storing the harvest

so once you get a harvest, then you have to store it.

one of the reasons that I picked squash to grow is that you just put it on a shelf inside and keep it from freezing, it is super easy to store and takes no energy (like canning or freezing), or much time to do it.

storing grain is pretty straight forward,
just make sure it is dry enough (less than 10% water by weight) and put it where nothing other than you can eat it.
mice love to eat grain and they can't chew through metal or glass, but can chew through plastic and wood.

insects also can finish off a gran storage area fast,

one way to deal with this is to freeze your grain (2 days in the freezer), then let it warm up for 2 weeks (so all the eggs hatch but don't have time to lay new eggs), then re freeze (2 days)

another way is to use diatomaceous earth, just toss a hand full of it in with about every 25 to 50 pounds of grain, this kills all the insects that try to walk through the grain, but then you have to put it on a screen and shake it to let all diatomaceous earth fall out of the grain before you use it, so it is a bit more annoying...

the fancy way is to use nitrogen,
it is pretty simple, just fill all the gaps in the grain with nitrogen and keep it in an airtight place so the nitrogen stays there, bugs and bacteria need oxygen to live.

so give some serious thought to how to store things before you harvest it or you could end up with lots going bad.