Freeze Dried Backpack Meals

Yay, I have finally saved enough to leave Moab Utah where I live and come to SA for 6 months, October-March. I will return here for 6 months and plan to turn around and do it again. On my third trip I intend to stay. Of course many things must fall into place to stay. For those who don't know, Moab is on the Colorado River where it exits the Rockies, it is true desert and has Arches and Canyonlands NPs. For June-July I will do 2x 3 week hikes in the Weminuche wilderness, the biggest wilderness in the 48 states and a block of mountains the extent of the Alps, the in august-september I will climb 14ers (peaks over 14,000ft tall, of which Colorado has 56-60).

I will be testing Z-packs tarp-tents, their Hexamids which weigh less than a pound (yes, 400g). I am confident that even a berg howler will not shred these sail-cloth tarps. I do have a bathtub floor (separate but clips in) and the tarp is a single piece very taught, using one of my carbon hiking poles as a vertical pole.

I contacted three of the big four freeze dried backpacking food manufacturers, asking if they wanted an SA rep. Backpackers Pantry said no, though no is not no. Mountain House and Wise foods said yes.

In my research I found that Outdoor Warehouse CT and Outward Ventures (Claremont) sell --->

Back Country Cuisine from NZ www.backcountrycuisine.co.nz

Q1: Anyone use their products? If not, why not?
Q2: Quality?
Q3: Would SAns be interested in a variety from the US?

This requires getting an import permit and if there is no interest I'll not waste my time.

I use the locally available meals from NZ but only when I am wanting to cover a bit distance and want to travel light. It is certainly easier than carrying and cooking food (usually pasta) and some of the flavours are great.

Pros:
Light weight
Tasty

Cons:
Expensive (roughly double the price of cooking for myself).

I would certainly use them more often if they were priced lower.

I think they sell pretty well in SA because all the shops stock them and there is decent variety.
I personally don't use them (for religious reasons, and because of the cost).
I imagine a larger choice would definitely be welcomed.

On another note, we're very far behind here in terms of new materials, eg things mad from silnylon and cuben fire. We don't get any of that here - probably because it would be too expensive for the market and the market is too small.

joshilewis wrote: I personally don't use them (for religious reasons)

Would that be a requirement of being Kosher? I imagine the odds of there being an American company that produces Kosher is quite good.

Personally I am still looking for a good food option, I don't like freeze dried myself (cost, taste and the health aspect) - although they freeze dried food I stole from ASL above Gray's Pass was rather nice

ghaznavid wrote:

joshilewis wrote: I personally don't use them (for religious reasons)

Would that be a requirement of being Kosher?

Yup

ghaznavid wrote: I imagine the odds of there being an American company that produces Kosher is quite good.

I live in hope

ghaznavid wrote: Personally I am still looking for a good food option, I don't like freeze dried myself (cost, taste and the health aspect)

I'm still happy with bulgur/couscous/pasta

joshilewis wrote:

ghaznavid wrote: I imagine the odds of there being an American company that produces Kosher is quite good.

I live in hope

I just checked Oregon Freeze Dry's website (www.ofd.com/food/gci/), they make Mountain House Freeze Dry food. They say they have a Kosher line of food.

@bbharim: can you confirm this?

But anyway, on a side note - dried mince is easy to make. Just cook it like you would for supper. Lay it out on a baking tray, put it in the oven (with the door partially open) and put the oven on 40 degrees for 5-6 hours. When hiking just add hot water

Even though BCC is expensive, I use their meals because they are so easy to prepare.
Bearing in mind that we don't have anything else with which to compare, I think their quality is good but the portions should be bigger and (IMHO) on longer hikes (more than 3 days) it does start tasting like dog food!
I would definitely try something else.
BTW Cape Union Mart - www.capeunionmart.co.za - also supplies BCC

ghaznavid wrote: I just checked Oregon Freeze Dry's website (www.ofd.com/food/gci/), they make Mountain House Freeze Dry food. They say they have a Kosher line of food.

Can you send me a link?

ghaznavid wrote: But anyway, on a side note - dried mince is easy to make. Just cook it like you would for supper. Lay it out on a baking tray, put it in the oven (with the door partially open) and put the oven on 40 degrees for 5-6 hours. When hiking just add hot water

I've read a fair amount about dehydrating my own food, especially vegetables, but I haven't got round to doing it yet, and frankly I'm not sure its worth the effort for anything less than 5 days or so. Re mince, its easy enough to take biltong (even though its not as light).

joshilewis wrote: Can you send me a link?

ghaznavid wrote: www.ofd.com/food/gci/

joshilewis wrote: I've read a fair amount about dehydrating my own food, especially vegetables, but I haven't got round to doing it yet, and frankly I'm not sure its worth the effort for anything less than 5 days or so. Re mince, its easy enough to take biltong (even though its not as light).

I agree, I first came across this on GT last year (2 or 3 people in the group did this) - there it's definitely worth it.

For Gray's a week ago I actually took pre-cooked mince. It wasn't heavy at all - was also really nice, I might take mince and rolls up some time in spring/summer

JSchofield wrote: on longer hikes (more than 3 days) it does start tasting like dog food!

Have you tried BCC's plain mince? It tastes and smells a lot like pet mince even when you haven't been on BCC food for a few days.

My tent mate on GT kicked me out of the tent (in the snow for one of them) on the days I [tried to] eat that stuff on GT last year