Hi, has anyone used the commercially available freeze dried foods available under the Thrive brand? I know that Briden in Alberta sells some of the products, but it seems that the freeze-dried meats and dairy products are not available in Canada. I am guessing that it has to do with importation from the States, but given how much US raised beef is available in Canada, I find it surprising that there is a lack of availability here. Even Costco in Alberta, buys Alberta beef which has been shipped to the US for processing and then returned here for sale (which I suspect means higher costs for all of us) in their stores. Thrive has a "home party" concept that might be worthwhile exploring but given the distances between prepper locations, would anyone be interested? 😛

I purchased a small amount of it from Incaseof out of Lethbridge. So far the "dried applies" don't taste that good. I purchased a few other things but haven't tried them yet but I plan to over the next couple weeks. I definitely recommend trying a few things before buying a whole truckload.

We have got a large supply from In Case Of and from costco. As with any freeze dried food, I dont find any of it really tasty now but when SHTH and i have a choice of freeze dry or worms i bet they will taste awesome. I havn't had trouble getting meats from In Case Of. At least not yet.

Thrive brand sells a kind of meat imitation called textured vegetable protein or TVP. It's protein that tastes like meat . I used to eat it on long hikes and when I was a veggie head. Can't beat the best before date on the stuff though.

If you want dried meat from Alberta i suggest trying to dehydrate ground beef from a local butcher. It's super easy to dehydrate meat. Especially ground - it re-hydrates quicker than whole meat like jerky.

Check out hamburger rocks on this site.
http://www.endtimesreport.com/manna.html

If you are looking for another option, try www.wisefoodsupply.com. I'm waiting to hear back from these folks to see if I can order individual packages of food that we might be interested in buying large quantities of before actually investing in a year supply.

Thanks for the information and the alternative websites. I am going to try the "hamburger rocks" and would really like to hear about the flavours of the products that people are trying out. I have canned a lot but it is heavy to move around, have made jerky, homemade sausage and back bacon (which is really good but disappears far too quickly!) but the rocks and the commercially freeze-dried products would allow for a little more variety. I, too, would rather be enjoying some bland freeze-dried instead of worms and cockroaches.

Any other comments about the various freeze-dried products would be appreciated.

Thanks, 😀

I've also dehydrated meals - for backpacking primarily - but have had great success with them. Ground meat and pulled meat rehydrate just fine. Cut chunks of meat don't rehydrate very quickly. I've even done sausage rocks - must wash out fat after cooking. It's the fat that goes rancid and decreases shelf life. But the extra lean beef dehydrated makes good storage food without having to spend tonnes of $, all you need is a dehydrator.

Thanks for the information and the alternative websites. I am going to try the "hamburger rocks" and would really like to hear about the flavours of the products that people are trying out. I have canned a lot but it is heavy to move around, have made jerky, homemade sausage and back bacon (which is really good but disappears far too quickly!) but the rocks and the commercially freeze-dried products would allow for a little more variety. I, too, would rather be enjoying some bland freeze-dried instead of worms and cockroaches.

Any other comments about the various freeze-dried products would be appreciated.

Thanks, 😀

G'day Morningcoffee,

I'll try to be as honest as possible here for everyone's sake. We have been using the Thrive brand day in day out for nearly three years now in our home. Fruits I love - Freeze Dried Pineapple, strawberries, grapes - basically what I love in real life. My good wife cooks with the freeze dried veggies all the time, throwing in a handful of celery, broccoli, mushroom etc. We both really appreciate the tears free freeze dried chopped onions. For the grains, I like pancakes and I have tried probly 5 times now to get a consistency I like with the pancake mix - seems very thick to me, but the taste is still good. For the TVP - or meat alternatives - they taste how they are suppose to taste, and give the nutritional value, but sometimes going overboard on spice or salt.

On to the good stuff - freeze dried real meats, dairy and desserts. Wow. So yes, we are not able to sell this stuff in our store due to border issues and government regulations. Briden is registered as a consultant in their home party program though and that allows us to take orders just like normal and then have the US warehouse ship it straight to you. For the Freeze dried real meats - really enjoying them so far, not having to cook my ground beef for half an hour before even getting to the real part of cooking the meal - wow, love it. I was very skeptical on taste as I looked at the products, they don't look like they are going to taste good, but they taste totally how they are suppose to taste. Was a little disappointed with the ham so far, was pretty chewy, but maybe I didn't rehydrate it properly. The milk tasted just like milk, and the interesting part there is that you can adjust the consistency to whatever you like, which you obviously can't do with grocery store milk.

The absolute favorite for me is the freeze dried yogurt. Which is a total surprise because I don't eat yogurt normally. But wow, its like candy, and I eat it like such, having a very hard time not eating all my samples while at the store.

We can get all sorts of sizes for most of the products, so if you wanted to sample and your local you can either stop by the store and we can pull out the buffet, or you can order the sample sizes. Overall and totally honest, not just because I sell the stuff, but because we use it in our home everyday, and I am very impressed. We've been storing all sorts of products for many years, and storage food has come along way and we completely back the Thrive line because we use it and love it.

Morning Coffee,

I have tried a few different Thrive Products and give them a Thumbs up.

I started a Freeze Dried/Dehydrated Foods Review Thread on this Forum http://internationalpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=229

Hope it helps.

BTW: I buy most of my Freeze Dried Products from Briden Solutions (The same who posted here) Great Little Company. So if your looking for a good supplier they're definitely worth checking out.

Thanks everyone. We will have to make arrangements to get down to Cochrane to check out the "goodies", but time commitments this summer are going to keep us closer to home for the most part. Recipe suggestions are great because sometimes having a product on your shelf doesn't always give you an idea of how others are using them. Thanks again,
😀

I too am a retailer of Thrive for over 2 years and now a Consultant too. And I definetly like FD over dehydrated foods. I am making my way through everything we sell to see what I personally like and so far I like everything I have tried. I just tried the FD apricots and actually ate the whole can for snacks, un-rehydrated! My daughter LOVES the strawberries, and since she is a very picky eater and the price and quality of strawberries in the winter is not very good I have no problem opening a can for her. I like the FD peas better than canned peas too. Making Jar mixes for soups in winter is also something that I tired last winter and will expand on more when the weather gets cold again. I also find that using the raspberries in muffins works very well- no going bad in the fridge, there when you need them and also since I through them in dry the muffins don't get really mushy around the berries. I think using your food storage is a good way to rotate and practice cooking with it before you need too! That way you will know how each rehydrate, taste, and work in your recipes. For instance, the FD cheese and butter should be rehydrated and left to cool over night for the best taste and consistancy to what we are used to, but of course in an emergency situation this is not necessary. To be honest I don't eat alot of meat and I am sensitive to soy, so TVP is not a viable option for me, but I did eat it a few times and really liked the beef TVP, more so then real hamburger in spaghetti sauce! Really it comes down to personal taste, so to me it makes sense to try it. What I have been doing lately is buying the smaller pantry cans and pouches to try in recipes and to give to people. It is a great way to try the product out!

I was at a sporting good store by Costco in SE Calgary and purchased three packages of "Mountain House" freeze dried products to try-out on my family tonight for supper and thought I'd share our experience with you all.

Mountain House was the brand and their macaroni & cheese was really good but was missing the macaroni...it had a tiny bit but was 90% cheese and 10% macaroni. We also tried their beef teriyaki with rice and found it really flavorable for a freeze dried food; it had tiny bits of beef but mainly rice with seasoning in it. My husband and I tried the "Buffalo Style Chicken" and holly toledo-it's hot! This food is certainly for those who can handle hot sauce! (Maybe a good thing to feed the kids when they're caught cussing.) lol 😆 After trying Mountain House mac'n'cheese, I'm not sure my kids will ever ask for KD again unless their starving but they'd definitely want me to add more macaroni to it!

Mountaineer's Wife

We've enjoyed the Mountain House freeze dried entrees as well when out camping. I can't recall the exact products off hand but we've had omelets and stroganoff. We both liked them and were surprised at the flavour. Just add boiling water to the bag and voila! I do recall they were a bit on the salty side for those who don't use a lot of salt; this could be a factor to get used to.

We have MRE's from Costco and TVP entrees, vegetables and fruit from Briden but have not yet tasted them. We're of the opinion that as adults who are starving; we'll eat what we have. Maybe I should crack something open for the upcoming AB meet?? Gotta think about it.

A preppers potluck could be a good future meeting if we did it in the Red Deer area... more central for everyone. I can't imagine what we'd have on the menu though 😯

Hhere at the farmers market in lethbridge I found a lady who sells thrive products as a home based business and also does home parties like Tupperware. I checked out the website after she gave me her card. Ther they have actual freeze dried meets vs the tvp. But it's almost 3x the price. You can order the product from her or online and it's less expensive than incaseof or Costco. It also offers a wider variety then those stores. They even have freeze dried iice cream bars! When shtf wouldn't it be nice to chow down on that? They also have prepackaged meals in sealed bags. Once you open a can you have to use it pretty much right away, unless you take a recipe book they offer and dry can the ingredients. This prolongs the shelf life once you open the can and all you have to do is add water and bam you have taco soup or sloppy joes etc. Hope this helps anyone who is interested in buying.

If you go to www.canthrive.shelfreliance.com youcan get more info on there. They also carry the products in a variety of sizes.