Storing Beans and Grains

I thought I would pass on a little tip when storing beans and grains coming from the grocery store. Normally, we would simply put the unopened packages in our pantry or if these were for long term storage put them in a bucket of some type. Well, I go one extra step before I put them in their permanent storage home. And here is why. One grocery trip I loaded up on beans and grains because my supply was getting pretty low. I brought them home and left them in the grocery bag for a couple of days (just a couple of days) while I gathered my storage containers and made sure they were cleaned out and no old stuff left in them. Well, when my couple of days was over and I had all my nice clean containers ready to be filled, I opened my grocery bag and pulled out the first bag of beans only to be confronted with the ugliest most vicious looking critters I have ever seen...grain beetles. If you have never seen these critters you don't want to. My beans were infested with the eggs when I bought them and they had hatched and were very hungry. I don't really know whether it was just one bag or several, but I do know that everything in that grocery bag went into the trash. Fortunately, nothing else in my pantry was affected because I keep everything in glass jars. I was mad because that was such a waste of money which is tough to come by these days. Ever since then when I bring these types of items home from the store I open the package and spread the beans on a cookie sheet. I then place them in the oven at 150 degrees for about 20 minutes. The heat kills any beetle eggs that might be in your beans. I have not had any beetles since then. For my grains like rice and flour, I will put those in the freezer for a couple of weeks and then they are fine to sit on the shelf in my pantry. No more grain beetles when I get home. So take these simple precautions to keep grain beetles out of your pantry because they will hitch hike home from the store.