I am looking for a supply of dehydrated vegetables - In Europe such things are commonplace, and not very expensive - Here in the US I can only find one supplier, and they charge very much more than I would expect, for minimal quantities of product. Does anyone know of a supplier that provides dehydrated product, at reasonable price, in bulk quantity?
Mylash
In the olden days when REI (Recreational Equipment Incorporated) was about a half step removed from a hippie commune (it was a co-op) they had good prices on bulk dehydrated foods (as well as backpacking and mountaineering supplies of all types.) Now that they are more of an upscale outdoorsish boutique catering to yuppie larva I'm not sure what the situation is but it is worth looking into. You might want to check with Campmor too.
To a large degree freeze dried technology has supplanted dehydration as the food preservation methodology of choice, at least in the camping mountaineering world. Freeze dried foods are for the most part superior to dehydrated.
http://www.rei.com
http://www.campmor.com
http://beprepared.com is one of a plethora of "preparedness" vendors
You didn't say what your purpose was and it is hard to give well directed advice if the requirements are unknown. If you are interested in disaster preparedness, you should also look into MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) which can be had in single quantities or multiple servings (squad meals) from various sources. They have a storaage life of something like 5-7 years and are decent chow.
My previous personal observation of folks who stockpiled dehydrated food disliked it so much they wouldn't eat enough of it during "normal" times to rotate the stock. They ended up with garages full of outdated stuff they had to eventually dispose of. MRE and freeze dried are pretty tasty.
I recall one time when we were out in the desert looking for the "Lost Dutchman's Mine" when I prepared freeze dried porkchops for the first time. Now there was a treat. A couple days walk from civilization, drinking water we strained the "little swimming critters" out of, purified and then mixed with Wyler's fruit drink mix to camoflage the taste but we had pan fried porkchops all around and a fair bottle of wine I had packed in as a special treat. For non-packers: You don't usually backpack things like wine since it is a heavy weight penalty.
I soaked the chops to reconstitute them using a solution made from a "flavor pack" similar to that in ramen noodles except It was probably freeze dried pig blood or similar. Anyway after proper reconstitution they were fried as if fresh. MREs are a lot less hassle to fix and taste pretty decent, especially if you are hungry and no one is shooting at you.
A Google search on dehydrated food showed lots of promise.
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
One could purchase a dehydrator and make one's own dehydrated product. It is not hard to do.
My biggest wish is to find dehydrated beer that is platable.
Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Platable huh? Most folks would prefer palatable (at least in the lower 48.) Sierra club used to sell case lots of dehydrated water in 12 oz cans. That would be a start... just add dehydrated grain, malt, barley, hopps...
[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
I read, write and sometimes spell at perhaps the grade three level on good days. On the bad days I recall something about not being able to fit into grade two desks in grade two. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Egon
Ya know, freeze dried wine might be a real possibility. Get rid of all that water and carry a small bottle of PGA to add to the solids and water and voila! Should work fine with beer, too, if you also brought along a CO2 cartridge and some kind of carbonation device. If you're a Bud fan, you probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference!
Chuck
Thank you for the links, I will go search. I have a cupboard of MRE supplies, which I rotate every two years - I have to go to a supplier and pick my own of them, as I am a health nut who will not consume hydrogenated oils, or anything with them in. About half of the meals available as MRE contain such oils.
I am very used to consuming dehydrated veggies - I lived on them for years, prior to my arriving in the US. I will look into freeze dried supplies - most that I have seen have not been individual product, but ready made meals.
Mylash
Bud isn't beer!!
It may pass for a liquid but there ends the tale.
Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Egon, This critter may agree with you. I think Busch is a lower cost Bud derivitive.
Associated Press
Thursday, August 19, 2004
BAKER LAKE, Wash. -- Rain-eeeeer .... Bear? When state Fish and Wildlife agents recently found a black bear passed out on the lawn of Baker Lake Resort, there were some clues scattered nearby -- dozens of empty cans of Rainier Beer.
The bear apparently got into campers' coolers and used his claws and teeth to puncture the cans. And not just any cans.
"He drank the Rainier and wouldn't drink the Busch beer," said Lisa Broxson, bookkeeper at the campground and cabins resort east of Mount Baker.
Fish and Wildlife enforcement Sgt. Bill Heinck said the bear did try one can of Busch, but ignored the rest.
"He didn't like that (Busch) and consumed, as near as we can tell, about 36 cans of Rainier."
A wildlife agent tried to chase the bear from the campground but the animal just climbed a tree to sleep it off for another four hours. Agents finally herded the bear away, but it returned the next morning.
Agents then used a large, humane trap to capture it for relocation, baiting the trap with the usual: doughnuts, honey and, in this case, two open cans of Rainier. That did the trick.
"This is a new one on me," Heinck said. "I've known them to get into cans, but nothing like this. And it definitely had a preference."
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