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Happiness is a good
camp meal! Buying Camp Foods in BULK
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by Lisa Vines
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“Happiness is a good camp
meal,” begins the chapter on camp food in the Fieldbook for Boys and
Men. This field book from almost half a century ago includes a section
on “Buying Trail Foods,” and when I look over the suggestions I am
struck by the contrast to the suggested items from a more recent
publication, aimed at camping with kids. The more recent publication
includes a recipe for “Bird’s Nest Breakfast,” which calls for
“½ cup canned shoestring potatoes (the crunchy kind); 1 large
naval orange (thick skinned); ½ cup chopped ham or sliced ham
lunch meat; 2 eggs.” The 41-year-old field book suggests dried and
dehydrated foods. Maybe it’s time to re-visit the wisdom of the older
guidebooks; surely the quality has improved in the interim, so that
we’re not limited to the more modern “crunchy kind of shoestring
potatoes” for camp food. Many modern dried, dehydrated and prepared
foods are available in the Bulk aisle, in whatever amount you choose to
purchase.
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Camping
Challenges, Bulk Solutions
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First,
however, you need to determine your needs. Camping entails different
degrees of challenges. Backpack camping, for example, is different from
bicycle camping; canoe/kayak camping is different from car camping. How
much food can you take along? How much fuel can you carry or find? How
much potable water will you have?
If you want to prepare your own mixes, you will find ingredients in the
Bulk aisle: powdered dried milk, powdered buttermilk, textured soy
protein chunks, vegetable broth powder. For main course meals, there
are filling starch basics that don’t take much cooking time and no
excess water to discard, such as with noodles. Try quinoa or couscous.
Quinoa, the “mother grain,” is incredibly nutritious and cooks in only
1½ times the water. Bring the mixture to a boil, turn off the
heat and cover the pot. Let sit for half an hour. The grains will soak
up the water and provide a solid base for whatever else you have
planned. (Rinse the quinoa several times before cooking, to remove the
natural but soapy tasting covering. This natural covering eliminates
the need for pesticides, thereby increasing quinoa’s desirability.)
Cous-cous, based on semolina flour, cooks up even more quickly. For
each cup of cous-cous, boil a cup of water; when the water reaches
boiling, dump in the cous-cous, stir, and lower the heat. Cover. The
cous-cous will absorb all the water in five minutes and is ready for
various toppings. An easy meal is a base of either quinoa or cous-cous
with a can of prepared vegetable soup (no refrigeration required).
Remember to take along a can opener.
The Bulk aisle also contains many pre-made mixes designed to simplify
meal preparation. There is a pancake mix, for example, that requires
only water. The instructions on the bin suggest mixing the powder 1:1
with water, but this seemed a little watery to us; you might want to
decrease the water. Soup mixes, however delightful they seem initially,
require long cooking times — so if your fuel is limited and you’re
really hungry, you might want to save those for home. Various soup
mixes include the organic 7 bean soup mix, the 32 bean soup mix, and
the deluxe soup mix.
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Energy
Foods
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Then,
of course, there’s the entire range of energy foods: dried fruits
(dried pears, whole dried bananas, organic dried Turkish apricots,
dried mixes fruits, etc.); nuts (take your pick!); pre-made dried fruit
and nut mixes (California raw fruit and nut mix, for example); and the
locally made Chunks of Energy, available in a number of flavors.
Camping’s fun, and part of the fun is the preparation. Take a cruise
through the bulk aisle while preparing your meals. You’ll find a lot of
potential there.
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| Sierra’s
Baking Mix |
This
is a basic baking mix that serves as the base for other recipes.
4 cups flour
2½ TBS baking powder
¼ cup powdered milk
2 tsp salt
Mix all ingredients. Store in plastic bag until needed. To make
pancakes, take two parts mix, one part flour or uncooked cereal, and
enough water to make a pourable batter. Grease a frying pan and heat
until water droplets sizzle on the surface; Cook pancakes gently until
bubbles begin to appear on the surface of each pancake; flip and cook
on the other side. (Adapted from NOLS Cookery)
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| Sources: |
Fieldbook for Boys and Men
(Boy Scouts of America, 1967).
Claudia Pearson, National Outdoor Leadership School Cookery
(Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1997).
Linda White, Cooking on a Stick: Campfire recipes for kids (Salt Lake
City: Gibbs Smith, 1996). |
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