There is an odd take in the world of hiking/camping/outdoor meals these days. You are either a freeze-dried or a dehydrated company. This is just an oddity I have noticed. It used to be that companies often interchanged ingredients – and most companies still do. Dehydration is having a bit of a renaissance in what feels like a stand-up to the freeze-dried craze, which is OK, of course. I have always felt both methods can coexist, and in our recipe development, I often use ingredients from both sides.
Farm To Summit meals fall into the dehydrated category. They have this posted in their FAQ section:
“The dehydration process helps our meals maintain their original taste, texture, and nutrition value – which are often lost while freeze-drying. Dehydration also allows us to capture large amounts of ingredients from our farms during the farming season! These ingredients are then added to your meals throughout the rest of the year.”
My only issue with this is… that it isn’t necessarily true! If anything, dehydration shrinks the food considerably, whereas freeze-drying keeps it the same size. Food can become leathery with dehydration as well. I am not trying to be a pedantic jerk, but smearing freeze-drying isn’t fair. And freeze-drying allows one to capture large amounts of ingredients during the farming season (as we farm, and yes, I freeze-dry and dehydrate in season). It’s OK to prefer one method over the other, but there’s room for everyone’s preferences in the market of commercial meals. Fresh is best when eating produce, but both dehydrating and freeze-drying still conserve most of the nutritional value. But a war between the camps isn’t needed.
Moving on:
I will give props for their use of compostable packaging. From their site:
“So you’ve heard of biodegradable, compostable, and of course recyclable but what the heck is this omni – degradable? To put it simply, Omnidegradable means that the packaging will break down in any environment where microbes are present.. even a landfill.”
TO DISPOSE:
- Backyard compost
- Burn in contained fire
- Trash – even in a completely anerobic landfill they will break down into organic matter in 1-5 years
- Recycle – when stripped to single layers
Sarah’s thoughts:
I think this is a great step up from traditional Mylar packaging. It doesn’t need to be composted commercially and will break down in landfills. This works great as long as you are not using the meals for long-term food storage (buying and saving for 5 to 20 years out, for example). And keep in mind how you store your meals – keep them in a dry environment.
Outside of splitting hairs, let’s talk about meals and how they smell/taste!
The company makes vegetarian—and vegan-friendly meals and has 11 meals in its lineup. We picked up two to try: a pasta dish and a corn grits meal. Since I love Green Chiles, I was a sucker for that.
The company was founded by a couple in Colorado who definitely love the great outdoors.
This meal retails for $13.50. Weight is 6.3 ounces.
The serving size is 2. Whether or not this will fill up two people is up to the eater’s appetite, so I am giving the stats for the package.
700 calories / 15 grams fat / 1100 mg sodium / 28 grams protein / 124 grams carbs
Ingredients: Egg Noodle (Durum Wheat Flour and Egg), Whole Milk, Yellow Cheddar Cheese (Milk, Salt, Cheese Cultures and Enzymes, Whey, Buttermilk, Salt, Disodium Phosphate, Annatto Extract), Tomato, Fire-Roasted Green Chile, Butter (Sweet Cream, Salt, Nonfat Milk), Paprika, Salt, Black Pepper.
This pasta dish has some heat! The pasta has a great texture and a good cheese sauce.
Following the directions, I poured 1 cup of the leftover soaking water into the pasta. I added the dry cheese sauce packet and needed to add about ¼ cup of that reserved water to get a creamy sauce. The water is definitely all flavored from the veggies in the pasta, so it could be a hot sip if you like it.
This meal retails for $8.50. Weight is 3.5 ounces.
The serving size is 2. However, this is not a big meal, so I highly suggest you view it as a single serving. The package nutritional stats for the pouch are:
340 calories / 10 grams fat / 900 mg sodium / 10 grams protein / 54 grams carbs
Ingredients: Yellow Grits (Yellow Corn Meal), Whole Milk, Yellow Cheddar Cheese (Milk, Salt, Cheese Cultures and Enzymes, Whey, Buttermilk, Salt, Disodium Phosphate, Annatto Extract), Butter (Sweet Cream, Salt, Nonfat Milk), Tomato, Fire-Roasted Green Chile, Salt, Smoked Paprika, Black Pepper.
Stir well with a long-handled spoon as you add the water. Dry grits can get pockets, so stir very, very well. I let mine sit for 15 minutes, which meant all the veggies were fully rehydrated.
Smooth texture, nice and thick and creamy. Not spicy at all. I very much enjoyed this dish, and would happily enjoy it again.
The Takeaway:
The two meals reviewed had a 2-year shelf life, which gives plenty of time to enjoy them in the outdoors. However, they are not long-term storage meals. This is due to dehydrated ingredients but mostly due to the packaging. Compostable pouches have a far shorter life span than Mylar bags. This isn’t a negative; I love seeing more options, not just going straight to the landfill for eternity. It’s forward-thinking for a better future.
The ingredients in the meals are short and simple. No preservatives are used. That is quite refreshing.
Sodium levels are decent. It isn’t bad, even if you eat an entire pouch. Some other brands’ meals can have 2500 mg of sodium for the same size. So, if you watch your sodium intake and have a smaller appetite, these can work well if you eat only one serving.
A cute feature on the packaging is a “How Spicy” meter, which tells you if you will like it based on your taste buds. I like spicy food, but I know not everyone does, so you’ll know if it is for you.
I enjoyed the meals and found the flavors to be good—and they were not salt licks. They also didn’t taste “vegetarian”; if you are a meat eater, they taste like food you might have at home, not a trip to The Hippy Hut. This is a huge positive. When food tastes good, you are less likely to miss meat!
FTC Disclaimer:
We purchased the product used in this review. All thoughts and opinions are ours.
~Sarah