The Rokstaff tries Off Grid Food Co. Backcountry Meals

[Glendon Mullins]

Recently the Rokslide staff members got their hands on some Backcountry Meals from Off Grid Food Co. https://offgridfood.co/ . We will be trying these meals out and reviewing them here in this thread.

Off Grid Food Co. offers 5 main dishes, Bison Fajita Bowl, Quail Tinga Tacos, Thai Green Curry with Quail, OG Bison Chili, and Bison Penne Pomodoro.

Their Hot and Cold Breakfast meals include Predator Fuel Oatmeal in Washington Apple, Predator Fuel Oatmeal Blue Raz, Predator Fuel Oatmeal Strawberry Mango, and Rise and Grind Cold Cereal.

They also offer as well Trail Mix, Jerky, and Coffee Products.

All of Off Grid Food Co.'s meals are dehydrated and not freeze dried, they were Founded in 2017 in northwest Washington. Their goal is to create the premier line of hand-crafted foods, from real, source-focused ingredients, for all of your hunts, scouting trips, fishing trips, or regular backcountry adventures (per their website)

 

[robby denning]

Thanks Glendon.

Took a few weeks, but I received the Quail, and both Buffalo dishes, and the Predator Fuel Apple Oatmeal.

Took my healthy-eater mom on a scout trip this weekend. She’ll eat whatever I bring but knows good food.

I packed 2 dishes for dinner: Bison Fajita Bowl & Bison Penne Pomodoro, and the oatmeal for breakfast (one package).

We tried the Bison Fajita Bowl (“about 800 calories according to Off Grid)

It actually fed two people but keep in mind, mom's a light eater and I wasn't super hungry. Normally, I’d eat it all.

It was Good stuff.

On a spicy scale of 1-5 with 5 being hottest, I'd say a 2.5.

Took the full 20 minutes to hydrate and had to go with two more ozs water than what was directed as it was still too al dente to our tastes before the extra water.

Next day, mom had the Apple Oatmeal. 520 calories! It was good and the apple chunks are much bigger than commercial oatmeal’s. Took longer to hydrate as the oats are not chopped. But not too long. Was good and she couldn’t eat it all so I got to try it.

Remember these are NOT FREEZE-DRIED, but dehydrated meals. Don't last as long (1 yr expire date on the Dishes mentioned above) and take longer to hydrate, but the upside is the taste.

For reference, Off-Grid used to have a commercial freeze dryer but it died and they went straight dehydrate.

I’ll post more as I get more experience.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ten Bears]

I have been dining on them for a couple years. Good stuff. The quail and Chili are my favorites.

 

[robby denning]

I have been dining on them for a couple years. Good stuff. The quail and Chili are my favorites.

Did you ever try their freeze-dried line? Wondering if taste is really better in dehydrated line they offer now. The shorter expire date makes you think about how much you order. But taste is better than MH, so far.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ten Bears]

Did you ever try their freeze-dried line? Wondering if taste is really better in dehydrated line they offer now. The shorter expire date makes you think about how much you order. But taste is better than MH, so far.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I had to check my old orders to see all I have tried.

Dehydrated- Bison Chili, Quail Tinga Tacos,

Freeze Dried- Bison Fajita Bowl, Sesame Garlic Quail

Discontinued ones-3 Cheese Mac with Shredded BBQ Bison

A bunch of the granola type stuff also.

I never noticed any difference in the taste. The two I am keeping in my pack this year are the Tinga and Bison Chili, a pack of tortillas and a block of sharp cheddar and it was a great dinner.

Also bought a bunch of the Stowaway Gourmets.

 

[robby denning]

I had to check my old orders to see all I have tried.

Dehydrated- Bison Chili, Quail Tinga Tacos,

Freeze Dried- Bison Fajita Bowl, Sesame Garlic Quail

Discontinued ones-3 Cheese Mac with Shredded BBQ Bison

A bunch of the granola type stuff also.

I never noticed any difference in the taste. The two I am keeping in my pack this year are the Tinga and Bison Chili, a pack of tortillas and a block of sharp cheddar and it was a great dinner.

Also bought a bunch of the Stowaway Gourmets.

Thanks for checking. I was just curious. I haven’t had any other freeze dried stuff since 2018. All I remember is that it was good.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Justin Crossley]

I'm looking forward to trying some out soon.

 

[Nillion]

How much water do these take to rehydrate?

 

[robby denning]

How much water do these take to rehydrate?

Roughly 10 ounces, on the buffalo fajita that I tested above, it took 12


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Justin Crossley]

I was able to try out the OG Bison Chili and the Penne Pomodoro with bison this weekend. They were both good but the chili is amazing!

 

[robby denning]

I was able to try out the OG Bison Chili and the Penne Pomodoro with bison this weekend. They were both good but the chili is amazing!

View attachment 321832

View attachment 321835

View attachment 321836

How’d you feel about rehydrate time and water dose required?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Justin Crossley]

The time is definitely a downside since it took about twice as long as freeze dried meals. The amount of water didn't seem to be much different to me.

 

[805Bowhunter]

I've ordered a few of them over the years but really like their oatmeals. I eat them in the morning and am not hungry for a really long time. I have a hard time with their shipping/reliability though. I'm not one to be hard on a company but I ordered a handful of oatmeal (both types were in stock and remain in stock) at the beginning of August and, other than payment, have heard nothing still. Ive called a few times and still heard nothing back. A word of caution when dealing with OffGrid is to order waaaaay in advance of when you actually need your product. I'm almost to 5 weeks and still nada.

Great when you get it though.

 

[Howard Mee]

I've ordered a few of them over the years but really like their oatmeals. I eat them in the morning and am not hungry for a really long time. I have a hard time with their shipping/reliability though. I'm not one to be hard on a company but I ordered a handful of oatmeal (both types were in stock and remain in stock) at the beginning of August and, other than payment, have heard nothing still. Ive called a few times and still heard nothing back. A word of caution when dealing with OffGrid is to order waaaaay in advance of when you actually need your product. I'm almost to 5 weeks and still nada.

Great when you get it though.

I have 4 of their oatmeal breakfasts. Glad to hear you liked them. I’ll chime in after season starts and I eat some.
The shipping issue is odd. I could maybe go back and look but mine arrived in a normal amount of time. That’s a bummer for you. I hope you get them before season!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Glendon Mullins]

Well time for me to chime in i reckon as I just finished the last of my 3 breakfast oatmeals I ordered to review. The interesting thing that ya'll get when I review items is that, being from the east and sstill early in my career of western hunting is that when ya'll get a review from me it is as someone totally new to most of the products and getting a real "1st impression" type deal here. I have never tried any "backpacking" meals before except for some random MRE's and a mountain house ice creme sandwich while camping. So this is new for me and my review is going to be obviously approaching these as a first timer.

So far I have tried the Blue Razz , Washington Apple and just finished the Strawberry Mango. They are both good tasting, the fruit portions added are much bigger chunks of fruit than you would get from say a "uncle bens" instant oatmeal, so that is a big plus to me.

As far as time re-hydrating etc. that Robby and Justin discussed above I cant really comment on if it's faster or slower than normal because again this is my first time and both seemed to hydrate pretty good to me, the fruit was tasty and still has snap in the apples vs being a sloggy limp apple.

Now comes my ONE complaint or negative, I guess if you want to call it that. Again this is strictly from a NEWBIE point of view. But I would like to see a bit more clarity on the Directions as to how much water to add to dehydrate. When I made the Blue Razz at home let's just say I ended up with what I would call Blue Razz Oatmeal Soup. I added wayyyy to much water lol. Don't get me wrong for Blue Razz Soup it still tasted pretty good, and I ate it cause I had a job to do. However for people that may be new to these backpacking type meals I would like to see some more clarity on the directions. The Directions literally say word for word..... "Add desired amount of hot water to bag and stir and enjoy"

To someone like Robby Denning or Justin Crossley or probably 75% of the members of Rokslide who are skilled backpack hunters and veterans of using these type meals, I am sure those directions work fine for them But to someone new to backpacking meals, I think a rough estimate of how much water to add wouldn't be hard to add and may help future customers not make the same mistake I did.

So with that being said, I will likely buy more for future hunts and camping trips both, and will probably try out their dinner's also!

Like someone else mentioned I didn't have a problem with shipping, and they arrive fairly quickly as well considering they came all the way cross country to get to me.

 

[robby denning]

In order of the pics above:

OG Bison Chili: Great taste, took over 20 minutes to rehydrate, the 10 ounces of water instructed was fine, was still a little al dente,. Just wish there was a little more in the serving size.

Quail Tinga Tacos: Super unique, great taste, and so much better than the chicken that is in the Mountain Houses (MH). Was surprised that it was a little spicy too. Serving size filled me up, went over 20 minutes on the rehydration too and at least 10 ozs H2O. This was probably favorite of the three

Penne Promodoro: This one filled me up even more than the other two, bison is the meat, and man was it good! Also was a little spicy. Rehydration was also over 20 minutes and at least 10ozs

So this is what I would say about Off Grid options. I just returned from an 11 day hunt where I ate nothing but dehydrated or freeze dried meals for dinner every day but one (sneaked in a velveeta Mac n Cheese)

I really don’t have many complaints about MH, but I get a little tired of them, and having the Off Grid option every couple of days really kept me from getting sick of the freeze dried experience that seems to set in after about a day five. So for a few extra bucks a week, I can really add some variety to my menu. And if I get back to camp late and don’t wanna do the 20 minute rehydration, there’s always the MH there it takes about half the time.

Oh and one other thing, you don’t get the “MH swell“ from the Off Grid foods. Although they don’t have a %nutrition label, they just don’t have the sodium amount MH does. I can tell after eating a couple of MH meals, that my release gets hard to buckle up in the same hole because my wrists are a little swollen. Off grid if you look at the ingredient list, uses a lot of natural spices so they don’t need all the sodium.

Thanks to Spencer for letting us try these meals. They will be on my menu for years to come.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[robby denning]

I've ordered a few of them over the years but really like their oatmeals. I eat them in the morning and am not hungry for a really long time. I have a hard time with their shipping/reliability though. I'm not one to be hard on a company but I ordered a handful of oatmeal (both types were in stock and remain in stock) at the beginning of August and, other than payment, have heard nothing still. Ive called a few times and still heard nothing back. A word of caution when dealing with OffGrid is to order waaaaay in advance of when you actually need your product. I'm almost to 5 weeks and still nada.

Great when you get it though.

Hey man, I almost think something might’ve went wrong with your order. I sent Spencer a text. he’s out hunting right now but he said he was going to jump on this thread, so he should see your comment and maybe we can get this figured out for you. Thanks for letting us know.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[805Bowhunter]

Hey man, I almost think something might’ve went wrong with your order. I sent Spencer a text. he’s out hunting right now but he said he was going to jump on this thread, so he should see your comment and maybe we can get this figured out for you. Thanks for letting us know.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks Robby. Appreciate you reaching out. I finally did receive the oatmeals but it was after I had already left on my hunt. OffGrid makes great products and think it was probably just hunting season chaos/orders that caused the delay. I typically order during the offseason to avoid stuff like this happening and in reality, its not a huge deal, just wish the communication would have been a bit better. I'll still be ordering their food in the future.

 

[robby denning]

Thanks Robby. Appreciate you reaching out. I finally did receive the oatmeals but it was after I had already left on my hunt. OffGrid makes great products and think it was probably just hunting season chaos/orders that caused the delay. I typically order during the offseason to avoid stuff like this happening and in reality, its not a huge deal, just wish the communication would have been a bit better. I'll still be ordering their food in the future.

Sure thing man, and it was good to let him know that you were waiting. He needs to know! Thanks again.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Josh Boyd]

I had a mix of Off Grid products in my backpack this season; entrees, breakfasts, and snacks. Here are a few of my thoughts on what I used.

The trail mix was awesome in taste and texture and super convenient to have in a hip belt pocket for quick access to calories. I really liked the small resealable pouch.

The Predator Fuel oatmeal can't be compared to other forms of instant oatmeal as the other added ingredients raise the bar in taste and calorie count. The freeze dried berries, almond slices and coconut helped with texture and taste. This is the only oatmeal I will ever take on a backpack hunt.

The entrees I used this fall were the Quail Tinga and the Bison Penne Pomodoro. Both taste amazing in the backcountry with the ingredients tasting like something made at home. The trim packaging was a bonus as they take up less volume in the pack compared to MH or Peak. I wasn't a huge fan of the 20 minute hydration time but they never cooled off so much as to be unpalatable. I just hate waiting that long to eat. I did have issues getting the quail to fully rehydrate even after a 25 minute wait as there were still a few crunchy pieces in the bag but nothing to turn me off to the entrée. It is really tasty.

I used them a lot of the time to substitute my normal bar/jerky/trail mix mid-day food for really big days when extra calories and a warm meal is welcome. And it's totally worth bring the stove along for that.

I'll definitely order more for next season as they fit well with my backcountry food strategy.

-Josh