James:
I am considering making a sizable purchase from one of your advertisers.
I have enjoyed your site a great deal and would value your opinion. Would you
stock Mountain House foods for your own needs? I am not familiar with mountain
house foods. What is your opinion of their products? How do they compare to
MREs? I would like to get about a year of food put aside. I am sure you are
very busy, so a detailed response is not necessary, as I said though I value
your opinion. Thanks in advance, - K.
JWR Replies: Mountain House freeze dried foods are delicious
and have a very long shelf life. The individually-packaged
meals are the preferred foods for
most backpackers
because of their great taste and extremely light weight. But they do require
water to reconstitute. Canned freeze dried foods are ideal
for situations where you need to keep many weeks worth of food in a small space
for 10 + years, and
where you have water available. The advantage of MRE retort
packaged entrees is that they don't require water. However, they are both bulkier
and heavier
than freeze-dried. They also have
only a two to five year shelf life, depending on temperature. (See MRE
Information for details on MRE shelf life versus temperature.) If space
and weight are not an issue, then bulk air dried foods that require cooking
are far less expensive than freeze dried. (Such as five gallon buckets
of wheat,
rice, and beans.) It all depends on your circumstances. If you live at
your retreat full time or plan to "bug in", then having a majority
of bulk foods is obviously the way to go. But if you plan to "bug out" from
an urban or suburban home, then nothing beats freeze dried foods for weight,
space, and storage
life.
