Third try posting this, we’ll see if my browser times out this time…
So I’ve found a couple new sources for backpacking ingredients recently that I thought I would share. Over the last month I’ve built up a large set of shelves full of mason jars of vacuum sealed ingredients to make recipes. Now that I’ve had the chance to test most of the ingredients I can weigh in on quality:
The first site is SpicesInc, a new source for dried veggies that I’m really happy with – they don’t have a complete selection but they have great prices and the quality is excellent. Plus they have some unique items, like roasted red pepper flakes!!!
They are focused on spices so they don’t have things like dried carrots or spinach, but they’ve got lots of peppers (I’ve tried the green bell peppers and roasted red bells, both excellent), onions, garlic, celery, etc. They also have excellent deals on some dried fruit (notably strawberries and blueberries). YMMV, but I’ve found that I actually prefer most vegetables air-dried rather than freeze-dried, so long as they aren’t too old. The ones from spicesinc are fairly fresh and since I vacuum seal them in mason jars they will last for years (if not decades) and still be usable in meals.
Another new site for me is Karen’s Naturals. This is the same company that used to be called “Just Tomatoes”. I’ve known of them for a while but just recently realized that you can order direct, and that they have great deals on fruit powders. I’ve tested out smoothies using a mix of 2 parts fruit powder to 1 part Nido dried milk, and they are going to be a really nice addition to my breakfast menu in the backcountry. Two Tablespoons milk powder and 4 tablespoons dried fruit will fill one 20oz gatorade bottle up to the horizontal indent. I got some strawberry, banana, mango and peach powder there. They also have freeze dried peas and corn, two veggies that I prefer freeze-dried to air-dried.
The third new site I got from someone in this forum, Thrive Life. I don’t remember what the thread was where they were mentioned before. They are an odd company, geared more towards pantry rotation systems of freeze-dried food (predictably based out of Utah). But good quality freeze-dried meat. I tried the sausage crumbles in a jambalaya recipe last night and they were excellent. Their prices on vegetables are atrocious, especially when compared to SpicesInc. But a great place to get meats, and they recently added smaller “pantry” cans as well as the #10 cans.
Well, that’s it for new ingredient sources. I plan on posting some more about how I’m prepping meals in the future – it’s all starting to come together and I’m going to make some large batches of favorite meals to draw from, to speed up prepping for trips. Sesame Chili Ramen and Jambalaya for starters. I’m also working on a green chili polenta recipe.
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