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Offline Farmer Jon

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Store bought freeze dried foods
« on: January 21, 2021, 07:07:27 AM »
 On our winter campout a few weeks ago, Zane and I were trying to make hot dogs. I look over and see this guy is pouring hot water in a bag and shaking it up.  I look again a few minutes later he's eating mac and cheese. Hes done eating before we even organized.
Ive been looking at freeze dried foods for a while. I did some trading and got an assortment from the fellow I mentioned above. I took them home and tried them.  I have talked it over with the wife and its time to get some. For storage and for use on our camping trips. There are so many different companies out there. Patriot, Ready Wise, Essentials, Legacy and so on. I dont know where to start.
Aside from buying my own freeze dryer where do you get the best bang for your buck? I will pay more for quality over quantity.
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Offline TexasRedNeck

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Re: Store bought freeze dried foods
« Reply #1 on: January 21, 2021, 07:55:20 AM »
Jon,  Yeah freeze dried is the way to go.  I have an MSR reactor backpack stove with 1 qt pot and it will boil water in less than 3 minutes and packs down light and compact.

I had been buying my food from The Ready Store but they seem to rarely have in stock what they show on their website lately.  Mountain House and Saratoga Farms are the two big names I have tried. 

Food comes in anything from individual packets to #10 cans to 5 gallon buckets.  Cost per serving is higher in the smaller containers. Once you open a larger container the shelf life is very short, so plan accordingly.

MREs are also a good thing to have, since you can pour and once or so of water in the chem heater and you don’t have to boil or mix. They have a 5 year shelf life but many, including me have eaten them years and years past that date and they are still fine.  How you store them is important. (75 degrees or below is best)

Dehydrated is different than freeze dried so make sure what you are buying.  Freeze dried is 25 year shelf life generally and dehydrated is much shorter but still much longer than MREs

the veggies and the pasta dishes are reasonable, but you can also get #10 cans of meat or meat dishes and those are much more expensive.  When you shop look for # of servings and the calories per serving.  In a disaster situation you want to make sure you have 1800-2000 calories per person per day.

If you are only wanting this to make camping convenient its a lot less complicated than long term survival supplies.

There are several blogs out there to give you more complete information.  Amazon also sells them and you can subscribe so you get a little each month to build up a supply.


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Offline Bob Smith

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Re: Store bought freeze dried foods
« Reply #2 on: January 21, 2021, 11:16:41 AM »
Very good information Charles. I have used the Mountain House brand while on pack in hunting trips. The small butane pack stoves are really nice also.  Fresh cup of coffee ( instant) or hot soup is really good an hour after daylight while looking at a ridge across the canyon.

 

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