We have been wanting to get food insulation pouches for quite some time, but never got around to it. You can get them for $15- $50, ranging from simple to fancy. They are not hard to find in stores or online. The insulated bags help freeze-dried food rehydrate better and keep it hot longer. I cannot attest to the fact that the food rehydrates better, but it’s what “they” say. It makes sense that keeping the water hot for longer helps the rehydration process.
Back in the late eighties and early nineties, MREs did NOT rehydrate very well. AT ALL. When we were out in the field, we bartered with our MRE items. If you got the pork patty, you were out of luck. It had zero barter-ability. I once tried to soak the patty for my dog. My dog refused to even try it. <giggle> The pork patties were THAT nasty. They seemed to stay hard no matter how long you soaked them in water. If you happened to get the chocolate bar in your MRE, it was worth its weight in gold. <laughter> You could get any MRE item your heart desired with a chocolate bar!
The newer meals like Next Mile Meals, rehydrate quite well. The meat seems to be a little crunchy even when rehydrated, but it is much tastier than what I remember freeze dried meat being in my Army days. What do we think the insulated food pouches will help with? We think keeping the water hot longer will help rehydrate the meat better, making it softer. Which leads me to the point of this entry. I repurposed an old North Face jacket to make insulated food pouches and insulated pouches for our Grayl Geopress filters.
Just over 4 years ago, I ordered a North Face sleeping bag. What they sent to me was a size medium North Face jacket. They ended up sending me a sleeping bag, which was great, but I ended up with a medium jacket. I am not a size medium. Sure, I could zip it up….. but it could be a tight squeeze. Sometime last year, the zipper broke and I would wear the jacket from time to time when it was chilly to do yard chores. I picked up dog poop. Ha ha
A few nights ago, I was going through items in my closet and deciding what to donate and what to toss. Before my 57th birthday, I decided that level 57 was going to be about wearing comfortable shoes. No more heels that kill my feet. No matter how cute the shoes are! I have donated quite a few pairs to Next Step Ministries, but had a really cute lavender pair and a sage green pair sitting, waiting to be donated. I couldn’t give them away with my last purge, so there they sat waiting for me to decide I could finally let them go, I tossed the shoes into the bag and kept on purging. If I haven’t worn it in a few years, it goes into the donation bag. I still have a few pairs of heels waiting to be donated. It’s hard to let go of pretty shoes. Oh so very hard.
I was about to trow the North Face jacket into the trash (can’t donate it with a broken zipper) when I had an epiphany! I could sew insulated food pouches from the jacket. I got Marty involved in this project. As we were deciding on the design and had fetched the velcro from the basement for the closures, I had another idea—why use velcro if the food bags will fit in the zippered pockets?
We cut the jacket and it only took a few minutes for me to sew it together. Once we completed the insulated food pouches, we decided that we could make pouches for our water filters. This would keep them warm on colder days and we can toss the pouches into our sleeping bags at night, as well. It will keep the filters warm and keep any water that may leak out from getting us wet in our sleeping bags.
I’m planning on trying my new food pouch out today. Marty works every other weekend, so I plan on taking Ghost on a short hike somewhere using my 11L Osprey backpack. We will stop for lunch, fire up the stove and try a freeze-dried meal prepared using the insulated food pouch!
My Little Red Bike 