there a way for me to salvage my wheat berries? I have 25# or soft and 25# of hard. Help!"
Since our family owned a bread and grain bulk foods market for 9 years as our family business I can just imagine the squeals and cries over this discovery! It isn't too difficult to keep grain bug free but there are a few tricks.
Here is what I told her since her discovery and she wants to salvage them:
"Well....my dear...you don't have to throw it away IF you want to grind and
eat the bugs......or.... IF you want to freeze the grain for 24 hours first to
kill them and then put portions of the grain on a pie plate and sit and pick
thru it to discard the dead critters...oh ugh! but...it has been done
before...ask me how I know??
You could have small black bugs resembling a hard shelled large black ant or small white wormy looking things that usually are found in a clump of kernels...they kind of form a ball of wheat kernels around the wormy bugs....and these usually hatch to those pantry moths and you could open the bucket or container and have a swarm fly up in your face...eeeekss!!
I am not sure you would get sick except from the thots of eating "bug bread"
:) LOL! cheer up and smile anyway.....I personally would spread it all over
an area of dirt in my back yard...sprinkle some hay over it and in a a
matter of days you'll have a pretty crop of wheat grass :) Or make grass
centerpieces...just fill a pretty container with potting soil and sprinkle
it heavily with wheat kernals...cover with a thin layer of soil and keep
moist....makes a lovely centerpiece.
I grew it in a matter of days and added in some of the last zinnias I cut from my garden.
Hope you are still smiling.....
GRAIN STORAGE TIPS~
Make sure your grain is purchased sealed and bug free.
Don't purchase more grain than you can use in a matter of months unless you are purchasing the grain in oxygen free sealed buckets.
Keep the grain in a tightly sealed container in a cool and DRY place. The bugs love humidity.
You will have to realize that most grain has the microscopic bug eggs present and it only takes heat and humidity and air and light to get them to hatch.
I have some really big chest freezers so to be on the bug free side of things I keep all my grain stored in the freezer.
But I reallize this is not an option for many of you. I would get 5000 lbs of grain at a time in my bread and grain market and it surely wasn't an option then!! So you must keep it sealed and cool and dry.
If you purchase it in bags, I think it best from my experience to transfer it for storage into clean buckets with tight seals and use the deoxy pkgs to remove the oxygen from the bucket. But then remember every time you open your bucket you will need to add another deoxy pkg as it will fill the bucket with oxygen again upon opening.
I bake a lot of bread so going thru 25 or 50 lbs of grain does not take too long for me and I could use a bucket of grain in a matter of a month and had no problem keeping it bug free just keeping the lid tightly sealed and in a cool, dry place.
Hope this isn't causing bugamania in any of you...if you have questions or comments on your grain storage please post a comment....many could benefit from this discussion.
BUGS BE GONE!
Marmee
"Hi! I received your bread baking dvd and loved it! I learned some wonderful tips. I have a mill and a bosch and was all ready to use it until....I find teeny tiny little bugs in my grain. My fear is that I'll have to throw it away. I don't want to do anything to make us sick! Is there a way for me to salvage my wheat berries? I have 25# or soft and 25# of hard. Help!"
Since our family owned a bread and grain bulk foods market for 9 years as our family business I can just imagine the squeals and cries over this discovery! It isn't too difficult to keep grain bug free but there are a few tricks.
Here is what I told her since her discovery and she wants to salvage them:
"Well....my dear...you don't have to throw it away IF you want to grind and
eat the bugs......or.... IF you want to freeze the grain for 24 hours first to
kill them and then put portions of the grain on a pie plate and sit and pick
thru it to discard the dead critters...oh ugh! but...it has been done
before...ask me how I know??
You could have small black bugs resembling a hard shelled large black ant or small white wormy looking things that usually are found in a clump of kernels...they kind of form a ball of wheat kernels around the wormy bugs....and these usually hatch to those pantry moths and you could open the bucket or container and have a swarm fly up in your face...eeeekss!!
I am not sure you would get sick except from the thots of eating "bug bread"
:) LOL! cheer up and smile anyway.....I personally would spread it all over
an area of dirt in my back yard...sprinkle some hay over it and in a a
matter of days you'll have a pretty crop of wheat grass :) Or make grass
centerpieces...just fill a pretty container with potting soil and sprinkle
it heavily with wheat kernals...cover with a thin layer of soil and keep
moist....makes a lovely centerpiece.
I grew it in a matter of days and added in some of the last zinnias I cut from my garden.
Hope you are still smiling.....
GRAIN STORAGE TIPS~
Make sure your grain is purchased sealed and bug free.
Don't purchase more grain than you can use in a matter of months unless you are purchasing the grain in oxygen free sealed buckets.
Keep the grain in a tightly sealed container in a cool and DRY place. The bugs love humidity.
You will have to realize that most grain has the microscopic bug eggs present and it only takes heat and humidity and air and light to get them to hatch.
I have some really big chest freezers so to be on the bug free side of things I keep all my grain stored in the freezer.
But I reallize this is not an option for many of you. I would get 5000 lbs of grain at a time in my bread and grain market and it surely wasn't an option then!! So you must keep it sealed and cool and dry.
If you purchase it in bags, I think it best from my experience to transfer it for storage into clean buckets with tight seals and use the deoxy pkgs to remove the oxygen from the bucket. But then remember every time you open your bucket you will need to add another deoxy pkg as it will fill the bucket with oxygen again upon opening.
I bake a lot of bread so going thru 25 or 50 lbs of grain does not take too long for me and I could use a bucket of grain in a matter of a month and had no problem keeping it bug free just keeping the lid tightly sealed and in a cool, dry place.
Hope this isn't causing bugamania in any of you...if you have questions or comments on your grain storage please post a comment....many could benefit from this discussion.
BUGS BE GONE!
Marmee
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I've used bay leaf (whole dried or powdered) to store grains. Also, diatomaceous earth (DE - food grade - not pool grade) is used by large graineries to kill bugs. It's like white flour, but it's sharp edges kills bugs.
Pre-freezing and using large glass containers are helpful, too.
If metal lids on glass containers, you may use plastic bag to inhibit rusting of the lid.
Now I'm inspired to get baking! Thanks and love, Mary
Marmee Comments:
THANKS for commenting and reminding all of us of these things...I've tried all of them and they work! :)
Hi Martha! I wanted to let you know how much I love your books and your site. You truly fill a need for a generation of us young moms who were sent to day care and public school when we were children and had mothers who worked outside the home. There are many of us who want something better for our own children, but did not have it modelled for us as we were growing up. It's so great that you can show us what we need to do in order to keep our homes and raise our children. Blessings to you!
Oops! I mistaken said "willow" the wheat when it should be winnow!
Hi, first I have to say how much I love your site. I am always encouraged by it. I received my 2008 Yearbook yesterday and am so excited to start using it. Too bad it's only the end of November!
As for bugs in the wheat and storage, this is what I do. I typically purchase 2-50# bags at a time. When I get it home I put it in the garage freezer which is just the type above an extra refrigerator. We lay them out flat so two bags will fit on top of each other. I will leave them in there at least 2 days. Then they are transfered to a food storage bucket with a regular lid. I keep these buckets in an extra closet that has been converted to store lots of these buckets stacked in pairs. I also keep grain in gallon size glass jars in the kitchen for daily use, just refill these from the bucket when needed, then you aren't opening your bucket as often. In seven years of storing my grain this way I haven't had a bug problem.
I have read but not personally tried the following to save buggy grains: put the bag in the freezer for a few days to freeze any bugs. Then spread a clean sheet in front of a large fan. Then you can willow it by taking a bowl of wheat and tossing it up in front of the fan. The good, heavier wheat falls back into the bowl, the wheat with holes and any bugs are blown away onto the sheet. This is time consuming, but also educational for the kids. It's been done through the ages, minus the fan of course!
I hope this helps!