I’m packing a bunch of freeze dried meals in rectangular pouches. My Bear Vaults are cylindrical. Anyone know a better way than stuffing, finagling, crushing these meals into a bear resistant container?
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Rectangular Bear Can
- Thread starter Black_Fly
- Start date
If it helps you can try piercing each pouch with a pin, squeezing the air out and then covering the hole with a piece of tape. We don't rehydrate our meals in the pouches so will repackage in less bulky bags to take up less space
Open up the packages and pour the contents into the canister? Then just scoop it out by the cupful at mealtime?
;-)
In smaller cans, e.g. the Bare Boxer, I sometimes from the perimeter to the center. For bigger cans, like the Counter Assault Bear Keg, I stack more and try. But it's all just finagling.
On a related note, REI has entered the bear can game:
;-)
In smaller cans, e.g. the Bare Boxer, I sometimes from the perimeter to the center. For bigger cans, like the Counter Assault Bear Keg, I stack more and try. But it's all just finagling.
On a related note, REI has entered the bear can game:
Commercial freeze dried meal in a bag.........in a bear vault?
Pointless! Certainly in black bear country, maybe in grizzly country. In polar bear country they want to eat YOU, they have no interest in freeze dried food unless you are freeze drying seal meat!
Pointless! Certainly in black bear country, maybe in grizzly country. In polar bear country they want to eat YOU, they have no interest in freeze dried food unless you are freeze drying seal meat!
The pinhole could be at the top, preserving the bag for rehydration. This seems like a great idea.
Mountain House seals some air into their pouches to provide some cushioning to protect the contents. My understanding is that Mountain House "Pro Pak" meals are the same as the regular meals but with little to no air to make the meals store more compactly.
Mountain House is having a sale right now with free shipping. Some of their #10 cans are half off. Nancy and I usually by our freeze dried meats when they are half off and use off-the-shelf grocery store items and bulk freeze dried fruits and veggies (usually bought from https://www.northbaytrading.com/) to package our own meals and vacuum seal them.
If we're going to use the meal within a week or so we don't vacuum pack them. They go into a Glad freezer weight bag and, depending on the meal get rehydrated in the bag or in a pot. When we make meals ahead we leave out anything that has a chance of containing moisture and pack them in vacuum sealed canning jars with note. They keep indefinitely that way. When we get close to the departure we bag the meal and tape another bag with any add-ins to it. For example, we often make a package of a Thanksgiving meal kind of mix and attach a bag with some craisins to it. Since the craisins have moisture they don't go in with the freeze dried and dehydrated stuff. They get added at the time of rehydration.
The stuffing mix, gravy mix, minced garlic and onion are grocery store items. The chicken/turkey, sweet potatoes and corn are freeze dried. Freeze died broccoli, cauliflower or peas are sometimes added to this meal. And sometimes the craisins get augmented by some cut up dried apple and/or some coarsely chopped pecans.
Lance
Mountain House is having a sale right now with free shipping. Some of their #10 cans are half off. Nancy and I usually by our freeze dried meats when they are half off and use off-the-shelf grocery store items and bulk freeze dried fruits and veggies (usually bought from https://www.northbaytrading.com/) to package our own meals and vacuum seal them.
If we're going to use the meal within a week or so we don't vacuum pack them. They go into a Glad freezer weight bag and, depending on the meal get rehydrated in the bag or in a pot. When we make meals ahead we leave out anything that has a chance of containing moisture and pack them in vacuum sealed canning jars with note. They keep indefinitely that way. When we get close to the departure we bag the meal and tape another bag with any add-ins to it. For example, we often make a package of a Thanksgiving meal kind of mix and attach a bag with some craisins to it. Since the craisins have moisture they don't go in with the freeze dried and dehydrated stuff. They get added at the time of rehydration.
The stuffing mix, gravy mix, minced garlic and onion are grocery store items. The chicken/turkey, sweet potatoes and corn are freeze dried. Freeze died broccoli, cauliflower or peas are sometimes added to this meal. And sometimes the craisins get augmented by some cut up dried apple and/or some coarsely chopped pecans.
Lance
The Mountain House Pro Pack are just a "scam" (I really dislike using that word, it gets tossed out so often that it has become meaningless)
The Pro Pack meals a slightly more than half the weight of the regular bags because they contain just a bit more than half the amount of food. They are TRULY a meal for one, a meal that leaves you hungry for more just like actually splitting a traditional "2 serving" meal resulting in two hungry people.
That said they have removed the pretty pointless air pillow effect of their old meals and so have many of the brands, shipping is expensive and most of the expense is based on size rather than weight (dimensional weight is used almost universally these days). When you fill up the trailer of an 18 wheeler you are paying almost the same rate for a load of pillows as you would for a load of bricks, the bricks would be somewhat more expensive because heavy goods burns more diesel but the cost of driving a truck across the country is mostly the cost of drivers and equipment depreciation.
FYI - Alpine Aire and Backpackers Pantry meals contain very little air.
The Pro Pack meals a slightly more than half the weight of the regular bags because they contain just a bit more than half the amount of food. They are TRULY a meal for one, a meal that leaves you hungry for more just like actually splitting a traditional "2 serving" meal resulting in two hungry people.
That said they have removed the pretty pointless air pillow effect of their old meals and so have many of the brands, shipping is expensive and most of the expense is based on size rather than weight (dimensional weight is used almost universally these days). When you fill up the trailer of an 18 wheeler you are paying almost the same rate for a load of pillows as you would for a load of bricks, the bricks would be somewhat more expensive because heavy goods burns more diesel but the cost of driving a truck across the country is mostly the cost of drivers and equipment depreciation.
FYI - Alpine Aire and Backpackers Pantry meals contain very little air.
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