# How do you know if your wheat berries are still good?



## MissBetty (Apr 5, 2014)

Hi everyone! We bought a few buckets of wheat berries about 7 years ago from Wheat Montana. I opened a bucket and they smell fine. I read that they can turn rancid and these clearly have not. Wheat Montana's website states that they are generally good for 7 to 8 years or longer. How would you know if they weren't good other than by smell? I don't see any bugs, mold or anything else to be concerned about. What are the oldest wheat berries you've ever used? Thanks in advance!


----------



## bajiay (Apr 8, 2008)

Hi!
I've used some that are as old as me and they have still been fine.
They have a smell that you could tell. Wheat will actually last over 25 years if kept in the right conditions. Some have been found in the ancient pyramids that has still been good.


----------



## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

As far as I know, wheat berries don't get rancid if they're sealed away from moisture and oxygen. As long as they don't smell bad and aren't moldy or full of bugs, I'd say they're still good. Grind some up and try them!


----------



## Teri (Jan 13, 2003)

Heck, I'm still using wheat from Y2K!


----------



## snowcap (Jul 1, 2011)

Sprout some their good in salads.


----------



## Rick (May 10, 2002)

All of the above!

We have some 5 years old, that was not sealed very well at all - it makes a great flour, and wonderful sprouts.


----------



## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Also, pour the bucket into another container and see if there is mold on the bottom, inside the bucket or liner. Sometimes grain looks ok, smells ok, but has mold because the moisture migrated out of the grain and ended up condensing on the bottom layer so there is just enough moisture to mold that part without molding the rest.


----------



## MissBetty (Apr 5, 2014)

Cyngbaeld said:


> Also, pour the bucket into another container and see if there is mold on the bottom, inside the bucket or liner. Sometimes grain looks ok, smells ok, but has mold because the moisture migrated out of the grain and ended up condensing on the bottom layer so there is just enough moisture to mold that part without molding the rest.


Oh my gosh, I never would have thought of this. Thank you! I will do that.


----------



## MissBetty (Apr 5, 2014)

Thank you everyone, you've all been so helpful and I appreciate it!


----------



## MissBetty (Apr 5, 2014)

I have another question! Now that I have the bucket open, what is the storage life of the berries on the shelf? I know I can freeze what we aren't currently using, but I thought about putting a Gamma lid on the bucket for easy access. I am assuming about six months to a year at 75 degrees or so? How many buckets do you usually use in a year? Thanks again; I really appreciate it!


----------



## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

It really depends on how much you, personally will use. I'm the only one eating the wheat at my house and so I don't go thru it all that fast. Here, in summer particularly (summer is most of the yr) we have major problems with moths and weevils getting into everything. So I like to only keep open as much as I will use in 2-3 weeks. The rest is sealed and if possible, put in the freezer. Otherwise a bucket is long gone to insects before I finish it.


----------



## Ziptie (May 16, 2013)

Not sure how long they will last at that temp Take half and leave it out then put the other half in the freezer. Take the freezer one out once an month and compare to the stuff you left out. 

I leave our wheat berryâs in the 50lb bag they came in. The bags were just piled up on the floor of the basement. Though we go thorough 15 50lb bags of hard white wheat and about 50lbs of semolina wheat a year. Didn't make much sense trying to put all that in buckets as fast was we go through it.:happy:


----------



## farmerDale (Jan 8, 2011)

The key to long term wheat and other grain storage is moisture content, and moisture content alone. Air does not matter. If dry, less than 14% moisture, and relatively cool, wheat and other grains will store basically forever. 

People often get all carried away with worrying about O2, worry about darkness, bugs etc..

If the grain is the proper moisture, it WILL store indefinitely, and not have bug issues etc. EVER.

DRY DRY DRY!!!


----------



## MissBetty (Apr 5, 2014)

Thank you, everyone, you have all been very helpful!!


----------



## mrs whodunit (Feb 3, 2012)

My parents had wheat that was 30 years old and still good.


----------



## DaleK (Sep 23, 2004)

Dry and relatively cool is adequate, as my friend with the manly, masculine name points out. Dry and cold is great. All sealing, oxy absorbers, etc. do in my experience is create unnecessary complication and give more opportunity for things to go wrong


----------



## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

DaleK, what is true in Canada is not necessarily true in south central Texas where it is HOT and HUMID and there is no cool, dry storage available without massive amounts of a/c input. Dry grain MUST be sealed with absorbers or it WILL have bugs as I can personally attest to after having to pour hundreds of pounds of grain to the animals because of weevils. Just put in a bucket and a lid is not adequate down here.


----------



## farmerDale (Jan 8, 2011)

No basements in Texas?


----------



## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

No basements.


----------



## farmerDale (Jan 8, 2011)

Interesting, the folks I know from Texas and Okla have basements. Regardless, dry is most important. Dry wheat, even if it is at 75 year round, with high humidity, ( we know all about high humidity in areas of Canada), will store for a very long time in a bucket.

If grain spoils, it is never a temperature issue. It is a moisture issue, sometimes combined with temperatures when over the recommended 14% moisture. If the wheat is over 14%, temperature DOES have a large impact.

Again, DRY DRY DRY!


----------



## mrs whodunit (Feb 3, 2012)

mrs whodunit said:


> My parents had wheat that was 30 years old and still good.


Should add that this grain was stored in plastic bags in metal garbage cans in a tunnel. The tunnel was dry and of course the temperature was constant


----------



## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

Hard to put a basement in a mobile home. Most stick built homes are on slabs here and most of the older stick built are on piers. I don't know anybody around here with a basement. Maybe in OK or maybe in far north TX, but not down here. Basement significantly adds to the cost of a home when you don't have a frost line that you are required to go below.

I have no way to test the moisture content of grain, but would assume that grain purchased from someplace like Walton's should be dry enough. Nevertheless, it DOES get weevily if not purchased already sealed in mylar with O2 absorbers.


----------



## K.B. (Sep 7, 2012)

Cyngbaeld said:


> I have no way to test the moisture content of grain, but would assume that grain purchased from someplace like Walton's should be dry enough.


If you have a digital kitchen scale it should be sensitive enough to give you a pretty accurate gauge of the moisture content. Weigh a pound or 2 of grain before and after drying in a low temp oven for at least several hours (with the door propped open is best). Use the difference in weight to calculate the percentage.


----------



## Aintlifegrand (Jun 3, 2005)

We cant have a basement here in Louisiana..we hit water at 6 to 8 feet..lol. The wheat I just ot said was good for 30 years unopened and after opening then one year..regardless all flour wheat cornmeal etc goes to the grain freezer here after buckets are opened..between humidity and bugs i dont take a chance


----------



## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

Miss Betty, where are you located? In the PacNW, where I am, my wheat goes in buckets, no liners, O2 absorbers or dessicants, and it lasts for many, many years. It rains here, a lot, but the temps are usually cool when the humidity level is high. In the summer, when it's warm or hot, it's generally very low in humidity, as that is our drought season. It may make a bit of difference where you live as to how diligent you need to be in protecting from humidity. I also keep wheat berries on the shelf in a glass jar and have never had a problem with rancidity before using them up, even when it's been years.


----------



## backwoods (Sep 12, 2004)

If buying wheat berries in bags, I immediately put them in the chest freezer and leave for 2 weeks. That should kill anything that could be in there. We then pour into buckets and seal. That's it. It's both hot and humid here, and I've never had a problem. Still eating on Y2K wheat also...LOL


----------



## wogglebug (May 22, 2004)

There are no wheat _berries_ - only *grains* or perhaps seeds. 
(A berry is a composite fruit containing multiple seeds. No exceptions. The closest wheat could come would be the unthreshed seedhead.)

Anyone who has sold wheat "berries" is either ignorant, an ignorant crook, or at best leaning ignorantly towards the band wagon. At the very best, wheat "berries" is a marketing term designed to appeal to people who haven't yet learnt what's true. In any case, you cannot trust them about wheat "berry" storage - either what they've done, or what you should do - they either lie, don't know, or they don't know they're lying. Wheat sold as "berries" cannot be trusted to have been stored well. 

As FarmerDale said, "DryDry*DRY*" is the key.
Your best bet is to buy directly from the farmer, or from the grainhead storage.
However, be aware that the moisture content will tend towards the maximum allowable, which may not be good enough for your personal long-term purposes. The grain farmer will harvest, then have moisture tested. If there's too much, they'll dry the grain until it just falls within the range the buyers will accept. Any more drying costs more money and loses more weight. After all, it pays better to sell moisture at grain prices if you can get away with it.

The best practical method is to expose your new-bought grain (still in the bags is fine, unless they are airtight plastic) to the sun so the grain heats. Alternative is a fan heater blowing through it. Turn from time-to-time, so it heats all through. Add dessicants if that's your thing, but well dried grain is a dessicant itself. Throwing a lump of dry-ice (CO2) in might help, but is not essential. Then seal up. 
The key is FarmerDale's Â®DryDry*DRY*.

Actually, he and others here could probably make a bomb if they DID trademark the term, then set up a co-op, did bulk on-farm grain-drying, then sealed things up in mylar with a packet of colour-coded dessicant and enough slack to be able to re-seal, and sold via E-bay, Amazon, and mail-order.


----------



## manygoatsnmore (Feb 12, 2005)

Well thank you for calling us all ignorant if we use the term wheat berries rather than grain. Of course we know it's a grain, but if calling it wheat berries makes it easier for others to understand that we are talking about the whole wheat seed for human consumption, then what the heck is wrong with that?  :grumble:


----------



## wogglebug (May 22, 2004)

manygoatsnmore said:


> Well thank you for calling us all ignorant if we use the term wheat berries rather than grain. Of course we know it's a grain, but if calling it wheat berries makes it easier for others to understand that we are talking about the whole wheat seed for human consumption, then what the heck is wrong with that?  :grumble:


Well, I guess you're right. You could call a steak or a cheese a "beef berry" too, and be just as right. I just don't like devaluing exact language to the extent that it's made sloppy, and technical terms are no longer accepted as the truth. If you do - well, I guess I can understand that.


----------

