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  1. #81
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    Thanks for taking the time to post all your great results and experiences. If my family was still large, living at home, I might invest in one. Currently my little dehydrator takes care my backpacking needs. In the event of SHTF, I am well armed and a good negotiator,

  2. #82
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    Just mailed off my first 2 resupplies. First off I am starting with 4 Days of food plus and extra "meal."

    Mailed 4 days to Mountain Crossings. That package weighs 4lbs 6.6oz and includes food, coffee, and snacks. This weight also includes the packaging obviously.

    Mailed 5 days to TOG. Weighs 5lb 2.8 oz. It has some other resupply stuff as well.

    I will let y'all know how well the food holds up. If I need more or less or got it just right.

    Some of the snacks include FDed bananas, blueberries and raspberries plus walnuts and raisins. I need to be careful with those snacks as they raise my blood sugars too much if I eat them all at once.
    https://tinyurl.com/MyFDresults

    A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. ~Paul Dudley White

  3. #83
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    FYI if you are one the edge about buying a freeze dryer, harvest right is offering a discount of 500$ with check out code of "save500" until July 31. Still pricy but...

    https://harvestright.com/store/

  4. #84

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    good stuff. do you have any issues with meat or eggs going bad while on the trail ?

  5. #85
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    Quote Originally Posted by BongoTheOneEyed View Post
    good stuff. do you have any issues with meat or eggs going bad while on the trail ?
    Nope. not so long as I have a good seal. I have found a few at home that somehow got "moist" due to what must have been either a bad seal or perhaps a very small puncture from sealing the food "too tight?"

    I may start adding an oxygen absorber as an extra measure but that won't help a bad seal or puncture.
    https://tinyurl.com/MyFDresults

    A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. ~Paul Dudley White

  6. #86
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    wow! almost 2 years since I posted in this thread. Well, in that time we bought a school bus to convert for full time living. We are still working on it (building a cabinet this week) and living in it! Currently in FL for the winter as it's a bit hard to travel and build at the same time!

    The FD is in storage. We are actually looking into buying a spot we can land each winter, build a storage unit on site which will double also as a place to run the FD so that I can get some of those longer distance hikes done. This summer I will likely do pieces and bits of trails (AT, BMT, maybe the Long Trail, etc) as we progress up the east coast to visit family and friends.

    It was really cool to reread these posts. And to see the pictures!
    https://tinyurl.com/MyFDresults

    A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. ~Paul Dudley White

  7. #87
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    I have been hiking short sections of trail in GA and NC this month. My old backpacking meals are doing GREAT! 3 scrambled eggs with assorted veggies and sausage every morning is really fueling those first climbs of the day. I still haven't quite figured out the perfect water to egg ratio, it's either a little "short" or I end up pouring a little of my coffee into the mix since by the time I realize I didn't add enough to the eggs I ma using the rest of the water for coffee. But this isn't a problem for me!
    My dinners are really good too. Mostly. Some of them I forgot were rather bland and forgot to pack salt the first time out. But other than that they have been very good. The 2 best are probably my "gumbo" - spicy sausage and chicken - and my beef, okra, tomato mix. I had forgot that I ate/ditched all my veggies except those that are in the actual meals. I usually eat quite a bit of veg so I need to do something about that for this summer's hikes. I have found that, even peeled, carrots will last a couple of days on trail (so far). But I may get a small dehydrator to be able to add more veg this summer as we aren't about to tote around the freeze dryer in the bus.
    The Moroccan Chicken I had to force down but that was my first night out and I had zero appetite. I only ate to be able to hike the next day. I think it will taste better next time out. I had to end my last section after just a day and a half due to a knee issue but will hopefully be out either late next week or the week after for sure if my knee cooperates. I promise to eat different meals this next trip.
    I have also been carrying almonds and RX bars and an uncured Grass fed "beef stick" that I like. I found that I really don't want to eat the bars or almonds much. I do make my own grain free bread and I carry a "roll" per day and some peanut butter. Very YUM and very wow. I actually carried a couple of those little guacamole cups and carrots last trip. Those lasted to the 2nd day but it was very cold that night and even the first day was pretty chilly in the 40s. My scale died before my final weigh in for that section but my food was about 5 lbs for 5 days. That was with all the heavy foods. I have a new battery though so I will be able to weigh everything before the next trip.
    I think the previous trip I was at about 22lbs with food (and water) for 5 days.
    https://tinyurl.com/MyFDresults

    A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. ~Paul Dudley White

  8. #88
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    Just an update -
    I think my last trip with 3 days food and all my gear I was at about 18lbs with my starting water as well. I thought I had pictures but the only 1 I can find looks like a food bag at 3lbs. This included maybe 1/3 of a small jar of PB, my bread, RX bars and nuts. I found the meals all really filling.
    https://tinyurl.com/MyFDresults

    A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. ~Paul Dudley White

  9. #89
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    Some recent freeze dried foods I have made.
    First up is my black bean cassoulet mixed in with cauliflower rice ("stir fried" with carrots, peas, salt and pepper). Each tray holds 2.5lbs and I made 2 meals out of each tray. So a 1.25# meal ended up weighing about 4oz once it was all packaged up. That's 20 ounces of food down to 4oz. That's an 80% reduction in weight.

    CassouletwithRice.jpg20230627_194954.jpg
    https://tinyurl.com/MyFDresults

    A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. ~Paul Dudley White

  10. #90
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    Here's some pictures of eggs I did recently as well as a grain free hamburger helper
    Eggs, ham, brocolli.jpghamburgerhelperFDed.jpg
    https://tinyurl.com/MyFDresults

    A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. ~Paul Dudley White

  11. #91
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    I have been doing a number of batches. I have been cooking and freeze drying butter chicken with cauliflower rice A LOT. I only get 8 meals from a load. On each tray I put 1 pound of "stir fried" cauliflower rice and then add 1.5 pound of the butter chicken. I get 2 meals per tray and they weigh around 4.4 oz each. I also started my first batch of roasted veggies for snacking on because as much as I like cauliflower, I really like more variety. So right now I have 2 trays of roasted broccoli (garlic, olive oi, salt and pepper). 4 pounds cooked down to 2 pounds but took up 2 trays. I also roasted brussels sprouts the same way after cutting them in half. 4 pounds became 2.5 pounds but could only get 1.5 pounds on a tray. The 4th tray (actually the first one I loaded) has mashed, baked sweet potato on it at a full 2.5 pounds (per tray limit).
    Here's some pics from today of the veg and some recent pics of the butter chicken.
    20230921_124808.jpgButterChickencaauliricegoingin.jpgFDedButterChickenCulirice.jpg
    https://tinyurl.com/MyFDresults

    A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. ~Paul Dudley White

  12. #92
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    I wanted to add my thanks for all of the details, recipes, results, etc. I don’t own one yet, but you have me interested…

  13. #93
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    I can confirm that the roasted broccoli is a winner even if salty for home tasting but perfect for backpacking. The brussels sprouts needed more salt and must be eaten with plenty of water as it's a bit like eating layers of paper. They probably should have been roasted a bit longer for the flavor. I ate these both straight out of the jar.

    Quote Originally Posted by One Half View Post
    I have been doing a number of batches. I have been cooking and freeze drying butter chicken with cauliflower rice A LOT. I only get 8 meals from a load. On each tray I put 1 pound of "stir fried" cauliflower rice and then add 1.5 pound of the butter chicken. I get 2 meals per tray and they weigh around 4.4 oz each. I also started my first batch of roasted veggies for snacking on because as much as I like cauliflower, I really like more variety. So right now I have 2 trays of roasted broccoli (garlic, olive oi, salt and pepper). 4 pounds cooked down to 2 pounds but took up 2 trays. I also roasted brussels sprouts the same way after cutting them in half. 4 pounds became 2.5 pounds but could only get 1.5 pounds on a tray. The 4th tray (actually the first one I loaded) has mashed, baked sweet potato on it at a full 2.5 pounds (per tray limit).
    Here's some pics from today of the veg and some recent pics of the butter chicken.
    20230921_124808.jpgButterChickencaauliricegoingin.jpgFDedButterChickenCulirice.jpg
    https://tinyurl.com/MyFDresults

    A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. ~Paul Dudley White

  14. #94
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    I wanted to add this as I recently had someone question me about how many calories per ounce of WEIGHT I was claiming in my freeze dried meals. I know the calories go nowhere so how to explain getting a "loaded 3 egg omelet" and all it's associated calories into a 3oz package. The example below is for ground beef and then I will add my explanation of a single egg as well since I actually did that as well.


    https://www.fatsecret.com/.../ground-beef-regular-cooked...

    Let's start by stating that I believe this is 4oz of COOKED weight which is how I generally work when freeze drying because I am doing my weighing after I cook my food before I load my freeze drying trays. And this is for 80/20 ground beef.

    309 calories, 21 grams of fat, 28 grams of protein, no carbs.
    I know from experience that if I freeze dry this I will end up with 1 ounce of beef. I may drain some of the fat after cooking but I also add fat when cooking so I have to "assume" (a dangerous thing) that it nets out to the same 21 grams of fat. At least for my calculations I assume that. You see, in freeze drying, we don't have to be as concerned about draining fat which is why we can freeze dry things like cream sauces and cheeses, etc.

    So our 4 ounces of cooked beef weighs ~113 grams of which we get 49 grams of nutrition (fat and protein calories). By the way, calories are a measure of energy/heat and NOT a measure of weight. I claim that this is going to FD down to ~24-29 grams of weight. I will admit right here that I have never FDed just cooked ground beef but I am going to "go for it" here as that was what I started with.
    This would mean for every gram of WEIGHT, I get 2 grams of nutrition and keeping the same ratio of fat and protein would mean 309cal/113grams (2.73 cal/gram of weight) becomes 309 cal/25g of weight = 12.36 CALORIES per Gram of WEIGHT.
    And I emphasize the calories vs weight because I think people tend to forget that Protein, which is muscle, HOLDS WATER as does Fat. So a gram of fat isn't PURE fat, as it contains water. Same with muscle/protein. But the water in these substances isn't what gives us the calories, it's the fat/protein.
    So yes, I can easily see this making sense that PER WEIGHT, calories get "denser" when we remove the water content of food. After all, removing the water is NOT removing the calories.
    https://tinyurl.com/MyFDresults

    A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. ~Paul Dudley White

  15. #95
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    And here's what I posted in regards to eggs:

    The food starts out HEAVIER than the sum of the nutritional content due to water.

    For example: a medium egg weighs about 1.75 ounces or about 50 grams. (https://www.thekitchn.com/medium-large-jumbo-how-egg...)
    A medium egg contains about 6 grams of protein and 5 grams of fat. For a total of 11 grams of nutrition/calories. NOT 50 grams of nutrition.

    (https://www.egginfo.co.uk/egg.../egg-nutrition-information)

    So that's only 11 grams. What/where is the other 39 grams? Well, some is most certainly water. So if we have a process to remove water (freeze drying or dehydrating) and the result is a product that weighs just 20% - 25% of original we end up with an egg that weighs only 10- 12.5 grams and STILL contains the 6 grams of protein and 5 grams of fat. Which would be 11 grams of nutrition for approx 11 grams of weight give or take.
    So we still have (6x4) 24 calories of protein and (5x9) 45 calories of fat for a total of 69 (or 66 according to 1 source) calories per 11 grams of WEIGHT. This works out to 6.6 calories per gram.
    https://tinyurl.com/MyFDresults

    A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world. ~Paul Dudley White

  16. #96
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    I still haven't finished this thread but it's surprising to me that a lot of people don't realize or believe the calories per weight ratio because they don't get how much water weight is eliminated while still keeping the same nutrition. The egg may be back to 50 grams when you rehydrate and eat it but either way it's the same nutrition and your carrying a fraction of the weight. Just if you eat freeze dried stuff as is your going to want to drink a lot of water with it or it will help to dehydrate you. Even a lot of my backpacking meals I added less water then they called for, for the texture I like but always made sure to drink a bunch of water with it.
    NoDoz
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