Dehydrated Foods...?

imported
#1

Where is a good place to buy dehydrated foods in large quantites, but for good prices?

Thanks,
~sETH

Seth

#2

I’m sure there are places to buy dehydrated foods in bulk. However, most thru-hikers would advise buying as you go at the stores along the way. The reason being is that tastes and quantity of food change as you go along. Hiker boxes are full of food packages that hikers thought they would want, but changed their mind when they picked up the maildrop. Plus, it can be a pain to get to the post office when it is open. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it becomes one. Stores have much better hours than the post office.

Peaks

#3

I don’t use any prehike mail drops, just free form ones, usually for home made dehydrated fruits and vegitables and paperbacks. I have used and loved Mountain House purchased in 2 or 3 pound cans. It comes to about $2 per large meal. I repackage before I go, call up my support person a few days before I get to a town with a convenient PO. Trail towns often have the same food and I have become sick of Ramon and Mac and Cheese. Mountain House has a web site, check it out.

Blue Jay

#4

My subject line is a book about drying foods, and it is a lot of fun (so Sarah tells me) to do. We have dried a lot, and will mail them to ourselves. Many hikers don’t want to be at the mercy of the town foods, so do mail drops, bounce boxes, or whatever Blue means as “free form” -I’m assuming that means mailing drops from the trail once you’re on it. Town resupply is (almost) always the same stuff. I don’t like it. It’s like grocery-shopping in a gas station (usally that’s exactly what it is). It all depends on how much you care about what goes into your body. If you don’t mind MSG’s, empty calories, unknown chemicals/fillers, and food that’s as nutritious as the package it comes in, then by all means buy as you hike. It’s easy, and works to cost the same after the postage for maildrops is factored in. There are some places with good food, like Hot Springs (ON the trail). Look at Lynn Wheldon’s ‘How to Hike the AT’ video to actually see the shelves in the towns.

THA WOOKIE

#5

We dried our own and loved it. If we did it again we would dry ours again. We had 12 different meals and each had about 3 or 4 variances each. No MSG and chems for us. I have high blood presure and the sodium content in packaged foods would have put me somewhere around 3,000% above my daily limit. My only recommendation is to only mail 3 or 4 days max except maybe the smokeys or the 100 mile wilderness. Other than those two areas we never carried more than 4 days. We would buy somethings along the way to fill in on the days we need to. We always bought our lunch along the trail. Peanut butter, bagels, flour tortillias, bread, hard cheese, summer sausage, etc. Do you thing and have a great hike.

Papa Smurf

#6

How many mail-drops did you send out with all that dried food? Is there a place you got these recipies, or could you send me the recipies for the 12 different meals? If so, i’ll post my e-mail. Were all 12 meals good? I’m interested in drying my own food for my thru-hike and am very interested in variety.

C-Giddy

#7

I’d also love to have your recipes, Papa Smurf. :oh

Jonna

#8

You don’t need recipes, just dry the foods that you usually like. You may want to keep the meat separate, as it does not keep as long. I have kept nonmeat items over a year in the refrigerator with no loss of taste. Again it helps to have a support person mail them as you call them, that way you won’t end up like Peak.

Blue Jay

#9

How long does dehydrated ground beef last? Anybody have any experience with that? What about pasta sause leathers–what is a good way to reconstitute them?

right on

#10

I usually use buffalo, not ground beef, but a low fat content version of beef should go at least 6 months holding its taste. Nutritionaly I have no idea. With pasta sauce you may want to use a prehydration bottle. Place the sauce in water in the morning or at a noon break. I usually forget and it still works although depending upon how hungry I am it does not always get rehydrated completely. It still tastes better than ramon or mac&cheese

Blue Jay

#11

Some tips. Cut everything up really small. Increase the surface area to volume ratio. Freeze dehydrated meals and they will keep up to a year. Use a vacuum sealer and they will keep much longer. I typically get five meals per batch (full dehydrater). I vacuum seal 3 and baggie 2. Use the baggies first, vacuum seal bags are expensive (although reusable). I typically put four oz. no matter the meal as dinner, me 185 lbs hearty eater, section hiker, not thru. If buying a dehydrater, get one with a temperature gauge. It’s worth the extra bucks.

alligator