feeze dried food
 

Anyone tried any of the products from this company, or do you use freeze-dried foods in general? I was thinking the refried beans and blueberries might be good. Or maybe some sweet potatoes.
I noticed that regular foods can add a lot of weight so I am looking at something lighter.

https://beprepared.com/

Never use dried foods when bike touring. Are you going to be in remote areas where you will not be able to purchase food on a regular basis? Even if I will be camping several miles away from the nearest town, I prefer to purchase and carry food on a daily basis. A whopping 5 lbs. of food is only about 2.3% of my body weight. When you factor in the weight of the bike, racks, panniers, water and all my other gear, the percentage drops even lower.

I agree with indy. Freeze dried meals are great for backpacking where I'll be away from stores for a week or more. But when bike touring I've never been away from all stores or cafes for more than a single day - and usually I plan my stops so I can stock up on food close by. So I carry a few emergency provisions (usually peanut butter, some jelly, and some bread) just in case all stores are closed but plan on buying food as needed locally along the way.

I have had great experiences with mountain house freeze dried foods.

As a supplement to DIY prep and calorie dense emergency foods(peanut butter, cheese, etc,)freeze dried MRE's could be an interesting, easy to fix diversion on a bike tour. I'd be more interested in the MRE's than anything else. Might just order some, take a few along on next tour.

The fortified oatmeal I always have qualifies as a MRE. Heck, not bad at all eaten dry. Sorta melts in the mouth.

As far as freeze dried meals...

1. They are expensive
2. They are not readily available along the way
3. They taste nasty

That said I am sometimes inclined to carry some freeze dried peas or freeze dried refried beans to supplement the stuff I manage to buy along the way. Veggies can be scarce in some places so I like having the peas along.

I used to carry an emergency meal in the form of a mountain house meal, but stopped doing even that.

Weight of regular food is usually not a huge issue if you tour where stores are frequently available. That is the case for just about all touring in the US or Europe. There is only occasionally a need to carry more than one day of food in either of those locales and more often than not the evening meal can be shopped for near where you stop for the day.

Many of my tours are in remote areas where frequent re-stocking isn't possible, so I carry 'mountain house' meals, fortified instant oatmeal, raisins, cheese, multi-grain crackers, energy bars, and peanut butter to fill the gaps. I also buy a few 'hero sandwiches' to help fill those gaps between stores.

I like the Mountain House brand food. They are made by Oregon Freeze Dry in Albany, OR. Of course I generally got paid to eat it. I would use them for something like bike packing, but for general touring I would just pick stuff up at grocery stores and bakeries and so on like people mentioned above.

I generally stay away from the "meal in a bag" style freeze-dried foods, as I also find them overpriced and not great tasting. But I usually carry some dehydrated beans with me on every tour. They don't taste great (though they taste strangely close to Taco Bell refried beans) but they get the job done, and are great for making tacos/burritos and the like. Fantastic Foods is the most common brand I've seen of beans and I've found them in regular grocery stores like Fred Meyer.

I also will use some dehydrated soups from time to time. Not that exciting, true but great as a backup "there are no stores near where I'm camping tonight" type of meal. I just keep it in a ziplock at the bottom of the bag and don't worry about it. Typically I find these soups in bulk bins, or use some type of "cup o' soup".

I generally try to stock up daily for my evening meal for the campground. Once in a while that isn't possible or just not easily done. For those somewhat rare occasions, I carry a couple of freeze dried Mountain House meals. They taste ok, but I prefer to heat up canned stuff or make something for myself.

Freeze dried has come a long way over the years. Originally, everything tasted like crap. Now not so much.

I have done the Mountain house and backpacker pantry items for other trips. There is something nice about just having to boil water and have a meal.

Then again, if I could pick up food along the way, I would. But then you have to have everything to cook the food, vs. boil water. Decisions decisions.

Couple Questions:

1. whats a normal touring "load" for you?
2. Where will you be touring?

I know personally when I tour, a fresh apple from the store or roadside stand can go along way. The bad thing about those foods is that they are bland and not very refreshing, for me at least. I always had an apple or orange with me for snacking on and I would stop at a store before setting up camp for supplies. I enjoy rice and beans when touring with plenty of ice cream as well. The freeze dried food would kinda take away from a bit of my experience since eating at local places is always fun, still amazes me how food changes regionally just in the United States let alone the world. Anyway, cheers.

That doesn't have to mean much stuff if you keep it simple. My cooking and eating kit has varied from 9 oz. to a bit under 12 oz. Also I find that I can cook real simple stuff almost as fast and easy as using freeze dried.

I normally carry most or all of my food when I tour because A: my tours are usually short, most are from two to four days and B: I try to avoid populated areas, so few or no stores or restaurants on the route. Carrying it all with me works better for those circumstances. Last fall, I did take a weekender that was entirely on pavement and had plenty of services along the way, so was able to get by without ever carrying more than just snacks and one or two bottles of water- I must admit it was nice to not tote along a bunch of supplies.

Never carried freeze dried stuff, mostly because it`s either special order for little packages or outrageously expensive for full meals. I`ve considered ordering a few big packages of freeze dried tidbits to split up and take along a little at a time, but never actually gotten around to it. My personal touring diet is mostly dry goods from the supermarket that I split and repackage at home into sizes that require 1 cup of hot water.

At the mention of MREs above, I have to say that there`s a LOT of extra crap in those bulky packages, so if you carry them, it`s probably best to open them before you leave and ditch the unwanted stuff. I remember joking with my buddies when I was in the service that it was tough to get all the garbage back into the bag that it all came out of after eating whatever was edible inside. That`s no exaggeration! Besides that, a lot of the food packs inside the big (and heavy) outer bag include the water- I prefer to carry water separately because its easier to find along the way.

I almost never leave home without at least one Mountain House meal just in case of the unexpected and it has saved me from going to bed hungry on more than one occasion.

The freeze dried stuff is very expensive on a per serving basis. I prefer to cook from scratch to control sodium and preservatives intake. I use a couple of books to base my meals on: The One Pan Gourmet and The Well-Fed Backpacker

Aaron :)

If by freeze dried you mean complete meals in sealed pouches then no, I do no use them for many of the reasons previously listed mainly cost and environmental impact of plastic packaging. I have found bulk sources for freeze dried black beans, curried lentils and a few other items at local food cooperatives. Excellent taste, light weight and much less expensive than the sealed packages. Also lighter to mail drop in packages to post office along the GDR for resupply on my ride.

+1.

Before committing to freeze dried meals, buy a few and try them out at home where you have other food to fall back on. LOL. I've eaten a lot of that stuff on Boy Scout High Adventure treks and there were only a few things I'd describe as "good". The rest was merely filling. I always felt sorry for the young men who had to finish everything they'd cooked (so nothing was left to attract bears). Depending on what we had for dinner, there could be a lot of leftovers.

Last year, touring on the Dempster Highway in the Yukon Territory, I needed the freeze-dried meals. On that road, a cyclist should have enough food for at least four days. Freeze-dried foods are the best option. However, if your road is not so isolated, then there are much cheaper ways to eat along the way. Get a little bit of food every day or two and replenish as you run low.

If you're going with freeze-dried meals, Mountain House is pretty decent stuff. It's not exactly gourmet dining, but it tastes pretty good, especially after a long day on the road.