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Anyone interested in freeze dried food?

J

joseph

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After North Korea hacked Sony I was thinking that Really bad things could happen to us in the future. This is a lot cheeper then buying a dehydrator. From what I have heard that by the time you make your own food the machines start giving you problems especially if there is no electricity.

Also probably need to stock pile gasoline by the thousands of gallons too.

Look here:

http://www.buyemergencyfoods.com/best-value-food-storage/

http://www.mypatriotsupply.com/Emergency_Survival_Food_s/104.htm?Click=156532

http://wisefoodstorage.com/freeze-dried-food/freeze-dried-meats.html/
 
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I'm honestly not sure if you're serious or trolling us but I'll play along.

Have you tried any of these? I got a few samples from Wise and wasn't very impressed. I stocked up on a good deal of Mountain House when Costco had a ridiculous closeout sale on it. I've eaten it several times camping/hiking and have been very pleased. So I guess to answer your question....Yes, some of us are interested in freeze dried food.

joseph said:
After North Korea hacked Sony I was thinking that Really bad things could happen to us in the future. This is a lot cheeper then buying a dehydrator. From what I have heard that by the time you make your own food the machines start giving you problems especially if there is no electricity.

Also probably need to stock pile gasoline by the thousands of gallons too.

Look here:

http://www.buyemergencyfoods.com/best-value-food-storage/

http://www.mypatriotsupply.com/Emergency_Survival_Food_s/104.htm?Click=156532

http://wisefoodstorage.com/freeze-dried-food/freeze-dried-meats.html/
Click to expand...
 
I'm not trolling. I have not tried any of them. I'm looking for comments from people like you.

Thanks dbott63 this week I'll ask Costco about this stuff. I haven't tried any of the complete meals, but have tried different kinds of noodles with a flavor packet. Maybe you have seen them in Walmart for a box of 24 for $2.17. They were convenient when hunting in Wyoming. One packet was enough to feed two of us. Wouldn't want to survive on them though.

I looked at different freeze driers, but they were about 1,500$ less then buying skids of pre made meals and it would take you a year to make that much food and if we lost power what good would they be.

I have a place in the country that I can live with plenty of hardwood for heat & cooking plus two 3 acre lakes and plenty of game and fish to harvest. I reload my ammo and have enough components to last me the rest of my life.

I never thought that I should worry about freeze dried food until now. If it was after 2016 and we have a conservative government I would not worry as much, but who knows.
 
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joseph said:
I'm not trolling. I have not tried any of them. I'm looking for comments from people like you.

Thanks dbott63 this week I'll ask Costco about this stuff. I haven't tried any of the complete meals, but have tried different kinds of noodles with a flavor packet. Maybe you have seen them in Walmart for a box of 24 for $2.17. They were convenient when hunting in Wyoming. One packet was enough to feed two of us. Wouldn't want to survive on them though.
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Costco had them well over a year ago at this point. If you go further back in the Survival Sub-Forum here on NES there is a thread about it somewhere. I tend to prefer the Lasagna with Meat Sauce and the Beef Stroganoff with Noodles. I'm not sure what you're talking about regarding a box of 24 for $2.17 but my guess is that product wasn't from Mountain House. Mountain House sells their product in both Pouches and #10 Cans. The canned option provides a much longer shelf life.

I looked at different freeze driers, but they were about 1,500$ less then buying skids of pre made meals and it would take you a year to make that much food and if we lost power what good would they be.

I have a place in the country that I can live with plenty of hardwood for heat & cooking plus two 3 acre lakes and plenty of game and fish to harvest. I reload my ammo and have enough components to last me the rest of my life.
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Given your setup you might be better off buying more traditional long term storage items (maybe you already have). Things like grains, rice, beans, etc. If your property would support a garden you would have a pretty robust meal selection between local game, long term stores, and fruits/veggies from the garden. If you go the garden route you'll definitely want to learn about Canning.

Pallets of freeze dried food are nice to have but they a finite. IMO they are just an "extended short term" solution.

I never thought that I should worry about freeze dried food until now. If it was after 2016 and we have a conservative government I would not worry as much, but who knows.
Click to expand...

My approach to preparing for a worst case scenario has little to do with who is in office. There are many scenarios that would result in the need to use your preparations...only a few of them revolve around politicians.

Good Luck!
 
If you look at reviews online Patriots Supply is a hack with misleading advertisements and crappy food. I'd stay away from that place. Now I have heard a lot of good reviews on ThriveLife food. A rep will come to your house if you want and make you a meal so you can see how you like it before buying.
 
Do you have some non long term storage food? Get that first, at least a month's worth. Pasta, canned food, oatmeal, etc.

Don't panic... You have time to plan out and buy carefully. Whatever you do, don't buy a giant kit of food for a family for a year for $4000 or something. You probably won't eat most of the items or know what to do with them.

I like Emergency Essentials. Buy some individual cans as samplers, open them and actually try them out. Get a bunch of various veggies (I have good luck with onions, carrots, and green beans) and maybe some dehydrated meats.... Those will be expensive though. See what works out, then buy more.

You can also do rice and beans. Try cooking with them though. You will want to learn simple ways to flavor them. The simplest for me is salt and dehydrated onions.... That is enough to make it tolerable to eat. Oh, and if you eat beans every day for every meal, expect some suffering. So I would keep your bean consumption plans limited and be prepared for other dehydrated options.
 
Rockrivr1 said:
Now I have heard a lot of good reviews on ThriveLife food.
Click to expand...

The Thrive food is really, really good. We were impressed enough that the missus and I considered becoming distributors (it's an MLM) but figured here in NE we're surrounded by normalcy-biased moonbats so it'd be a tough sell. That said, we use it occasionally in regular cooking, use it to make jarred meals for gifts, and have it for long term storage.
 
I have always liked Emergency Essentials, they sell by the bucket (or make your own bucket supplies), by the #10 can and MRE's.

Simple easy, and I agree on not getting a whole 'year supply' kit until you take care of the basics. Simplest way is put an extra 10 cans of everything you use on your shelf to start with. Put some water away (the water cooler jugs work great are are simple - but any sturdy jug will do).

After that - plenty of sites and books on the subject.

Honestly, I do have one of the smaller 'Year Supples" in #10 cans, only because I hit the other bases and it was the next on the 'long term disaster' list.
 
First two rules of stockpiling food -- buy what you eat, and rotate your stock

Do you regularly eat canned soup? Rice that comes in a box (or jar)? Dry pasta? Other "foods" that would give my Italian grandmother a fit as an insult to our cuisine (don't get her started on Chef Boy-Ar-dee)?

If so, then great -- next time you're in the grocery store, check the expiration dates, and buy 2-5x as much of these foods as you normally would. And a couple extra flats of bottled water. Continue this pattern on subsequent shopping trips, and in no time you'll be months to a year ahead of your usual consumption rates.

If you do end up buying rice and beans and dried veggies, don't forget to stock up on spices, especially whole dried spices. A few bucks spent on peppercorns and peppers will do wonders. Other spices like oregano, rosemary, basil, etc are best obtained by growing the whole plant.
 
GM-GUY said:
I have always liked Emergency Essentials
Click to expand...

I was just checking out their web site yesterday. They have a program called Prep as you Go with different plan levels. It's a monthly plan where you pay around $100 a month and they ship food out to you. Over a year you buy enough to have a year's supply of #10 cans of all kinds of different food with 2000 calories a day. 25 year shelf life.

May consider this for ongoing storage needs.
 
Hard to go wrong with EE. A while back we had a can arrive dented. Called them up and they sent a replacement out right away, no questions.

A tip for ordering #10 cans from EE: They have a shipping box that holds exactly 6 cans and one that holds 12 cans. If you order an odd number, say 5 cans, they have to pad that blank space with something. This may increase the chance of damage, especially if your order includes cans with some weight to them, like grains.
 
Instant pancake mis has a two year shelf life. I eat enough pancakes that having six boxes in the closet isn't a waste for me. When mutant San Fransiscan Cannibals descend on us I could eat pancakes every 3rd day for a year on just what's in the closet.

I know , breakfast every 3rd day ... But I also eat scrambled eggs , and have some dehydrated eggs - try WalMart.com for door delivery .... Costa canned potatoes and scrambled eggs every third day ...

Mylar packed steel cut oats .... And on down the line.

Then think about lunch. ... Tuna , peanut butter , ...

Before you know it you'll have a combination of medium and long term storage that will last a lot of months without eating everything from a can full of salt.
 
No Salt Added tuna has a good shelf life, but is often more expensive than regular water/oil high-sodium canned tuna. OTOH, low-salt peanut butter is just disgusting.

If you have a ready source of eggs, you can stock the other ingredients to make your own pancake mix; separately (e.g. leavening not mixed into flour) the shelf life should be even longer than the Aunt Jemima stuff.
 
Back when Walmart still carried Mountain House meals, I used to grab a couple every time I stopped in. They switched over to another brand (Coleman?) with weird varieties, so I stopped buying them.

The other day I picked up a few Wise meals in the clearance area at Tractor Supply. They were a few bucks each for 2 serving pouches.

I've eaten the stuff camping, and tried a few at the house. I wouldn't want to live off it for too long, but it's food and it's lightweight.

I definitely agree that you are better off stocking up on things you eat. I always have about a month's supply of pasta and sauce in one cupboard because that's what I feed the kids when I don't have time to cook anything better.
 
Christian said:
Well I just busted my freeze dried food cherry and ordered a variety of the Mountain House offerings with a gift card I got for Xmas, nothing to do now but wait.
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My suggestion: don't just buy it and store it and call it a day. You've got to try the stuff. Being honest, some of it sucks really badly and yes if the apocalypse comes crappy food is better than not having food, but the "eat what you store and store what you eat" approach will serve you best. Of course, YMMV. For us, $2k of freeze dried foods we've never tasted or prepared was not a good use of funds but a few hundred dollars worth of stuff we absolutely DO use definitely was.
 
I absolutely intend to eat it all to see what's worth buying again. Even if I may not like something I'll finish it off as I hate wasting food, my family and friends have always wondered how I never get sick after consuming those questionable refrigerator finds. [laugh] As for the regular shopping I always buy plenty of extra whenever I see things on sale, especially when it hits the 10 for $10 sales I buy those items by the case at the supermarket. The usual suspects, pasta, rice(we're quite fond of the Near East choices), tuna, tomato product(Pastene), chicken/beef stock(the boxed variety), soup. If I had my way the basement would be looking like a mini supermarket.

Quick question, does anyone have any input on freeze dried eggs? I saw the guy from Thrive using some in one of their videos and was wondering if they were any good.
 
Christian said:
Quick question, does anyone have any input on freeze dried eggs? I saw the guy from Thrive using some in one of their videos and was wondering if they were any good.
Click to expand...

Get chickens. I've never tried the freeze dried eggs, but always have a steady supply from my chix.
 
Some advice for you. Stuff packaged in mylar is NOT rodent proof! You need keep this stuff sealed in a very tight container like a bucket. I had a grab and go kit that came in a tote (efoods) and mice figured a way in even with the top shut (discovered it today while on a cleaning binge). If you go with totes, I suggest using plastic packing tape to seal the lid shut at a minimum. From this point on, I only buy #10 cans or put the mylar packets into homer buckets.

Lesson learned.
 
The only powdered eggs we've found worth a damn are made by Ova Easy. You can get by the pouch on Amazon to try them, but texture and taste are as close to fresh eggs as you can get. The wife loves them, and she's pretty damned picky [smile] FWIW, we didn't care for the Thrive eggs at all but like their other stuff quite a bit.
 
GomerPile said:
Some advice for you. Stuff packaged in mylar is NOT rodent proof! You need keep this stuff sealed in a very tight container like a bucket. I had a grab and go kit that came in a tote (efoods) and mice figured a way in even with the top shut (discovered it today while on a cleaning binge). If you go with totes, I suggest using plastic packing tape to seal the lid shut at a minimum. From this point on, I only buy #10 cans or put the mylar packets into homer buckets.

Lesson learned.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the heads up. I'm using the plastic storage bins and didn't consider mice could get in.
The cats generally keep the mouse population under control but I'm sure some could get through.
 
Speaking of rodents - I had several cases of Ramen and Cup-O-Noodles on a shelf in my basement. I kept hearing rustling noises from over in that corner, so I set a few snap traps. I caught 12 mice in about 4 days, and found that each 'Cup' had a hole in the top and was empty. On the bright side, this probably amounted to a total of $12 worth of food.

If you store that stuff, make sure it is in a more solid container.
 
derek said:
Get chickens. I've never tried the freeze dried eggs, but always have a steady supply from my chix.
Click to expand...

I think our chickens went on strike lol. 5 chickens and no eggs. I might be better off eating them, then eating their food. [wink]
 

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