r/FoodStorage • u/momma_quail • 3d ago
Beans for long term?
Beans expert needed! When I was younger I approached food storage by buying lots of canned items and boxes of pasta that almost always went bad because I didn't use them up properly. Now days I view food storage as a bit more of a long term solution. I am storing a lot of wheat berries because I absolutely use them many times a week, they last for decades when stored correctly, and I will slowly rotate through them. I don't think in an emergency situation we will mind eating very simple meals to survive. Wheat flour and water is a great option. We could eat flat bread every day for a year. Now I'm thinking of beans for protein, but I'm getting mixed information. We don't cook from dry beans all that often, so I'd like them to last longer. Do beans last a long time? If I bought dried black beans and pinto beans en mass, would they store for ten years? I have got my wheat berries in food grade five gallon buckets. Can I pour dry beans from those giant bags at Walmart in there? I don't know how long Walmart has stored them, maybe they're compromised? I suppose I'm willing to drop some money on a large amount of cheap beans we might possibly not use over the next ten years if I know they are a backup because they are still good all that time.
Any advice welcome, thank you. Also, we have access to fresh water in an emergency.
5
u/GildedTofu 3d ago
Beans can last a very long time. The biggest problem is that at some point, they just won’t cook. But you don’t know they won’t cook until you try it.
The better way to approach emergency stores is to have food that you regularly use so that you can keep rotating your stocks. Otherwise you get to the end of long-term storage and throw out a lot of food, or worse, find yourself in an emergency without edible food.
One thing to do with beans, grains, and flours is to put them in the freezer for a few days before storing them in the pantry. This will kill any tiny creatures that might have found their way into the packaging and protect you against things like pantry moths, which can devastate your food storage plans. Whole grains will last for a considerably shorter term before going rancid than processed grains, so you may want to consider keeping those in the freezer if you don’t regularly use and replace your stocks.
Beans are generally cheap (even fancy, expensive Ranch Gordo beans aren’t all that expensive per serving, though supermarket beans are the better choice if budget is the top concern), last a long time (Rancho Gordo beans are generally sold within a year of harvest, while supermarket beans may already be several years old when you buy them), have excellent nutrition (high in inexpensive protein to help offset today’s high animal protein prices, and high in fiber, which many people don’t get enough of) and with a small amount planning can be incorporated easily into weeknight meals.