By The Ready Store

While many of us are excited for the hot weather of summer, others are worried about another type of heat: Wildfires!

Groups like the Westcoast Wildland Strike Teams, based in Portland, Ore., spend weeks on end camping out fighting wildfires across the coast.

And while fighting fires to protect our communities, who do the Westcoast Wildland Strike Teams depend on? The Ready Store!

We were so excited to receive this letter last week from Kevin Hawke, Engine Boss and Emergency Medical Technician for the WWST.

Dear The Ready Store,

On behalf of Westcoast Wildland Strike Teams from Portland, Oregon, I would like to extend a big “thank you!” for providing us with such great products for our busy fire seasons.

While out fighting forest fires all summer my engine crew is often “spike camped,” which means we must stay out in the woods for several weeks at a time, and we are in charge of our own food and water supply. Proper nutrition is vital while working 20 hour shifts, and we appreciate an easily prepared hot meal to keep us going strong.

The MRE’s, #10 cans, and freeze-dried food pouches store perfectly in our engine compartments, and can withstand the bumpy conditions of our engines driving up and over bumpy logging roads all day.

While covered from head to toe with black ash, and nodding off from exhaustion, the last thing I want to think about is how to prepare food for up to 16 firefighters. The MRE’s, the freeze-dried food in #10 cans, and the pouches are considered delicacies out there compared to the “food” we are given by the commanding agency.

We also have a few vegetarians in our company, so we appreciate the vegetarian options available.

We will continue to use The Ready Store exclusively as our food and water supplier!

Once again we extend a big THANK YOU, and we will continue to use your products while we are protecting life, property, and the environment. Have a great day!

Kevin Hawke
Engine Boss & Emergency Medical Technician
Westcoast Wildland Strike Teams

Thank you Kevin for protecting us! We hope to continue making good products that your strike team will enjoy!

If you’d like to send us an e-mail about our products, you can e-mail customerservice@thereadystore.com. You can also review a specific product by clicking on “Add Your Review” next to the product photo after logging into your account.

You can also receive 50 ReadyRewards points for each review you do! (Limit 10 reviews per day.)

By The Ready Store

We often get questions about the manufacture dates printed on our #10 cans.

Cans of food.
Previously, The Ready Store placed a Julian calendar date on our #10 cans, however, we have recently simplified the everything by printing new, easy-to-read manufacturer dates!

MREs.
Meals-Ready-to-Eat are primarily used by the United States military, which uses a Julian calendar. Click on this link to see how MRE manufacture dates are figured.

Expiration Dates
Many times, people will ask us “Why don’t you just put an expiration date on the can?” The reason is because the expiration date depends on your storage environment. Ideally, you would store the food in an environment with temperatures between 60-75 °F.

Manufacture Dates
The Ready Store is in the process of changing the way we label our cans. While we previously listed a Julian Calendar date, we will now be labeling our #10 cans with easy-to-read dates!

MREs, which are manufactured by the same companies who provides MREs to the military, will continue to use the Julian Calendar system and we have no ability to influence a change. You can learn more about decoding the MRE manufacture dates here.

Julian Calendar
We realize that many people will have food they purchased in their food storage pantry with the julian date stamps. So, we thought it would be important to highlight how you can figure out the numbers date based on the Julian Calendar.

The Julian Calendar has been around for centuries. In our day, it is widely used on a wide variety of manufactured products as a standard means of dating. It is also used by parts of the military and as an astrological measurement. The Julian Calendar is basically a continuous count of days starting January 1, 4713 BC.

The Ready Store used a modified version of the Julian Calendar. Let me show you some examples:

So in the first example, you can see that the Julian date is 10229. This means that the product was manufactured in 2010 on the 229th day of the year.

In the second example, the Julian date is 11067. This option includes a bath reference number and a product code. The Julian code will show that 11067 was manufactured on March 8, 2011.

The last example highlights the Julian date a little more. It puts a dash between the batch reference number and the Julian code. 11143 would translate to May 23, 2011.

Print Out
We’ve also prepared a printable sheet that you can keep with your food storage documents in order to reference the dates in case of an emergency or power outage.

Click here to view the PDF.

Calories can be one of the most important aspects of a food storage meal. It is important to find a food storage supply that is balanced and provides enough calories in case of an emergency. EverydayHealth.com states:

As a general rule, people need a minimum of 1,200 calories daily to stay healthy. People who have a strenuous fitness routine or perform many daily activities need more calories. If you have reduced your calorie intake below 1,200 calories a day, you could be hurting your body …

“Consuming less than 1,200 calories per day may make it difficult to meet vitamin and mineral needs via food,” says nutrition therapist Andrea Spivack, MA, RD, LDN, with Penn Behavioral Health at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. (Read the original article.)

Typically, the first outward sign of undernutrition is a drop in body fat, according to Medline Plus, a service of the National Institutes of Health, or NIH. In serious cases, bones protrude, cheeks appear hollow, hair falls out and skin becomes inelastic and thin.

Other symptoms of undernutrition include loss of appetite, irritability, unresponsiveness, fatigue and an inability to stay warm. Patients will find it hard to complete everyday tasks due to weakness. More serious complications can also occur, depending on the severity of the calorie deficiency. (Read the original article at LiveStrong.com)

MREs are great!  The MRE flameless heaters are great.  There is no denying that, but how do you heat up your MRE without one?  One of the most common ways, besides the MRE flameless heater, is to boil some water and put your pouch in the boiling water.

What if you are without a pot, heat and water?  For the answer I went to the best source I knew: a retired Lt. Col in the US Army.  Here are just a few of the ideas he gave me.

Option 1. Your car is one of the best heat sources for your MREs.  Just lay your MRE pouch on the intake manifold after driving around for a little bit.  Lay the pouch flat and wait about 5-8 minutes, turn over for even heating.

Option 2. When the sun is out for long periods of time dashboards are wonderful for heating them up.

Option 3. In the winter you can put your MRE pouch on the defrost vents of your dashboard and crank up the heat.  Added bonus is you stay warm all the while heating up your dinner.

Option 4. If you are in a desert area you can put the MRE pouches in about one inch deep of sand.  You can simply leave the pouch out on a hot blacktop road, or any surface that is hot.  The roof of your home gets pretty warm at times too!

Option 5. You can make a solar oven out of tin foil.  Make a box inside another box and line it with foil.  Put your MRE pouch inside the box and wait for the sun to reflect its heat inwards.   If that is to much work for you, you can empty your MRE contents on a piece of foil and have the sun heat up your food that way. Think tinfoil dinners.

The Lieutenant mentioned that you can use the exhaust pipe of your car though I wouldn’t recommended it.  You can easily burn yourself and sometimes the metal get too hot for the pouches and melt or blow up.

If all of this fails, you can simply just eat the MRE as is.  You don’t have to heat up MREs but they sure taste better when you do!

Got a creative way to heat up your MREs?

Leave us comments and suggestions!

Many people know that MRE stands for Meal Ready to Eat and that they are used by the US Military but few know the history behind this innovative and life sustaining product.

MREs first came into existence in 1981 to replace the heavy canned Meal, Combat, Individual Rations (MCI) meals that had been in use since the Civial War in the 1860s. The full meals consisted mostly of beef, peas, and rice. Over time the military tried various methods to reduce weight, one effort was to send troops dried or salted meats so that they could carry the meals with them.

The Department of Defense began development of Meals Ready to Eat in 1963 in which modern food preparation and packaging technologies were being implemented to help bring down the weight of the rations. Various versions were experimented with over time to better serve their purpose.

Other interesting MRE Facts

- Commercial graphics were added to packaging in 1994 as studies showed increased consumption by the troops
- In 1984 biodegradeable spoons were introduced for a friendlier environmental impact.
- Military grade MRE are not available to the public but the same manufacturers create civilian MREs that are legal to supply to the public.
- MRE cases must be able to withstand a 1,250 foot parachute drop.

If you’re like me, you like to find ways to make your life as simple as possible.  This approach can be vital in an emergency.  But in addition to simple and easy, when it comes to food you also want to make sure that you’re eating right and getting the vitamins, minerals and vital calories needed to give you the energy to cope with that emergency.  These are exactly the needs the modern day MRE is designed to address.

MRE’s are not only a great option for an emergency, but also for camping, hiking, or other forms  of outdoor activities.  Personally, a MRE Ultimate Self-Heating Full Meal is my top choice when I hit the trail.  When a sandwich and some trail mix were my common meal for out door activities, I always ended up burning through that food within a matter of hours. Now, when I have my MRE Full Meal it provides me with enough snacks as well as a hearty meal to keep me going all day long.

There were originally designed to address the military’s need for a quick and easy meal for personnel in the field. But are now also available to the general public.

On a daily basis I speak with former men and women who has served our great nation and have discovered The Ready Store and it’s great selection of MRE’s.  Most military love MRE’s and The Ready Store is a place where they can purchase a dependable meal and enjoy the same great meals that they had when they were in the service.

If you have any friends or family that have served in the military, talk with them about MRE’s and see what they think.  It might be interesting to get their take on MRE’s, ask them how they think they compare to Freeze-Dried food, (another popular, on the go emergency food option).

If they do not know what Freeze-Dried food is, then just direct them to our site where we have a vast amount of information on Freeze-Dried food and also we have YouTube videos like:

• All about Freeze-Dried Food
• FAQ How do I prepare Freeze-Dried Food
• FAQ What does Freeze-Dried Food look like?

We also have some great videos on MRE’s! Here’s some quick links to view some educational MRE videos:

• MRE Ultimate Self Heating Full Meal Case of 12
• FAQ How does MRE Heater work.
• FAQ What is the Nutritional Value of a MRE.

If you’ve had MRE’s before I’d love to hear your thoughts, comments and experiences with MRE’s.

By The Ready Store

We often get the question of why an MRE doesn’t have an expiration date printed on it.

You may have noticed that your MRE’s have a funny number at the bottom. What is that thing? This is a Julian Date or code.

Where did Julian Dates come from?

Julian Dates, abbreviated JD, are simply a continuous count of days and fractions since noon Universal Time on January 1, 4713 BCE (on the Julian calendar). Ha, clear as mud right?

Basically, Jan. 1, 4713 BCE was day 1. Jan. 2, 4713 was day 2 and so forth. However, almost 2.5 million days have transpired since this date.  Julian dates are widely used as time variables within astronomical software.

The changeover from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar occurred in October of 1582, according to the scheme instituted by Pope Gregory XIII.

The changeover to the Gregorian calendar system occurred  only in Roman Catholic countries. Adoption of the Gregorian calendar in the rest of the world progressed slowly. For example, for England and its colonies, the change did not occur until September 1752.

Why use Julian Dates?

MRE’s use Julian Dates because they originated with the military. The time scale that is the basis for Julian dates is Universal Time.

Julian dates useful for the Military because the procurement systems in the military uses the Julian date in the computer programs as a simple standard that doesn’t require letters and allows date calculations to be made with out additional supporting programs.

Many times, manufactures use Julian Dates because that is the norm in the industry. However, with consumer knowledge on the rise, many manufacturers are moving towards a more readable manufacture date.

How do I read my Julian Date?

You can check out The Ready Store’s MRE Shelf-Life Calculator on the left side bar of our product pages.

The first number of the Julian Date represents the year. The last three numbers represent the day that it was manufactured. So for example, if the manufacture date was listed as 1067 that would mean that the MRE was manufactured on March 7, 2011. You can read our previous blog post on how to figure out the manufacture date of your MRE.

After locating your manufacture date, use this conversion chart to figure out the date of your MRE.

We also have a sheet that you can print out and keep with your MREs in case of an emergency.

Click here to see the PDF. 

Questions?

What other questions do you have about Julian Dates? Ask us below.

How to Heat a MRE Entree part 1 was with the MRE Flamless Heater and if you do buy our MRE Full Meal you will have a MRE Flameless Heater included in that packet. Now if you were to go with our MRE Entree Variety Pack Case of 24 or 72 Entree’s you will only receive the dinner entree and not a MRE Flamless Heater.

I’ve been asked by many people “With no MRE Flameless Heater, how will I be able to heat my meal?“  You would be amazed to know the different ways people have heated up there entree’s. In our blog post “What is an MRE heater and how does it work?“, we had a comment from Vince.  He wrote “When I was in the Army we used to heat them up on the block of the old jeep motor (pre-hummer)” and that is a great way to heat up your meal if you’re dealing with a Grab-n-Go™ situation. But if you were dealing with a situation that you would be based in one location or as we call it a Shelter-in-Place™ situation, then the most common way to heat up a MRE is with a pot of hot water.

The only items that you would need are the following:

• Pot/Pan/Kettle.
• Heat Source. (Ideas: you can use your BBQ grill, fire place, camp fire, or a emergency cooking system)
• Water.
• Fuel Source.

For this post I’m using a portable electric hot plate and I took a basic pan & added enough water to fill it up 1/2 way. (see figure 1)

I waited for a medium to high boil till I added the MRE’s to the Hot Water.    (see figure 2)

The MRE will start to absorb the heat from the hot water due to the aluminum pouches ability to transfer the heat easily.    (see figure 3a)

With the MRE Ultimate Self-Heating Full Meal you will receive a side with your full meal and in this demonstration I had Spiced Cinnamon Apples and I added it to the water to heat up the side.    (see figure 3b)

Once you have the MRE Entree and side in the water for around 5 min then I rotated the meal to make sure that it will be heated throughout the meal. (see figure 4)

Once you allowed it to heat, you will need to remove the pot from the heat source. WARNING: Please be careful it is extremely hot, ideal to have an adult handle the last steps.

You can eat out of the MRE Entree pouch or if a plate/bowl  you can poor your re-heated content into it.     (see figure 5)

Bon Appétit!

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<—-Figure 2

<—-Figure 3a

<—-Figure 3b

<—-Figure 4

<—-Figure 5

Well lucky for you, there is  simple way to heat an MRE.  Today I will go over many options on how to Heat your MRE Entree. The most commonly used product is our MRE Flameless Heater, and why you might ask? Its a simple to use product that has a 7 Step system. (Click here to view the Video)

Step #1 Peal Open Pouch

You don’t need scissors to open your MRE Flameless Heater all you need to do is find the easy to tear slit on the side of the heater.

Step #2 Pour In 1oz. Water

On the Flameless Heater you can simply add the water to the line on the bottom of the pouch.

(Please note: The MRE Heater does have a line where you should not overfill past for easy measuring)

Step #3 Slide MRE Into Heater

Remove your MRE Entree from the box that it comes in, simply slide the Entree into the heater pouch.

Step #4 Slide Into MRE Box

When Inserting your MRE Into the box, make sure you fold the opening inside the box to make sure

the steam does not escape.

Step #5 Set the MRE Upright & Cook 10 Minuets

You will see steam exiting the box & it will cause the card board to turn wet, also you might experience

a plastic smell but don’t worry that is normal.

WARNING EXTREMELY HOT!!

After having the MRE in the pouch for 10 Minuets it will be Extremely Hot!! So please be careful and

have adult supervision for Step #6.

Step #6 Remove MRE Meal From Heater

Be very careful when removing the MRE from the heater, the meal pouch will be very hot.

Step #7 Tear Open MRE & Enjoy

The Entree will have a easy to tear cut on the side of the pouch for easy access to the food.

You can eat out of the pouch or empty the contents into a plate or bowl.

So next time your looking to purchase some MRE’s make sure that you will have enough of our MRE Flameless Heaters for your MRE Entree’s.

I just wanted to tell a quick story of how just seeing an MRE in action can open peoples eyes  As you may know, this last week we held our first “ReadySteps” Workshop.  It was so funny to see the look on peoples faces as Jonathan (our presenter) demonstrated using an MRE.  All at once the MRE was steaming and people were gasping with awe.  Finally they got it.  They wouldn’t need to cook in an emergency.  They wouldn’t need to spend hours preparing the food.  They are light weight and perfect for “Grab-N-Go’ Emergencies.

When people think about MRE’s they think of a bag of mush.  They forgot the goodies that come along with mre entrees.  These goodies include cookies, fig newton bars, and even french toast!  MRE’s are actually really good.  They are one of the most versatile foods you have have for emergencies, and they taste great!  They provide the necessary calories and more important, nutrition you will need.  In addition they can be used for camping, hiking and other outdoor activities.

I am planning a Grand Canyon Week Long Hike for this coming spring.  You can bet I will bring along MRE’s!

If you would like to see an MRE in action.. here is a quick video of Jeff demonstrating it:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGMqHYxOaKc&feature=player_embedded

There are so many people how could benefit from storing a good supply of MRE’s.  Please help us get the word out to the masses!  Oh, and make sure you get some yourself!

We recommend that you have MRE’s stored both for your grab-n-go supplies and some for your shelter-in-place supplies.  They can last 5-10 years if they are stored correctly.  They are built to last as they can be dropped from 200 feet in the air from a helicopter and be just fine.

I personally love to snack on the french toast… the syrup is inside the toast making each bit simply delicious.