Here's my rant:

They are selling 30 day dehydrated food supplies for $350, plus SH. That seems excessive to me for what you actually get.

A personalized 30 day food strategy would depend on several things such as, how many people, what kind of storage is available, and whether you plan to carry it or shelter in place.

My opinion is that dehydrated food is best for backpacking, but dry food is best for a 30 day home cache.

Standard food packaging has come a long way in the past few years. Look at tuna for example. The heavy foil packaging keeps it fresh for 2 to 3 years at a cost of 89 cents. There are many dry foods that you can buy off the grocery store shelf that are cheap, nutritious, and store well. Rice, beans, pasta, coffee, honey, saltine crackers, peanut butter, dry milk are some examples. There are also endless 'just add water and boil' packets lining the shelves. If your local grocery store is a small one, it's worth the trip to a large one to take advantage of the increased selection.

We had discussions last winter on canned meat on this forum, and many of us like it. Canned Turkey Spam for example, is cheap, stores for years, and it tastes pretty good out of the can, pan fried or cubed with rice or beans.

Something to consider: 'Dry'vs.'Dehydrated' For way less money than dehydrated food, you can set yourself up with water containers (30 to 60 gallons total...buy 7 gallon size if you want to transport), and 5 or 6 - 5 gallon sealable buckets. In those you can put dry rice, beans, pasta, flour, rolled oats, etc in their original containers, and stack them in a basement or closet. Buy canned meat such as Spam, tuna, ham, and chunk chicken.(skip the canned bacon). Fill out with a half dozen big plastic jars of peanut butter, and 2 or 3 gallons of canola oil (replaces butter). Of course, you can customize this as you like, as the choices are almost endless if you give it some thought.

This strategy requires some vigilance, but can actually save some money on staple foods. When we get low in the kitchen pantry, we raid the cache, rotating and eating the oldest of the stored food. Because we have a cache, we rarely pay full price for these foods. We replenish it in quantity when it goes on sale at the grocery store.

I'm with you on that rant Except,The canola oil!Canola oil Does NOT replace Butter!Ever try canola oil on a toasted English muffin,or corn on the cob,or a bowl of porridge,in place of Butter?Try packitgourmet.com, they have powdered butter,of which taste's a Whole World Better than Canola oil! That site has a lot of powdered alternatives,of which will store,for Long periods of Time,No Affiliation with the above site,just a happy consumer!

If I recall mountain House is Freeze Dried ( Vacuum sublimation, Lyophilization ) a form of dehydration.

why does it cost so much
Lee

Like you said, the quality of today's dry/canned goods negates the need to buy tons of freeze dried food. It may not store as long but its cheaper to replace and you can rotate it much more easily. It would take me a year to eat a #10 can of freeze dried green beans for example. One canned oddity I do love though is canned butter. Good stuff.

You make a good point, and I don't argue that. I didn't mean to imply that canola (or any) oil tastes as good as butter. However, I have been to Italian restaurants that serve warm bread with seasoned olive oil for dipping instead of butter. It's pretty good.

My point was only that in a survival situation, oil is easy to store in quantity, nutritous, and serves a similar purpose as butter in cooking. You can substitue oil for butter in almost any survival recipe with acceptable results.

LED, I have no experience with canned butter, so I will buy a can online and give it a try.

My point exactly. Why would I pay $6 plus $5 shipping and/or sales tax for a bag containing 121 grams of freeze dried 'turkey tetrazini" a concoction I would probably never eat at a restaurant anyway? They advertise it as two 270 calorie servings. Are you kidding me? In a survival situation, you would have to eat TEN of those meals (5 bags@$6 + shipping@$5 = $35) to reach the minimum daily calorie requirements for men. Maybe your wife could get by on only 4 bags...add $24 to the cost of this daily feast.

Assuming that you expect to get roughly half of your MDR from this meal you have dinner for two eaten out of a bag with a total of 2700 calories for for only $30.00!!!

How about this alternative from my food cache;

Byrd's Survival Turkey 'Tetrazini' for two

One can Turkey Spam, cubed.................$3.50
one can mixed vegetables...................$1.00
one pound cooked pasta, your choice........$0.75
dash each; salt, onion and garlic powder...$0.10
2 tablespoons olive (or any)oil............$0.75
Got canned mushrooms? Toss em in...........$0.75

Total calories..............................2600
Total cost for two......................$6.85

This meal is best presented with a green and orange garnish on a blue, fine-china plate lightly warmed, however an inverted Frisbee works good too.

Byrd - bottom line - you're right. Now imagine you're someone with a bunch of money and very lazy and/or very busy - order up some mountain house and a bunch of bottled water and you at least think you're all set.

Your plan would result in better food at a lower price, sure, but this is more of a marketing scheme than a survival one I think.

R

The canola oil part brought fear to my tastebuds,It is probably the most tasteless, of the common food type oils,though healthy as it is!The trattoria factor,ie-Warm bread with Olive oil is Absolutely Delicious!Red Feather Brand canned butter,& Canned cheese,Made/produced in Australia is Outstanding stuff,However... Once the can is opened,Storage become's tricky,Should the power be out,At least here in the Sun-belt region anyhow.Mountain House is Just that,It belongs in a House in the mountains,for Last Ditch nourishment,at Best,possibly excepting the Freeze-dried Neopolitan Gelato,of course!

on this Springs two week solo canoe trip one third of the meals were MH dinner in a bag.MRE meat packs and some sort of side another third or so and freeze dry chicken and rice or noodle sides another third.the freeze dry meals only advantage was that it's easy to make and called for just a couple cups of boiling water.there were times when after a hard day just boiling water and dumping it in a bag was a major effort.this was a vacation,if you think long days on stormy lakes and hard slogs into remote backwaters over nasty portages rates as a vacation.the point is that you may find yourself in a survival situation that is not far removed from that and a fast,easy on the fuel,meal could make things feel somewhat better.wet,lost,alone,hurt and heating water over a scrap of wood and dumping it in a bag and getting Orange Chicken could make you ready to face another day.cooking is for camp outs,not survival.

For long term prep storage I tend to go dry, but I certainly find a place for dehydrated. Face it, rice and dried beans ain't got nothing on MH Beef Stew.