Does anyone freeze their rice or beans for a while before storing?

[Farmfresh]

FF -- You might consider letting the dry goods cool completely before packing them in ziplock bags. Just to lower the chances of plastic chemicals leaching into the food. If you turned the oven off and let the food cool in the oven then it should still be very sterile until you open the oven, and as long as you are careful in how you transfer the food to plastic bags then I wouldn't worry about contamination.

We don't have our chest freezer hooked up yet, so I only have the freezer on our fridge to contend with. I appreciate hearing about the oven method. Thanks for sharing, FarmFresh!

Thanks for the tip! Great idea!

 

[i_am2bz]

This might be a "duh" question to most of you, but I'll ask anyway.

Do you also freeze sugar before storing? To be honest, I can make a small package of sugar last an entire year, I really don't use it for much except when making pickles. It occurs to me I should "put some by."

 

[Veggie PAK]

I'm planning on using an Oxygen absorber (O2a) in each quart canning jar that I put the rice, flour, beans or whatever in, except sugar and salt. Sugar and salt are said to turn into a solid block if you use an O2a. I have hundreds of canning jars, so I plan to use them for this as well as regular canning. I'll sterilize the jars first, then line them up and air dry them without a fan on them, fill them up to the recommended head space, then put the O2a in there and seal it up with the screw ring and lid. That's my plan. I have a 100 count pack of O2a's that I would like to use as immediately as I can when I open them. I would even try to go as far as having 100 jars ready to seal before I open the pack. I may have to check out sterilizing them in the oven rather than boiling water for ten minutes. The water complicates the process. With oven heat, they wouldn't have to dry. Does anyone know how long and at what temp in the oven you would need to sterilize jars? Any experience shared or guidance provided would be greatly appreciated.

I plan to store "pure cane sugar", not GMO sugar beet sugar. Also canning salt, Kosher salt and sea salt. Sugar and salt are important for canning, and I want to be as ready as I am able.

In the meantime, I have read that you should tuck the O2a into the material that you are storing, not just lay it on the top. I don't know why. Maybe to slow down the absorbing action and pull the O2 from the product more than from the head space? But if the jar is sealed, it will still pull it from the head space, so I don't understand why you would push it into the material. Does anyone know if that is actually necessary? I really don't see how that would do any good, and I don't think I'll be following that recommendation unless you folks can tell me why I should.

This is a great site and I am really thankful for it. I'm also thankful for each participant as each one makes it even better by their topic contribution.

Thank You!

 

[Farmfresh]

Does anyone know how long and at what temp in the oven you would need to sterilize jars?

You need to reach a temperature at or over 270 for an hour or 300 for 18 minutes to sterilize things. If you are using an oven I would go to 350 just to be sure your temp inside is hot enough since some ovens run cool.

Milk is pasteurized at 160 and that is how hot you get it to make cheese as well, before adding your cultures.