bugs in my quinoa (Quinoa)
Posted by heater_rae on Apr 05, 2008 · Member since Jul 2007 · 110 posts
I found little brown bugs in my quinoa AFTER I baked bread with it. Is the oven hot enough to kill most pests that affect grains??
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yes.. but...
yeah, I'm stuck between not wanting to be wasteful (ie-not discarding the bread) and not wanting to eat litter critters. :-\
Hmmm....I may just buck up and eat this loaf up. I'm pretty sure there aren't any duck ponds in my town.
I think I'll sprinkle the infested quinoa on my neighbor's car and deck...send a little birdy poo their way as payback for keeping me awake with their late night partying. ;D
I should probably let the co-op know that their quinoa has bugs, too.
i forgot to rinse mine today before cooking and it smelled like the gorilla building at the zoo. I rinsed it after and it was OK but i felt gross eating it. I didn't even check for bugs! I don't want to know! I hate wasting it too. I made a big pot of it!
If you eat bread with bugs is it still vegan?
I thought you are not supposed to give raw rice to the birds--no? It swells up in their little tummies. That's why they don't throw it at weddings anymore.
Or is this an old wives tale?
I thinks the puppy was referring to the bread, NOT rice.
Hey guys, I have a little bit of info about quinoa, other grains and unwanted pests you may like to know. First off, for those of you who don't like the smell of quinoa, that's because it is typically bitter unless well rinsed before cooking. This is because it contains a high amount of saponins which give it a very bitter, sort of sweaty smell and taste. What I do with my quinoa is I put it in a fine mesh strainer and rinse it under cold water for about5 minutes . . . or I soak it for 2 minutes and rinse it for one minute if I'm in a hurry. Most of the saponins will be rinsed away and your quinoa won't smell or taste bad at all. In fact, depending what recipe you are using, the quinoa will be extremely tasty and nutritious for your body containing lots of iron, protein, fibre and all sorts of vitamins! Eat your quinoa!
Regarding the pests . . . every now and then depending ont he time of year, you may find little bugs in your grains. It may be because it's not in an airtight container and thus your coop might not be the problem. When I moved into my new house, there must have been a few pests int he cupboards because I had some in my rice, my pasta and my barley. I had to get rid of all of it and when I bought airtight containers they went away. I also washed my cupboards on the inside with a cloth soaked in warm water and a drop or two of all natural javex alternative. They never came back.
If you are putting your grains in long-term storage (like plastic pails with those hard to open lids, for example) I highly recommend purchasing a block of dry ice and chipping off some squares to put in each pail, at the bottom of the pail before putting on your lid. This will not only keep the grains fresh over a long period of time, but it will remove most if not all of the oxygen so pests would not be able to live among your food :) This works well with anything except flours. Bugs usually avoid flours anyway, so don't worry too much about that.
Bugs pick up a lot of yucky things while living in your house. I definitely do not recommend eating them even if they have been cooked. Neither is the idea very appetizing. Wrap it in a bow and send it to your mother in law . . .
I was using wakame seaweed once in a lentil soup and when I was soaking it to rehydrate it, some rare dead sea creature floated to the surface. It was pretty gross. I guess the point is, it can happen and it ocassionally will happen . . . but please for love of pete, don't eat it!! yuck.
lol
Oh man, I don't know what I'd do if a random dead sea creature appeared in my cup. Ewww. When you say airtight containers, do you mean the fancy ones you get at Target/BBandbeyond? With the big latch in the front? They're a bit expensive for me, so I was just going to buy some heavy-duty Mason jars, w/ the two-part lid. Do you think that would work? OH, and what is javex alternative? Maybe it'll make my ants go away?
....so I was just going to buy some heavy-duty Mason jars, w/ the two-part lid. Do you think that would work?
That's what I use and I've never had a problem.
Bugs pick up a lot of yucky things while living in your house. I definitely do not recommend eating them even if they have been cooked. Neither is the idea very appetizing. Wrap it in a bow and send it to your mother in law . . .
Bwah, ha, ha, ha, ha.....great idea!
Okay, I didn't eat the buggy-bread but the loaf I made and ate last week was infested (pests in my wheat berries too!) BARF!!! I made a new loaf with pest-free amaranth, rye berries, and buckwheat all of which were stored in zip baggies.
As far as airtight containers, I'm limited by my budget. Are pasta sauce, applesauce, and jelly jars airtight enough to keep the bugs out?
For airtight containers - glass jars with sufficient threads around the lid work fine - like mason jars, peanut butter jars, or mayo jars. Large glass pickle jars also work great.
I found some great plastic 1 gallon jars at the dollar store - pretty easy on the budget. (I prefer plastic both because I'm a klutz and because I cannot lift heavy things - even tho glass is healthier). More than once I have put grains in plastic immediately upon coming home from the store, only to find the container filled with bugs within hours - the bugs all head for the light at the edge of the jars, I guess. Anyway, the containers have repeatedly saved my cupboard's remaining inventory from a bad purchase.
I like your ideas . . . I'll check out the dollar store.
One thing that happened to me is I put some grain in a baggie type of plastic bag and bugs actually ate through the plastic. So it must be heavy plastic. Storing in the freezer also helps.
I recycle glass jars from mayo, pasta sauce, chickpeas, etc. and wash them to store my grains and beans. Since then, no bugs. I also save smaller glass jars with tight lids for spices.
Once I found dead "moths" in among some chickpeas but they hadn't been able to get out of the jar and infest my other stuff.
catnip is supposed to get rid of ants if you sprinkle it in their trials
My Mom always told me to put bay leaves in my bags of flour to keep out pests (weevils). I still do it - 2-3 per bag and I never get bugs, at least in my flour. Even if bugs are in it, put bay leaves in and see if they go away. Seems cheaper than buying special storage containers.
I often find weevils in my rice even though I store it in an airtight container, you can't do much about it if they're already in the bag. I just sift through my rice before I use it to pull out the bugs. An easy way is to add water to the grain and scoop the bugs off the top (they tend to float), and then I rinse my rice before I use it (even though it's not really necessary healthwise). This annoys my family, they'd rather I just chuck it, but I can't stand to waste food.
Um ??? what on Earth is a weevil???