REVIEW – I am always planning to put together an emergency food supply, and I never actually get around to it, so right now my disaster plan is a handful of protein bars and some cans of sardines of questionable age. Rainy Day Foods is a food storage company that packs dehydrated and freeze-dried food in cans rated to last decades, and it put together a sample box for me with four cans in it. There’s Refried Beans, Freeze Dried Sliced Strawberries, a Dehydrated Vegetable Stew Blend and a Nine Grain Cracked Cereal, and they run $16.59 to $26.19 a can. I’ve been cooking with all four for about a month. The plan was to put them on a shelf and forget about them until the grid went down, and that is not what happened.
Note: The Rainy Day Foods Refried Beans, Freeze Dried Sliced Strawberries, Dehydrated Vegetable Stew Blend and Nine Grain Cracked Cereal were sent to me by Rainy Day Foods at no cost. They had no editorial input and did not see this review before it published.
Photos and video by Gregory Morley.
The Basics
Each product comes in a sealed, enameled #10 can, the big restaurant-size can that holds about three quarts. The beans and the stew blend are dehydrated and cook back up in water on the stove. The strawberries are freeze-dried, so they can be eaten straight from the can or soaked in water first. The cereal is cracked whole grain that simmers in water like oatmeal. The labels on my cans rate the beans and the stew blend for up to 25 years of storage and the strawberries and cereal for up to 20, as long as the cans are kept somewhere cool and dry. Once a can is open, the label says to use it within a year.
What You Get
- Rainy Day Foods Refried Beans, 40 oz #10 can
- Rainy Day Foods Freeze Dried Sliced Strawberries, 6 oz #10 can
- Rainy Day Foods Dehydrated Vegetable Stew Blend, 33 oz #10 can
- Rainy Day Foods Nine Grain Cracked Cereal, 69 oz #10 can
By the Numbers
- Refried Beans
- Price: $21.69
- Size: 40 oz, 27 servings
- Ingredients: Pinto beans, salt
- Shelf life: Up to 25 years
- Freeze Dried Strawberry Slices
- Price: $26.19
- Size: 6 oz, 24 dry servings
- Ingredients: Strawberries, no preservatives
- Shelf life: Up to 20 years
- Vegetable Stew Blend
- Price: $25.09
- Size: 33 oz, 33 servings
- Ingredients: Potato, cabbage, onion, carrots, celery, mixed bell peppers, tomato
- Shelf life: Up to 25 years
- Nine Grain Cracked Cereal
- Price: $16.59
- Size: 69 oz, 46 servings
- Ingredients: Hard red wheat, soft white wheat, barley, rye, oats, corn, millet, hulled buckwheat, flax seed
- Shelf life: Up to 20 years
- All four
- Dietary: Beans are naturally gluten-free, beans and stew blend are non-GMO, cereal contains wheat
- Allergens: Packed in a plant that handles milk, wheat, eggs, soy and tree nuts
The Refried Beans
The beans come out of the can as dry, pale flakes that look nothing like refried beans. They cook up fast. Bring a cup and a half of water to a boil, stir in two cups of flakes, turn the heat down and simmer covered for five minutes. What comes out is thick, smooth refried beans that taste like pinto beans and salt, because that’s all that’s in them.
These are my favorite of the four, and I make them a lot. They go on the side of dinner, and they go into my homemade chicken burritos, where they hold up as well as anything I’ve bought in a can at the grocery store. Since the flakes stay dry until I need them, I only make as much as I’m going to eat, which matters in a household of one guy and one dog.
The Strawberries
The freeze-dried strawberries are light, crisp slices that crunch like a chip and taste like a strawberry with all the water taken out. They can be eaten dry, or soaked in water to soften them back up for a recipe. I throw a handful into my oatmeal whenever I can, and they soften in the hot oatmeal in a minute or two.
The can says 6 oz, which sounds small until you remember freeze-dried fruit weighs almost nothing. It’s a full can of slices.
The Vegetable Stew Blend
The stew blend is a mix of dried potato, cabbage, onion, carrots, celery, bell peppers and tomato. Half a cup goes into two cups of water, and after 10 to 15 minutes at a simmer the vegetables are tender. There’s no seasoning in the can, so it needs salt and whatever else you’d put in a stew.
I use it two ways. It makes a quick vegetable soup on its own, and it goes into other dishes when I want more vegetables in them without chopping anything. Rainy Day Foods pitches it for camping and hunting trips, and it packs a lot of vegetables into very little weight.
The Nine Grain Cracked Cereal
The cereal is a coarse mix of nine cracked grains, two kinds of wheat along with barley, rye, oats, corn, millet, buckwheat and flax seed. It’s the slowest of the four to make. A quarter cup simmers in a cup of water on low for about 30 minutes until it’s tender, and the label also suggests cooking it overnight in a crock pot. I made mine on the stove. Thirty minutes is a long wait for breakfast, but nobody at my place is in a hurry except the dog.
On its own it’s good, not great. It needed help, and the help was already in the box. I stirred in honey and a handful of the freeze-dried strawberries, and with those two it turned into a breakfast I enjoyed a lot more. At 46 servings a can for $16.59, it’s also the cheapest thing in the box by a wide margin, about 36 cents a serving.
Emergency Food, in Theory
These cans were supposed to be my backup emergency supply. They were going to sit on a shelf for the next 20 years while I felt prepared. Instead they’re too good for my willpower, especially during a week when I forgot to go food shopping, which happens more than a grown man should admit. The apocalypse hasn’t come, and the beans are already half gone.
Planning an emergency supply is simple when it will be just me and my dog for the foreseeable future. She needs her food, and I need something to keep me going. Four cans won’t cover a real emergency, but at 27, 24, 33 and 46 servings they’re a start, and a big step up from sardines.
What Could Be Better
A #10 can is a lot of food for one person once it’s open. The long shelf life only counts while the can is sealed, and the label says to use the food within a year of opening it. Everything but the strawberries needs water, and the beans, stew blend and cereal need a stove and a pot, so an emergency kit built around them also needs a camp stove and fuel. The stew blend is unseasoned and bland on its own, and the cereal takes half an hour to cook and needs honey or fruit to be more than okay. The strawberries cost the most per can at $26.19 for 6 oz. Per serving, the four land between about 36 cents and $1.10, which is reasonable for food that lasts decades but more than the same food fresh at the grocery store.
Watch the Review
Video review coming soon. The companion video is still in edit, and it will be embedded right here as soon as it goes up.
Quick Questions
Q: How long do the cans last?
A: The labels on my cans rate the refried beans and stew blend for up to 25 years and the strawberries and cereal for up to 20 years, stored sealed somewhere cool and dry.
Q: How do you make the refried beans?
A: Boil a cup and a half of water, stir in two cups of bean flakes, then cover and simmer on low for five minutes.
Q: Can you eat the strawberries straight from the can?
A: Yes. They’re freeze-dried and crunchy, and they can also be soaked in water to soften them for a recipe.
Q: Is the stew blend seasoned?
A: No. It’s just vegetables, so salt and seasoning go in when you cook it.
Q: How do you cook the nine grain cereal?
A: Simmer a quarter cup in a cup of water on low for about 30 minutes, or cook it overnight in a crock pot. I like it with honey and some of the freeze-dried strawberries stirred in.
Final Thoughts
Rainy Day Foods makes emergency food that I actually want to eat, which turned out to be a problem for my emergency supply. The refried beans are good enough to replace store-bought beans, the strawberries make plain oatmeal worth eating, the stew blend is an easy way to put vegetables in a meal, and the cereal is a cheap breakfast that gets a lot better with honey and a few of those strawberries. At about $1.10 a serving or less, with shelf lives measured in decades, they’re a sensible way to build a food supply, as long as you buy more cans than you plan to eat. Start with the refried beans.
Price: $21.69 (Refried Beans), $26.19 (Strawberries), $25.09 (Vegetable Stew Blend), $16.59 (Nine Grain Cracked Cereal), per #10 can
Where to buy: Amazon or direct from Rainy Day Foods
What I like: The refried beans taste like the real thing and cook in five minutes, the strawberries are great in oatmeal, the stew blend adds vegetables to anything, the cereal is the cheapest breakfast in the box, shelf lives of 20 to 25 years, short ingredient lists
What I don’t: A #10 can is a lot for one person once it’s open, the beans, stew and cereal need a stove, the stew blend is bland without seasoning, the cereal takes 30 minutes and needs honey or fruit, the strawberries cost the most per can
Buy the Refried Beans direct from Rainy Day Foods
Buy the Freeze Dried Strawberries direct from Rainy Day Foods
Buy the Vegetable Stew Blend direct from Rainy Day Foods
Buy the Nine Grain Cracked Cereal direct from Rainy Day Foods
