Posted by
gremlinrose
(05/30/18 04:31 PM)
Maybe if you have a sodastream or sodaking (if you live in aus, sodaking are great) you could use it to add carbon dioxide to your preferred storage container. Carbon dioxide is heavier than air as mentioned above, so if you are really careful you could probably displace most of the air before sealing? If using a jar, maybe some gladwrap over the top, poke the nozzle through to the bottom and gas away , hopefully pushing air out as you go, then screw lid over the glad wrap. Also should work with bags too if you're careful?
Just a thought from a newbie here, but an old hand with the soda maker!
(People have been known to refill their cylinders at home using 400g dry ice pellets btw)
Posted by
BALTAR
(10/18/12 09:19 AM)
This thread really saved me.
Over the last few months I'd collected, dried, and ground up a whole bunch of wild medicinal mushrooms and didn't know how to long term stow them.
So, off I went to a nearby dry ice supplier (Praxair) and got a bunch. Driving home with the 3 kgs of dry ice in a cooler I cracked open the windows so as not to go the way of dead mice with a sealed car interior - Very Important!
Here's some photos of my stowing some chaga powder in a mason jar.
Here's the dry ice chunks. Started out snapping them into smaller pieces with a two pliers, but they're so
fragile I would end up crushing many times. Instead, I just grabbed the ice with my insulated rubber gloves and
snapped them easily that way. Best to wear coveralls, insulated gloves, and eye protection as dry ice can cause
frostbite within two seconds of skin contact.
Here's my chunk of dry ice. I wrapped it in aluminum foil just in case there were any issues with direct contact
with the mushroom powder.
And there's the dry ice chunk wrapped in foil. These are heavy duty gloves with a separate insulation layer
inside. It was a snap to use these gloves to grab chunks from the bucket instead of the pesky tongs.
And there's the foiled dry ice chunk at the bottom of the jar. I've placed the jar in a big pan so that when I pour
the dry chaga into it the overspill isn't lost.
With the chaga filled in, I LOOSELY place the rubber seal top on the jar in order to
allow the CO2 to push the oxygen out of the jar. You can just see the foiled chunk at
the bottom of the jar.
Notice how there's no visual indication of the off-gassing. There's no heavy smoke
we normally associate with dry ice. It's barely visible even as shown with the cooler
full of the ice. So, don't think you can wait until you don't see the 'smoke' coming out
past to loose lid. Just to be on the safe side, I waited for about five hours before I
tightened the lid to seal it shut. Now all I have to do is load the jars in a box to block
out the UV rays.
SAFETY: GLASS JARS CAN EXPLODE IF THE DRY ICE CO2 IS STILL OFF-GASSING
AND THE JAR IS SEALED TIGHT. MAKE SURE THAT ALL THE SOLID DRY ICE IS
GONE BEFORE YOU TIGHTEN THE LIDS.
Posted by
assmonkey75
(10/14/08 11:35 PM)
Great idea!
I use dry ice to euthanize mice before they become snake food. I just leave a chunk at the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket, wait for the bucket to fill with gaseous CO2 and drop the poor little bastards in.
I wonder if I couldn't use the same technique in a Rubbermaid tub with the vacuum sealer at the bottom, so that the small quantity of air remaining in the bag consists of CO2?
Store the vacuum packs at the back of the freezer, and they should last halfway to forever, no?
Thanks for the technique!