How to store / preserve flour (for up to 2 years) 

In my country, we sift the flour and baked it, like it was nothing. If we don't do that, we will never be able to eat.

first time subscriber from the USA

Very informative video and I'm in the process of looking at more options for long term storage. I'd like to store without the use of my freezers like my parents and grandparents did it. Freezing the flour before you vacuum seal it is pretty common knowledge for people who have been doing preserving for years, like myself. But for those who have decided to depend on their own skills, your video is a great tool for beginners. I like seeing videos that inform and help people who didn't grow up on a farm and have no idea how to go about preserving their own food. Thank you! P/S I was engaged to a Englishman and when he visited me in the states he would take bottles of our Louisiana hot sauce back to the UK with him lol. He grew up very privileged and didn't know how to do much of anything but a little cooking. I hope he never has to depend on his skills to survive in a world wide famine.

awesome video! more like this please!

I like the manual grinder. Learning to be less dependent on electric is good.

We found freezing tomatoes and courgette work really well as long as they are frozen singly first on a tray, and when cooked take out the freezer and put in a real hot pan, if they are out the freezer for more than a couple oh mins they start to turn to mush

I did n'tthink of freezing when Ibought 16kg of flour during first lock down, could find big enough air tight container that wasn't mortgaged! Still OK in the bag in cold area of the dining room. Never had soilder bettle sized bugs before more like half size of fruit fly in flour in the past. I have to travel to Boston on the 4th Feb wonder if can get some flour while I'm up? Google here I come.. take care and stay safe, Mike.

Thank you,. For sharing all the information on flour and preserving it.

Just canceled Disney

I always put a bay leaf in my bag as extra precaution for any grain. Tx.

Thank you I was just looking for a way to preserve flour. 🌻

Hi Hugh and Fiona, Lovely comprehensive and informative guide, perfectly pitched as a lot of people do not know how to keep pantry these days. I do think that they ought to bring proper Domestic Science lessons back into the schools. i was lucky as we used to have about five hours cooking per week over two lessons and Mum taught me to cook as well as part of me earning my pocket money contract with my parents! I have "twenty" questions. Where did you get your hand grinder, and do you have experience of electric grinders Do you have any views as to whether electric grinders - are they are worth their money or not. Where do you get your wheat berries from. Do the Mills near you sell the wheat berries as well as the flour. Been interested in this for a long time and your post is very timely from my point of view. It looks as though I am going to have to invest into a similar vac pack system as the one you use. I have an ancient one from about 30 years ago somewhere, but it does not remove all of the air. I did look at prices before am going to have to save up for this me thinks unless I can persuade OH to treat me. Fingers crossed. Take care the pair of you (and Mum) Tricia x

Good to know!

I really learned a lot by watching your video. I had no idea that flour could be preserved in that way and for 1/2 years. Amazing! I wonder if you could share how you could preserve fruits and different veg in season. Thank you😊

Oh, I didn't know the hand mill like yours existed lol, at first I thought it was a meat grinder (we had one at home when I was a kid, though no one ever used it, since there was an electric one available 😜) I saw only some that operated like salad spin dryer (with top handle) with two round stones stuck together... and I think it was the size of pizza~

So, after vac sealing, do you just need to freeze for 48 hours? Is this to kill off weavils? Then you take the flour out of the freezer and keep in your storage location?

Put a dried bay leaf with the flour this also kills and prevents flour weevils

My grand mother sifted her flour and if there was any weavers she dumped them out she didn’t throw her flour out

Can you leave the vacuum sealed flour in the freezer until you’re ready to use it, say, in 12 months ?

My Vaccum sealed flour had black speckles after 6 months.

Freezing chickpeas against weevils is a necessity too. Don't ask me how I know it...

Hello! This video is very interesting and helpful! Thank you very kindly for posting it! I was looking for the mill you used but it does not seem to be in your amazon store. Can you help me? Thanks again!

Will wrapping the flour in glad wrap do?

Also do it with legumes like chickpeas, freeze them to kill weevil eggs or you will have, like I did, masses of hatched eggs and fying creatures and a hot pack of chickpeas.

I though you can preserve flour last for 20 years if you put bay leaves in about 6 cups of flour inside of brown paper bag and fold down from top of brown paper bag n insert into vacuum bag and seal them and put them in 5 gallons bucket with BPA food grade bucket n with rubber seal lid will last longer in cool n dark or dim room. Stay away from sun. This is what I though it will last longer. ?

make model of machine ???? no link to it

Would you put an oxygen absorber into my flour in gallon buckets? Thank you

And reuse the bag

You can also kill the critters buy baking for an hour in the oven at 120 degrees Fahrenheit...

meat preservation! please.

🌸🇿🇦💃🏻

Great Vid! Love the honesty in all your videos, both cons as well as pros! Looks as though you've had a tidy as well!

Thank you for this very helpful and detailed content. Living on a small island where we have to rely on offshore deliveries can sometimes leave store shelves empty of the more popular products . Like you said everyone’s taking up bread making and baking which leaves our shelves empty. Now I can store flour, this will be of great help. Thank you🌾

Perfect tutorial! I don’t understand why people go through the extra steps and spend more money when they can preserve this simple way.

Hi Hugh, we did the same last weekend. We bought a 25kg bag during the first lockdown off eBay as we could not buy any from the shops. Towards the end of the first lockdown, Asda put on special 16kg bags reduced to five pounds, so we bought 2. Last weekend we had already frozen the bags the week before and defrosted. We bought cheap brown paper bags from a local Chinese whole sale store where we got 125 medium sized bags for £4.75 - this is much cheaper than eBay or Amazon who wanted £14-17 for 100 bags. I then decanted 1kg into each bag, made a suitable size bag from my food saver and then vacuums packed it. In the end we have 42kg stored in a thick black plastic trunk which we have put in the barn. That should keep us sorted for flour for a good couple of years. Cheers John

Hi Hugh, glad to see you got a hand grinder. They will allow you to access grains, beans and herbs when the power goes out. One thing I do is to grind the grain at 1/2 cup intervals. When you go through the last stages of the successive grinds, pour only a few ounces into the grain hopper at a time so the burrs don`t generate so much heat and jam up on you. Much easier on the arms and your work surface. Excessive heat may de-vitalize the end product. And, these grinders can be fitted with electric motors. Mine can be retrofitted with stone burrs. They`re not solid stone, but a food grade carborundum.

Thank you for sharing from Chicago, IL USA Southland. Happy New Year!😃😍😷

Can you do the same for rice?

I have been dry canning flour in the oven. I would be worried about getting frost and damp into the flour when defrosting it. 😊

I put several bags of flour in the freezer in its original packages. Now I know I should have put it in plastic bags first. what can I do now to remove that moisture that may have been absorbed into the paper and flour?

Thank you for sharing

I had that weevil problem with some rice years back and they got EVERYWHERE in the kitchen cupboards. Anything not in airtight jars or sealed non paper type packets was infested and it was weeks before I managed to erase all the bugs.

Excellent video . Joe's been grinding flour by hand with out antique mill. He's loving making breads. This year we are planting up a hectare of wheat to give us flour. Should be fun. How much do you pay for the wind mill flour. In Hungary we have to.pay over £2 for organic flour from big retailers.

BRILLIANT INFO.

Awesome tips. Oh the hand grinder. Takes me back to the days grandma used to do it. Vacuum sealing is always a great idea for any food freshness. Thanks for the tips!

I get so much pleasure in breaking apart the 'block' of vac-pac'd flour when it's finally released 😆

How long does whole grain flour last in the freezer?

Thanks for the video. Really enjoyed it even though we never eat whear flour as have gluten free family 🤣 yes more food preservation vids particularly what to do with veggie gluts in the summertime (when it arrives). I made your tomato powder and that's a total life win. Thanks again

Hi Hugh, thank you for this lovely video. What is the best way to preserve whole wheat grain for a good few years? I am talking about big amount of grain 50+kg.

After the 48 hours leave it at room temp for 24 hours then refreeze for another 48 hours. The first freeze kills the adults the second freeze kills the eggs that hatched in the 24 hours at room temp

FYI: i just recently found a 5 gallon bucket of winter wheat i had bought for chicken fodder. I honestly forgot about it. It was almost full. I grew fodder to see if it was good and the fodder grew well. The wheat did not smell bad and without any oxygen absorbers. I ground some up and it smelled and tasted fine. Going to try a baking experiment soon.. the wheat has been in that bucket for at least 5-6 years in a pretty sunny bedroom so make of it as you will. I was pretty amazed after watching preservation videos. 😊 i live in Memphis Tennessee

nice video and very nice topic! i know a recipe for flour that can stays up to 10 years, if you want i can write to you and send to your email? I feel obliged to tell, because you are very nice and polite man. also i wanted to tell you to make more videos on diy creams for skin, health, pain and etc, if you know оf course :) Greetings

I'm pretty sure humans began to 'sift' flour to get undesirable critters out of the flour. NOT to make it light and airy for baking.

Thanks for the video! I really enjoyed your tomato glut video. Any suggestions for what to do with a surplus of apples would be much appreciated!

Good old Maud Foster flour .

This was perfect. Exactly what I was looking for.

What kind of hand mill is that ,and where did you get it from?

Have you ever encountered any problems with moisture forming as a result of the flour defrosting? If that happened wouldn’t it spoil the flour or is the vacuum sealed flour not affected by this?

Hi I want to store flour ..but where I live gets really hot in summer round 30 to 35 Degrees. I could leave it in the freezer but sometimes we get power cuts . Any advise ? Thanks 👍

Great vid !!

Love windmills

Where can I buy wheat/beans/lentils in bulk in the uk? In the USA we had feed stores