Repurposing with a vengeance - dry goods storage

Repurposing project #3 - Reclaiming my mason jars

Are you one of those people that gets so much stuff in bulk you just don't know what to do with it all? Or how about one of those people who purchases stuff in #10 tins, opens it and then has no idea how to keep the unused portion from getting eaten by bugs or rodents. Has Waste Management offered to supply an industrial sized recycling bin for all of your soda bottles? Well have I got a new trick for you. 

First and foremost. This method of storage is SHORT TERM (less than 2 years). Additionally, this method is to be used for NON-PERISHABLE goods only. If ever you are in doubt of the quality of the food, do not eat it. 

Stuff that you will probably need.

Empty 1, 2 or 3 liter bottles. Dried beans, peas, rice are best, but you can also store chocolate chips, dehydrated vegetables, pasta, etc. A large bowl, measuring cup or scoop, scissors, marking pen, packing tape. Make sure your working area is clean and dry.

Prepping the plastic bottles. Remove the labels. don't use anything sharp or you may ruin the bottle. Rinse the bottle with the hottest water your tap provides. If your tank is set below 120° you may want to heat some water to no more than 150° and rinse the bottles. 

Do I need to talk about safety here??? Okay, remember, the water is very hot and can burn you. The soda bottle will not insulate you from the hot water. Water that is too hot can melt the bottle increasing your chance of getting burned. Use a funnel to pour the water in to the bottle, trying to hold the bottle while pour scalding water into a narrow neck is...well, stupid. Children should be in another room...at grandma's...napping. Okay, sorry if I offended anyone, but I've seen just about every way a person can blow this and get burned. Oh and the bottle caps should be rinsed in scalding water as well. 
Allow your bottles to dry COMPLETELY. Was that loud enough? Putting dried items into a moist bottle...just throw it away.

Okay, now that your bottles are ready, gather your items and begin. Place your bottle into a large bowl.

Find the method that works best for you to get the items (beans, rice, etc.) into the bottle. A funnel can be helpful, but may sometime clog, a paper funnel may be more useful for larger items (Lima beans, chocolate chips), but the method that works the best for me is the hand funnel, you know wrapping your hand around the neck of the bottle. No matter what method you use, there will be spillage, hence the large bowl. Hopefully anything that misses the bottle will land in the bowl. 

Using a paper funnel with Lima beans.

After you have filled your bottle (this is 1 pound) Cut the label off the front and the cooking directions off the back. You can cut off the nutritional info if you like, but I don't.

 

Use the packing tape to secure the labels to the bottles. Pick a spot and write the month and year you packed this bottle.

Before putting the cap on, add a bay leaf to the bottle if it is beans (everything else, you won't need it). The bay leaf has one function, to season the beans. There are many people who believe that bay leaves are good for keeping insects out, but it is just not true. Read this report from 1984 and see for yourself the best way to keep insects from infesting your food stuffs. The contents of the bottle will not pick up any flavoring until the bay leaf is cooked with it. Now add an oxygen absorber, Cap your bottle.

You know those bags of 15 bean soup or White bean soup with ham flavoring, well you can do a few of those as well. The only problem I came across was the flavoring packet. Sure, I could stuff it into the bottle, but I would have to destroy the bottle to get it back out, so my solution is simple. Cover the flavor packet with a piece of plastic (to keep it from ripping open when the tape is removed) and tape it to the side of the bottle. *Warning* This will not keep your flavor packet from becoming wet or infested or losing it's flavor. It just keeps the packet with the soup. When in doubt, throw it out.

Sooo... to recap so far, clean bottles, insert food, bay leaf, and oxygen absorber, cap bottles, label them with contents and cooking directions. Now what?? Oh yeah...

Get your household wax out and scrape off a bit. Now melt said household wax. I don't happen to have dedicated wax melting pots, but a reused potpie pan works just fine.



Don't forget, the water is hot. I won't go over that one again. Remove melted wax pot (potpie tin) from the pan of water and then dip the tops of the bottles in the wax. Allow to cool. Repeat 3 or 4 times.

This seals the bottle to prevent insects and moisture from getting in. With the addition of the oxygen absorber, the chance of insect growth becomes negligible.

A one liter bottle will hold this much in White Beans. But keep in mind, each bean is different, size means nothing. Check out the picture below. The smaller ones can be more dense. In this example a bottle can hold more of the split peas than the black eyed peas.

Juice bottles work just as well and they even have thicker plastic walls. The openings are also larger so getting an oxygen absorber in with the beans becomes easier. They also tend to be square so can be stacked more easily.

Oh and about that "don't use plastic to store stuff because of leaching". Leaching of chemicals into food from plastic bottles requires liquid, dry items should not pick up any chemicals, but I'd like to remind you that you probably consumed the liquid that was in the bottle in the first place and how long were those sitting on the shelf before you opened it?

The best kinda beans.