# Mountain House 25 Year Shelf Life



## JessPrep (Mar 22, 2014)

I was doing some research last night on space saving/time saving long term food storage options, as I plan to build up a stash and not touch it for a while. I know that I realistically won't have time to properly store and rotate a large food storage supply as I work full time 40+ hours a week and also study at University.

I came across a brand called Mountain House, no doubt most of you have heard of it. I see that they have pots of 10 meals with all round nutritional value that have a 25 year shelf life. However they are PRICEY!! I mean REALLY PRICEY! 

Does anyone know of a similar but cheaper brand? Or is mountain house worth the money? 

P.S - I do plan to build up storage with other items, but plan to make something like mountain house the base of my food storage.


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

The best thing you can do is buy extra of what you normally use. Buy a little extra and then cycle through it. Every time you shop, get a little more than you would normally. This way you slowly build up your food storage and you know you have food you like. That is the least expensive way to build up your food supply. You can also get extra when it's on sale. The biggest part of my supply of food has been done in this manner.

Dehydrated and Freeze Dried food is expensive. Who knows if you will even like what you have bought. Occasionally I will find something that sounds good but when you try it well, not so much.

Someone recently posted that they bought this:

388 Total Servings of Gluten Free Vegetable Stew Blend Emergency Food Bucket

That is made by Augason Farms. So I went to their website and found a #10 can to try.

Soups & Sauces

When the can arrived, my wife made soup using this as part of the ingredients. It turns out this is pretty decent. That may not always be the case.


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## dsdmmat (Nov 9, 2012)

I agree with Inceptor, I try to buy 5 dollars worth of extra supplies each time I go grocery shopping for the house. I do have 3 months worth of the Wise brand of the same stuff the OP is asking about for additional food security, but a majority of my supplies are stuff we use on a regular basis. My wife used to crab at me because we didn't have the space for the extra stuff I bought so I added more cabinets to the kitchen.


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Check out the ingredient label on the long term storage foods like Mountain House, Wise Foods (Wise Food Storage - Emergency, Long Term, and Camping Meals) and Auguson as Inceptor suggested.

Most are pretty high in sodium and other not so good things, However, as a easy to store product I think it is a good bet. Our goal is everyday sustainability but I'll risk OPSEC and let you know that we've hedged our bets with some containers of Wise Foods and Mountain House products.

The fruits are actually pretty good tasting and they have a couple of entrees that I would eat on a regular basis but some of it is downright difficult to swallow.


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

Don't get me wrong, I do have some long term storage stuff. I have canned butter, canned meat and a few other things. I bought these after I had built up my regular food storage.

The cheaper way takes some work but the mylar storage is much cheaper and will give you up to 25 years storage to boot.


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

Like most of the people who have posted, I have built up a supply of extra food and rotate it as it gets near best used dates. I also have some Wise and Mountain House foods tucked away because of low weight. After doing research into the packaging methods used by the big name manufacturers, I opted to go to a nitrogen purge plus the oxygen absorber when packaging my own dry foods in aluminized Mylar bags.


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## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

I suggest that you buy one package of Mountain House or Wise and taste it first before you sink a bunch of money into it. We have some, but it will definitely be a last resort.


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## MrsInor (Apr 15, 2013)

What everyone above said. We have a few Mountain House packages. A couple in our get home bags. We also have a bucket or two of similar stuff in case we need to bug out.

I suggest you save up and get a good dehydrator and make up your own meals. Ton of videos out there on how to do so. Cheaper and you learn a new skill.


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

DMrsInor, do you dehydrate your own vegies or do you dehydrate canned stuff?


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## MrsInor (Apr 15, 2013)

Both. When the canned veggies get close to the best by or whatever date I dehydrate them. Also frozen veggies when they are on sale. Same with fruit. (Mandarin oranges take a long time to dehydrate.) Most fresh fruit I can. Tooo cold to pressure can right now since I have to use the camp stove outside or in the garage. Soon though, I hope. "They" say a season called spring is coming.


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## Oddcaliber (Feb 17, 2014)

I have stocked up on some Mountain House as well. Got the pouches. It's not bad and its real food. But do try it before you buy it in bulk.


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

MrsInor said:


> Both. When the canned veggies get close to the best by or whatever date I dehydrate them. Also frozen veggies when they are on sale. Same with fruit. (Mandarin oranges take a long time to dehydrate.) Most fresh fruit I can. Tooo cold to pressure can right now since I have to use the camp stove outside or in the garage. Soon though, I hope. "They" say a season called spring is coming.


I wish you an early spring, Oh crap, it's already spring, isn't it. In all sincerity, moving to AZ from ILLannoyed has been great. My only real concern is water storage.


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## MrsInor (Apr 15, 2013)

We plan to join you eventually. Know anyone who wants to buy a house in MN?


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

Yeah, I feel your pain.


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## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

inceptor said:


> Yeah, I feel your pain.
> 
> View attachment 4793


You have joined Slippy in the horrible human being department.


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## rice paddy daddy (Jul 17, 2012)

Inor said:


> You have joined Slippy in the horrible human being department.


Well, looking at my Radio Shack indoor/outdoor thermometer at this very moment it is 75.6 degrees in the shade out on the loading dock. 
But unfortunately there is a cold blast coming down from somewhere up by Minnesota and the low tomorrow morning will be around 32.
Springtime in North Florida - if you don't like the weather, don't worry, it will change in the next ten minutes.


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## Rob Roy (Nov 6, 2013)

Food

How To Dry Foods

A few options


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

MrsInor said:


> We plan to join you eventually. Know anyone who wants to buy a house in MN?


Not really. I was surprised as hell when we put our house up for sale (40 miles west of Chicago). We got an acceptable offer in under 10 days.


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## Casie (Feb 26, 2014)

I get my Mountain House #10 cans from Emergency Essentials ( Emergency Essentials - Food Storage Emergency Preparedness Emergency Kits ).

We like:
Chili Mac
Beef stew
New Orleans Rice With Shrimp And Ham
Raspberry Crumble
Lasagna
Beef Stroganoff
Granola With Milk And Blueberries
Spaghetti With Meat Sauce

We didn't like the texture of the freeze dried chicken items, and we have fresh eggs so we didn't try any of the egg breakfasts. The rest we have not tried yet. We also rotate our regular grocery store canned foods, but there is only so much you can rotate! So we decided to start testing the longer storage foods. Lots to choose from now a days!

We keep cans stored dry and cool and to keep them as fresh as possible.


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

Inor said:


> You have joined Slippy in the horrible human being department.


Thank you, thank you very much.


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## Maine-Marine (Mar 7, 2014)

I like the LDS on line store for #10 cans of wheat, rice, and a few other things... plus they ship everything you order for $3

Home Storage - store.lds.org


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## inceptor (Nov 19, 2012)

Maine-Marine said:


> I like the LDS on line store for #10 cans of wheat, rice, and a few other things... plus they ship everything you order for $3
> 
> Home Storage - store.lds.org


I actually got their starter kit. It was really cheap and I liked what was in it.


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## Inor (Mar 22, 2013)

Maine-Marine said:


> I like the LDS on line store for #10 cans of wheat, rice, and a few other things... plus they ship everything you order for $3
> 
> Home Storage - store.lds.org


The LDS online store is awesome! Great prices, good quality and VERY nice folks to deal with if there is a problem with the order.


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