Another Fork in the Trail. Laurie Ann March
cool, dark place or in your refrigerator. Check meals carefully a few weeks before you leave on your trip—if there is even the slightest sign of mold, throw the meal out. It means that the meal didn’t dry properly or became contaminated. This has only happened to me once, and it was because the bag wasn’t sealed or stored properly.
Storing Fresh Ingredients
While I usually try to avoid taking a lot of fresh foods because of weight considerations, you have a few options. Some require the use of a small cooler and ice and others require some creative packing. On weekend hiking and paddling trips, fresh food can be a nice alternative if you don’t mind the extra bulk and weight.
Vegetables
I’ve discovered that organic produce stays fresher for longer. Fresh potatoes, especially baby new potatoes, will travel well and are nice wrapped in aluminum foil and baked in hot coals. Fresh yellow onions last a week or more in a pack. If the skins show signs of wrinkling, use them right away. On a short trip where weight is not so much of a consideration, you can bring eggplants or zucchini and grill them over a fire or panfry them with herbs, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. I have had fresh, organic green peppers last a week in my pack. They are generally smaller than nonorganic peppers and fit nicely into a plastic container, which prevents them from being crushed. I also have been known to carry avocado in the same manner, but I generally buy one that is underripe and let it ripen in my pack. When I put veggies in a plastic container, I open the container every day for a few minutes to let the humidity escape and allow the contents to breathe. Vegetables such as fresh carrots, celery, and green peppers are delicious dipped in hummus. You can even grow sprouts on the trail to add a fresh crunch to wraps and trail salads. A fresh cucumber can be a nice addition to lunch or dinner especially if kicked up with a dressing.
Always store fresh mushrooms in a paper bag, or they will spoil quickly. If I take fresh fruits or vegetables in my pack, I wrap them in a paper towel to reduce bruising and then in a plastic bag that isn’t airtight. Every day at camp I unwrap and check them and allow the air to dry any condensation. If something is ripening faster than I expected, I will juggle the menu to use the item before it spoils.
Fruits
Fruits such as oranges are sturdy, so they carry well and will last a week or more. If you wrap an apple in some paper towels and place it in the center of your pack, it will last more than a week. More delicate stone fruits such as peaches, nectarines, and cherries bruise easily; they travel better in a hard-sided container. Avocados, tomatoes, and other very fragile produce can be carried in a Froot Guard, and bananas can by placed in a Banana Guard. Both products are available from www.bananaguard.com.
Cheeses
If you are an ovo-lacto vegetarian, you might want to include cheese in your menu. Hard cheeses such as Parmesan, Grand Padano, dry Monterey Jack, and old Cheddar will keep longer. If you want to store cheese for longer than a few days, wrap it in vinegar-soaked cheesecloth and put it in a ziplock freezer bag. If you want to use it for more than a week, go one step further and dip the cheesecloth-wrapped cheese several times in paraffin wax. Cheese also keeps well wrapped in plain brown paper or butcher paper and placed in a ziplock bag. Grated cheese does not keep long and should be used on the first night or two; the same is true for creamed cheeses such as mascarpone, herbed cheese, and the like.
Vegetarian Cheeses
Many types of dairy- and casein-free cheeses for vegetarians are on the market. Often these products are made from rice or soy. These products will only keep a day or two without using a cooler bag and are best used in cooler weather.
Fresh Tofu and Tempeh
In cooler weather fresh tofu or tempeh can be carried but is weighty. You can press the tofu at home with a tofu press or a heavy pan to remove a great deal of the liquid and then package it in a ziplock freezer bag to reduce the weight a little. Shelf stable, firm, silken tofu is available in some supermarkets and is your best option if you’d like tofu on longer trips.
Storage Ideas
There are many ways to deal with storage when it comes to food for wilderness trips. I prefer reusable containers because I like to reduce my environmental footprint, so I lean toward items such as BPA-free Nalgene containers when feasible. I also use freezer bags and LOKSAK products. Freezer bags can be washed at home and reused if they aren’t damaged as long as you air-dry them well. LOKSAK makes two products, OPSAK and aLOKSAK, both of which are element proof. Both are food safe and the OPSAKs are an odor-proof bag rated for higher temperatures.
I use a selection of the following containers and bags:
| • | Nalgene bottles in sizes 30–500 milliliters |
| • | ziplock freezer bags, ranging in size from small to large |
| • | reusable OPSAK and aLOKSAK bags, in a variety of sizes |
| • | a hard-sided container for items such as crackers or tortilla chips |
| • | mini ziplock bags or contact lens containers for salt and spices |
| • | extra ziplock bags for leftovers or emergencies |
It is advisable to store foods by meal in larger ziplock bags rather than store many meals in one ziplock bag. The bags often fail if they are opened and closed repeatedly, and being stuffed into a pack each day can be hard on them. Remember to check the ziplock seals daily and to carry a few spare bags just in case. The exception is with energy bars. I like to wrap them individually in waxed paper or baker’s parchment and then place several in a ziplock bag together. The waxed paper makes an excellent fire starter.
Protect GORP or trail mix from being crushed by storing it in a wide-mouth Nalgene bottle. Sometimes I store my GORP items separately from one another and mix it each morning. That way I will not have to dig through the mixture if I want to use an ingredient such as raisins in another recipe.
It is important that you also store your food safely. I double bag much of my food to prevent moisture from getting inside because it causes food to spoil quickly. At camp I try to keep the food pack out of the sun to reduce its temperature.
It is also important that you hang your food or use an approved bear canister in areas where there are bears; some parks and trails have hanging cables, poles, or bear-proof boxes. But bears aren’t the only problem—raccoons, mice, and other critters can be bothersome as well. If you are in bear country or above the tree line, be sure to use an approved bear canister. It is best to find out ahead of time what type of container is approved for the area in which you plan to hike.
Because I don’t like to hang all of my gear or my entire pack, I carry a nylon bag designed specifically for hanging food. The bag packs up small but will hold a considerable amount of food. You could also use a coated nylon dry bag. Bear-proof canisters are also available, but unless I am hiking where one is required, I find that hanging the food is just as effective. If you are on a paddling trip, you may have the luxury of a separate food pack or barrel, which should be hoisted up between two trees. You should hang your food before dark if possible—not only does this reduce the risk of attracting little nocturnal pests, but it’s easier to find a suitable tree when you can see what you are doing. Be sure to use a good-quality rope for food hanging. The inexpensive, yellow rope that you can buy at the hardware store breaks much more easily than you would think. Use a marine-grade or climbing rope that won’t stretch if saturated with water. If your clothes smell of food or you spilled food on them, you should hang them as well. Toothpaste, camp soap, and other scented items need to be hung with the food pack for safety.
As much as you try to avoid having leftovers, sometimes it happens. Depending on the item, you can store it for use the next day. Intentionally creating leftovers, such as bannock or muffins, makes the next day a little easier. Before storing baked goods, let them cook completely; then place them in a clean