Category Archives: Freeze Dried Food

Happy Customers, Prepared for Life

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It’s always exciting to receive customer feedback, especially when it’s customer feedback that confirms everything we’ve been saying about PrepareWise’s superiority to other emergency food for so long. Admittedly, we are a little biased. But you, as people simply trying to find the best quality and value in emergency food, are pretty fair-minded. So when you tell us our product is good, it has to be true.

Here is some feedback we received recently from Mark, an experienced prepper and happy buyer of PrepareWise emergency foods:

 

We received our PrepareWise food order on Monday morning. The shipping was free and the delivery time faster than several other vendors we have used in the past. We decided to try it right away for lunch because our morning was full of work.

As we began to prepare lunch, we looked at the buckets and realized several very innovative features: the bucket tops are designed to mate with the bottom of other buckets, creating a more stable stack, and the lids do not come off all the way, creating a better seal and no chance for damaging or misplacing the lid. All the foods are immaculately packaged in thick mylar, contain oxygen absorbers, and are vacuum-sealed.

The ingredients are clearly listed on each package, and to our amazement we can pronounce the names of all the ingredients. We have yet to find a label with an artificial or unhealthy ingredient.

Preparation was easy: Bring water to a boil, pour in food, and cook for 15-18 minutes, stirring occasionally.

We tried the fettuccini alfredo. I can tell you that I have had several other competing brands’ fettuccini alfredo and was sorely disappointed. Frankly, yours was delicious. We are now trying to unload some of the other companies’ food so we can buy more PrepareWise. My children, mother-in-law, and wife all commented on the deep flavor and great seasoning. We tried it plain without the addition of any seasoning or meat and it was great. My eight-year-old son suggested that we add chicken so we opened a can of white chicken meat, and it was filling and delicious. It was one of the quietest lunches we have ever had. The kids were too busy eating to talk. We liked it so much we had dinner last night and breakfast this morning from our PrepareWise foods inventory. We want to eat the food now so when we have no choice later it is familiar and expected.

Thanks for developing a relationship with Legacy Foods. We have already told several friends about the food and will be purchasing more next month. Not only is the food delicious, but PrepareWise is the best value for the dollar I have found the past five years of prepping.

Thanks,

Mark and the LoneStar Posse

Thank you, Mark, for the thumbs-up. We work hard to offer the highest quality ingredients and create the best-tasting emergency food available. We also think it’s vital that food storage be easy to prepare and convenient to store. It validates everything we do here when we hear from customers that we are fulfilling our mission and helping you in your efforts to provide well for your family.

We can talk forever about PrepareWise food storage and tout its superiority, but it’s never going to mean the same thing to you as when you hear it from a fellow customer.  Trust Mark—Once you try it, you’re going to have a hard time saving it for later.

Legacy Premium Announces an Exciting Change

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Our partner, Legacy Premium has just announced improvements to the way their freeze-dried emergency meals are packaged. As you know, Legacy Premium food is already protected from light, oxygen, and moisture through a sophisticated manufacturing and packaging process using freeze drying, dehydration and nitrogen flushed mylar pouches. Because oxygen removal is so vitally important to ensuring the extended shelf life of freeze-dried and dehydrated food, Legacy Premium has decided to add oxygen absorbers to each pouch of food, further reducing residual oxygen levels and adding another layer of security for consumers.

Legacy Premium is proud to be the first to incorporate oxygen absorbers in the packaging of pre-made emergency meal pouches, and with this development have achieved the lowest oxygen content on the market! Test results from the University of Minnesota confirm the effectiveness of this packaging change, reporting average oxygen content at a very low .47%. This is important because over time, excess residual oxygen can decrease the nutritional value of food and increase the potential for spoilage.

Legacy Premium founder Phillip Cox believes the change will set a new standard for the industry. He said, “We want to give our customers the best value and nutrition possible, and so for this reason, we have invested our efforts into creating this new packaging method for every single pouch of food. We are proud to be at the forefront of this new packaging standard.”

As always, Legacy Premium will continue to provide you with the best taste, best value, and highest quality nutrition in the freeze-dried food industry.  And now you can brag to your friends about its low residual oxygen content too!

Prepare Wise with our partner, Legacy Premium, is committed to quality. We understand that when a customer buys our food they are entrusting us with the health and perhaps survival of their family. We take this responsibility seriously. Legacy Premium was developed by experts with over 20 years of experience in the freeze-dried food industry. This experience paired with innovative and proven processing procedures, combine to give you gourmet food storage that not only beats the competition in taste, nutrition, and value, but stands the test of time. Prepare Wise is proud to offer our customers the best of the best in emergency food storage from Legacy Premium!

Read the press release here.

Finding the Best Produce if You Don’t Have a Garden

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If you have taken the initiative to create long term food storage for your household, or even if you have just started researching the idea, clearly you care about the well-being of your family. You are probably interested in promoting a healthy lifestyle for your family, and that includes eating the freshest produce available. If you are unable to grow your own vegetables, you should buy produce that comes from trusted local growers.

Why Buy Local Produce

Buying locally supports growing for taste, diversity and healthfulness rather than for durability, transportation and uniformity. Purchasing food grown by local farmers helps to promote the local economy while supporting your friends and neighbors. It also reduces use of fossil fuels, minimizing your carbon footprint. Local farmers help preserve jobs and strengthen the local food supply. Freshly picked produce guarantees nutritional value at its peak.

Where to Buy Local Produce

The organic, fresh food trend is gaining momentum, and those foods are more abundant than ever. Fresh, locally grown produce can be found at the farmer’s market in your county, or in local organic natural food stores. These markets often have a selection of fresh flowers and baked goods as well as fruits and vegetables.

Many areas now have online companies that allow you to order local produce from their website each week and then either pick it up at a neighborhood business or have it delivered for a small fee. Some even offer meats, dairy, fresh eggs and baked goods. Healthy food and treats for pets may also be part of the selection from the online company in your community. The produce selection will vary, as the weather will dictate what can be grown in your area during different times of the year.

How to Find Local Produce

Check your county or with the extension office of your state’s agricultural university to find local growers and markets. Another good resource is www.LocalHarvest.org. LocalHarvest was founded in 1998 by Guillermo Payet, a software engineer and activist dedicated to generating positive social change through the Internet. This site is loaded with good information on eating healthy, and they promote a strong and resilient family farm system of agriculture. All you have to do is type in your zip code to find locations and times for farmer’s markets in your area.

This healthy lifestyle should carry over to your long term food storage. You should have freeze dried food with a long shelf life in storage as well as canned and dehydrated fruits and vegetables. Use only fresh, organic produce for your canning and dehydrating. These processes will not improve the flavor if you start with sub par product.

Gift certificates from your favorite places to buy local produce make great gifts for friends or loved ones. This will help get more people involved with buying local and help sustain the local markets. It will also help encourage a healthy lifestyle for them.

-Gary Jenkins-

Gary Jenkins is a father and husband living in Oregon who is a wildlife rehabilitation and outdoor adventure enthusiast.

Turn a Cardboard Box Into an Oven for Your Emergency Food Storage

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What do you think of when I mention foods like homemade cinnamon rolls, biscuits, muffins, cookies, mini pizzas and cobblers? For me, these are all comfort foods. Home baked goodies always seem to lift spirits and make people smile, and they may be items that you thought you had to forget about in your long term food storage. After all, baking requires an oven, and an oven usually requires electricity or gas, which may be a problem in the aftermath of a disaster. I will explain how to make a very simple oven that bakes as well as the oven in your home, using items that are already in your food storage.

You will need a cardboard box for the oven, and you can use it to store some of your survival supplies in the meantime. Use a sturdy box, such as a box that holds ten reams of paper at the office supply store or a produce box. Thicker cardboard works best. It should be big enough to fit a small baking tray, but not so big that you cannot control the heat. Remember to only use this oven outdoors, and never in an enclosed space.

How to Build the Oven

•  Empty the box and line it with heavy duty aluminum foil, inside and out. Be sure to cover it completely, leaving no cardboard exposed. This is important so that the cardboard doesn’t ignite. Be sure to face the foil shiny side out to reflect the heat.

•  Secure the foil with duct tape on the outside of the box. Never use tape or glue on the inside so as to avoid toxic fumes.

•  Place a sheet of foil on level ground, bigger than the box. You may need to fold two pieces together, deli style, to make it bigger. Make sure that you are well away from any other combustable materials such as grass, bushes, trees or even your tent.

•  Place four used soup cans or soda cans on the foil so they will support each corner of the baking tray. Fill the cans with stones or sand to help stabilize them. This will also help hold the heat.

•  Place charcoal briquettes in the center of the foil and light them. I recommend not using self-starting charcoal, as this adds a chemical taste to the food. A good rule of thumb is to use one briquette for every 45 degrees of heat listed in the recipe (ie. 8 or 9 briquettes for 375 degrees.) You can use big coals from a campfire instead, though this will require a bit more finesse to control the heat and may smoke more than charcoal.

•  Wait until the coals are white to start baking. This is an indication that the coals are giving off optimum heat. Spread the coals evenly on the foil

•  Gently set the baking sheet containing your treats onto the cans.

•  Carefully place the box, upside down, over the baking tray and coals.

•  Prop one short end of the box up with a couple of small stones for air circulation.

Allow the items to cook for the time specified on the recipe for a conventional oven. Resist the urge to peek, as this will cause valuable heat to escape. When you do check, lift the box slowly and carefully. It would be a shame to knock those delicious treats into the dirt. You may have to stoke the oven with additional coals for longer baking times, but make sure the coals are white hot before placing them in the oven.

Building an outdoor oven is that simple. There are more elaborate designs available, with doors and racks, but this one gets the job done and uses items that you already have stored. Find recipes or mixes for your long term food storage that call for adding water only, because the chances of having fresh eggs are slim.

Practice using the oven to figure out baking times, and experiment with some of your family favorites. Have fun and let the kids help. They can even draw the features of a real oven on the foil with a pen. Your food storage should certainly contain freeze dried food with a long shelf life that is simple to prepare, but having some home baked comfort food available will make your survival situation more tolerable.

-Gary Jenkins-

Gary Jenkins is a father and husband living in Oregon who is a wildlife rehabilitation and outdoor adventure enthusiast.

The Size of Your Emergency Food Storage is a Personal Choice, But Everyone Should Store Something

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Natural disasters, pandemics, and terrorist attacks all have an impact on food and water supply, and any one of them could happen in your area without warning. Long term food storage of some sort is a good idea for these reasons, and the amount of food and water a family stores is dependent on their size and their needs.

FEMA and The American Red Cross recommend that you store one gallon of water per person per day to last one month. Water must be stored properly in food safe containers and must be rotated. They also recommend storing enough food for 72 hours in a grab-and-go kit and at least two weeks worth for shelter supply. Of course, you can never store too much food, and some recommend storing up to a year’s supply.

Look around your kitchen cabinets and food pantry to get an idea of how much food your family eats in a week. This will help give you some idea of how much food to store. You can also use a food calculator for recommended number of servings per day per person, whether it be an adult or child. Then start to build your food storage as your budget allows. Try to add something new each month.

Your long term food storage should be kept separate from your regular pantry items, and it should be kept in a cool, dry, dark space to prevent the food from breaking down and losing taste and nutrients. If you are low on space in your home or apartment, get creative in finding ways to store your food. Raise your bed and store bins of food under it, or use space in a spare bedroom closet.

Store a variety of foods to maintain a balanced diet and to keep meals from becoming mundane. The most effective items to store are the products with the longest shelf lives. Dehydrated and freeze dried foods will last up to 25 years in the proper conditions without losing quality or taste. Canned and dry food will last up to five years if stored correctly.

Other items to keep in your emergency food storage are quick energy foods such as energy bars, dried fruits, and nuts. You will also want some of your favorite herbs and spices handy. Find a storage system for these that is compact and easy to handle. Multi vitamins, vitamin C, and echinacea will help to ensure that essential nutrients are replenished, and it is good to have some condiments on hand like ketchup, mayonnaise and mustard. It wouldn’t hurt to store some comfort foods as well, such as chocolate or coffee.

Be sure to consider special dietary needs of the people in your household. Infants, the elderly and diabetics, for instance, all require some modifications to the food storage. Write reminders on your calendar to check expiration dates and rotate product as needed. Either prepare food to eat before it expires or donate it to your local food bank. Long term food storage is important, so don’t put it off any longer.

-Gary Jenkins-

Gary Jenkins is a father and husband living in Oregon who is a wildlife rehabilitation and outdoor adventure enthusiast.

The Basic Benefits of Investing in Freeze Dried Food

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Emergency situations, disasters, and the ever changing climate all take their toll on the world’s food supply. Keeping long term food storage on hand is a good investment for your family. Freeze dried food is an excellent choice for food storage and has many benefits.

Freeze drying is the process of removing moisture from fresh or cooked food by flash freezing them in a vacuum chamber and then drying with low level heat so that the ice crystals evaporate. This preserves food because the lack of moisture prohibits growth of microorganisms and enzymes that would normally spoil the product.

Whether using them for long term food storage or for your weekend getaway, shelf-stable freeze dried food has several benefits over other methods of food storage.

Fantastic Flavors

Entrees are created with professional chefs to achieve amazing recipes using the highest quality ingredients. Freeze dried foods retain their original flavor and texture.

Nutritional Value

Because freeze dried foods are flash frozen and are not processed at high temperatures, they retain vitamins and minerals, keeping their nutritional value.

Cost Effective

Gourmet quality food with a long shelf life is a bargain at current prices. Imagine having to buy all of the fresh ingredients, if they are available, in today’s fluctuating market to get the same quality that is available in freeze dried food.

Simple Preparation

Open the packet, add hot water, and start eating a delicious meal in twelve minutes or less usually.

Lightweight

With all of the moisture removed, freeze dried food weighs much less than fresh or canned food. This is a definite advantage if your food storage needs to be transported in an emergency.

Storage Space

Freeze dried food is condensed and vacuum sealed, usually in Mylar bags. These packets take up very little space when compared to other storage methods.

Shelf Life

Most freeze dried food has a shelf life of 25 years or more at room temperature without fear of spoiling. Because you have no idea what the future holds, your long term food storage could truly be long term.

These benefits mean that investing in freeze dried food is the smart choice. Add to your food storage over time, as your income allows, but take the step to be prepared in the event that you are unable to obtain fresh food. Taste different products to determine which flavors you like best and add those to your storage.

-Gary Jenkins-

Gary Jenkins is a father and husband living in Oregon who is a wildlife rehabilitation and outdoor adventure enthusiast.

Freeze Dried Food Giveaway Contest

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It’s that time again, time for another giveaway contest!  This time there will be only one winner and they will get a 360 serving bucket of our freeze dried food.

The contest is easy, post your favorite recipe on Preparewise’s Facebook page and get people to like your recipe.  The recipe with the most likes at the end of the three week voting period will be the winner! It’s as simple as that.  Now let’s talk about the details:

  • Your recipe must be original, copyrighted recipes will not qualify.
  • The recipe needs to be a canning recipe.  It can be any type of recipe as long as it uses some form of canning.
  • The recipe must be complete with instructions, not just ingredients.
  • We will accept recipes October 5, 2011 – October 12, 2011. All other recipes posted after the 12th may still get votes but will not be included in the contest.
  • We encourage all participants to post their recipe on their personal Facebook page as well in order to spread the word and encourage friends and family to vote, but only likes on Preparewise’s Facebook page will count towards the contest.
  • Each Facebook follower can like as many recipes as they choose, you do not have to only like one.
  • Since each Facebook follower can only like a post once participants will need to encourage friends and family to visit our Facebook page and like the post.  Other Facebook followers will also be allowed to vote so make it a good recipe so others will choose to like it.
  • The voting will stay open until 9am Pacific Time on October 21, 2011.
  • The winner will be announced the afternoon of October 21, 2011.  The winner will be contacted through Facebook and will have 3 working days to accept their prize.  If we have not heard from the winner by 5pm Pacific Time on October 26, 2011 the second place contestant will receive the prize.

All right, that’s all the details so start looking for your best canning recipe and get ready to win some freeze dried food!  Let us know if you have any questions or concerns but we are looking forward to seeing the great recipes everyone will have to share with us.

Find Our Facebook Page Here!

Protein Rich Legumes and Their Rightful Place in Food Storage

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When planning your long term food storage, consider the dietary needs of your body. Your supplies should be nutritionally balanced and contain a variety of meats, grains, vegetables, fruits, and dairy. Depending on your philosophy, you may not include meat or dairy, but be sure to include basic nutrients in your storage such as protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals.

Legumes are the richest source of vegetable protein and are a good source of both soluble and insoluble dietary fiber. When legumes are eaten with grains, nuts or seeds, a complete protein can be formed which can suitably replace meat, fish, poultry, eggs or dairy. Some examples of legumes are beans, peas, lentils and peanuts, and they are some of the easiest foods to store long term. When properly stored, most legumes will last almost indefinitely.

Legumes are great for food storage because they are very versatile. They can stand alone as a main dish, or they can be used in soups, added to main dishes, ground into flour for sauces, or used to replace oils when mashed. They are also easy to cook. For instance, when cooking beans, just cover them with cold water, bring to a boil, and simmer until soft. Be sure to add seasonings only after the beans are soft. Salt, magnesium and calcium will not allow the beans to soften. Soaking beans ahead of time will cut the cooking time in half.

When storing legumes, keep them in a cool, dry place, but do not store them in the refrigerator. They can be stored dry, canned, freeze-dried or dehydrated. Canned legumes will weigh the most, so consider the other methods if you think you might have to transport them. Dry legumes retain the most nutritional value and do not have to be stored in air tight containers, although they will last much longer when protected from the air.

Many good recipes using legumes exist online. Search for ideas that sound good, and practice ahead of time to find delicious family favorites. Experiment with soaking and cooking times so that you know what to expect if you end up in an emergency situation. Make sure that you stock all the spices and additives that you like to cook with in your long term food storage as well. Balanced nutrition is essential, especially in an emergency situation, and legumes are a great place to start.

—Gary Jenkins—

Gary Jenkins is a father and husband living in Oregon who is a wildlife rehabilitation and outdoor adventure enthusiast.

Have Fun Teaching Your Kids Survival Skills

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You never know when one of your kids might wander away from a campsite, get lost on a family outing, or be in a circumstance where you are injured and they have to take care of you. Kids are naturally curious and are usually much more adept than we give them credit for. It is never too early to begin teaching them how to use a survival kit in emergency situations. The level of skill and knowledge that you pass along will vary with the child’s age, but you can have fun coaching them on various techniques for taking care of themselves.

Water is one of the most essential items in any emergency situation. Although we can go days without food, we must stay hydrated. Instruct your children in finding clues to the whereabouts of water. Let them know where they are likely to find water in certain types of terrain, and teach them to look for green trees, bushes and grass that will be growing near water sources. Lay out the water purification methods in your survival kit and let them purify some water and drink it. Don’t forget to tell them to boil water for ten minutes, if that is the technique they choose. While it is true that they could get sick from drinking water that has not been purified, remind them that getting sick from drinking dirty water in an emergency situation is better than the alternative.

Teach your kids how to set up your emergency tent in your back yard, and then have a campout in it. Your tent should be compact and easy to set up. Let them try to figure it out by looking at the instructions. In lieu of a tent, talk about features in the wilderness that might make for a good shelter to protect them from the weather. Go on a hike and look for places that would offer protection. Point out overhanging branches on trees, big rocks to tuck under, or ledges to back up against. Show them how easy it can be to prop up brush to make a quick lean-to for refuge. Be sure to let your kids know that they should set a brightly colored item outside of the shelter so that a rescuer can find them.

Learning how to start fires without matches is a good survival skill for all of us to know. Show your children how to use the fire-starting methods that might be in your survival kit, like flint and steel or a battery and steel wool. There is an art to lighting the weatherproof matches that you undoubtedly have, so let them practice under your supervision. Also train them how to build a fire using only things that they find in the wilderness, such as with the hand drill method. Clearly you should reiterate that fire is never a toy and that it can cause severe damage and even death. Your kids should have a healthy respect for fire, but they shouldn’t be so afraid that they wouldn’t build one if necessary.

Cooking can be great fun, and kids love creating a masterpiece and then being able to eat it. Practice cooking meals outdoors with your kids. Prepare the food on a camp stove, or over an open fire, and teach them all of the safety precautions that go along with each method. Cook freeze dried food from your food storage, fish or game that you may have caught, and fun desserts that will keep them interested. Let them offer serving suggestions and season the food. Some trial and error here is fine, and not every meal has to turn out perfect. Let them experiment with different foods.

There are other skills that can be fun to teach your children using items in your survival kit, such as signaling for help, practicing first aid, communicating with two-way radios, building animal snares/traps, and improvising with only the items you are carrying. These are all important skills for kids to know, and you should reassure them that if they find themselves in an emergency situation, keeping their wits about them and using the skills they’ve practiced will keep them safe until they are rescued.

—Gary Jenkins—

Gary Jenkins is a father and husband living in Oregon who is a wildlife rehabilitation and outdoor adventure enthusiast.