I've been trying to find a way to buy in bulk and then repackage in sizes more in line with our family of two. We bought 50 pounds of brown rice as part of our Y2K preparations and then ended up losing half of it when it became rancid before we could use it all. I started a thread here a while back about ways to store brown rice long term and no one had any suggestions on how to do this. I've been researching this since and have found that the reason the rice, and other grains and such, goes bad is exposure to oxygen. Sooo, seems logical that if the rice could be vacuum packed, with as much air as possible taken out of the container, the rice would last much longer. Anyone reading this have any experience with the home vacuum packaging machines on the market now? They use plastic bags, which I'm not really thrilled with, but some of the machines come with attachments to vacuum seal wide mouth jars and I like that idea very much. Anyone have any experience doing this? Or thoughts or ideas?

Carol - in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia

-- Carol Mora (carollm@rockbridge.net), March 25, 2001

Answers

I can't tell you about the sealers you asked about, but I did see that Sam's Club is now carrying them in their stores. If you should decide on one, you might check there is you are not offended by the Walton concept.

Hm, maybe we could get Sam's to do demonstrations like they do for food products.

-- Notforprint (Not@thekeyboard.com), March 25, 2001.

It's not the oxygen that's doing the damage, but the bacteria that lives in the oxygen environment. If you can prevent the bacteria from thriving, the dry goods (not just rice, but wheat, barley and such like) will not spoil.

Oxygen inhibitors are available which absorb the oxygen and do the equivalent of vacuming the stuff out without the expense (or power requirements) of a vacume sealing machine.

Check out "LDS" sites and long term storage websites for availability of oxygen inhibitors.

Eric

-- Eric J Methven (e_methven@btinternet.com), March 25, 2001.

I know about the oxygen absorbers but like most of us, I'm wanting to get the most bang for my buck. People I know who have bought those in large packages tell me they have still lost things because it's difficult to store them in airtight bags again once the original container is opened and they absorb the oxygen no matter what they are in. So I think a vacuum packaging machine that works on wide mouth jars may be the most economical way to go over the long run. A good one will keep working for years - I hope.

We are _very_ aware of electrical use! Are in the process of finding out exactly what our daily electricity use is and what in our home is using how much juice from the grid. We are designing an off grid strawbale home that we will start building next year and have to know the size PV system to install. My other half bought a meter that you plug anything that uses power into and then plug it into the outlet. It tells us how much power each thing uses and we have been able to reduce our power usage tremendously. Last months power bill was all of $26.60 and when we decide what we are going to replace our old and power gobbling refrigerator with, we can drop our usage even more. So I'm not all that concerned about using a vacuum sealer occasionally that uses electricity.

Carol - in the Blue Ridge Mts of VA

-- Carol Mora (carollm@rockbridge.net), March 25, 2001.

Hi, we moved into an old farmhouse, and we were having trouble with pests getting into our food stuffs. We bought a Food Saver Professional II. It seals wide mouth jars. We store all of our grains and dried fruits in jars now. It has worked wonderfully. Blessings, Maylene

-- Maylene (zedanka@aol.com), March 25, 2001.

We use the Pump N Seal from Emergency Essentials. It has worked great, and it's cheap! www.BePrepared.com Check it out. You poke a hole in the lid and place a seal tab over the hole and then pump out the air. The tab can be reused, too.

-- Nancy in NoCAL (sonflower35@icqmail.com), March 25, 2001.

Carol, Where can I get one of those meters? That's exactly what we need, to find out how muchy power everything's using. And about how much are they, do you know?

Thanks

-- Elizabeth in e tx (kimprice@peoplescom.net), March 25, 2001.

Maylene, thanks a bunch for replying. I've been wondering about the Food Saver Professional II and have a couple of questions for you. Is it well built and sturdy? Do you use it often? Is the motor strong or does it labor as the vacuum build? How long have you had it and how often do you use it? Anything else you care to tell me about it?

I plan to buy things in bulk a little along and use the machine to repackage right away. Don't plan on using it all day for several days running.

Carol - in the Blue Ridge Mts of VA

-- Carol Mora (carollm@rockbridge.net), March 25, 2001.

Nancy, thanks for replying. I found mention of the Pump N Seal on the net. I've been wondering how hard it is to hand pump enough vacuum in to the jars to do the job. Also wondering about the tabs - are they some sort of scotch tape thingie or what? How often do you use it? Do you think it will hold up for years?

Carol - in the Blue Ridge Mts of VA

-- Carol Mora (carollm@rockbridge.net), March 25, 2001.

Elizabeth, you can find the info on the meters at www.brandelectronics.com. You might want to buckle your seat belt on your computer chair when it comes to the prices of the different models...

I'd never thought to ask my dh how much it cost before and when I did just now, he sorta kinda hemmed and hawed, shuffled his feet and evaded at bit, before admitting it was around $360. The model he got has all the bells and whistles and even has a hook up to dump the data into the computer. Even tho I was rather **stunned** at the cost, over the long run, it will more than pay for itself by telling us what our biggest energy user appliances are. And we do need that info in order to size the PV system properly. I've really been astonished by how much we have been able to reduce our electrical usage because of having the info it provides.

Carol - in the Blue Ridge Mts of VA

-- Carol Mora (carollm@rockbridge.net), March 25, 2001.

Carol ive had mine for years but have never used it on the jars. just meat mainly jerky. it works good i love it. Bob se.ks.

-- Bobco (bobco@hit.net), March 25, 2001.

The Pump N Seal is a very simple device. I see no reason why it wouldn't last for many, many years. It doesn't take much pumping at all to do a quart jar. I've done a few gallon jars with it and quite a few half gallons. The seal tabs are sticky on the ends and kind of rubbery in the middle. So as the air is sucked out the rubber part sucks down. Out of about 50 jars, I only had a couple that didn't stay sealed. It may have been due to dust or something.???? It's quick and easy and like I said really cheap compared to those other devices.

-- Nancy in NoCAL (sonflower35@icqmail.com), March 25, 2001.

Carol, we have the FoodSaver II from Tilia. It's so handy and does an excellent job of sealing jars. You can boil previously used lids to soften the sealing compound and use them with the machine. I have found also that greens and small fruits like grapes really do stay fresher when stored, refrigerated, in vacuum sealed jars. We can also reseal some of the commercial plastic packages. I use ours so often that it will sit on the counter for days at a time. I love it to marinate meats quickly. Please feel free to email if you have specific questions about it.

-- marilyn (rainbow@ktis.net), March 25, 2001.

I just purchased the Pump-N-Seal and am very satisfied with it. It requires no electricity and doesn't take much pumping for sealing bags or jars (pump-n-seal.com), and it's much cheaper to buy than electric models.

-- Betty (Mich) (brolffs@voyager.net), March 26, 2001.

Look in a book called "Making the Best of Basics" which was big during the y2k thing. It gives an address for plans for making your own vacuum sealer from auto parts, and darn if the thing does not work! Ran me about $30 and was a fun project. The plans were most expensive, paid $10 for them. Best yet, the thing can be made with the vacuum sealing part in any size you could want. Use it to reseal gallon jars. Works great, pulls quite a vacuum, and is hand cranked so no power required. Nice for storing dried goods.

-- kathy from oz (katymareus@yahoo.com), February 27, 2002.