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rice for dessicant?

22K views 39 replies 19 participants last post by  ForestBeekeeper 
#1 ·
Can rice be used as a dessicant?
 
#4 ·
There are, of course, much better things than rice for use as a dessicant but I have used it effectively when I had nothing else.

I took some 3" x 5" clear zip lock bags like you can find at office supply stores, punched holes through both sides of them with an ice pick and put a handful of rice in them before sealing them up. I threw these in with some "metal items" and they seemed to do the trick in a sealed container.

Wiki article which includes mention of rice as a dessicant:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiccant

It's been a while since I read "No Surrender - My Thirty Year War" by Hiroo Onoda but I believe he used rice to perserve the ammunition for his rifle while it was stored in glass bottles.

Hiroo Onoda was a Japanese Army Lieutenant who survived and evaded search parties on the island of Lubang for 30 years after WWII. Lubang island was only 6 miles wide and 18 miles long. He killed 22 people during that time whom he considered "enemy combatants" so the search parties tried to do a pretty thorough job. Onoda proves it can be done.
 
#8 ·
Rice in salt shakers is common in restaurants everywhere. As for Martha Steward, like most men, I find her obnoxious.
Are there any women anywhere that you approve of in any fashion? Just curious; you never seem to have a good word for women in general. It's getting obnoxious. :rolleyes:

Oh, and to keep this on topic: rice can definitely be used as a dessicant, but its uses are very limited.
 
#6 ·
I know people who have thrown their cell phones into a container of rice to dry it out after an accidental swim in the lake. I baked mine out with radiant oil heater instead. My wife's friend used to work for a cell phone company and she told people to do it all of the itme. Apparently it works...
 
#13 ·
Ignore the troll, Rubberchickengirl. Once TEOTWAWKI arrives, men like that will see how much mileage that kind of attitude will get them with the strong women that will inherit the world. Where ever did they get the idea that we ladies - and I do mean LADIES - will just wilt and fade away without the presence of men?

Why, without being prompted by men we ladies knew that rice could be used as a weak dessicant, right? ;)
 
#24 · (Edited)
:::tsk, tsk, tsk::: You sad little man. You are STILL regurgitating OPINION, not FACT. Show me the studies, statistics and facts that back up your claims. You haven't proven yourself.

As far as the military goes, I was born into the military, I married into the military, and my husband and I retired from it. I lived it, Zorba. I may not have gone into actual combat, but I have lived every other aspect of it for 43 years. I even have a child fighting in Iraq as we speak, so I can confidently claim that I've covered all of the bases. There isn't anything you can tell me about the military apart from actual combat. FYI, the only reason why women in America aren't serving in combat to the extent that men are is purely for political reasons. No politician in this day and age wants to mess up that mom-and-apple-pie facade. It would be career suicide, and they know it.

By the way, we're still waiting for your concrete facts from reputable, reliable sources, Poser. People who like to use rice as a dessicant want to know! ;)
 
#26 ·
On topic, only warning. EVERYONE!!


Rice you ask? Seems like in this day and age something better is obviously out there, but on the other hand for short term, small lots that are accessed fairly regularly it might work ok and be much cheaper than other alternatives. I think that some real world testing might be in order for this one though, mold and mildew are not something I need in my preps :)
 
#32 ·
I have to agree. Silica gel is really the best bet for most applications. It's cheap and works. I've heard of rice being used too, but there are just too many drawbacks. You have to make sure it's very dry before using it, then if it gets damp, it's going to rot. I've heard that coffee makes a good desicant too. I'm not sure if that was instant or ground.
 
#33 ·
In this application, there is no natural item that you are going to find which can equal what the chemists come up with.

Corporate big money went into designing the best material for the purpose of absorbing moisture from air.

In this case, it is re-usable, which is a huge bonus to everyone :)

We do not use any O2 absorber. We simply have no need for it.

We can, we dehydrate, we salt, we ferment, we freeze-dry, we freeze, and we store stuff with desiccant.

It meets all of our needs.
 
#37 ·
I use small plastic cups. They were left over from raising children and are brightly coloured. Maybe two cups in size. I fill a 55-gallon drum up to within a few inches of the top with grain. I fill a cup half full of desiccant and press that cup down into the top of the grain.

No desiccant mixes with the grain. Then I seal the lid.

When I am done, I go back about every 2 weeks. I swap out the old used desiccant [which at this point will be red] with fresh desiccant which will be blue.

After a couple times of doing this, the desiccant stops turning red. Which means to me that it has sucked all of the moisture out of the drum.

We do about 8 drums of barley, and 8 of oats, 4 of corn, and 4 of sunflower, each year.

We also have a drum for powder milk, colostrum, and calf-manna; which I use desiccant in also.



Pearled rice, we do not have in large supply. It is just a starch. White pearled rice has very little nutrient value in a diet.

A mixed grain porridge would be far better for you then rice would be.

I understand that you can mix your rice with beans, to equal the nutrition of barley. But you know at $8 for 40-pounds it is hard to beat barley. Oats is $5 for 40-pounds which is not bad either.

If you want to store rice, you can still use desiccant to do it, just fine. :)

It will work fine for salt too.
 
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