Dehydrated Backpacking Kit

I bought this package for a 5-night backpacking trip and was extremely pleased with the quality and quantity. I'm a health-conscious foodie and outdoors enthusiast, and I refuse to sacrifice eating delicious, healthy meals just because I'm in the backcountry. The veggies were extremely fragrant and tasted wonderful, my trip mates with their factory-produced, pre-packaged meals were super jealous. I mixed and matched the items in this package (plus some additional outside ingredients as noted) to create the following meals: -Mexican-style bean and veggie blend: black and pinto beans, potatoes, tomatoes, bell peppers, corn, and onions. (Outside ingredients: corn tortillas, fresh avocados, herbs and spices, and dehydrated egg mix for a tortilla breakfast soup) -Italian white bean and vegetable soup: white beans, green beans, onions, celery, carrots, bell peppers, peas, and cabbage. (Outside ingredients: dry pesto sauce mix packet from Safeway, sun dried tomatoes, herbs & spices.) -Creole red beans and rice: red beans, bell peppers, celery, onion, corn, tomatoes. (Outside ingredients: minute brown rice, herbs & spices) -Deluxe vegetable ramen: cabbage, peas, green beans, carrots. (Outside ingredients: instant ramen package, dried shiitake mushrooms, dried nori, wakame, kombu, and dulse seaweeds) -Indian-style curried veggies and lentils: lentils, carrots, potatoes, green beans, peas. (Outside ingredients: curry powder, minute brown rice.) I really enjoyed mixing and matching the ingredients to make my meal plan for the week and the package included enough for 2 people (breakfasts and dinners, that is) for a 5-night trip like mine. Would definitely order again and recommend to all vegetable loving backpackers.

I had seen several videos on how to spice ramen up with additional flavors. I got this multi pack of pouches to test things out before buying bigger packages. The kids and I loved them. The potatoes did need additional cooking or rehydrating time to get the best texture. Well worth the money to buy.

Love the selection and the price. Have not tried any of freeze-dried food out yet but everything was as described. Everything arrived quickly and in excellent condition. Plan to sample soon, at least where there is a duplicate pack of goodies. Sampling will aid in knowing how it will taste, how long it takes to hydrate -- best done at home before hitting the trail. God Bless! DIGITAL SIGNATURE I like to close my reviews with a THANK YOU because I do appreciate you investing your precious time in reading my material. We live in a complex complicated world where time is at a premium. I do pray you found this review like my others informative and helpful in aiding your next purchasing decision. Your comments are always welcome and I make every attempt to reply to comments as time permits. Again THANK YOU for the opportunity to aid you in spending your hard earned money wisely. I am not employed or receive any compensation by the manufacture or any organization promoting this product or additional hardware. I purchased or received as a gift my product like anyone else and just sharing my myriad thoughts and experience with you. I hereby extend to you a plethora of blessing of good health and welling being. Bless you all. 2013 Copyrighted by Dr. Gary Drury

Great for camping and emergency food

I love how clean and simple this food is. So many backpacking/camping meals are filled with nasty chemicals and additives; there is a definite shortage of clean camping food on the market. This is it- simple bags of ONE ingredient each. If you want to make meals out of it, you must combine ingredients yourself, but at least you know it's not going to make you sick or give you cancer. I do strongly recommend supplementing the meals you create with seasonings. Eating this stuff without seasoning is less than thrilling, but a little bit of spice, hot sauce, or just salt & pepper goes a long way to making this food delicious. If you're hiking or doing other high-energy activities, I recommend supplementing these meals with noodles or rice. This is primarily veggies and beans, which are great, but not enough for sustaining high energy levels. Overall, I LOVE the taste and ease of preparation, and I will definitely be a repeat customer.

This product is excellent. I first saw it hiking the Application Trail going thru Franklin, North Carolina at a Hiking Hostel. While I didn't buy it then, after dehydrated my own veggies and fruits, I thought for this year's hike I would try this out. My wife was shocked at the amount and variety of commonly used kitchen items in this box. I had to get her to pledge a "hands off" while I was out hiking so these products would make it me in bounce boxes via USPS. This box comes with recipes and you can make your own meals. I soak them in my cup for a while before boiling water. I then put the veggies into a Ziploc Freezer bag with the boiling water and wait 10-minutes. They are acceptably reconstituted. I made a square ziploc cozie out of an old window shade and 100-mile-an-hour tape to fit the bags. This allows me to stand up the bags and have some insulation for both reheating once the water is inside and to hold it without getting burned. I would highly recommend Harmony House Foods for backpacking, camping or home use. Make your own recipies. I bought number 10 cans of freeze dried beef and chicken (avail on Amazon), and make my meals. I put everything in the freezer until needed for hiking and then mail out 10-days before arrival at a destination. Best thing to do is put it in a Freezer Ziploc, and the Vaccum Seal it with the heavy duty plastic to get a good seal. Also put little packets for freshness like you find in other commercially available foods like beef jerkies, freeze dried meals, etc. Happy Trails

I got these because I was tired of buying whole bunches of celery, etc., when we ordinarily only need a little bit. Even when buying canned foods, we'd end up throwing out expired foods, when we just needed smaller amounts on hand for longer term storage to use in soups, casseroles, recipes, etc. For us, this solution is perfect. These are pricey, but for us, no more expensive than driving back and forth to the store, having to purchase more than we can use, then throwing it out.

I bought this to take on a trip as a way to make my own vegan soups and stews. I tried every type dry (I like to snack on dehydrated veggies). Nothing was too hard to eat, and simmered for a few minutes everything was perfect. The taste of the beans and veggies together hardly needed salt, really a lot of flavor. I tend to eat more than the servings suggested, but it is a lot of food for the price. My only complaint (and its minor) is that two bags of carrots are included and I would rather have an extra protein. But, its not a big deal. Overall, I would highly recommend this!

Really useful variety of vegetables, handily packed in individual resealable packets. We used these for every dinner for 8 days for 2 people and have barely used a quarter, they really do go a long way. We took them on a kayaking trip and they packed small, giving a huge variety of different meal options. For example we used them to cook pasta with vegetables, a jambalaya (rice, spices, onions, peppers, tomatoes and some salami), a green risotto with dried parmesan cheese (risotto rice, stock cube, parmesan, peas, green beans, onions, celery), mexican rice with beans, and a biryani (rice, spices, a whole mix of different vegetables). Using just one pot for the carbs and vegetables worked really well for us and meant minimal washing up which is always a bonus when camping! Impressively the vegetables all looked and tasted remarkably normal once cooked, you would struggle to tell the difference between these and normal vegetables. My only critique would perhaps be the balance of vegetables - you get double of a small number of the packets and perhaps if I could select myself I would have gone for just 1x potatoes and 2x onions but this is just personal preference. I think I would struggle to do camping food without these again - having experienced how lightweight, versatile and high quality these vegetables are I will be buying them again in future.

Designed for camping, but a really good storecupboard item. There is a very good range of products which will have retained their nutritional value better than some other methods of preservation, some recipes for easy meals for people to see how useful dried vegetables can be, and enough to experiment and supplement a range of foods such as soups and casseroles. Very useful for holidays, being snowed in, having difficulty getting to the shops or access to fresh veg for whatever reason. Well worth having in the house as well as the rucksack.

I love this kit. Perfect for hiking/camping trips. Ingredients cook in about 10 minuts so you can easily add raw rice and have it done at the same time. Great product.

I am genuinely impressed with this product. No messing about, it is exactly what it says - a bunch of dried veg. When you cook them, they smell and taste GREAT. Light and easy to carry, I got them for camping but have mostly been experimenting at home so far. You can add maybe half a stock cube or some meat jerky or maybe a little spice to the recipies, but you hardly need to - the veg is so full of flavour. The 'serving' size is enough for a light lunch, but I would double up or add some bread/rice to get a good dinner out of it, especially after a day hiking. Even so, these represent exceptional value for money and are really light to carry - proper nutrition on the go. Cannot recommend highly enough.

So pleased with this collection of dehydrated foods. They are just what I was looking for lightweight for my backpack and long lasting. I’ve cooked up the recipes from the enclosed sheet and mixed up my own all tasted great. I’ve camped at some remote areas with just my water and gas stove with these foods. I would highly recommend them as an alternative to wet pouch style camping foods.