How long can raw wheat stay good if sealed properly?

Question

Ok, so here it is. Husband opens wine cellar after years of being locked up. He finds barrels and barrels of raw wheat along with pinto beans... The person who owned this before us (only one owner) died about 8 years ago. So how long until it goes bad? It looks really good almost like i cut it yesterday!

Answer 1

The national seed bank has wheat that is at least 40 years old that is in good shape and will still germinate.  We once planted beans that were over 20 years old that germinated and produced.

Some corn and beans in the desert southwest were found in cliff dwellings that had to be hundreds of years old and still viable.

Answer 2

They've found good wheat that could still grow over 5500 years old in pyramids. If it doesn't have fungus or anything growing on it and it's not mushy, it's probably still good.

Answer 3

I do food storage, and have for years.  The wheat I'm currently using was put up by my mother in law in 1972!

If wheat is stored properly it will last nearly forever.  

Sugar, honey, and salt really will last forever and still be 100% edible.

You can use the wheat for your own use, with zero worries.  The pinto beans are also still good.  However they will take a lot longer to cook.  The older beans are, the harder they are too cook.  Pre soaking, and a crock pot usually take care of those problems.  Or you can use a pressure cooker to cook the pinto beans.

Or you can grind the pinto beans to bean flour, and add the flour to breads, gravy, soups, meatloafs, hamburger/taco mix meat, ect.  Anything you desire to thicken up a bit, or add extremely healthy fiber too.

The prior owner of the home was probably LDS (Mormon).  Are you sure the room was ment to be a wine cellar?  Could it have been a bomb, shelter?  Quiet common to build them into homes at one point.

What kind of barrels are the wheat and pinto beans in?  Now that you have opened the room, you might have problems with the barrels themselves comming appart, especially if they are the cardboard barrels.

I can tell you how to repackage the wheat and pinto beans into mylar bags, and five gallon plastic food grade buckets if you'd like.

If you do not wish to keep the wheat, and pinto beans, I highly sugest you contact a local LDS (Mormon) church, and give it to them.  They will actually know how to cook with wheat grains, and pinto beans from scratch.  Donating to a food bank, or charity will not work.  The will not have any way to grind the grain into useful flour.

Or you can hold onto the beans and grain, and have a leap start on your own food storage.  When was your home built?  It is completely possible the food was stored the same year the home was built.

~Garnet

Permaculture homesteading/farming over 20 years

2 years worth of food storage in my own pantry.