Archive for the 'FRH flamless heaters for MRE' Category

Nov 10 2008

Wise Advice on Being Prepared for the Worst

Published by Kevin

Here is a great comment on being prepared from Tricia. We all learn from experience, and those who have experienced the worst are wisely the best prepared. Thanks for sharing, Tricia.

Hi, my husband and I have been building up a supply of food for about 8 years. After Hurricane Ivan hit and left us with nothing we had to start over. Red Cross didn’t get to us for over a week, when the military came in they passed out mre’s and water. We ate the mre’s and going on the second week I was having trouble getting them down. I found it very hard to continue eating them. When we finally found a home (8 mths later) we had been lucky enough to have a whole lot of space (we had to start over). We purchased freezed dried #10 canned ( Honeyville) of veggies (onion, carrot, celery, peas, corn, potato flakes) fruit (strawberries, apples, peaches, raspberries, blue berries, bananas), eggs (egg whites, egg yolks, whole egg). I filled the pantry with alot of things like Olives, large can chicken, tuna, #10 canned tomatoes, chili, all kinds of canned fruit, baked beans, our thing was we need enough for family, our animals and neighbors. We buy rice in 50lb bags and we vacuum seal gallon size amounts along with oxygen removers (this is very important), we do this for noodles, sugar, flour, grits, dry milk, etc… Next is the beans, every kind, beans go along way we put them in a quart size zippie bag and again we vacuum seal with oxygen removers. We stocked up on everything we use from bathroom supplies, toliet paper, toothbrushes, soap, shampoo, etc… to cases of canned bread (special order) & cases of canned butter (special order) I think you get the point. We vacuum seal everything but the cans. I have everything we need to enjoy our meals. I bought Bulk Foods (sams club & other stores that sell the #10 cans). We have the convenience of not needing to go shopping for 7-10 years. Since we lost everything we started over with furniture, we did not buy any end tables, etc.. instead we bought those nice big blue buckets with lids. I have stacked (2 high) 8 full containers behind my sofa (the fit was perfect just under the full length of the sofa) my husband cut a pcs of plywood to fit the top next I put a nice cover (sheet) over it and put some nick nacks on top so you don’t even know its there, did the same thing with the love seat and my end tables are containers. When our pantry was loaded and my laundry room cabinets where full I had to put the food some place. I also use a dehydrator for jerky and fruit (short term). For the question about how would we move this if we had to move no problem, because of Hurricane Ivan we had to purchase an RV (30′) it would be easy to move these items into the RV. Anything major hits us either by Mother nature or by Man we have our list, Animal & Things (every day items), Medication, Cleaning Supplies, Emerg 1st Aid, Emerg 1st Aid for snake bites, bathroom items, Lots of Bleach, Food, Water Purifiers (2), Rechargeable Batteries, Extra Gas, Elec & Duct Tape, Flash Lights & Lanterns, Propane, Propane Heater, RV and/or Tent & Supplies, Tools, Solar Panel, Camouflage Clothes & Nets, Generator, Oil/Gas, Candles, Matches, Batteries AA, AAA, D’s, C’s,
Extra Water Filters for Purifier, Entertainment (brd games, dice, cards etc…), Protection (ect….). We do expect the worse to happen and I have an evacuation plan list that we sent out to our close friends and family that is more detailed (a place to meet up, road maps that are marked and several ways to get where we need to go. Some people may think this is really bad but thats okay because there are a whole lot of people like us doing the same thing (food for thought).

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Published under Emergency Food, Emergency Kit, Emergency Preparedness Advice, Emergency Survival Kit, FRH flamless heaters for MRE, Freeze Dried Food, Hurricane Food Preparedness, MRE, Survival Food, Survival Food Reserves, Survival Kit, meals ready to eat

May 27 2008

Survival Food - Short and Long Term Planning

Published by Kevin

NOTE: Shipping lead times on Mountain House #10 cans of freeze dried have come down to just 2 to 4 weeks from previous 3 -7 weeks.

orders with #10 canned foods or units are taking 2 to 4 weeks to ship.

Freeze Dried Food CasesMRE Star Case of MRE

No one preparedness strategy will support all your food needs in a disaster.

While there are huge advantages freeze dried food gives as the survival food of choice, it is not the best in all situations. It is good planning to have a short term strategy and a long term strategy to be best prepared.

Below is a look at food preparedness strategies, starting with the long term.

Long Term Survival Food Strategy

Long term here refers to having a food supply that will last from 2 weeks to 3 months or more. Freeze dried food is best for these situations as it can be easily prepared but still have good taste close to the original food. It is important to not add stress to an already stressful situation with a poor tasting food supply.

Freeze dried food avoids this problem as your family can continue eating a healthy diet that has good taste as close to fresh as possible among all the other food options.

You may still want to prepare a herb or sprout garden kit to add a live food source to your reserve. Astronauts who have eaten freeze dried foods for extended periods have commented on how they relished live fresh food upon their return.

It will be important after a disaster to have as much time as possible available each day for other important activities. You can maximize your available time by not spending a lot of it preparing and cooking food.

Mountain House freeze dried food in #10 cans (which can store up to 25 years) have 8 to 10 servings each and will last up to 2 weeks once opened. #10 cans are an ideal strategy for the long term.

You will need a large enough space to store the light weight #10 cans of freeze dried food and also water containers. A freeze dried food supply for 3 months for a family of four can store in a space 3′ by 3′, by 4′ high. You will easily be able to transport this if need be in a van or pickup truck from a storage location to a place you will reside during a disaster. But if you want to be able to be mobile with this type of food supply you will need some type of RV.

Daily calorie intake for different freeze dried food packages varies. Planning 1500 calories a day would be the bare minimum for an adult, even for someone less active. 2100 to 2400 calories is recommended. If you want to plan for support of very active adults you may want to add extra meals to bring the daily total to 2900 calories per day. Small children 5 -9 years old will require about 700 - 800 calories per day.

A water supply of 3 months for a family of four would require is about 440 gallons or eight 55 gallon drums. This will provide a gallon of water each per day for 110 days. You can get food grade storage drums that will safely store water for 5 years. You may have plans for alternative supply of water in a long term situation and not require all eight of the drums.

Freeze Dried Food Reserves

55 gallon water container, 4 per package
Family Water Storage Package #2 (55 gal. size)<B> S&H Included

Short Term Survival Food Strategy

For initial disaster preparedness food supply, MRE (meals ready to eat) are a better choice. They do not require water to hydrate, they are truly ready. They can be heated in 10 minutes with “flameless ration heaters” a pouch that will heat up if you add a little water to it.

MRE’s are great if you want to spend as little time preparing and eating food as possible. This will especially be the case shortly after a disaster where you may need to travel or expend a lot of effort to recover get set up and be prepared for the long term.

One draw back of MREs is that many people are critical of the taste and some report difficulty digesting the food. You should try MRE with your family to make sure no one has a strong dislike for it. It will also be helpful for them to know what to expect in terms of food before a disaster.

The other drawback for MRE is that it is twice as expensive as freeze dried food per meal.

For these reasons I recommend planning MRE supply for a maximum of 3 weeks. After that you should be ready to use your long term freeze dried food supply regularly for you food needs. Since MRE lasts only 5-7 years you may want to safely plan to re-stock it ever 4 years when there is an election or when there is an Olympics to help you remember. You want to make sure at this time that the MRE agrees with everyone.

Keeping bottled water cases stocked up will help be prepared for the short term, however for longer than 2 weeks you really need to consider storage drums or some other alternative source to be prepared.

Finally it would be a good idea to keep a 72 hour kit with food bars or MRE in your car(s) so that you and your family will have supplies to support getting back together if you are separated when disaster strikes.

MRE (meals ready to eat) Food Reserves

72 hour survival kit
*Survival Kit, Executive 72 hr.<br><i>w/ Solar Radio Upgrade

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Published under 72 Hour Kit, Emergency Food, Emergency Preparedness Advice, FRH flamless heaters for MRE, Freeze Dried Food, MRE, MRE star, Mountain House, Survival Food, Survival Food Preparedness in the News, Survival Food Reserves, Survival Kit, food shortage, meals ready to eat, water storage

Feb 23 2008

MRE’s and Flameless Ration Heaters (FRH)

Published by Kevin

What is an FRH, a Flameless Ration Heater?

Convenience is the best advantage MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) has as a survival food.

This convenience is important in a crisis or mobile “on the go” situation. As the name implies MREs are really “ready to eat” no preparation or cooking required. However you may prefer to eat your main course hot as most people prefer a hot meal.

This is where MRE really shines. The military for years has included an FRH or Flameless Ration Heater with their MRE.

It is a plastic pouch that you can put your MRE into and heat in ten minutes by adding a little water.

How do Flameless Heaters work?

When iron rusts it is oxidizing, that is oxygen in the air is reacting with the metal to form an oxide commonly referred to as rust. This process produces heat. It is a slow process so you will not be able to fry an egg on the rusting hood of a car in the winter.

However if you have iron in the form of a fine grain powder and mix it with sodium, magnesium and then add a little water you have a fast reaction producing lots of heat in a small space. This will heat your MRE main course in 10 minutes.

It is important to note that you should not heat you MRE over an open flame as this will melt the container into the contents. The best way to heat MREs is with the flameless heaters.

Most distributors include the flameless heaters with the MRE they sell but check carefully that they are included. You can still eat MREs cold as they are already cooked and ready to eat, but there is nothing like a hot meal when you may be cold, wet, or injured. It will really lift the spirits of you and your family.

MRE Heater Paks (12 Heaters)

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Published under FRH flamless heaters for MRE, MRE