permaculture

[S P SHERMAN <spsherm@msn.com>]

This will work but I think there are better ways these days...
 
The dry ice is just solid CO2. So what it is doing is replacing the air (N2 
and O2) in the bucket with CO2. Since CO2 is heavier than air it will tend to 
force the air out the top as it vaporizes. Thing that always bothered me 
about this, is you aren't "seeing" the CO2 come out the top (since CO2 is 
colorless) you are seeing condensed water vapor from the cold. Using any very 
cold source of replacement gas will tend to cause the water vapor in the air 
to condense and stay in the bucket. (I am assuming that there is that cloud 
of condensed moisture inside the bucket too) Probably not ideal for long term 
storage.
 
I think one could do better with a tank of N2. Just put the hose from the 
regulator in the bottom of the bucket, fill, put lid on loosely, open the 
tank for a bit, pull out hose and seal.  Should accomplish the same thing at 
a much lower cost (at least for many buckets, probably not for just a few), 
and with less trapped moisture. Might do as well with O2 absorbers too. Of 
course sealing things up on a nice dry day, with grain that has dried well, 
as opposed to a humid day and moist grain would probably help too.
 
I should caveat all this with the fact that I live in very dry Colorado, 
where wheat stored in paper bags remains viable for decades, with no fancy 
precautions. 

 

> From: bwaldrop@cox.net
> To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2011 14:34:33 -0500
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] The Permaculture saying, "Prepare for Disaster" 
> and the mo...
> 
> The Latterday Saints say put the dry ice in the bottom of the pail, a chunk 
> about the size of your fist. Pour the grain or beans in, cover loosely 
> until 
> you see the dry ice vapor starting to seep out around the edge, then seal 
> tightly. What you are trying to do is replace the oxygen in the bucket with 
> carbon dioxide. Another strategy is to freeze the grain for a week, if your 
> freezer is big enough to accommodate a 5 gal bucket.
> 
> Bob Waldrop, OKC (I lived in Utah for 16 years, so ran into a lot of info 
> there from the LDS about food storage, since that is one of their faith 
> practices)
> www.barkingfrogspermaculture.org
>