PREP Freeze Dried Food bucket storage

[MearKAt]

So my wife has recently purchased a large number of freeze dried meals for camping and ensuring we have some food if there becomes a shortage. With this idea, she wanted to accomplish a few things:

- Separate meals and necessary supplies (water, fire) into 5 gal buckets... this provides the ability to hand out a "bucket" of a few days of food to a family member or friend without divulging what or where we have anything stored... and also a great easy "grab and go" bucket for our frequent camping outings without a cooler!

- Provide X number of days of breakfast, lunch, dinner
- Provide necessary amount of bottled water to make food consumable
- Provide ability to heat (not necessarily boil) water
- Provide sanitary supplies for sterilization, etc.

This is the list she put together so far... and I was hoping to gain insight from those on the forum for what might have been forgotten... Again -- Basic Nutrition / Eating bucket... not designed to have camp fire, weapons, etc (also not necessarily hydration included in this since it is a separate and larger goal). Keep in mind these items will be present in EACH of several buckets, so surely there will be leftover items, but for hyper redundancy, one should consider a food bucket complete for all needs.


- MH or BP Freeze Dried Meals (apportioned to breakfast, lunch, dinner) in the bucket
- Bottled water necessary for hydration + 1 litre
- TP / Paper Towels
- Camp Forks/Spoons/Utensils for two
- 4x Ziplock bags
- Alkaseltzer packs
- Pack of smokes (appetite supressant / barter item)
- Can of Sterno fuel (heating, though not boiling)
- Matches / Lighter
- Small baggy of OneStep sanitizer
- 2x 12oz "Beer cans" of water (can be recycled to boiling cup, etc)
- Metal cup/pot marked with measuring marks for 1/4 cup measures
- Protien bars (for those hypoglycemic in my mix)
- Emergen-C or Gatorade water mix (for electrolytes)
- Small hand sanitizer gel
- Peppermints / Peppermint Gum (for settling stomach)
- 2 days of Feminine supplies
- Small package of corn starch (food thickener and/or medical use)


What's missing that you would add?

 

[CapeCMom]

Maybe some aspirin or Tylenol in a little Baggie? Even if you just have five or six for each bucket.

 

[bluelady]

Small trash bag(s)for disposing of disposables; instant coffee/cream & sugar/cocoa/instant soup pouches; tea bags; a bit more water (to use with instant beverages & in case plan A for water fails); tiny LED flashlight (more redundancy); two space blankets for warmth; two large trash bags for rain protection; small pack of M&M's Hard to visualize the space, but these are all pretty small. I've never used freeze dried meals; do they come with their own container for heating/eating?

 

[Wise Owl]

If you use the 6 gal bucket you will have more room. Altho freeze dried food is convenient, you won't get many meals along with water and other things in one bucket unless you are only planning on a couple days worth of meals in each bucket. Maybe a weeks worth if you really pack it down tightly. Water takes up a lot of space.

 

[etdeb]

Where do you get the Beer cans of water?

 

[Terrwyn]

Maybe some aspirin or Tylenol in a little Baggie? Even if you just have five or six for each bucket.

You can buy large boxes of Tylenol that have separate foil pkgs. with 2 Tylenol in them. That would make it easier.

 

[summerthyme]

I'd add some Loperamide tablets (anti-diarrheal), and/or some Pepto-bismol tablets. You also might want to consider some "beano" (especially if no one is used to eating many legumes and whole grains) and also a gentle laxative.

Switching to a "new" diet, no matter what the reason, can cause serious digestive issues for many people.

Also, individual packets of "wet wipes" could be used for multiple purposes, including first aid.

Possibly some condiments? Salt, pepper, maybe some hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, seasoned salt?

Beverage mixes (hot cocoa, lemonade mix, Koolaid)... especially if you end up having to boil water for safety.



Summerthyme

 

[MearKAt]

Great ideas!!!

The "beer cans of water" are a common disaster relief item... I have a brother who works for Sysco (the retail food supplier) and he had an extra case or two from the last hurricane... they don't taste great but it is potable and multi-purpose.

 

[MearKAt]

As an update, the packs arrived today and I picked up a few 5gal sealable (with rubber gaskets) buckets from Homey Depot. In a single 5gal bucket, we were able to fit the following items (very tightly organized and packed)... this is just a sample/test bucket we calculated and threw together. There is more than enough water to re-hydrate the contents:

Freeze Dried Meals:
Chicken with Gravy Dressing and Potatoes
Turkey Tetrazzini
Fettuccini Alfredo with Chicken
Pasta Vegetable Parmesan
Garlic Herb Mashed Potatoes (side)
Sicilian Mixed Vegetables (side)
Shepherds Potato Stew with Beef
Seafood Chowder
Garden Vegetable Couscous (side)
2x Spicy Omelet
2x Granola
Salsa

Peaches Dried
Strawberries Dried
Bananas Dried
Ice cream sandwich Dried

1x can of fresh/hydrated corn
3x protein bars

Gear:
5 litres water in litre bottles
1x 377ml pure sugar coca-cola
2x 12oz "beer cans of water"
4x alkaseltzer packs
8x One-a-day vitamins
6x Advil Sinus/Pain pills
12x Bean-o pills
8x various tea bags

3 tsp of OneStep sanitizer (enough for 3 gals of water)
1x can of Sterno fuel
2x forks and spoons
1x bic lighter
1x razor
4x ziplock quart bags
1x roll of TP in a ziplock quart bag
1x fresh/clean terry cloth towel

Still working on a few odd items, but it seems this will work to store food for two folks for about 4 days, and an individual person well over a week. It would seem her goals were accomplished with what she set out to do! I'm lucky to have such an involved wife

 

[bluelady]

Wow, good to know that much can fit in! I'm inspired to try this!

 

[RCSAR]

Can someone post the powdered pool clorine details on buying and mixing for use in making 3% strength "clorox" bleach. I just have no time now to do it.

 

[Seeker]

When you say "freeze dry meals" are you referring to the 1 or 2-person pouches available at most sporting good stores? Emergency Essentials is now offering #2.5 size cans of most Mountain House products as well. (I have no financial interest or connections to Mountain House or EE)!

 

[summerthyme]

Can someone post the powdered pool clorine details on buying and mixing for use in making 3% strength "clorox" bleach. I just have no time now to do it.

Um... you mean 5% bleach, right? That's been the standard for years (unless I'm losing my mind). The newer "concentrated" stuff is 6%

Here's what I found in a quick search:

" You can use granular calcium hypochlorite to disinfect water.
Add and dissolve one heaping teaspoon of high-test granular calcium hypochlorite (approximately ¼ ounce) for each two gallons of water, or 5 milliliters (approximately 7 grams) per 7.5 liters of water. The mixture will produce a stock chlorine solution of approximately 500 milligrams per liter, since the calcium hypochlorite has available chlorine equal to 70 percent of its weight. To disinfect water, add the chlorine solution in the ratio of one part of chlorine solution to each 100 parts of water to be treated. This is roughly equal to adding 1 pint (16 ounces) of stock chlorine to each 12.5 gallons of water or (approximately ½ liter to 50 liters of water) to be disinfected. To remove any objectionable chlorine odor, aerate the disinfected water by pouring it back and forth from one clean container to another. "

(this is 5% bleach, if my math is correct)

Summerthyme

 

[MearKAt]

When you say "freeze dry meals" are you referring to the 1 or 2-person pouches available at most sporting good stores? Emergency Essentials is now offering #2.5 size cans of most Mountain House products as well.

Yes, the freeze dried meals are for two people (except for breakfast meals).

 

[MearKAt]

So after inventorying what my wife purchased from the various stores locally and mostly online, we devised that there should be a few vegetarian meals and protien based (pork, chicken, beef, seafood) meals in each bucket to keep things balanced and allow for variety and accomodations for those not eating meats.

We have put together a couple more buckets, and have balanced a few items across. Largely, these resemble the prior posting, though a few notes:

Backpacker's Pantry is considerably more condensed for the food, though requires more water... Moutain House is the opposite, usually requiring 2cups water for anything 2 servings... Backpackers Pantry, while tasting better, requires sometimes 2.5 - 2.75c of water for a pouch for two!... Things definately to consider...

Wife was smart enough to inventory packs, meals, servings, water requirements, etc!!!

We will post another update with the final configuration of the buckets once they are completed!