MREs

All -

Apologies if this has been brought up before - i searched and could not find anything. Provident metals has some MREs available - a 1 year supply is about $6500 for a family of 6. Are there other places to order this type of stuff? If so, where?

Thanks.

http://beprepared.com/
http://www.nitro-pak.com/

And for purchases of bulk stuff, you can contact thye LDS cannery nearest you, and they will sell you stuff at a very reasonable cost.
https://www.lds.org/topics/food-storage?lang=eng

For survival seeds:
http://www.internet-grocer.net/seeds.htm

http://www.anniesheirloomseeds.com/

those are good sites ancona put up. I've read some pretty amazing accounts of changes to peoples bowel habits after eating only MRE's for a while.

Jay said:

those are good sites ancona put up. I've read some pretty amazing accounts of changes to peoples bowel habits after eating only MRE's for a while.

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Having a lot of experience eating MREs, the only big difference I noticed is that they will provide a lot more fiber content than the typical American is used to consuming. If you already try to have a high fiber diet, like myself, then you may not notice any issues.
$.02

I eat one now and then as part of my food stash rotation. No bad effects for me, but that's one large meal for a small guy, so sometimes I take all day to completely consume all the little goodies. Not gourmet, but not that bad either.

I get mine usually at gun shows, where I know the guy. There are at least a few "flavors" out there - full, real MRE's - precisely what the military uses, a flavor that is "just like it" - no, it's not as good, and entree-only, which we got a bunch of pre y2k, and have been using the meal trays since for reloading materials.

The new ones don't have the trays, but do have the heaters (the real ones). You might not need all that, the new (military) ones are soup to nuts, with a lot of accessories. I thought we got a better deal buying entree-only versions.

I was a little surprised at seeing commercial stuff like granola or energy bars or even M&Ms repackaged in these. Yum. Even cappuccino mix in some. But I don't really need eating tools, a mint, extra this and that (wet and dry wipes? unknown "seasoning") - in every meal, as they provide.

Warning, the Mexican dishes are hot as can be, and come with something even hotter to add if you can stand it. Be careful! I'm talking "use gloves to handle" hot here, not mere warmth.

benjamen said:

Having a lot of experience eating MREs, the only big difference I noticed is that they will provide a lot more fiber content than the typical American is used to consuming. If you already try to have a high fiber diet, like myself, then you may not notice any issues.
$.02

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Benjamen, I "know" you and don't know someone anonymous on the net, so I'll go with your experience. Think I'll get some to try myself...

ancona,

fantastic. thank you very much.

Any information you can provide about what I should look for? I am looking for 2 years supply for 4 people. Long shelf life obviously preferred. This is new to me, no idea the do's and don'ts here.

Go for freeze dried.......not MRE's. That's.......free advice. I get mine from Mountain House, but......you know........that's just my opinion.

ancona said:

Go for freeze dried.......not MRE's. That's.......free advice. I get mine from Mountain House, but......you know........that's just my opinion.

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Fair enough.

Why freeze dried and not MREs?

Freeze dried lasts for 25 years and tastes pretty good as well. MRE's have a defined shelf life, and if stored in a relatively warm environment, such that you would expect post SHTF, they only last for a few years. Go to Rawles' site and check out his charts. Some folks like to have a mix of stuff, and indeed I doo have a couple of cases of MRE's myself, but the bulk of my long term preps are 5 gallon buckets lined with mylar and filled with grains and beans, along with a pile of mountain house entrees.

DCFusor said:

but that's one large meal for a small guy, so sometimes I take all day to completely consume all the little goodies.

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When I was in the military, we were only allowed to eat one a day, anyway. They contained 3,000 calories.

ancona said:

Freeze dried lasts for 25 years and tastes pretty good as well. MRE's have a defined shelf life, and if stored in a relatively warm environment, such that you would expect post SHTF, they only last for a few years. Go to Rawles' site and check out his charts. Some folks like to have a mix of stuff, and indeed I doo have a couple of cases of MRE's myself, but the bulk of my long term preps are 5 gallon buckets lined with mylar and filled with grains and beans, along with a pile of mountain house entrees.

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me too with the long term stuff. No MREs (yet) but now I want to try one. HaHa I'll bet that sounds funny to someone who was in the service....

How's the freeze dried meat? Not a vegan myself. I like the real deal. And yes, MRE's pack in the calories as you'd expect - with the load they expect an active duty warfighter to dance around with, they need them.

My thought was to use the MRE stuff to pour over something really cheap, like rice or beans or pasta. That way, one feeds a family, and it's probably healthier anyway.
That would be in an emergency. For now, I just eat one once in awhile so there will be room to replace it with newer stuff next time I get some.

I prefer the rotation scheme to something where you just hope for long shelf life. When my brother died, I opened some of those freeze dried cans of food he'd bought, and they sucked - we let the cleaning people have them. I'm not sure the brand, as the mice in his shed had eaten most of the labels off....things like that happen with "set and forget" plans.

DCFusor said:

How's the freeze dried meat? Not a vegan myself. I like the real deal. And yes, MRE's pack in the calories as you'd expect - with the load they expect an active duty warfighter to dance around with, they need them.

My thought was to use the MRE stuff to pour over something really cheap, like rice or beans or pasta. That way, one feeds a family, and it's probably healthier anyway.
That would be in an emergency. For now, I just eat one once in awhile so there will be room to replace it with newer stuff next time I get some.

I prefer the rotation scheme to something where you just hope for long shelf life. When my brother died, I opened some of those freeze dried cans of food he'd bought, and they sucked - we let the cleaning people have them. I'm not sure the brand, as the mice in his shed had eaten most of the labels off....things like that happen with "set and forget" plans.

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been there done that.... you might consider getting only items you eat anyway. Don't know why i bought 25 pounds powdered milk when we don't drink powdered milk, ditto 300 pounds pinto beans (I work in produce and get them almost for nothing)when we've only eaten pinto beans a couple of times in twenty years (my family is asian) note; pinto beans go rancid cause of the oils in them but you can grind them into flour and add boiling water and save the hassle of cooking them (refried beans).

Yeah - if I had to actually live on some of that "prepper" food, I'd probably be sick awhile at first. I just keep a stock of the same stuff I eat anyway and rotate.
But all this talk of MRE's made me want one, so I fished out out of my stash, menu 18, beef pattie (from the B group, don't know how many groups there are. Some pictures:

This is how you know you've got the real deal - these aren't legally for sale.
And here's what's in this one:


The little white pack at the upper left has lemon ice tea mix, two mints, salt, a wet wipe, and a dry wipe.
In the boxes are the pattie, and a serving of "mexican style macaroni and cheese.
The brown packets contain:
"Cheese filled cracker, pepperoni pizza flavor"
"Beverage powder, lemon lime" (I assume this is the one they gave you the hot beverage bag for)
"Cheese spread with bacon"
"BBQ Sauce"
Two packs "Wheat snack bread", which I guess is the bun for this.
No matches in this particular one, or coffee, but some of them have both.

It would take me awhile to add up all the calories in this one, but 3000 doesn't sound far off if you actually eat all that.

The ones sold as "just like" the official ones aren't anything like this, your mileage will really vary on those. Once this stuff gets back to room temp (it was almost frozen in my storage) I'm going to have a go at eating it.

blend it, MRE smoothie

DC,
The freeze dried meat is pretty awesome when reconstituted. You will need to add some fat in the form of oil, butter or bacon grease, but it is not bad at all. I bought some freeze dried chicken and freeze dried pork chops, and both were very good. The texture was a little tough, quite like over cooked meat would be, but in a grid-down, no supplies getting sort of situation, they would be a God-send.

For a few bucks you can buy a can of meat and try it out. The ground beef is excellent for chili mac. straight up chili, hamburger helper and other stuff that needs ground beef. It is also the fattiest [is fattiest even a fucking word??] of all the meat I tried.