Week 7 Food Equipment

I wanted to say THANK YOU to all of you who have talked to me recently about putting together your 72 hour kits.  It's thrilling to hear how many of you are working on them and thinking about them and will start them when you finish your current project.

I hope you all have your food nicely organized and ready to put in your pack.

Week #7  We are going to work on Food Equipment.
This includes anything you may need to eat out of and with, cook with, and clean with so it depends on what you packed.  Do you need a can opener?  Do you prefer paper or plastic products or a mess kit?  If you are boiling water you need to have some of way to heat it as well as something to heat it in. 

I will need some way to boil water for my dinners and 1 lunch so here are some options:

Mountain Oven Flameless Heating Kit - warms pouch meals to 100 degrees without the need for boiling water.  Simply add water to activate.  Comes with 5 heating pouches for $10.99 (May Sale)

Folding Stove with Fuel Tablets - clean fuel that is easy to ignite and smokeless.  Contains 8 tablets for $5.95 each.  $2.75 for an additional 24 tablets.  The tablets burn about 10 minutes.

Canned Heat - You can buy 2 sterno cans for $4.95 at Walmart or 1 can of Heat Cell on Emergency Essentials website for $3.95.  I have been told sternos are toxic so you shouldn't burn them unless you are very well ventilated.  These last about 4 hours for cooking and can be relit.  You need some sort of wire rack to put over them to heat your water.  You can find one at most of these places for around $5-10.

Single Burner Propane Stove - We have something similar to this that Dustin takes backpacking and it works great other than the big propane bottles he has to carry with him.  The butane bottles are much smaller so I would recommend a butane stove over the propane.  Just make sure you have an extra bottle of fuel.

I think any are a good option.  If you have a large family you may want to consider getting multiple heating units so it doesn't take all day to warm the water.  You have to make the decision of what is best for you. 

GOOD LUCK!