What is a realistic number as far as how many meals for adults you can get out of each 10# can of freeze dried MH/ Saratoga Farms?

Also, anything trick to storing them, or just keep them dry & a constant temp?

To survive with a reasonable level of activiity, you need a certain number of calories. Lets use the number 2000 as an adult average.

The average MH entree ranges from 2000-2500 calories per can (chipped beef is way higher), so each can is a little more then a days food.

Most people would be hard pressed to eat that much.  More realistically, you cut with rice, beans, bread, or pasta.  Everytime I try to live of MH, I loose weight.    In general I like the stuff, but I end up eating 500-1000 less calories then I normally do.  MREs don't have this "problem".  The low calories in MH is a result of the lack of fat.

Dry isn't important, as long as they don't rust.  Constant temp isn't important.  Keeping them cool is important

Country_Boy is correct,

and I will add another thing to keep in mind.
Most freeze dried foods are sold as 'Number of Servings", and a serving is NOT a meal.

For example:
When was the last time that you had eggs for breakfast and that is all you ate?

Most people (at least me) usually have 2 eggs, a couple of pieces of toast, couple of slices of bacon, glass of orange juice and coffee for breakfast.
So, I have a total of 4 servings, not counting the coffee.

Another consideration is what is in the food you are planning to eat.

A lot of people seem to like the Mountain House Beef Stew,
and I suppose you could eat it as a meal by itself, but lets look at the nutritional information.

A #10 Can of Mountain House Beef Stew says it contains 10 servings.
Each serving is 210 cal.

so, if you are looking stay on a 2,000cal/day diet, you would need to eat 3 servings for dinner.
That would give you 630cal. or about 1/3 of your daily goal.

However, you are also going to get 2,550 milligrams of sodium which is a lot.
A lot more than I want to consume in one meal.

ETA: and if you ate the whole can for a days worth of food - 2,100cal,
you also get a whopping 8,500 mg of sodium, or 4X the daily recommended amount.

On the note of lack of nutrition/calories/fat and sky high sodium intake, I have never bought a SINGLE MH or freeze dried food/meal. I have 1 free bag of some kind of pasta thing when Wise was giving away free samples. Once I looked at the sodium intake, I have never even tried it.

I did not realize the sodium was so high, the freeze dried food doesn't seem to have nearly as many chemicals as the wise long term food stores which to me is a plus.  Do you guys buy thing like rice/beans in bulk with mylar and oxygen absorbing packets instead?

Yes. But also have the "normal" things stocked up. For instance: I just bought 2 flats of stewed tomatoes. We use them, and they were on sale. Salt, sugar, wheat, powdered milk, evap milk, pasta sauce, mac-m-cheese for kiddo (he has to have organic that is hard to find). Spices, pasta, etc.

 














 

I am a little confused, Wise long term foods are mostly freeze dried.

Food storage is very personal and is situation specific.

We store the foods that we eat now. Our plan is not to change our diet if things go south for any reason.
We store a lot of rice and beans because we eat a lot of them now.
Also, oats, wheat berries, pasta.

Some of it we buy and pack ourselves in Mylar w/O2 absorbers, some if it we buy pre-packed for LTS.

What your really need to do is figure out what your goal is and create a plan.

You have to consider things like:
how many people, adults/children
how long do you want your supplies to last
any food allergies or special diet needs
etc.

The actual getting/storing of the food is easy, the first step is making a plan.

Freeze dried foods can have a place, but much like McDonalds,
I would not plan to eat them everyday.

ETA: We only store things we have tested and like.
Things like rice, beans, wheat, oats we use from our storage and replace as we go.

When I received a free sample from wise, they had a ton of chemicals listed in their ingredients.  I try to eat healthy/organic things day to day, so the idea of having months of food that is full of chemicals isn't great in my opinion.  The MH and saratoga farms 10# cans seem to have way less chemicals in them typically.

I will look into buying some bulk beans, rice, etc.

I think the sodium intake argument is overrated/ genetics>sodium.





Having said that, I store FD food, but Its only one part of my plan. I do bulk dehydrated, rotate wetpack, FD as well as garden.





just like anything it has its benefits and drawbacks, you need to account for each accordingly.

This is my thinking as well.  Keep the FD for when times get very bad, keep the rest in the rotation accordingly

my primary issue with Wise, other than the high sodium, is they don't use meat for protein.  They seem to use only TVP.

From a practical stand point, about 8 meals/servings per #10 can.  How do I know this?  When our Boy Scout Troop hikes into the back country, we usually plan 1 meal using MH #10 cans for the Scouts.  We plan for 8 boys/leaders per can.  We usually have other items to supplement that meal.  Fruit/Dessert/Extra Protein (Beef Log).  Depending on the Scout, 8 seems to work out as a good plan.  Some eat a little more, some less and once in a while we have extra and hungry teenager Scout finish off the remaining pretty quickly.

As pointed out, the Sodium Levels are pretty high.  But when you sweat out a lot of salts hiking, that helps to prevent some muscle cramps.   That's why we usually only plan one meal with MH.

Something to think about is we use the whole #10 at once.  So, we are not storing it for later use after being open.   If you are in a humid area, not sure how well it stores over the few day until you use it all up.  And do you like eating the same thing for a couple of days in a row..

That keeps getting repeated, even though several people have posted lists of their entrées that contain meat.

Sodium wise,
while I am not a nutritional expert, most all the freeze dried entrées I have ever tried taste extremely salty to me.
But then, so does McDonald's.
and while the wife and I go to McDonald's on occasion, I would not eat there 3 times day for an extended period.

My primary issue with Wise is their marketing.
They will advertise something like a bucket with 90 servings as enough food for 1 person for 30 days.
In reality, you would starve in those 30 days.
If you really talk to one of their reps, they admit they expect you to add things such as bread, beans, rice, etc to make a meal.

Freeze dried has a place, and while we do not store entrées,
we do store cans of freeze dried pre cooked pork sausage, hamburger & chicken chunks for "just in case"

We also store freeze dried fruits for the same reason, although my wife likes to use the freeze dried fruits in some of her recipes now.
- so, gotta replace them as we use them.

Primarily we store ingredients, not pre-packaged meals.

My plan is to extend the MH by also having cheap filler to eat like rice, noodles, and wheat berries.

With the MH alone on the suggested serving sizes, you will be fed. Being Fed is not the same as Not Being hungry. You have to find a way to maintain weight, especially since you'll likely be doing more physical activity and will be under more stress if you are eating from your stores.

Where are some good places to buy bulk amounts of canned veggies/ beans?    Anywhere that sells organic canned goods at a reasonable price?

I frequent Costco for organic stuff. They actually have a store brand that is organic with a lot of things. They have organic fresh produce, too. Been hard to find organic beans that are cheap enough, though.

 

ok thanks, I'll check out costco

I think that if we get to the place of having to use our long term prep, if it organic or not will be the last of our worries.

Also there is no one size fits all long term food. #10 cans of staples- rice, beans, wheat...; packs/ cans of Mt. House; MREs... They all have a place and a use.
One does replace the other- Mt. House is great in a back pack if you have to bug out, but they have a lot of salt and need water. MRE are quick, easy, but heavy. LDS #10 cans give the most cal. per $ but need time to cook.

A mix of all of these is best.

My only point of disagreement is in what the OP wants to store.
If he wants/needs organic for whatever reason, that is what he should store.

I often read posts that say say like,
"who cares what powdered milk tastes like, if/when the time come, you will drink it."

While this may be true,
one of the reasons we test everything we store is so we don't end up with stuff we do not like or does not work.

Another reason is we eat and rotate our storage now.
so I don't mind spending a little extra now to buy things we know and like.

The organic comment is more intended for things like rice and beans that I eat regularly, and will be rotating.  The 10# cans are intended as a long term storage item.

This so much so, I'll say it again.

My plan is to extend the MH by also having cheap filler to eat like rice.


Living on MH for longer than an camping trip would suck ass. MH to me is the flavoring to keep Rice and Beans from sucking so bad.


Layer your preps.

1) Short term stuffs; every thing in the fridge. Shelf life a few days to a week, produce, milk ect.
2) Short to med term stuffs; freezer and pantry. Shelf life few months to a year, frozen meat, canned fruits ect.
3) Med to Long term stuffs. To me this is something like MRE's. 5 year shelf life, some canned foods.
4) Long term stuffs. Rice and Beans flavored by MH foods. Shelf life 20+ years.

4 is SO cheep and easy. You can literally have hundreds of pounds (1000's of calories) of food put up for pounds on the dollar this way. The MH makes it so your willing to eat the stuff.

Different strokes, I suppose.

My plan is to not have any Mountain House because if you buy it,
you eventually will have to eat it or toss it.

Why toss it? It lasts for forever..... literally. Treat it like a one time insurance payment and forget about it until you need it.

This. A can of freeze dried food will last until it rusts through. Keep the can in good condition and the shelf life would be hundreds of years.

Because if we never need it, then my kids well get stuck throwing it out.
- Poetic justice, maybe, but I digress.

My wife and I inherited a house last year and spent weeks just clearing out the crap.
and spent what seemed like a small fortune to have a dumpster delivered and hauled off.

I specifically used the phrase 'Different Strokes" because I remember the TV show ("what might be right for you, might not be right for some").

We buy and store foods we eat now.
If we are unable to go to the store,
we can continue to eat the same foods we eat now (with small adjustments) for over a year.

Small adjustments like canned butter, canned bacon, FD and canned meats, FD and dehydrated vegetables to supplement the garden and home canned items.

We live in the country and have access to gardening, hunting, fresh water, etc.
Our plans would not work well for an apartment dweller.

To me, people who refer to rice and beans as filler, do not know how to cook.
-this is my opinion only, I am not trolling or trying to cause offense.

We eat beans and rice regularly, so it is a large prep item for us.
In fact, my wife just brought me a bowl of tortilla soup she made fresh today - and it has black beans in it.

Yesterday,
my wife cooked up a large pot of pinto beans and we had that with fresh made sopa (pasta shells, chicken chunks, tomatoes and I don't know what else.)
This morning, she made flour tortillas, made refried beans from last nights leftover beans, added some bacon and made tacos.


My point is:
Everyone plans differently and everyone thinks they have the best plan.
The truth is, everyone's situation is different and you must plan accordingly.