Hi,

well in California the weather seems to have gotten great again and it's time to go camping. I'm wonder if anybody has tips/hints for food supplies for raw fooders who are out in the wild.

I do three main types of camping. Kayak camping, hiking/wilderness and desert camping. The desert camping is probably the trickiest since any fresh foods which are not in a cooler go off fast (in hours) and coolers are a pain to deal with. I normally have fresh food for the first day, then eat dried fruit and nuts for the rest of the time, at least for desert camping.

For kayak camping, some fresh fruits and veggies can keep for a few days (although not greens), these can be supplented with dried fruits and nuts.

My trips normally last from 2days/1night to a week+, and i'm interested in doing some multi-week trips. It's not always possible to restock with fresh food on some of the longer trips.

I recently started reading up on edible wild plants (and seaweeds) with the aim of supplementing diet with fresh wild foods. Although this isn't really an option in the desert.

I've tried experimenting with making some powdered/kind-of-instant, just a add water and wait a little while raw food, but these didn't taste very good. I might try again and see if this can be refined to taste better.

I've also heard about sprouting while camping, this might work well for hiking, may for kayaking as well if I'm not moving camp ever day, but probably not for desert.

Any food tips for these types of camping?

Cheers,
Ian.

Have you tried dehydrating foods? You can make stuff in a dehydrator without killing the enzymes. A friend of mine found some good raw snack bars called GojiBars, and he learned how to make them on his own.

[www.gojibar.com]

Hi Oneris,

Yes! Dehydrating has been my main way of preserving stuff for longer trips and harsh environments. I've mainly done fruits (bananas, berry leather, etc), but also coconut flesh and veggie pulp flax seed breads. I've played a little with dehydrating onions and a shreded carrots, the onions where ok, but the carrots need some work (maybe marinated in something taste first).

I wonder if dehydrating saurkrut is a good idea.... hmmmm.

Ian.

Hi,

I've been doing a fair bit of camping lately and I'm getting ready for more, so I figured I'd share what foods I've been taking on the last couple of trips.

Trip #1) 2 day river trip in a small white water kayak. I could take very little gear.
- Bag of plain mixed nuts (cashews, brazils, peanuts, walnuts)
- dried navel orange slices
- dried banana
- dried mango
- dried pineapple
- larabars
- some Lydia's Organics Savory Trail Mix
Notes: I didn't have enough savory foods, need more different tasting salty/non-sweet foods. Dry orange is yummy, take a slice of dried orange, place a dried banana on it and fold the orange in half (with the banana inside). Or sandwich the dried orange between a piece of mango and/or pineapple.


Trip #2) 2 day car camping in Black Rock Desert, NV.
- dried orange slices, banana, mango, pineapple.
- dried seeweed.
- nuts with dried spices on them (Curry almonds, hot pistachios, etc.)
- A cooler containing a bunch of fresh oranges and grape fruit
- dried sliced yams (first soaked in hemp oil, nama shoyu, salt, apple vinegar)
- dried onion rings (soaked in same as above).
- dried coconut flesh.
- kimchi
- almond butter
- honey
- plain nuts, pistachios, almonds
Notes: I ate less food on this trip, but having more flavored foods was nice. Even if it was to mainly wow people I shared my food with. I think I should put some apples in my cooler next time, I didn't really eat many oranges or grapefruit.

The next trip coming up is a five day trip to Black Rock Desert, I've still got plently of food left from last weekend, but unfortunately I don't have enough time to dehydrate some more yam.

Any body else get out camping? What to you eat when camping?

Cheers,
Ian.

You could check out www.rawhike.com and see what Dough Walsh did for his hike. He had lots of boxes of food delivered to him at post offices along the route,but he also did some sprouting along the way.

Sounds like you have a good plan already!

You could make some tomato powder - just put crispy/crunchy dried tomatoes in the blender. You can use the powder for soup or sauce. Add dried veggies for soup or spices for sauce. OH yeah - don't forget the water!!!!!

Life Is Good!

Have fun! Live Big!

alive!

Thanks! That's a great website.

I've been thinking about doing some long distance paddles. ;-)

Cheers,
Ian.
Thriving, not surviving in the desert.

Good luck with your trip Ian.

For sprouting you can use a plastic bag system: Take the ring of a canning jar lid. Fold a piece of mesh screen over the ring. Work this down into the corner of a large heavy ziplock plastic bag. Secure it with some wire or rubber bands on the outside. I use some coat hanger wire made into a circle that I just push on. Cut a small bit of the corner off for drainage. Cut a 6" length of string. Tie a knot in each end. Use a 2" piece of coat hanger wire to crimp the string ends onto the ziplock's corner just under the zip, forming a loop to hang it by. Or staple it.

Place your crafted bag into another unmodified bag. Place seeds on top of screening. Add water to soak. etc.

To keep your icechest cold much longer wrap it in some insulation, like a sleeping bag.

Hi Brome,

thanks for the sprouting tips. Is the outer plastic bag sealed so that the seeds/nuts being sprouted don't dry out?

Cheers,
Ian.

The outer bag is just to hold the soak water and catch drain water. Just clip the outer bag on or attach a string loop to it so it hangs a little lower The inner bag is enough to keep them from getting dry.

For wild foods try the tender green wild grasses.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/2006 11:00PM by brome.

Bump. Some body was asking about raw vegan camping foods, i can't be bothered typing in the info posted here so i'm just going to bump this thread.

Ian.

Another option for keeping things fresh when camping:
[www.reusablebags.com]

Wow, guys, I'm really excited about all these new ideas for what to eat on my summer camping trips-- thanks!

I camp out 2 wks in July and 2 wks in August on an island with my husband, and we usually take lots of nuts (raw ones for me, roasted for him), some Lara bars, dried apricots, raisins. . . dehydrated parsley and nettles + dried tomatoes + onion + avo for a daily salad (add water, lemon juice, maybe olive oil). . . not much else!-- Oh, and I sometimes make a batch of coconut 'cookies' or flax crackers in the dehyrator to take along-- they last 2-4 days. And finally, lots of water, because it's by the ocean and we have to bring all our own water. There's lots of wild plantlife there, but none of the rangers have ever been able to help me find anything really edible except rosehips.

Sharrhan:


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