Posted on 04/22/2011 10:35:49 PM PDT by Kartographer
People freaked out about surviving world disasters and economic meltdown have made a run on freeze-dried food in the past month. As a result, Albany-based Oregon Freeze Dry Inc. — the country's largest supplier of freeze-dried camp food — won't accept any new orders through the 2011 camping season.
The company produces the widely sold Mountain House line of food pouches popular among everyone from overnight wilderness backpackers to Pacific Crest Trail devotees.
Oregon Freeze Dry officials say they have never seen this level of consumer panic over emergency preparedness in the company's 48-year history.
In the industry, the emergency-preparedness crowds are called "preppers," and they literally are taking food out of the mouths of hikers nationwide.
(Excerpt) Read more at mailtribune.com ...
Interesting. Thanks for the link.
Get dipped. The US government, specifically DHS and FEMA, are the ones causing shortages, not preppers. Hikers should have stocked up before now.
Have ate lots of freeze-dried food hiking. Number one, it’s expensive. Add to that, the “Serves 2” suggestion is not based on reality. While they are sometimes tasty, and convenient, the freeze drying process doesn’t work well with calorie dense foods, so they tend to be very lean entrees, which is exactly the opposite wanted. Adding a pat or two of dairy butter improves the flavor quite a bit. For about the same price as one FD entree one can get an entire MRE and three times the calories.
Freeze dried really only makes sense for 10 day wilderness treks. For shorter jaunts fresh food like what is eaten at home is fine, tastes better, less expensive by far and won’t make you fart like a bull. For all that, if someone wants to buy FD food, eBay has plenty, along with a jillion other outdoor related websites. It’s just Mountain House itself that isnt selling at their site afaik.
Freeze dried food in pouch form is more expensive on a per serving basis than other forms. An entree costs 6-7 bucks and an MRE costs around $9 depending on the version. MREs are also full of chemicals whereas most freeze dried is fairly natural.
Freeze dried in bulk is cheaper especially if you get the basic food item and not the prepared meals.
Yes you can buy stuff on Ebay if you don’t mind not knowing how fresh something is or if its been stored properly. There are several other sources besides Mtn House.
I’m a Prepper, you’re a Prepper, everybody gonna be a Prepper too.
You need a rocket stove. I believe that CCC has a link for those.
FWIW, Walmart sells MH Spaghetti with Meat sauce (2 serving portion) for $4.88.
Less than a Big Mac and fries and lasts about a decade.
Whenever I have some extra dollars in my pocket, I will pick one up.
You hit on a very shocking fact right there, that many are living paycheck to paycheck.
I’ve heard estimates as high as 70% of folks.
That’s downright scary.
It means we are only maybe ten days away from total societal Night of the Living Dead replay if the right (WRONG!!!!) things happen.
I’ve chosen to take a mixture of methods as my approach. Everytime we go to the store we get at least one extra item and try to stock up when we have the cash. Our plan is to have extra canned foods for about 3 months.
We also have a few MREs, enough for about a week. Working towards a month of the freeze dried pouches. However the pouches are lite on calories, averaging only about 300 per serving. One top of that we plan a good supply of rice, beans and other grains. Then the bulk freeze dried foods to balance those out.
It takes more food than most people realize. We try to count calories and meals and find the cost is pretty much the same as our normal food budget. If we want to store a months food then it takes a months budget. We eat most of what we store so very little goes to waste.
We tested our selves once by only eating what was on our shelf. I thought we had a good 1-2 months but the shelf was bare in 2 weeks.
Well, it’s not gonna play well in Peoria when working class people who are truly struggling to keep a roof over their heads and fill their tanks SO THEY CAN GO TO WORK keep getting to stand in line at the supermarket behind the folks who are buying high-end stuff with their food stamps.
Their behinds big as a barn door jiggling with a mocking “I deserve it!!” attitude.
Hey, I’m all for helping people sometimes. And I was alive during the beginnings of the Great Society stuff.
It was always meant to be “A hand UP”, not “A hand OUT!!”
Not gonna play well at all.
And a case here in Washington in the last week or so points things out.
Some dude, about 50ish, was sentenced to a year in jail.
What did he do?
He sent life threatening emails to Gregoire.
Why did he do it?
Because the state had notified him they were going to CUT HIS WELFARE BENEFITS!!
Nah, I have quite a few cases of MRE that average $5 per, delivered. They have gone up quite a bit in recent months, however. I bought ten cases @ $8.50 per delivered, so you’re kinda right. These are the latest issue, and are “fresh”, though. When I can get them for less than $5 it’s a no brainer. Also have a lot of freeze-dried and canned goods, but the FD stuff is too pricey. Nice and light though!
A $5 MRE is probably 3-4 years old before you get it or they are MRE lite.
No, I spent many years in the .mil, so I know the “real deal”.
IF they are stored correctly they last a long time. For nostalgia’s sake I bought a half dozen of 1987 brown bag specials - and ate them last month for lunches.
Everything was just fine (well, as “fine” as they are to begin with) with the exception of the Kool-aid beverage base, it was no longer free flowing powder. Even so, the kool-aid would still be usable if necessary, just a bit of hassle.
“No, I spent many years in the .mil, so I know the “real deal”.”
Then you should know military MREs are not available on the commercial market.
If you’re eating 24 year old MREs then I won’t be taking any advice on any subject from you.
“Then you should know military MREs are not available on the commercial market”
Really? LOL!!
You really need to get out more. Check out eBay sometime, even.
Yeah buy an MRE off ebay, if its military issue then its stolen. Has it been stored properly? How old is it?
really
No, they haven’t been stolen. Next?
How old are they?
Well the military is smart. Really smart. They utilize a top-secret technology, and _print the date and year_ on every one! It’s amazing!
LOL!!!
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