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Why I'm going to start soaking and dehydrating nuts right after I buy them...

RawVoiceRawVoice Raw Newbie

I bought some almonds about a month ago from Costco. A big bag, as you might imagine. I took about half of them and soaked and dehydrated them right away. I left the other half just the way they were. Today, I decided to soak and dehydrate the rest of the almonds just to find that they had been partially eaten by little worms. Ugh!! My already soaked and dehydrated almonds, which were stored the exact same way, had no worms. They were fine. So I’m thinking maybe the almonds come with little worm eggs in them, and when I soak them and rinse them, they get washed away. That’s why the soaked and dehyrated almonds were fine, and the others weren’t.

Has anyone else had any experiences like this?

I don’t like food waste, especially whole, raw food. I’d like to minimize waste as much as I can.

Comments

  • That’s awful…could it be your water wasn’t pure and was infected with those worms somewhow?

     

  • RawVoiceRawVoice Raw Newbie

    Sky, it was the unsoaked almonds that were eaten by worms.They hadn’t been touched by water.

  • BluedolfinBluedolfin Raw Newbie

    I hate to say it but many of our foods come with “extra animal protein” in one form or another. Usually these extra critters are more evident/flourish when heat like hot weather or being stored near the oven or fridge is introduced. Have you ever had bugs in your flour during the summer months? To avoid the growth of critters, store your nuts, seeds, spices, etc. in the fridge, freezer, or in another cool place.

  • deborahanndeborahann Raw Newbie

    I once collected a bunch of chestnuts from a tree at work and left them in the back of my jeep a couple of weeks because I was busy and when I went to get them, I found the whole back of my jeep covered in little white larvae! I was picking those things months afterward! Now I know that this could happen with a lot of other nuts (and other foods as Bluedolphin says) but I still can’t bring myself to eat chestnuts anymore although I regularly eat other nuts! I store all of my nuts in the fridge or freezer

  • MeditatingMeditating Raw Newbie

    Raw Voice – 2 questions for you:

    1) Were the nuts organic? I found that I have to buy dry, bulk, organic items in small quantities because if left long enough they all have insect eggs that hatch. I haven’t had anything organic that didn’t eventually have an insect hatch on it if not used promptly.

    2) Why do you soak and then dehydrate them? Is it to dry them for longer storage after you have gotten rid of the enzyme inhibitors?

  • RawVoiceRawVoice Raw Newbie

    Hi Dain,

    Thanks for your reply, To answer your questions, the almonds were not organic.And the second question, yes, I soak them to get rid of the enzyme inhibitor, and I usually soak and dehydrate nuts just to have them on hand when I need them, like for recipes that call for dry nuts or just to snack on. I’m not sure if they store longer after they’ve been soaked and dehydrated or not. It’s really just a matter of convenience to have some ready.

    Deborahann, oooh, that sounds pretty yucky having all those larvae in there.

    bluedolphin, thanks for the tip about refrigerating or freezing. I’ve been tempted to do that. It’s just that our fridge and freezer are so packed already, I don’t know where I’d put them.

  • MeditatingMeditating Raw Newbie

    If you soak the nuts to get rid of the inhibitors, are the enzymes still “active” if you dehydrate them again? I don’t know if active is the best word to use. Are the enzymes then in the same state as the enzymes we eat in live or raw foods? This would be good to know because now that I have a dehydrator I found it useful to dehydrate excess fruits and veggies. I know low-temp dry foods are used, but do they have active enzymes in them. I thought the enzymes were alive.

  • BluedolfinBluedolfin Raw Newbie

    Hi Dain5000~ Another thread was discussing enzymes that you might find useful: Raw Question

  • RawVoiceRawVoice Raw Newbie

    Dain, I dehydrate the nuts at 105 degrees, so they are still raw, and the enzymes are still alive.

  • RawVoiceRawVoice Raw Newbie

    Actually, I should say that theoretically they are still alive after being dehydrated at 105 degrees.In reality, raw almonds are no longer really raw, so they were dead when I bought them.

  • MeditatingMeditating Raw Newbie

    Rawvoice,

    I think we had a similar misunderstanding of what enzymes are. I posted another thread on this under Other Stuff entitled Understanding Enzymes. You may want to check that out.

  • RawVoiceRawVoice Raw Newbie

    I know my terminology may not be completely accurate. I think “denatured” is the correct word.

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