This isn't so commonly cried in the winter months but more often in the summer months but today I got the cry of "HELP" that went like this:

"Hi! I received your bread baking dvd and loved it! I learned some wonderful tips. I have a mill and a bosch and was all ready to use it until....I find teeny tiny little bugs in my grain. My fear is that I'll have to throw it away. I don't want to do anything to make us sick!  Is there a way for me to salvage my wheat berries? I have 25# or soft and 25# of hard.  Help!"

Since our family owned a bread and grain bulk foods market for 9 years as our family business I can just imagine the squeals and cries over this discovery!  It isn't too difficult to keep grain bug free but there are a few tricks.

Here is what I told her since her discovery and she wants to salvage them:

You could have small black bugs resembling a hard shelled large black ant or small white wormy looking things that usually are found in a clump of kernels...they kind of form a ball of wheat kernels around the wormy bugs....and these usually hatch to those pantry moths and you could open the bucket or container and have a swarm fly up in your face...eeeekss!!

I am not sure you would get sick except from the thots of eating "bug bread" :) LOL!  cheer up and smile anyway.....I personally would spread it all over an area of dirt in my back yard...sprinkle some hay over it and in a matter of days you'll have a pretty crop of wheat grass :)  Or make grass centerpieces...just fill a pretty container with potting soil and sprinkle it heavily with wheat kernals...cover with a thin layer of soil and keep moist....makes a lovely centerpiece.

I grew it in a matter of days and added in some of the last zinnias I cut from my garden.

Hope you are still smiling.....

Whole Grains are wonderfully nutritious and are great keepers holding their nutrition and vitamins until they are broken down in some way. They can be rolled, cracked, milled into flour and only then will the nutrients will begin to oxidize. I have used grains after having them stored for over 8 years in a sealed air-tight container. They seemed as good and fresh as they day I had bought them!

But there is that nagging and scary thought! What if they get buggy? And what do you do if you open your grain container one day and are met in the face with a flying cloud of moths or see small black bettle type critters winding their way thru the grain kernels? Don't despair!

Grains keep very well if kept properly and BUGS in the GRAIN are not a problem that can't be overcome! I have dealt with 1000's of pounds of grain in my grain market and under most conditions it is not a problem. Here we will discuss it and what you need to do IF you are invaded by grain pests.

This is what you see - as if you needed any assurance that bugs may have invaded your grain supply! Remember the large commercial milling companies hire food scientists to run regular testing to make sure their flours and food products made from flours like crackers and snack foods stay under the alloted allowable amount of ground up insect parts! I met such a lady in my country market who had worked for a large famous name cracker company for years and her job was to test the edible prodcuts for insect parts! They are ground up by the thousands in commercial graneries.That is why I love grinding my own grains! I can see what I am grinding!

Depending on the type of pest, if bugs have invaded, you may see:

1) A black hard shell looking thing with legs like an ant type insect...crawling all over the grain...all mixed in.

2) Grain in clumps like small balls the size of a dime -- and all stuck together...there are bugs or bug eggs inside the clumps.

3) Small tan colored pantry moth type things flying all over or around the container.

4) Grain kernals that don't look firm, smooth and the original color...areas chipped out of it that look all powdery...but this last one I don't see much...and if there was no sign of a bug, or tiny worm when I rinsed a small portion of it in a cup...I would still probably use it - I can be pretty thrifty!

If you do FIND bugs...do not panic! Here is what to do:

1) Take the container that has pests in it outdoors.

2) Take everything that was in that cupboard - out! Rinse the inside walls and shelves with a clean rag dipped and squeezed in hot, soapy water and wipe down once more for a clean rinse, Dry.

3) Carefully open the items that were in the cupboard to inspect to make sure no pests have invaded the contents of those other items. Many times in processed grains, cereals, etc. you wlll only see webs and if so or if you identify any of the other signs above. Discard it all outside.

4) Wipe down the outside of each container with a clean, soapy rag and rinse again with a damp clean rag. Dry thoroughly.

5) Hang a pantry moth trap [available in the market here at MBM] in the cupboard or near it.

6) Place everything back inside. This should keep you pest free for a very long time.

GRAIN STORAGE TIPS~

Make sure your grain is purchased sealed and bug free.

Don't purchase more grain than you can use in a matter of months unless you are purchasing the grain in oxygen free sealed buckets.

Keep the grain in a tightly sealed container in a cool and DRY place.  The bugs love humidity. You will have to realize that most grain has the microscopic bug eggs present and it only takes heat and humidity and air and light to get them to hatch.

I have some really big chest freezers so to be on the bug free side of things I keep all my grain stored in the freezer. But I realize this is not an option for many of you.  I would get 5000 lbs of grain at a time in my bread and grain market and it surely wasn't an option then!!  So you must keep it sealed and cool and dry.

If you purchase it in bags, I think it best from my experience to transfer it for storage into clean buckets with tight seals and use the deoxy pkgs to remove the oxygen from the bucket.  But then remember every time you open your bucket you will need to add another deoxy pkg as it will fill the bucket with oxygen again upon opening.

I bake a lot of bread so going thru 25 or 50 lbs of grain does not take too long for me and I could use a bucket of grain in a matter of a month and had no problem keeping it bug free just keeping the lid tightly sealed and in a cool, dry place.

Hope this isn't causing bugamania in any of you...if you have questions or comments on your grain storage please post a comment....many could benefit from this discussion.

BUGS BE GONE!

Marmee