Vacuum sealing with jars

[dejure]

We have several vacuum sealers for food storage, both electrical and hand pump type. We picked up the hand pump units at garage sales for pennies. They were a great investment if only for the educational value. Per their instructions, you can use jars from spaghetti sauce and so forth. You just have to pay attention to the seal in the disposable lid. If it's a silicone type ring, it will probably work. Of course, after you seal a jar, you want to check it occasionally, if you are storing for any length of time.

These hand pump units have little tabs you put over a small hole you make in the lid with a thumb tack or similar item capable of making a small hole. The tab lifts as vacuum is applied and is pulled down by the vacuum of the jar when you stop. After studying the things, it was no difficult task engineering home made versions.

While we will not use these for things that would normally be canned, they work well for rice, beans, dehydrated goods and so forth. We had a major blight of moths and this protected things with no problems.

As I elsewhere noted, I collect Nebulizers at garage sales, then pop the cover and switch the hose from the output to the input, effectively converting them to vacuum pumps from small compressors. They work wonderfully for imposing a vacuum on a zip lock bag (oil the seal), a jar, or our commercial vacuum containers.

[Watchman]

If I read you correctly, these should not be used to seal perishable items? But it sounds like a good idea for dried things! This might be a good project for the DIY section, with diagrams, etc. - both kinds, manual and powered.

[bee_pipes]

Another trick for storing bulk dry goods is dry ice. If you have large quantities of rice, beans, grain, etc. that would be impractical for vaccuum sealing, say like a 5 gallon bucket or a 50 gallon barrel - drop a chink of dry ice inside. The ice melts and floods the container with carbon dioxide, effectively suffocating anything alive in the container. There are obvious drawbacks to this method - obtaining dry ice when you live in the boonies is one. This is only suitable for fumigating a container or long-term storage, it would not be effective for something opened and closed frequently. For fumigation to be effective, it would need to sit long enough to work on eggs and other larger critters - I would not count on it to kill bacteria or protazoa. The container MUST NOT be air tight, and the opening must be the highest point. CO2 is heavier than air. After the dry ice has melted, you could tighten the lid, just be darned sure the ice is melted. This will take care of grain moths and other pests.

Regards,
Pat

[dejure]

Like you, I wouldn't consider perishables for the vacuum jar system. That's a project better left for regular canning processes. We just use the jars for dehydrated things, for beans, rice and such, or something mechanical or electrical you want to keep dry, like your old 50 cal muzzle loader (better be a big jar, huh?).

Technically, you could make your own little flaps for the jars. If the tape would adhere to a bucket, I don't see why you couldn't do it for that too. But, again, that might be a short term (months) solution.

[dejure]

On acquiring dry ice, a person could always get the bottles of CO2, but it would probably be spendy, at least initially.

I was under the impression you wanted the dry ice to melt and push the air out and that, as the dry ice melted, it did just that. A bit of diging and a person could find some info on how much was needed for a five gallon bucket of wheat. Anyway, when the ice has melted and the air forced out, you should be able to seal the bucket, I would think. But then doing that has gotten me in trouble repeatedly throughout my life.