Freezing Uncooked Rice and Beans - Event Date: April 07 2008

To ALL, does any one know how long that uncooked rice and beans can be frozen in pastic bags,with out causing any damage to the food value of the rice and beans? johnray1

I freeze all my dry beans, rice, flour and cornmeal. This will kill any weevil eggs in the food.

I freeze all my rice and beans for 72 hours prior to storing, this kills the weevil larvae (if there is any), so it won't hatch into bugs. I then take it out of the freezer and let it get to room temperature before I take it out of the packages and put into large (the big pickle type) glass jars with lids. I just finished up some beans that I stored this way over two years ago and they were just fine. I also do the same thing for flour only after the freezer I just put some into large Ziploc bags because I ran out of the big jars.

Oh, I am sure they would be fine! If there is room in my freezer I just leave the packages in there until I replace with something else, because they say it is cheaper on electricity if the freezer is full (not sure why, or even if it's true, my granny used to say this). I have left some packages in there for up to a year or more just to keep the space filled and they were fine.  If you do this, be sure to take them out when the electricity goes off, as you wouldn't want them to get wet when the freezer started defrosting, if there was a small hole or something and water got in they would get ruined maybe?

jacksdad,how many hundred bags of rice and beans do you think that it will take to feed 4 people for one year?I truly have no idea? Johnray1

I really can't use much rice because it is bad for my husbands kidney stones. Rice helps form them so I will stay away from rice and put in more pasta and dry potatoes.

I know it pasta and potatoes will not give you a complete protein when you pair it with beans. However that is why I am storing a bigger amount of can meat/fish. I have also stored more beans and corn because it makes a complete protein.

Like I said try the web site Chef Noah, it has a food calculator that I have used and has some very good information.

Everyone has different situations and needs to adjust their food to suit their needs.

Jacksdad, take care in what sites you look to decide how much food you need to store. One person on the prep posts gave an excel program which I down loaded. It said 3 people need over 700lbs of wheat, flour,grains, 75 lbs of peanut butter/nuts, 90 lbs of oil,crisco, ect..

I am sorry but I have 250lbs of flour (mixed white,wheat,unbleached) and it will make over one years worth of bread!

I don't know about everyone else but I try to use my stores and it is taking me alot of time to go through 20 lbs of peanut butter.

May I suggest you look at a web site www.Chef Noah.com it has a food calculator and for people new to preping a weekly list as to what to purchase to add to your preps without breaking the bank plus a lot more information.

I would be interested in knowing what you are doing for water collection and purifying. We can live without food for a long time but we die real soon without water. I have a Miox but if I go to a lake or a stream I will need to make sure pesticides and all the other stuff is removed.

We have very little "rain" in Colorado so streams and lakes are going to be our best bet.

Thank you jacksdad, your methods will not work for us in the Mountain states. I have purchased Water cubes I have the ability to hold 280 gallons. Any more and my husband would divorce me!

Good luck with your still I really hope it works well for you.

For a family of four, 240 lbs of rice for a year but that would be just one meal or a snack a day. I could be wrong but I think 60lbs of rice equals one cup per day for one person per day. Too lazy to do the math right now 

Pilgrim - I did the math a while ago and it is surprising how much rice you'd need for a SIP of longer than six months. I was actually thknking of downsizing my rice preps until I worked out how long my current supply would last three people. It was sobering.
Funny to read my post from way back when I started prepping

The LDS.org food calculator suggests the following for a family of four (man, women, school aged boy and girl) for a period of six months

Group 1: Grains

Wheat 298 lbs, 135 kg

Enriched white flour 31 lbs, 14 kg

Corn meal 56 lbs, 25 kg

Rolled oats 76 lbs, 35 kg

Enriched white rice 132 lbs, 60 kg

Pearled barley 7 lbs, 3 kg

Spaghetti or macaroni 66 lbs, 30 kg

- - -

That is a lot of rice and other stuff!

One thing to note is that most prepper sites seem to follow the LDS list, and so root vegetables (like potatoes) are ignored!  In the area where I am living all the old houses had their own root vegetable cellars. Electricity came late to this area (late 1950s), and when it came one of the last items to buy was a fridge as the cold pantries and root cellars were sufficient for most people.

I used a very simple plan for my preps. I made a 7 day menu plan and just keep replicating it. 

Kiwimum, you seem to think things out in a practical manner. You have some good ideas, and you are right, fat is vital. The brain must have proper fats in order to function properly. 

I have some canned butter it is 7 years old so I don't know if it is still good.

I do have bees, we have alot of honey and fresh honey comb. 

I agree with KiwMum and COL - fats and oils are an essential component of our diet, and unfortunately difficult to store for long periods. They're on my last minute prep list because they go rancid quickly if not kept in the right conditions. The oils present are also the reason why brown rice doesn't keep well even in an oxygen free environment.
 When I first started, I opted to supplement my canned preps with dry foods sealed in mylar with O2 absorbers (in 5 gallon buckets for protection against rodents), and initially I did freeze white rice for 72 hours to kill the bugs and eggs. Unfortunately, I went a bit nuts (remember the panic phase of your prepping when you don't think you'd be ready in time?) and I was putting away more than was practical to freeze.
 Fortunately, it now seems it was unnecessary (overkill?) because the low oxygen levels present after the bags are sealed and the absorbers have done their job will achieve the same thing, but KiwiMum brings up a good point about moisture in food stored long term. Anaerobic bacteria (and I think some molds) thrive in oxygen free environments if the moisture level is high enough and can make you very sick or worse. Luckily I live in a very dry climate and it's not much of a consideration, but damp or humid conditions might require that you dry the food first before storing it. This site gives some info,

https://www.usaemergencysupply.com/information_center/food_storage_faq/why_moisture_is_important.htm

Old thread, but as to the OP's question about storing food long term in the freezer - I don't know of anything that'll keep forever without getting freezer burn and eventually becoming unpalatable. You'll probably have a certain amount of freeze drying taking place too, which can make some foods hard to reconstitute when you need them. Plus, to keep yourself fed for extended periods requires a lot of food, and therefore a lot of freezer space. And if the power goes off, you'd better hope you sealed it well because it's going to warm up pretty quick. Better to look into long term storage in mylar with O2 absorbers. Rice, flour, grains, TVP, etc have a shelf live counted in years, or even decades if done properly and stored somewhere cool.

Jacksdad, I make ghee with any spare butter we produce. It's easy to make and stores at room temperature for two years in sealed jars. I particularly make it when the cream for the butter is slightly over ripe, or, as now, our freezers are full to bursting. 

Maybe the LDS church can help you with mylar bags? I just checked a few forums and websites and it seems others in NZ are in the same predicament, and that was one of the suggestions. I think they're based in Wellington.

http://www.providentliving.org.nz/

Jacksdad, I looked into the LDS church food centres and the nearest one to me is in Tonga!!!

Try these (if links don't work - google food storage calculator)