Lessons learned from my Columbus Day Camping/Paddling Trip: Lesson #2

Why is it that so many people who camp think that in order to 'rough it', they have to eat pre-packaged commercially prepared freeze dried foods? Yuck.

Lesson Two:  You don't have to flog your tastebuds or deprive yourself of eating REAL food when camping.  At least, not when kayak camping. 

My fellow campers, bless their hearts (I do so love that Southern phrase!), 'survived' on Clif Bars and stuff in mylar pouches.  I took my own food.  Not patting myself on the back here -- because they are certainly free to eat whatever they want, and I suppose that convenience played a big role in what they were eating.  However, we were not through hiking the AT, nor were we traversing the Inside Passage by canoe or kayak and strapped for space.  We drove to a campground at a state park, parked our cars within 50' of our tents, and that was about as rough as it got. 

To give you a wee bit of contrast...which would YOU rather have?

Mountain House Chicken Salad $6.50 per 4.09 oz single serving pouch. 

Here is the additional info from the REI website:

• Just mix contents with cold water in the pouch provided; let stand for 8 - 9 min., and serve in tortillas or over rice or pasta (all not included)
• 18g of protein per serving provides 36% of the recommended daily value

Ingredients:

cooked chicken white meat*, seasoning blend (high oleic sunflower oil, buttermilk, whey, maltodextrin, salt, Dijon mustard {distilled vinegar, mustard, white wine, citric acid, tartaric acid and spices}, modified corn starch, onion, natural flavor, xanthan gum, vinegar, powder, chives, sugar, spices, citric acid, disodium inosinate and disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate and less than 2% sunflower oil added to prevent caking), roasted pumpkin seeds {pumpkin kernels, soybean oil and/or cottonseed oil}, sliced cranberries*, red onions*. *Freeze-dried. Allergens: milk, soy.

Made in USA.

Or this...

Mary's Homegrown Filet Mignon and Garden Veggie Skillet

Ingredients:
Tuckahoe Plantation Livestock Grass Fed Beef - raised by Daniel 'from calf to plate'
Chicken of the Woods Mushroom - foraged from the woods behind my house
Dehydrated (by me) peppers and onions from my garden
Fresh yellow pear tomatoes from my garden
Fresh Juliet tomatoes from my garden
Fingerling Potatoes -- grown by neighbors less than two miles from my house
Garlic - grown by Daniel
Sauteed in Olive Oil (grown somewhere else -- I have not yet seen any olive trees in the neighborhood)

The cost was not much more than the mylar chicken salad.  I didn't need to put my stuff in cold water for 8-9 minutes, but I did let my dehydrated veggies rehydrate for a bit in the olive oil before cooking them on my trusty JetBoil.  (I love my JetBoil...but that is a post for another day!)

And that was just one meal.  While my friends were gulping down oatmeal and granola for breakfast...I made french toast one morning and vegetable and goat cheese omelettes the next.

French Toast

Ingredients:

Homemade Cinnamon Sugar (but I use honey, instead of sugar) Bread -- made in my bargain $ 3.15 Bread Machine (another post for another day...I love this very handy device, too!)
Fresh, local Butter
Tuckahoe Plantation Livestock Eggs
Sullivan's Pond Farm milk from my goat share
And, viola!  Delicious French Toast in the trusty JetBoil!

Omelette Ingredients:
Tuckahoe Plantation Livestock Eggs
Sullivan's Pond Farm milk and cheese from my goat share
Assorted veggies from my garden (listed above)
Foraged (by me) Chicken of the Woods Mushrooms
Virginia Salt Cured Bacon (I cannot remember who made it, though -- but definitely Virginia grown and NOT one of the big boys, like Smithfield)

Last, but not least...we always have a shore lunch when we paddle. 

Out came more Clif bars, and those icky pouches of StarKist tuna in a shiny bag.  Other stuff, too, but I cannot remember. 

However, on my end of the beach, I was having a gourmet feast!

Root Veggie Chips topped with:
Rona's Sullivan's Pond Farm soft chevre goat cheese from my goat share, and...
Wild Caught Alaskan Salmon (smoked) -- part of my semi-annual case of Orca's Select Smoked Salmon shipped from Southeast Sea Kayaks in Ketchikan, Alaska -- yum!  Once you have eaten real Alaskan salmon...you will never go back to farm raised Atlantic Salmon. 

I have recently purchased and read a great cookbook designed for kayakers, canoeists, and rafters, titled The Paddling Chef. 

If you spend any time at all in the outdoors...definitely check it out! 

My students already think that I look like Paula Deen, so who knows...maybe there is a cookbook in my own future, too!

You never know...