View topic - Preparing for the next season

My gear is always ready to go. Right now, even though it is minus ridiculous, I could grab all of my gear and be ready to go within a few hours..... except for one thing.......


Food.

I would normally bring mainly those freeze dried packaged food, but they are high in salt content.

I have a dehydrator, and would love to make packaged meals that all I need to do is just add water.

Who has recipes that are that simple? Cus, now is the time to prep for all of that.

I'm a fan of Dehydrated Packable Salads
Packable Salads: See backpacker.com
http://www.backpacker.com/october_2001_ ... kills/2687

Also search the myccr forum for other salad ideas as well as drying food, recipes, etc.

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Brian
http://www.JohnstonPursuits.ca

 

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"There are no shortcuts to anyplace worth going"-unknown

I choose to interpret this as a sarcastic response to "Dehydrated salads" and I laughed.

I usually buy a bushel of apples from the orchard near me every fall and dehydrate the whole lot .(Pro-tip: dunk them in water with 1/4 cup of vinegar first and then sprinkle cinnamon on them)

I store them in big bags in the freezer. Then there is a running battle between my current self who loves dehydrated apples with my coffee and my future self who wants me to save them for wilderness trips.

Last year "future self" lost. This year he's slightly ahead but only because of sheer quantity.

I usually try and keep a good selection of dehydrated vegetables available year round.

If I'm in a hurry I just divide some Knorr sides in half, and then add lots of whatever dehydrated veggies I have. I find the salt content a little better at that point, but still a little high for my liking.

I find if I keep the following around the house as I am always using them both at home and when canoeing and backpacking.

Green / Red / Yellow Bell peppers
Oyster Mushrooms (really dehydrate well and keep flavour)
Shiitake Mushrooms (I like to eat these straight up they have a texture similar to freeze dried Marshmallows but with a great flavour punch)
Brown beans
Re-fried Beans
Corn
Celery

I just keep them in the chest freezer in freezer rated zip lock bags with a desiccant pack or two thrown in. I've used bags after a year or more in storage like this and everything seemed fine and tasted as good as anything thrown in more recently. Now if only they made an affordable freeze dryer I could start keeping a large cache of fruits around and ready.

Those packable salads look great, I'm certainly going to be taking some of those out with me this season.

I'm a big fan of the Knorr sides. Have you tried their newer "premium" stuff?? The Rustic Mexcian Rice and Beans??? It's fantastic. I add about 1/2 cup of dehydrated hamburger meat and it makes a huge meal - approx 1000 calories. It was my go to meal when hiking the Heaven's Gate Trail this year.

I never worry about sodium contents in the woods because I am always sweating so much that I am probably in a sodium deficit anyway.

I have not, my brother on the other hand sometimes brings those.

I'm more a fan of the honey garlic, and teriyaki noodles.

Mostly for me the salt leaves me chugging water after dinner and then some time around 3am peeing my brains out only to get up and do it again around 5:30am. I really don't eat much sodium in my day to day diet and when backpacking you get so much all the time from every source I just try and cut down where I can.

i have a homemade rack that i sit atop the wood stove. Have dried various fruits before but just tried parsnips---they turned out lie chips and are a bit of a hit as a snack. Now i must do some more!

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Old canoeists never die---they just smell that way.

Homemade jerky is another thing that disappears too fast before a trip. However, my personal and learned filosofy... the more you suffer on a trip, the better food tastes. So you don't need to prepare to any great extremes when roughing it (famous last words when camping with others).

"With enough butter, anything tastes good."

Julia Child

RIP

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