Flour Storage

Today was bread making day.  Grandson goes back to school tomorrow so I need fresh bread for his lunches. 

The other day I found flour in my food storage that was packed in the food saver bags, heat sealed and then packed into a 7 gallon bucket with a stick of spearmint gum to deter any creepy crawlies.  The flour was packed December 2008.  I baked 4 loaves of bread that turned out beautiful.  Then we tried a slice. blehhhhh.  It had a strange after taste I can only assume is from the old flour.   

I know that I started packing flour in Mylar bags a year or two ago with oxygen absorbers.  I am going to go through the food stores and find my oldest flour from these bags and see how they have held up.  3 years in food saver bags was a total bust. 

Another lesson learned before it was too late.  I guess if you were really hungry you could eat this although it it has probably lost what nutritional value it may have had.  Since we are not in dire straights, I will purchase more flour and bag it up in Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers.  I'll make some flour and salt clay out of some of this old stuff and make some Christmas ornaments for next year.  The rest I can make into hoecakes and feed to the chickens and goats so it does not go to waste.

I do store wheat for grinding.  It is stored in #10 cans and supposedly will last for 30 years and is in my long term storage.