Hiking diets can be notoriously bad and severely lacking in nutritional content and variety. Without extensive effort in planning and prepping, creating a fulsome and complete diet can be difficult; introducing Harmony House’s Original Backpacking Kit of dehydrated vegetables and legumes. Harmony House, not to be confused with Mountain House, is a small family owned dehydrated food company based in a Franklin, NC. I was first introduced to this great company on my way back to the Appalachian Trail from Franklin. My fellow thru hiker Radio and I had just picked up our mail drops and were headed back out on the trail when a random person asked us if we were willing to shoot a “quick video.” Initially we were a little sketched, who wouldn’t be sketched out by some random guy asking you to shoot a video in the woods right? He told us the short video would discuss the inadequacies of trail food and asked if we would be interested in their prepackaged, dehydrated vegetable and legume Original Backpacking Kit. We both consented, singed the waiver and went on to star in the sole promo video for the Original Backpacking Kit.

Harmony House has a bunch of great pesticide and gluten free, non-GMO, and even Kosher certified products out in the market. I bought the full Original Backpacking Kit from Amazon to thoroughly review the goods for myself. The kit comes with their exclusive resealable one cup ZIP Pouches (18) and includes the following goodies:

Harmony House has a ton of other great products. You can find some of the best sellers we recommend here.

I recently tried out the Original Backpacking Kit on a 10 mile out and back hike on the Appalachian Trail between Route 191 and the Delaware Water Gap on the PA side; check the hike details and trail map here. I decided on adding the carrots, black beans, lentils and green & red bell peppers to my ‘go to’ trail dinner consisting of Far East couscous and a packet of salmon / tuna all combined into an old Mountain House bag.

Hiker tip: utilize reflective cooking bags which retain heat and can cook your food long after you shut off your stove. Used Mountain House bags (cleaned ones of course) are a great way minimize the amount of fuel spent for each meal. I employed this cooking technique while on the AT and only went through four or five fuel canisters for the entire trail! Every week I would throw out the used Mountain House bag and get a new one from my mail drop. Even now when I go hiking, I employ this technique to cook my food.

Harmony House Dried Carrots, Lentils, Bell Peppers and Black Beans

Dry picture of the goods before being rehydrated

5 minute soaking time, slightly rehydrated

15 minute soaking time, almost fully rehydrated

Initial Impression

The Harmony House Original Backpacking Kit overall is great variety of veggies and legumes packaged in solid, leak proof ZIP pouches which rip open very easily without tearing awkwardly. The food fully and quickly rehydrates; see pictures above. Ultimately, the amount of food you end up carrying with you and rehydrating will be determined on how long you plan to hike or how much you eat!  I also think the method of cold soaking your food is a smart and efficient way to have food ready to eat when you decide to take chow down. But with all Harmony House products, they can be rehydrated by cold soaking or cooking in hot water; the preference is yours. Once I arrived at our base camp at the top of Mt. Minsi, I opened the ZIP Pouch and was immediately greeted with the amazing smell and aroma from the green and red bell peppers; which was a delightful surprise for something rehydrated in a pouch. The bell peppers, black beans and lentils were fully rehydrated but the carrots had a ‘slight bite’ or crunch to them, which I actually preferred over biting into a soft and mushy carrot.

Improvements

My only one grip is that the Original Backpacking Kit should come with an extra ZIP pouch to rehydrate the food in.  You can buy an extra ZIP pouch from Harmony House but really shouldn’t have to. An easy fix you can employ is to empty one of the ZIP pouches into a regular ziplock sandwich bag and then use that empty pouch to rehydrate your food.

Overall Assessment

I think Harmony House’s Original Backpacking Kit is a must have for any hiker. It is a refreshing and reinvigorating addition to a boring hiker meal. One of the things I lacked on the Appalachian Trail was ‘fresh veggies’ and Harmony House’s products are one of the best and most efficient ways to add those valuable nutrients to your hiker diet. My girlfriend commented that from now on she would only eat our hiker dinners with these Harmony House veggies and beans! I will continue to test out more of the veggies and legumes within this kit and report back my impressions. I definitely recommend buying the Original Backpacking Kit and other Harmony House products to effortlessly give your hiker diet that much needed boost to crush big miles out on the trail.

Happy Trails and Safe Adventures.

– Six Slash