Kit UP MRE Alternative: MaryJaneFarms
I’m a big fan of NOT eating MRE’s when I don’t have to. I literally lived off them for six months in Afghanistan and horse traded with many a foreigner (very few were willing to trade) for a meal upgrade. Something about those nasty little things that get to you after a while.
Kit Up MRE Replacement: Mountain House Meals
Anyway, I’m a BIG fan of the freeze dried options that are available at most camping stores. The nice thing is that if it’s winter you can just boil snow without packing additional water to boil the meal. Two favorites of mine are the Mountain House and MaryJane Farms. Although Mountain House puts their meals in a vacuum compressed bag that’s ready to rock right off the shelf, Mary Janes packs flat and I think I prefer the latter for that reason. They have some very tasty selections and I suggest you try them out in the field or on your next foray into the woods.
FYI-also excellent survival food and they weigh much less than a case of MRE’s. So when “occupy something” comes to your neighborhood you’ll be ready to high tail it out of there.
Brandon out.
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{ 36 comments… read them below or add one }
Most of the mountain house meals are pretty good, and I’ve yet to try any MJM, but I’m looking forward to the curry. Avoid the stroganoff. I don’t mind eating mushrooms if its eating for effect, but something about those mushrooms went beyond my texture issues and just completely put me off my appetite. YMMV, of course. The chicken teriyaki is pretty good if you doctor it with Tobasco soy sauce, but I like anything if Tobasco is involved.
Always have a good supply of Tabasco on hand!
My CA team was attached to the Brits during the Iraq invasion… only thing that got me through the British rations were the little MRE Tobasco bottles we had stockpiled!
got 3 months worth of the mtn house #10 cans (supposed to have a 25-30 year shelf life) and 2 waterbobs for when the shtf, just in case anyways, figure thats a long enough time to hide out then i’ll just pilfer off the dead
Brandon:
A little off topic, but do you have any suggestions other than a chest rig or battle belt to carry spare ammo (7.62X39 or 5.56) in a situation where we would have to grab a bug out bag and our loved ones? Just preparing in case the OWL’s decide to “get crazy with the cheese whiz.” Thanks!
Battle belt is definitely out. In all honesty the chest rig is a great option because it allows you to carry a pack as well (which would be my other suggestion). Also remember that there’s a reason we “drill” and “practice”. When the sh** hits the fan you have actually practiced for it. Just remember to have some sort of plan rehearsed even if it’s just you doing the practice….-BW
Have you thought about a grab-and-sling type bag? The Ten Speed Gear one looks pretty interesting.
I meant like bandoleer carry systems. One of the smaller Maxpedition Versapacks or something similar.
1) Not many have the discretionary income to stock up on meals that cost 3X the going price of cans.
2) Canned foods may very well survive the buyer. Better to figure out how to get purified water right where you are, hiding out in 23*temps overnight in February isn’t going to be your two-year-olds favorite game.
3) The only group to actively play at TEOTWAWKI are those with no social obligations. And that is a very small minority of young males with no girlfriend or family. Fantasy indeed.
Unfortunately, if or when **** hits the fan, it is the people like you that go around and demand food, supplies and help from the people with foresight that did prepare (aka New Orleans Katrina looters). There’s an old saying in the military “Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it”.
I lived off the MaryJanes series in Somalia and I can say they are awesome. Great things about them:
1) light, and pack skinny/flat
2) container is also pot (just pour boiling water into container, no extra cookware needed).
3) they have a lot of selections that are higher in protein than others
4) they taste good. even if you dont have time or hot water to cook properly, the spices make it more tolerable to just choke down
By the way, 2 really awesome things to accompany these meals are the:
flameless oven
http://www.rei.com/product/703589/mountain-house-mountain-oven
water boiler coil
http://www.amazon.com/Lewis-N-Clark-Immersion-Size/dp/B001U0PA7M
Great stuff J. -BW
mountain house has an INSANE amount of sodium. i think the beef stew has well over 100% of the sodium your body requires (based on that 2,000 calorie diet plan).
+1 on avoiding the stroganoff; those mushrooms are nasty. additionally avoid the ice cream sandwich. it is hard and dry and really is nothing at all like an ice cream sandwich.
haven’t tried the maryjane, but it sounds like a good alternative to the mtn house. jet boil works great for the freeze dried just add water meals.
That’s the thing I like about the MJ is they are pretty healthly with organic ingredients…
Thanks for your concern. Mountain House wants to help you live a long, healthy and adventurous life. Our new freeze-dried meals have less than 300mg of sodium & we think you’d love them. Send us an email to *******@******.*** for a sample w/ your name, email and address. Feel free to out check us out on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MountainHouse and Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/mtnhouse (@mtnhouse).
Straight peanut butter. Nuff said.
PS- Why all the hate on the occupiers? Big reason I like this blog is the focus on kit and not on politics. And lord knows there’s a lotta vets out there with them.
No hate here. Just trying to throw in some humor. -BW
Lotta vets? Check again. The numbers went from thousands to “hundreds”, uh then look at the pictures in context with the crowd. Anyone can make a couple dozen nuts look like hundreds with the right photo angle. Google Chirs Simmance and fake ocuupy wall street vets to educate yourself. I’ve got family in NYC, the vets are the same panhandlers that “say” they are vets and belonged to A BN, 3rd CO and if they tell you anything else “it’s classified”.
Brandon – Might be better to stick to zombies. They are apolitical. Then again they feed on the productive, nothing they say makes sense and you can only get rid of them with a head shot.
for more comedy about zombies… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWpU8sX10_4
hehehe.. feed off the productive, nothing they say makes sense and I’d love to get rid of them with a headshot.. Nope, not talking about zombies..
Thank god those “occupy” skells didn’t have these meals, otherwise they would have never left Times SQ after all the 5 star chefs refused to volunteer to cook anymore because they were tired of serving the homeless of NYC that were showing up and could actually use a free meal…
Love the Mtn House meals… I’ve also got a “just in case” store of them at the house. The weight savings alone over MRE’s are worth it.
do like the NVA or grunts. Fill a sock with dried rice, your good for two weeks, stick your canned goods with high protien in a sock, throw the plum pudding, ham/lima beans, fuitcake,crackers, cookies..away
I like it…..
eh. I like that whole progress thing. living off of fermented sock rice doesn’t sound like much of a win to me.
I like the minimalism but agreed on the fermentation…arrggh…
+1
You can never beat good old commercial civilian camping food.LOL
This prove to me the old C rations where still not that bad. MREs aren’t bad either. Just sucks when not cooked.
Brandon’s reaction towards the zom-, oops, I mean Occupiers reminds me of reading about American POWs in Vietnam laughing their heads off at videos of the “Make Love, Not War” protestors; real guys shaking their heads at a group that has quite a few no-goods…..
After reading this I remembered I haven’t had food since 6:45am. PEANUT BUTTER HERE I COME!!
I haven’t had MJ’s before – but I have a backpacking trip coming up so now I have a good excuse. Thanks!
I like MTH it’s made just down the road. I would like MTH to sale a complete cook kit that had the right amount of water for each pouch. Just use the water pouches that are in life boat survival kits so if SHTF you can just go. I know the water adds weight but if you have G.O.D quick you don’t have to worrie about finding clean water. Plus if have already have water for your kits it is just extra that you could trade with. Think about it you could store these kits and don’t worry about caring extra water or finding safe water to use it would be in the kit already to go. I added the survival water packs to my GO BAG so I had water no mater what happens plus I am not big on the taste of bleach or water purification tabs and don’t like the taste in my food. Plus if you have small kids they might not like the taste too. Just my 2 cents
Brandon – great subject along with the “go” bag.
Constipation.
Poorly rehydrated food will cause it. You have to remember that if you’ve never eaten these meals before. Constipation can cause serious problems. Make sure you use enough water, and that it sits in the bag long enough- in fact I will use slightly more than recommended to make sure. The water also needs to be at a “rolling boil” not just hot- that will help the process. I would not, unless you are out doing an expedition or long range military work, plan to rely solely on dehydrated meals for too long. Plan to supplement with some fresh or at least quality canned goods that will help you digest and work better. Even for extended climbing/alpine trips it can be worth the weight of one or two cans a week.
Vitamins.
Dehydrated meals won’t have enough, they will have sodium, but not the requisite potassium to deal with it. Bring some multivitamins, they will make a huge difference to your general health.
A lot of the comments I have read on here talk about things like sodium content, texture and so forth. The truth is when you are hungry enough you will eat the south end out of a north bound donkey if that is all you can get.
Some things to consider, why do certain foods contain high concentrations of sodium? Water follows sodium, so if a high concentration of sodium is in a product, water will stay within your circulating system longer, keeping you hydrated longer. Caffeine is a diuretic, so if you use your water supply to make coffee, remember the ratio is 2:1. Two cups of water for every one cup of coffee to replace loss. That doesn’t mean drink twice as much coffee, it means for one cup of coffee, you now need to drink two cups of water as well.
Things like acidophilus pills will help with constipation, but not if you’re dehydrated. The first thing that shuts down is kidneys, then gut to conserve water. This starts a cascade of problems that end with your hospitalization or death. If your urine is not a light straw color or clear, you are dehydrated, period. Most people in America live in this state and the estimates that I have read project your average american is two liters dehydrated at any given point in time during the day.\
If you’re curious and want to try this out, go get creatinine supplements make sure you’re dehydrated (medium to dark yellow and foul smelling should be enough) then start taking the supplement, within a few days your heart will not be in such good shape. How do you fix it? Hydrate.
If you are preparing for a situation where you may need to rely on your own survivability, look at a complete multivitamin, acidophilus pills, and oral replacement salts or salt tabs. You do not want to use specific replacement pills, i.e. Potassium ever in that situation.
If you are looking at long term packing higher sodium is not a bad thing. High levels of sodium will help your body retain water longer and are only a problem if you have high blood pressure or it runs in the family. As soon as you have reliable water supply, cook the food, rinse the food, then spice without salt this will kill the taste some, but also cut the sodium way down.
Just my two cents, hope you enjoyed.
Constipation can disable you! The minimum of 64 oz of water a day should be doubled by those engaged in physical activity if not more! If you aren’t taking a dump regularly and peeing amber you need a lot more water!
Just so everyone knows – Long Range Patrol Meals are manufactured by the same company that produces MTN House Meals. They are available everywhere downrange. This is round 2 for me here in Afghanistan and I’ve always made sure to find the supply guy and order my team a couple pallets. Most people don’t realize this and with the abundance of camp stoves (jet boil and such) packing a couple LRP meals is definitely better than old MREs.
Been trying to find out if any of you”old timers” (Viet Nam Era) would possibly remember the name or manufactor of the dehydrated Rations that the SF working with the” Nungs” down in the delta. I have looking for these for about six mo.s any help would be deeply appriciated.
Andy