[Unswydd]

I just got a bunch of Red Beans and Pasta........How do I store this?? I did a search but it was just too much to go through.....

[willyboy]

First you get some storage bag's.Put it in storage bag's.Seal storage bag's

[Dick]

We keep our beans in canning jars and our pasta in larger glass containers with air tight lids. That keeps the mice, rats, and dermestid beetles (our substitute for la cucaracha) out.

[snowshoe67]

Unswydd, here is a great site to check out brother, it's Emergency Essentials - Be Prepared Emergency Preparedness Food Storage many storage items there I have a few emergency buckets/and Bags for Beans,Rice and a few other dry goods. Check it out.

[vthompson]

We store our beans in quart canning jars with the lids airtight. We have never had a problem yet.

[ColcordMama]

Yep, you want to store beans, grains and pasta and other dry goods in glass jars with good tight lids. If you've been stockpiling the little gelpacks that come in shoeboxes, electronics and the like (I have a big bag of 'em now) toss one of them in too, just don't boil it up and eat it by mistake. Save mayo and spaghetti sauce jars, wash them and dry them well and use them for this sort of thing (since you can't use them for home canning--that's a big no no) just make sure that you remove the wet cardboard inner lining of the lid before you screw it back on the jar, or your pasta could take on the smell of old mayo or stale spaghetti sauce over time.
I had a big problem with ant attacks in my cereal cupboard this summer, so I had to empty all the Cheerios and granola and Wheat Chex into glass jars, slip in the label I cut off the box and put the lids on tight so those little SOBs couldn't contaminate any more of my breakfast cereals and granola bars. It wasn't a total bust though, I fed the ant-ruined cereals to my chickens and they pigged out. If chickens could smile...

Hey, this reminds me, store flour and cake mixes and muffin mixes and Bisquick in your freezer, if you have the room. You won't get weevils in them and they won't go stale and icky tasting if you can't use them up fast enough.

[Screaming Eagle]

I like to freeze beans and rice for a few weeks to get rid of all the potential critter larvae. Then, mylar bags with O2 absorbers (or not) and into plastic buckets so the bags don't get punctured. That's how I do it for long term storage. If you plan on eating them in the relatively near future, jars do work great.

Are they kidney beans or the small red beans?

[TaintRight]

All dried grain products come with beetle and weevil eggs included. This includes rice, beans, meals and flours. View packages of this stuff as ticking time bombs.

Your storage technique should address preventing the eggs from hatching.

Freezing or refrigerating does it. So does vacuum packaging. But once out of the refrigerator or vacuum pack, all bets are off.

Desiccating it with a gel pack in a glass jar will not (despite the advertising from the guy selling gel packs). There is enough moisture in dried grains to sustain a zillion weevils. A gel pack isn't going to reduce the moisture enough to matter. Put beans in a jar with a gel pack and the flour beetles will hatch and eat the beans before you do.

Simply putting the stuff into a sealed glass jar will keep out the mice and insects that are nosing around, but the insect eggs will still hatch. Once they hatch in one package, their children will quickly locate the rest of your stuff. All glass will do is contain the infestation to one jar.

[Herbalpagan]

I repack everything into vacuumed bags and then into a heavy plastic bucket or it goes into glass jars (depends on how much I have). the rule is: air tight, water tight and pest proof.

[Unswydd]

Okay...lots of good information here. I wasn't sure about storing them in the bags they come in so I will freeze them for a few days to kill any potential guests and them put it in glass jars.
I was wondering tho about the noodles it wouldn't be air tight as the noodles are the curly ones and I guess pack the jar as well as I can ....
Thanks everyone for the great ideas.
Mama, I'm trying to get my family to save the little gel packs too.
Thanks again.