Mountain House Freeze Dried Foods
 

Large Sarge pointed this stuff out to me.

http://saratogatradingcompany.com/fr...ied_foods.html

I have a couple of MREs, but not enough to last me very long. I was thinking about ordering some Mountain House products. Has anyone here tried this stuff before? Is it any good? Are there any specific "meals" I should avoid? Favorites? I have been able to find very few reviews for these products on the web. Some were negative, especially pertaining to the scrambled eggs. Any feedback from people here who have tried the stuff would be appreciated.

Thanks :smile:

Re: Mountain House Freeze Dried Foods
 

The best thig to do is go to your local sporting goods store and buy 1 small package of each menu you think you might like and try it out. We all like different foods.

If you find one you and your family like ok, buy a case of the big cans of that.

Honeyville has good prices on a small variety of freeze dried fruits and veggies too. Plus you can vacuum seal up lots of beans for staple protein very inexpensively. 25 and 50 pound bags of beans are ridiculously cheap right now. Getting a year of beans and rice or corn on hand would not set you back much at all. If on a tight budget, do it a little each month.

Then add the fancier freeze dried canned to last forever stuff after you have basic security nailed, if you like some of the flavors. I consider the spaghetti about as good as Chef Boyardee canned spaghetti, the beef stew and stroganoff a couple of rungs below Dinty Moore (canned goods that you rotatte are good to have extra of too. We do that with tuna, canned ham, chili, beef stew, etc).

And we keep extra butter and cheese in the fridge, and vacuum sealed a lot of sugar and salt too. But the long life can products are, to me, for variety. You pay a lot for only so so tasting calories. I got some long life canned chocolate pudding mix too. Treats cheer people up. If you've been eating mostly beans and oatmeal then Mt House Stroganoff with chocolate pudding mix dessert might feel like a feast.

Re: Mountain House Freeze Dried Foods
 

if you have your mind set on mountain house then pm JC Refuge or go to his website http://www.safecastle.net/ he offers a club type of a deal, you pay him to get into some sort of a club and et stuff cheaper than you can elsewhere. never dealt with him, sometimes found stuff cheaper or equal price from a hugemart sportsstore. Then again he is just some guy and not a mega corp. even if you are paying just as much.

Re: Mountain House Freeze Dried Foods
 

I really like the Beef Stroganoff and the Chicken & Rice. As a matter of fact, I'm having a tough time not eating them. The Beef Stew is a bit on the bland side. I don't care for the pre-cooked eggs.

The other day I read a review about MH porkchops. On a scale of 1 to 10, they received a 10.

Buy a sampler pack and try them out before you start ordering cases of them.

My old Kelty pack and a duffle bag are loaded with pro-packs incase I have to E&E.

Re: Mountain House Freeze Dried Foods
 

Ghost recon

Are the Pro Packs the small vacuum packed ones?

I like the Beef Straugonoff(sp) Beware the Sausage Pattie its a little different. I have had many and keep my Bug out food bag loaded with them.

Bug out bag has MREs but for the long haul Ill carry the food bag.

E-A

Re: Mountain House Freeze Dried Foods
 

the pro packs are a little smaller because they are vacume packed. They are just right for me because they yield 20oz of food. I think their single serving packs are only 16oz.

Re: Mountain House Freeze Dried Foods
 

I prefer the plain freeze-dried ingredients in #10 (paint-sized) cans sold by both Mountain House and Provident Pantry. An array of things such as dried ground beef, shredded chicken, colby cheese, and chopped vegetables could yield quite a bit more flexibility than the pre-fabricated meals, especially when backed up by a large stash of rice, pasta, and beans, and masa mix. The pre-prepared meals that I have tried have an "artificial" taste that gets kind gross half-way through a serving, although I keep a few on hand for a bug-out and would be mighty grateful for them in a SHTF scenario. BTW, the shelf life of #10 cans is vastly superior to the pouches--estimated to be 25-30 years by some sources.

Re: Mountain House Freeze Dried Foods
 

I really, really like the MH spaghetti best. I could eat that stuff for a month solid and never tire of the taste. It does give me some gas though (like pinto beans). I am surprised at how much I like the taste of the stuff. I bought packages at Bass Pro Shops and Dick's before I bought the pallet at Safecastle. You may find it cheaper somewhere else? I paid almost $100 a case (on sale). Good luck.

Re: Mountain House Freeze Dried Foods
 

I feel the same on the Beef Sroganoff and the Rice & Chicken. I could easily eat them for weeks on end. I suspect that those two products will all be eaten up before tshtf. That's ok I got a heck of a deal on them. I'll just buy more...

Re: Mountain House Freeze Dried Foods
 

I loved their lasagna for about 20 minutes, then the modified food starch started WWIII in my head!

It's imperative that everyone you might be providing for try any storage food brand before you buy it in bulk. The amount of modified food starch in Mountain House is extremely high, far higher than what you find in regular grocery store food. The stuff can wreck havoc on people's heads and digestive systems. If anyone in your family gets migraines, they almost certainly won't be able to eat Mountain House. Try to talk your loved ones into eating the stuff for a couple days in a row, as that usually gives the best indicator of whether or not sensitive digestive systems will be able to handle a steady diet of the stuff. There are long-term storage alternatives to the flavor-enhancer-laden MH. AlpineAire makes prepared meals similar to MH (expensive and less flavorful than the flavor-enhanced MH) and Provident Pantry and others can individual food ingredients for long-term storage (avoid the broccoli, potato products, and soups, if you can't eat modified food starch).

Incidently, if someone in your family can't eat MH, they won't be able to eat most MREs, either, as they, too, have a lot of modified food starch in them. Some of the side dishes and desserts don't, however. Long Life Food Depot usually has excellent ingredient lists posted on their MRE products. I plan to live on their pound cakes after TSHTF!

Re: Mountain House Freeze Dried Foods
 

Wow, thanks for all the great feedback! I can see I'm going to have to try a few things for myself and do a little bit of research before I drop a lot of FIAT on food preps. As far as flavor, I guess I could always buy lots of granulated garlic, salt, pepper, and the like.

Thanks again for the input :)

Re: Mountain House Freeze Dried Foods
 

I'm not familiar with the companies mentioned here, but I can say I have been satisfied doing business with Walton Feed in Idaho. I think their products are pretty good. Don't think they have a lot in the meat dept., but they do have a wide variety of dried foods. Also,they sell oxygen absorbers to store food in smaller containers for a very long lasting storage capability.

Re: Mountain House Freeze Dried Foods
 

Emergency Essentials at beprepared.com is a good company to do business with, too. They run a lot of specials on #10 cans by the case.

Re: Mountain House Freeze Dried Foods
 

Like the spaghetti and beef stoganoff. not fond of the eggs and bacon mix but it was the first one I tried and I might have added too much water. I have ordered from safecastle. Now I just got to figure out how to cook the stuff in the cans. normally I am cooking in the bag. you can use a lot of energy boiling water. it's amazing I never gave much thought before to the amount of energy we use to do various tasks. man we have been a blessed country - too bad we are on the other side of the bell curve.

Re: Mountain House Freeze Dried Foods
 

Sort of repeated over for new people. We don't mind...

Buying is a matter of what you mean to do with it. If you expect to be in your house, you're probably better off buying two of what you usually buy at the store, so long as it will keep. You know how to cook it, and you know you respond well to it. In that vein, you should probably shift your diet over to these long-goods and away from frozen dinners and such. You'll save a bundle as well, because buying staples in bulk is very cheap.

I can't see much reason to buy Mountain House. It takes up far less space, but space isn't an issue for me. It keeps a long time but the nutritional value is low. You'd have more food value in beans, oats, corn, sprouts, etc, at far less cost. It'd work for vegetables which are hard to keep, but in that case, you should choose sprouts and purebred garden seeds instead because MH LOOKS like vegetables, but have 10% of the nutrition. That's not knocking them, highly-processed food inevitably break the light molecules like vitamins and enzymes. MH also doesn't help you have 10 dozen mason jars either, which you'd like to have in a long emergency, whereas canned home vegetable would.

MH WOULD be good it you anticipated having to move a fair number of people quick and light. Or if you had a very limited space and long wait time. I'm thinking an RV-trip with the suddenly-extended family of 8, or maybe one's hunting acres where there's no house and you wish to bury a locker filled with #10 cans. Wouldn't be my ideal, but it would buy you time to get real food.

MH is too expensive per meal compared to, say, Hormel cans. Or 40lb of cornmeal (6gal) costs $20. ONE can of Mountain House costs $20. You'd better REALLY like the light weight and pre-mixing of Freeze Dried because over a horizon, that means instead of buying enough for 6 months, you can only afford food for one month. MREs are at $6US a meal. They are a better choice as well for some things, due to high-calorie content, etc. Good for work, good for winter.

That said, it certainly has it's place, but Freeze Dried to me is nutritionally like eating air and I don't move well on it. As a pre-packaged alternative, you could try

http://www.maryjanesfarm.com/pfoshop/dept.asp?dept_id=1

and for a modest premium get gourmet, non-MSG/Food starch foods in the same light weight/pre-packaged units.

Still, your Costco or restaurant supply is going to be the best source of supplies.

Think about it for a bit. Then we'll move to REAL food, which is viable seeds, vines, trees, and perennials that will keep you alive and healthy indefinitely, while having enough cuttings to share with your neighbors so they don't visit you in a bad mood. Food doesn't come from a store. Cut out the middle man. A single semi-dwarf apple or nut tree can produce several bushels a year for 15 years and costs $20. A single quart of maize can produce enough grain for a year. Which would you rather store, the quart you can grow, or the 80lbs of grain it produces? Which is more likely to be stolen, a espalier by the garage and endive in the cellar, or $500 of #10 cans?

To survive a potential change, you need to think in new ways, not just stock up supplies to live in the old way. The old way wasn't working or it wouldn't have fallen in the first place.

TS

En-Dive in!

Re: Mountain House Freeze Dried Foods
 

Just tried the MH Granola w/ Milk and Blueberries. Not bad in a pinch. Also one that dosen't require heating the food, just add water. 500 calories a bit much but I'm in taste testing mode, 8g fiber:wink: FWIW

Re: Mountain House Freeze Dried Foods
 

when i was in the army we spent an entire summer in the Mojave desert playing war. i ended up doing two month long rotations and ate nothing but MREs and the shelf-stable milk for 2 months.

thus, DogFarm sticks to MREs as he actually finds them quite tasty. heavy, but tasty.

Re: Mountain House Freeze Dried Foods
 

Just want to correct the url here. The one you have there is for our eBay store (do check the perfect feedback).

However, our buyers club is called Safecastle Royal. Here's our food page, including links to our Mountain House listings: http://safecastleroyal.com/category.sc?categoryId=33

For a one-time, $19 lifetime membership fee, you get 20% off every listed price in the store there ... and free shipping.