Great Depression Solution: Weevils in the Flour

 

Okay, Blogger decided to reformat this post! Please forgive the chaos!

When I was a preteen and teen in the kitchen with my mother, she told me about her youth in the kitchen in north Mississippi during the Great Depression.  I assure you that weevils in the flour had nothing to do with poverty, The Great Depression, country living, or standards. By the way, they had a cure for weevils in the flour.

 

The picture to the right gives you an idea of a Hoosier Cabinet design. Some are less wide or wider. Some have a million "modern" fancy features and many more drawers and doors. Some are smaller and plainer than this. Some are homemade. However, one feature not always on a Hoosier style cabinet is the one which I am interested in showing you.

 



Hoosier Cabinet

See the underside of the upper part on the left just above the counter? That is a flour sifter with its handle. By opening the door above the sifter, a person could put 20 lbs of flour in a container that tilted out. The person using flour could sift the flour and measure it at the same time.

 

 

There was no need to go open a bug-proof container, measure flour, and sift. The container was by no means bug proof!

I grew up with a Hoosier Cabinet that was plain, no fancy features, no flour bin. That is how my mother came to tell me about their Hoosier Cabinet and weevils in the flour.

 

Weevils can get into this flour bin/container. Plus, so much flour was bought and stored at one time, summers were hot, and the eggs that came in the flour could hatch. Don't panic. ALL your flour has bug eggs in it when you purchase it. The government standards allow it since eggs cannot be removed. If weevils hatched in the flour in the Hoosier Cabinet, then bugs invaded the area and other food. Bug infested flour happened in the cleanest of kitchens--eggs hatched in the flour or weevils or other insects invaded the flour.

 

My mother knew the solution that did not include thorough cleaning, a futile effort then and now if the flour is not kept airtight and used immediately. Sifting with a sifter that rubs the flour will crush bugs, so use a fine sieve to exclude bugs from "sifted" flour. Just put the flour in the sieve and gently hit the rim of the sieve on your hand to make the flour fall through the sieve, leaving the bugs or moths behind.

Once again without fear or squeamishness:

 

The solution: Sift the flour through a sieve and use the flour. Eggs or bugs will be left in the sifter. Okay, so a few eggs go through. Webs or threads will be in the flour and sifter, indicating you have a weevil problem. The same web/thread thing happened a few months ago with Indian Meal Moths in Raisin Bran at my house that immediately became chicken food. By the way, chickens love Kelloggs Raisin Bran!

 

It sounded gross to me then and now. But, what if flour was as dear now as it was then? What if you had so little money and so little access to food that you would starve without eating bug-infested flour? What if in the future you had no transportation to go to the store 20 miles away? What if there were no Tupperware, Mylar bags to exclude bugs, or a freezer or oxygen absorbers to kill eggs?

 

I have reached the point mentally where I know I can sift the buggy flour and eat it without another thought IF I need to. However, in the far past, I have dumped all flour, cornmeal, cake mixes and spices. I do not regret that move. Just because I have reached the point that I know I will eat flour after it has been sifted to get the bugs out does not mean that I will do it right now when my ability to acquire more food is still good. I have not been tested since I developed this mindset. As long as the grocery stores are open, I will dump the flour to the hens. Maybe I will mix it OUTDOORS with some chicken broth to save the hens' lungs from flour in the air.  

 

Since I am in the process of eradicating Indian Meal Moths that will get into flour, cookies, cereal and other foodstuffs in boxes and bags, I have a method. No poison is involed, just time. I freeze all flour, pasta, cornmeal, and oatmeal for 48 hours. Then, I let it sit on the counter or in the closed microwave for 24 hours. After that, I store it in half-gallon or quart canning jars with old lids and rings. When I run out of canning jars, I will use a spaghetti jar, peanut butter jar, or any glass jar that has the rubber seal inside. Without the rubber seal, the eggs can be laid under the rim of the jar where the critter can migrate to the inside of the jar. Don't depend on Ball plastic storage caps.

 

I am very confident there will be no pests in any of my food stored in canning jars. It is not prepping food, just food on sale!. How could I pass up this pasta deal? I love my deals. It is all stored in Ball jars with canning lids and rings. First, it spent 48 hours in the freezer and all the rest of the routine.

But, if anything befalls my little stash (20 lbs or less) of bug-free, egg-free flour, access to flour, or ability to buy flour, I will be sifting any kind of flour through a fine mesh strainer and baking with it. Can you? The bugs will be gone. And, the eggs should provide a bit of protein. No? Oh well.

I know the folk who have oxygen absorbers and five gallon storage buckets and Mylar bags may not find this of interest. But, we never knows what will befall our flour or ability to store it in the most secure way. For those of us who use none of the long-term storage methods, can you sift bugs out of your flour and still bake with it?  Or would you rather freeze it and store it in a glass jar?

Youe turn
What are you thoughts on sifting flour with bugs and eating the flour anyway? Are you grossed out by the thought? Had you ever heard of the webs/threads indicating there were pests in the flour? Have you ever seen them and maybe wondered why there were webs in the flour?