The survival lists I've seen advocate buying wheat or corn in bulk - why not buy the flour and then you won't have to grind the grain?

-- L.R. Jackson (imagesun@asde.com), March 13, 1999

Answers

The grain keeps better and is less subject to damp. Another reason is that as soon as the grain is milled, it starts to lose nutritive value and does so at a higher rate than the raw grain. Regarding the keeping qualities of flour, I don't know if the difference in nutrition will have any pertinence this time. We're not storing food for some unforseen cataclysmic event, we know when this will start if it does. Unless you are storing for 2001 or 2002, it won't make any difference which you choose.

(We have both). Good luck on finding a grain mill.

-- Lobo (Hiding@woods.com), March 13, 1999.

Whole grain and corn have a very long shelf life if stored in a cool and dry place. Flour has a very short shelf life and is more suseptible to weavil infestation.

-- Freddie the freeloader (freddie@aol.com), March 13, 1999.

1) grain is a more versatile commodity (-2 sp) You can make cracked cereal, poridge, and even eat the soaked berries. You can sprout grain for greens and LOTS of vitamins

2) Grain stores MUCH better than flour. Flour loses a lot of what little it has as it ages (talking about bleached white flour) While Whole Wheat flour tends to go rancid from teh oils in the wheat germ fairly quickly.

Chuck

-- Chuck, a night driver (reinzoo@en.com), March 13, 1999.

L.R. ; You may wish to consider the grain which protects its contents with it's husk against rapid loss of nutrition. Oxygen in air and water oxidizes foods like it oxidizes (rusts) many metals. Flour is much more suseptible to weviles. The objective of long term storage of grains requires the removal of moisture and air. Hope this helps. Best wishes,

-- Watchful (seethesea@msn.com), March 13, 1999.

Storing grain is more radical and cultlike. Thats why its cool. Flour is far too practical and blase for the TEOTWAWKI shitemeisters.

-- Kristiknockers (wheatiesgal@frog.org), March 13, 1999.

If I were to wheat, what kind of wheat? Hard Red Winter Wheat?

-- FM (vidprof@aol.com), March 13, 1999.

FM, the hard red winter wheat is a good choice. It's high in protein and stores well.

L.R., A good reason to store wheat, in my opinion, is the possibility of economic impact (depression, unemployments) that could last for years. In that case you could very well be eating wheat in 2001, 2,3,4, and even 5. Give flour a couple of years before it can come under attack.

Plus, you can sprout wheat, giving you a source of vitamin C.

Got both.

-- De (dealton@concentric.net), March 13, 1999.

I have been storing 10 lb. bags of regular flour in the 2 gallon size zip lock freezer bags. I was told by an older lady that if you keep it in a cool dry place and put a couple of bay leaves in the bag, the bay leaves will keep the weavils out. Don't know if it's true, but we'll see.

-- Lori (ABaby72@aol.com), March 13, 1999.

Lori, what you heard is absolutely true. I've been storing white flour that way for many years, and it works great. As others pointed out, white flour does lose its vitamin content after a couple years of storage, but it's still a good source of carbohydrates and protein after all that time. As long as it's kept dry and cool, it will last a long time.

-- sparks (wireless@home.com), March 13, 1999.

What we've done is stored quite a bit of unbleached flour (using all the long-term storage tricks) for use in late 99 thru summer 2000 and lots of grain for post summer-2000. Convenience will be nice given other challenges and, whatever happens with Y2K, we can use the grain over coming year(s).

-- BigDog (BigDog@duffer.com), March 13, 1999.

You can store flour easily by sealing in those ziplock bags and freezing it for about a week. Kills anything that might have been in there. Then can be kept in a cool dry place for up to a year. Corn meal and corn flour similar treatment. Put in hard plastic buckets if you want to keep the mice out.

But the wheat is more versatile and better for you. Not to mention cheaper.

LM

-- LM (latemarch@usa.net), March 13, 1999.

Hello every one,

I see you are in the business of buying wheat and flours. Let me introduce my self to you, my name is Alex Farwati, we own one of the largest flour mill in the Middle East with capcity of 500 tons a day. Our flour mill is located in Syria, we are looking for some body to use our facilities or to work as partners with. Our company is the only company alowed by the Syrian authorities to import wheat and turn it to flours then export it out of the country. We can offer you the lowest price for our services than any other country in the world.

If you have any interest in doing business with our company, or if you know other parties they might be interested to learn more about our operation, please contact me on my e-mail for now (tnash@mailcity.com). Please note, that we have offices and contactes in USA, France, Dubai (UAE) and Syria. This include all the bank accounts and facilities.

I appriciated if you can reply to me asap. Thanks. Alex

-- Alex Farwati (tnash@maicity.com), July 13, 1999.