I ran across a fantastic deal today at a closeout grocery store.  They had dry pinto beans for $.39/# in packages of 10# or more, so I got a 13 pound bag for around $5.  Would these be okay to store in a glass gallon jar if I keep them in a cool, dry closet?  Or should I look for another storage method that would block out more light?

 I store mine in glass jars and I've never had a problem.  Works for us.

I keep mine ( in orginal packing )  in a plastic tub that in my canning kitchen  ( cool and dark ) .  they keep well for about a year . be sure a rotate your stock pile .

if  you dont use that many beans I would cook them and then freeze them

 

Hi Mazie! Great score on pintos, they are always a promise when it comes to a frugal food find! You can always get them cheap somewhere and they are great legumes to include in the diet. How do you like to prepare and serve yours???

Glass storage is great. I see no problem in storing them in glass containers in a nice dry cool cabinet.Remember you can always wrap the glass containers with foil to block out excess light if need be but they should do just fine in a cabinet... it's dark in there already!

I would bag them up in 1 lb bags and put them in the freezer uncooked.  I had rice that I stored in the kitchen cupboard and forgot about and it had bugs in it after a while.  Now i keep a lot of bakery items in the freezer to be safe rather than sorry.  Sally

Great find!  Storing the beans the way you suggest would be just fine.  They will keep for a long while.  Another option to cooking and/or freezing is to can the beans.  Here is a thread I started about canning your own refried beans.  You can still use the same canning procedure without the seasonings.

http://community.stretcher.com/forums/p/25786/261245.aspx#261245

gayla50:

I keep mine ( in orginal packing )  in a plastic tub that in my canning kitchen 

I keep mine in their original bags in a covered plastic box in a cabinet.

Beans keep a long time.  I find tha tas they get older I need to soak them longer and cook a little longer.  Freezing for a few days will kill bugs that could hatch later. I put rice, beans, flour in the freezer to kill bugs, then store in pantry. That was a wonderful price.  Babs

Just do check on them from time to time, especially considering the circumstances in which you got them. I had an entire bin of dried pintos MOLD once. I have no idea how it happened, since they were in an airtight container with a gamma lid, but apparently one of the bags I added to the batch was contaminated in some way and ruined all of them. 14 lbs of beans had to be thrown away.

Now I still store them in the bin, but in their original packaging. This way if one ends up bad, it hopefully won't spread to the rest quite as quickly.

spiderdust:

14 lbs of beans had to be thrown away.

That would be a bonus to leaving them in their packages. You can toss one bad bag without the others going bad too.