the value of storing food in five gallon buckets

Check out this web page:  http://www.captaindaves.com/foodfaq/ff17-oxy.htm

Along these lines, I seem to remember something about how you can get longer life out of storing certain foods by putting a piece of dry ice in the bucket before putting the lid on (loosely).  The CO2 is heavier than air - thus replacing the air spaces with CO2 - so icky things will all die.

Another interesting idea.

Scoop out some grain in the middle and put a glass cup with a little candle.  Tape a few layers of foil to the lid in the middle.  Light the candle and seal the bucket.  All of the oxygen is consumed.  And when you open the bucket, you have a barely used candle inside!

Where do you buy dry ice. rose

Some grocery stores carry it.

  i have to get a bucket i can chuck my stuff in to keep it from the mice. I always find some packet of lentils or sometihng there is no jar for and if i had a big covred container i woudl not have to worry about putting stuf in individual jars while i was away.
  The mice commite suicide in the sink, i have had to make a rope with knots in it for them to use as a ladder.  I suspect my husband of putting the same, last time dead mice, they looked a bit dry, back in the sink when we arrive at the house so i will decide to trap or poison them. The villagers are going crazy about it too the builders told them i had mice, i think. They say i will get snakes. agri rose macaskie.

Better to trap the mice.  Poison takes a while giving the varmints a chance to find a hard to reach spot from which they can stink up the place.

I save my jars from relish/pickles/olives/groceries along with the lids.  There is always something to put stuff in.  Comes in handy for seeds, beans, leftovers, and lunch containers. 

There are caps available for ball jars.  A pound of beans/grains/peas/lentils will fit easily into a quart jar.  Check caps from the products you purchase.  Wal-mart brand mayonnaise caps fit ball jars perfectly. 

I use 5 gallon pails for all sorts of things.  Home depot has them for less than $2.50.  Lids are a buck, have a rubber gasket.  This lets me buy and store goods in bulk.  I buy sugar in 25# sacks, runs about 46 cents/#, has an indefinite shelf life.  Flour, salt, rice, elbow macaroni, same thing.  By the time you go through the bucket twice, you've paid for the bucket and lid. 

For longer term storage I use mylar bags, put them in the buckets.  If it will be rotated in a couple of years, oxygen absorbers are not needed.  Put the product in the freezer for a day or two to kill off any insects/larvae/eggs.  Pack the cold product in mylar and seal it.  The air remaining in the bag will cool, creating a partial vacuum in the bag-a nifty trick that lets you know if the bag has lost its seal.

Beyond a couple of years, oxygen absorbers and mylar bags are the way to go.  Plastic buckets allow oxygen to penetrate.  This will cause any oils in the food to become rancid.  Oxygen cannot penetrate mylar.

Interesting about putting them in the freezer for a bit. Woudl it kill off bugs in chestnuts. I wonder with some things wheteher it isnot beter to eat them quick before  the bugs start to develope, if you eat them quick the bugs will be invisible eggs no tbig enough to put you off your chestnut , I wonder the same with mushrooms too, with wild fungi type things. rose

I do it with dry grains: hard red winter wheat, rye, milo, corn, barley, rice.
Should work on chestnuts just fine.  I'd think they could also be soaked in a brine, roasted and then stored.

Mushrooms in the freezer would lose the rooms and simply be mush.

Freeze grains and flour for 7 days at 0f, to kill bugs. I learned this when I was rodent-ranching (three types of hamsters mostly) and going through 200# of feed a month (yes I was selling them as a wholesaler to local pet stores, complete with vet oversight and all that good stuff). The proprietary mix the feed store made me, would have to be frozen to kill off infestations in the grains and nuts and seeds, then it could be stored at room temperature until fed. It takes at least 7 days of freezing.