Educate Me On De-Hydrated Food

Acer-m14 · Oct 9, 2016

Never tried this stuff .. but here is a review on one brand ...

years ago i got some Mountain House brand meals from Eastern Mountain Sports when i want camping / rock climbing .. they were very tasty and served there purpose.

Bananabandit · Oct 9, 2016

Mountain house is my favorite. I buy them in the #10 cans. Good variety in the cans and pouches. My favorite is chili mac and blueberries/granola in milk. You can get ice cream sandwiches too (Actually taste good). There is Wise, which I've never had so I cannot speak about.

Acer-m14 · Oct 9, 2016

the only problem i had on that rock climbing trip was not enough TP .. omg i got the runny nose so bad ,.. my stuff was gone in a day
and had to head for town for more .. 4 rolls of TP just blowing nose that week .. LOL ...

shoot2much · Oct 10, 2016

I only have experience with MH. It's decent. I tried a chili mac pouch when I first got into the stuff, because everyone says that's their favorite. It's good actually. However, they're LOADED with sodium. Don't recommend eating a lot of them if you don't need to. My plan/use for them is on those days where someone's either sick, it's too cold or too dangerous to go out and hunt, or when the hunt yields nothing.

NirvanaFan · Oct 10, 2016

I've had Mountain House and Backpacker's Pantry. There are a few different flavors I wasn't a fan of. One of the chicken and rice Mountain Houses was one of them. The Chili Mac with Beef is my favorite.

I'll be trying out a bunch of Wise meals for my elk hunting trip. I'll make sure to give a review.

shoot2much · Oct 10, 2016

I wonder if we should start an "official where to buy prep food" thread so we can post deals or other sales online for people to stock up. What do you think, all?

woot.com has some #10 cans on sale today. For anyone who isn't aware, woot.com has been around for a long time as a daily deals site (one of the first, in fact) and was bought by amazon a few years ago. I've used them numerous times. Never an issue, great customer service.

fnfalguy · Oct 10, 2016

i've had experience with LDS, emergency essentials, MH, Wise, thrive, augusons, ready store (saratoga farms), honeyville, harmony house and Im sure a couple of others which escape me at the moment. I typically purchase specific items from each after figuring out what tastes I liked and what works into our everyday use.

Word of caution with the 30 day kits. add up the calories, as all kits are not equal. As an example:
Augason Farms 30-Day All-In-One Emergency Survival Food Supply Kit, 307 Servings - $90, 1,822 cal/day
Augason Farms 1-Month Emergency Food Pack, 540ish servings $161, 2,073 cal/day

One thing to add is that with the premade kits, you are paying the premium for convenience and easier storage if you have spatial constraints. I just did some quick mathing from one of the places I purchase from and I can piece together an order of quick oats, black beans, rice, milk and macaroni for ~$133. Total calories in the order is 184,020. if you assume a 2k diet, you are looking at 92 days. Boring, yep, but augmented with vitamins and stuff you already have around the house its a good start.

shoot2much · Oct 10, 2016

The kits or buckets are great places to start, or if you have limited space, are easy to store (stackable in the back of a closet, for instance). However, buying in bulk and/or buying individual dishes is definitely the way to go long term, depending on your requirements/needs/wants.

Phazer · Oct 10, 2016

"I once went on a diet where all I ate was dehydrated food. One day, I drank a glass of water and gained 200 pounds."

"I bought some dehydrate water. I didn't know what to add.

- Steven Wright

Drinkthekoolaid · Oct 10, 2016

Don't forget to have soy sauce, ketchup, bbq sauce, hot sauce, salt, seasonings etc... Bland food day after day would get very monotonous. Having a meal to look forward to can boost morale.

On that note, stock up on candy. If you have kids it will be a huge morale boost for them. And hard candy will basically last forever. It would be a quick source of sugar if needed.

Sounds dumb, but it's super cheap. Buy a couple boxes of ramen noodles. Keep them for yourself, trade them, Give them to refugees or visitors etc...

Save some hard liquor 80+ proof. Use it as antiseptic, mild pain killer, enjoyment, trade, improvised Molotov cocktails etc..

fnfalguy · Oct 10, 2016

oh yeah, i also forgot to add to start saving up or grabbing from friends those 1, 2 or 3 liter soda bottles, or heavy arizona ice tea plastic bottles. Clean them out and start putting up water bit by bit. The bottles for soda are designed to handle pressurized liquids. Water is no match for them and will last you a lifetime pretty much. after a few years, it will taste "flat" but you just need to aerate it a bit by poring it between a couple of containers. I use to put a touch of bleach in with it, but haven't done that recently and not so sure its needed.

Snappo · Oct 10, 2016

PinkPanther said:
The wife and I are looking into getting a couple of months worth of de-hydrated food. Nothing fancy. Just food to get us through a disaster, civil unrest, etc... I have been looking at a few options and have ran across a few companies. Does anybody have any experience with this stuff? What brands of emergency food do you recommend? I am looking for something that would provide about 2,000 calories a day for a month or two.

MRE's last 5 years tops. Do your homework. Some kinds of rice last 20 years, barley is 15, as is bakers floud. Some dried meatless jerky's last that long and beyond. I dehydrate my apple slices (I have 50+ apple trees). Dehydrated apple is good for 50 years. If you do high pressure canning, you can make yummy meals with shelf life in the many decades. Freeze drying your foods will give you home made stuff with 25+ years of shelf life. Check out this website but there are MANY you can google up.
Long Term Food Shelf Life

Snappo · Oct 10, 2016

fnfalguy said:
oh yeah, i also forgot to add to start saving up or grabbing from friends those 1, 2 or 3 liter soda bottles, or heavy arizona ice tea plastic bottles. Clean them out and start putting up water bit by bit. The bottles for soda are designed to handle pressurized liquids. Water is no match for them and will last you a lifetime pretty much. after a few years, it will taste "flat" but you just need to aerate it a bit by poring it between a couple of containers. I use to put a touch of bleach in with it, but haven't done that recently and not so sure its needed.

No need to really do that - sitting water grows bacteria better than a science class experiment. Keep one bathtub full at all times (and empty it every few weeks), or have a generator to run your well pump. Also it never hurts to have a half dozen or so LifeStraws. Makes creek and pond water perfect.

fnfalguy · Oct 10, 2016

Snappo, i appreciate your POV, and that probably works well for some home owners or folks with access to ponds/creeks relatively close by. For those of us who live in a more urban/suburban environment, those solutions may not be ideal. As a for instance, in our house, we have one tub and I can easily picture the gun shot when my wife discovers she is SOL when it comes to bubble bath time. As for the bacteria in stored water. I can easily treat with chlorine and run it through the Berkey. Solo mi dos centavos.

Snappo · Oct 10, 2016

fnfalguy said:
Snappo, i appreciate your POV, and that probably works well for some home owners or folks with access to ponds/creeks relatively close by. For those of us who live in a more urban/suburban environment, those solutions may not be ideal. As a for instance, in our house, we have one tub and I can easily picture the gun shot when my wife discovers she is SOL when it comes to bubble bath time. As for the bacteria in stored water. I can easily treat with chlorine and run it through the Berkey. Solo mi dos centavos.

A tub drains in a minute or two. So before the bubble bath she just dumps it, does her bubble bath, and afterwards you can throw "fill tub" on your honey-do list. We do that with one of the jacuzzi tubs that gets no love since the wife and I prefer to just take a shower. But that is true about being able to get those chlorine tablets for dirt cheap. I also have a bunch of gallon jugs of water from Walmart (80 cents or so per gallon) for when the pump fails and I need to use the toilet. If it's yellow let it mellow but if it's brown you flush it down! LOL

From a location perspective, if you are urban/suburban isn't your plan to bug out to a safe riot-free location when the zombie apocalypse hits? Or you gonna Claymore the subdivision? I'd bug to the most rural place a half tank of fuel could get me. Zombies are bad-ass. They even keep the lawns manicured in Walking Dead.

fnfalguy · Oct 10, 2016

to be frank, it would take a heck of a lot for me to want to bug out. and i don't envision it in my lifetime. If it came to it, yes, I have locations to go to, but the reason I got into preparedness was based on the more likely events. Weather related, job loss, etc. I'm a big believer that these are the events most likely to impact me. Oddsmakers would say that the less the # of people affected by an event, the more likely it is to occur. I look at it similar to my job when putting together a risk impact/probability chart. I dont usually have the EMP, CME, blue helmet type of visions running through my head nor the fantasies of holding off the Mongol Horde (no offense meant to any Mongols on the forum). And it doesn't hurt that I hate the supermarkets. Much easier for me to go shopping in the basement for that butter, flour or sugar when Mrs. Fnfalguy runs out of something for the recipe.

But enough thread-jacking. back to your regularly scheduled discussion.

Snappo · Oct 10, 2016

fnfalguy said:
to be frank, it would take a heck of a lot for me to want to bug out. and i don't envision it in my lifetime. If it came to it, yes, I have locations to go to, but the reason I got into preparedness was based on the more likely events. Weather related, job loss, etc. I'm a big believer that these are the events most likely to impact me. Oddsmakers would say that the less the # of people affected by an event, the more likely it is to occur. I look at it similar to my job when putting together a risk impact/probability chart. I dont usually have the EMP, CME, blue helmet type of visions running through my head nor the fantasies of holding off the Mongol Horde (no offense meant to any Mongols on the forum). And it doesn't hurt that I hate the supermarkets. Much easier for me to go shopping in the basement for that butter, flour or sugar when Mrs. Fnfalguy runs out of something for the recipe.

But enough thread-jacking. back to your regularly scheduled discussion.

I'm thinking Walking Dead goes down in about the next 5 years. My prediction is a market loss of 50%, end of social security, and no companies open to make food and stock the Walmart shelves. And I am thinking 2 - 3 years to recover, and that inner cities become like Snake Plisskin / Escape from NY. So I went with 2 years or so of food, enough seed to plant a few acres with food forever, and enough home heating oil to run the diesel tractor for 1-2 hours a day 7 days a week for 10 years (90 minutes of power, 30 minutes of wood splitting).

Greywolf224 · Oct 10, 2016

I'm ready to die if the SHTF. Dont want to live that way. If I need it I'm taking yours, every man for himself and I'll pack light and move fast.
Not gonna sit there to use all my time to protect what everyone else wants. Learn to live off of what you can find.

Sure I store ammo...just in case. Just in case of what...How the hell am I going to keep 500lbs of ammo with me on the run. A few boxes of ammo with me the rest gets buried where I hope I can find it when I needed it.

Think about he squirrel who stores a thousand nuts all over your property. He's lucky to find 100 when he needs them.

MilesTeg · Oct 10, 2016

A couple of places to buy from.

Emergency Essentials | Food Storage & Emergency Preparedness Supplies

https://store.lds.org/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Category3_715839595_10557_3074457345616706370_-

My goal is to have enough food for my family for a year in the form of canned or freeze dried. Currently I have none, I haven't had the money to be able to put in it yet. What I have done is to keep a fully stocked fridge and pantry. I probably have enough for 3-5 months. I have plenty of land and seeds to start growing if need be. We are also surrounded by game that can help in the short term but isn't a long term solution. Once the new house gets built I hope to have a garden, laying chickens, meat chickens and look into a renewable form of energy. Remember guys you always want to layer your defenses always try to have multiple solutions for the same problem.

Snappo · Oct 10, 2016

PinkPanther said:
I'm on board with @fnfalguy. It would take A LOT to get me to bug out. All other options have to be gone. I see it as an absolute last resort. Even if I did but out, it would be to a family members' home not far from the city and I sure as hell would be packing my truck full of whatever could fit. But then what? I'm an LEO, if SHTF, I would still have to show up to work.

Anyways, I feel that my questions have been answered. Thank you guys!

In an SHTF the odds are nobody is getting paid, right? It becomes about food, and your back breaking work gets bartered for something you need to feed and shelter your family. So perhaps you might spend 8 hours in the field for 20 lbs of jerky; or something like that. Your LEO days would be done just like my IT directing days would be done. Bugging out is because where you are presently cannot be defended against Ferguson or Baltimore type crowds that are pillaging to eat because the government doesn't have enough food stores for all the cities. Or am I seeing a zombie apocalypse wrong?

Acer-m14 · Oct 15, 2016

IF SHTF I'm going down town where the squirrels are .. raise holy hell with the liberals LOL starve suckers .. i got a BBQ tree rat ..

GOPerfect · Oct 15, 2016

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If I like them, I will order a bunch more.

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