‘Twas ‘generator day’ yesterday. Pulled the EU2000 outta storage, fired it up, plugged in the leaf blower, and spent an hour blowing leaves around. I try to run the generator every month but I’ve been a tad remiss about it.
Good thing I did it though, because I woke up this morning to a few inches of snow which means it’s less about leaf blowing and more about snow blowing today. (That’s a lot of blowing, I tell ya).
I’m trying very hard not to make every single post related to a) the election and b) guns. But, man, it’s tough. So, let’s just keep on keeping on with some of the things that have been going around here before this election.
Mountain House has been floating a survey around asking peoples opinions about lowering the shelf life on some of their products. Sounds like MH is going to become the New Coke of survival food. The reasoning, I suspect, is that if they offer ‘tiers’ of shelf life (Product line A is 15 year, Product line B is 30 year) it may open up pricing, packaging, and content opportunities that they can’t do with their present life span. I, of course, think this is a fabulously fatal idea. I’ve spent 40 years thinking of MH as the 800-pound gorilla of the ‘survival food’ industry and that was all predicated on their long shelf life. Of course, getting nay of the #10 cans out of MH is a bit of a fools errand right now. Fortunately, I covered that base years ago.
It’s interesting, come to think of it, that it’s only been in this year that I’ve had so many moments of ‘glad I stockpiled those…’ in regards to things.
I’ve been using and stocking Augason Farms products as a somewhat cheaper alternative to MH. It was very amusing some years ago (during the Obama ‘pockyclips with the threatened EMP disaster) to see WalMart selling it, and I believe they still do. They’re based in Salt Lake City, so I presume they’re Mormons. I did once download and print out the LDS Preparedness Manual, and it is excellent.
I’ve used MH in backpacking, mountaineering, and winter camping, and it is excellent though pricey.
As MH has changed their offerings in recent years, I’ve been buying some from Augason. MH used to offer vegetables and some other stand alone products in addition to entrees and meat – like veggies. They don’t now, so I have to get them elsewhere. I prefer cans for better storage over the plastic and mylar Augason uses.
Over the last decade, MH has been the gold standard as other companies come and go… I’d be curious to find out how their sales have been and how much (if any) effect the competition is having.
I noticed the big deal they made of their “clean label”. What they didn’t mention was the MUCH higher cost the new cans carry.
Some of their competitors have 5, 10, and 15 year shelf lives – I wonder if this makes it cheaper to produce (less testing, cheaper packaging, etc.) or if, as you speculate, they will make the 30 year product their flagship item and charge more for it. Hmm
Time will tell, but I’m with you on this – if they go through with this, it doesn’t bode well for them long term.
I think they are jumping on the bandwagon the entire medical/pharmaceutical industry has taken. Things like aspirin and Tylenol originally didn’t have expiration dates. I think that it was in the 70’s that they started, but had like 10 years or more. When I was a NYC paramedic in the 80’s, we had to check the expiration date of everything in our drug box when the shift started each day. The dates on most of the injectables was about 5-7 years out. Now they are all about one year out. Do you have any idea how many expired but perfectly good (and EXPENSIVE) things MUST be thrown away for liability reasons? And of course they need to be replaced. Every Damn Year.
I have no problem taking an ibuprofen tablet that is 6 years past it’s expiration date, but you wouldn’t believe how many people throw them away.
I’m not sure if it’s a scam or the company’s legal department or counsel pushed them into it, but it’s just another way we are getting ripped off.
By the way, we’ve had about 5 accumulating snowfalls here this year so far, and several weeks of 20 degree nights starting in early September, but it was 71 yesterday and 73 today. Crazy.
I took the survey. They specifically ask about how you feel if the shelf life is shortened by changing the packaging in the name of “sustainability”. They also mention reducing waste sent to landfills.
I slammed the idea everywhere I could, and wrote quite a bit in the “tell us more” box. I mentioned that I buy it to sustain ME in an emergency, I consider it a LONG TERM investment given the cost, and I wouldn’t want them to do anything in the name of “sustainability” or any other idea that would shorten the shelf life or quality.
Hopefully the customer segment that buys it just in case, wins out over the customer that buys it and actually eats it frequently.
While it might be nice to have a lower cost option, they never mention cost as a driver, only sustainability. And even if they went with lower cost at the expense of life, that just means most outlets would only stock the cheaper stuff, making it that much harder to get the “good” stuff.
That said, I’ve got Auguson Farms on the shelf too. And some horrible knockoff brand that even the rats didn’t like. I was not heartbroken to find that all spoiled by vermin, not actually eaten, just every packet nibbled.
WRT how MH is doing as a company? All their stock sold out completely, they had so many orders they reduced SKUs and only made the most popular items, and they’ve only now started to catch up with demand. If you can’t make money under those conditions, you should hang it up. I think they’re doing alright.
nick
And wrt price increases, EVERYTHING is up. Most of the food I buy is up 30 to 100% or is in much smaller packages at the same or only slightly increased prices. Very few items are the same price or cheaper than pre-covid.
n
I think it is better to stock food components than whole meals..
Take a cue from the backpacking community, esp the lightweight packers. There are tons of recipes & recipe books also.
That is, have a can each of freeze dried shrooms + cream +chicken + onions + instant rice and make your own mixes.
Also stock lots of salt, whole peppercorns, granulated garlic, etc so you can control the seasoning.
Seeds for spices also a good idea to be able to grow & dehydrate your own.
A premade mix for longterm storage runs the risk of part of it going bad and then the whole thing is gone.
Once you open a #10 can, a home vacuum sealer is also a good idea.