widu13
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Jerkied meat, dried veg, oats, dried spud, sugar, dried milk will cover all of your meal requirements. If you cook it at home then dry it there no faffing about on the hoof.
whats the best food to take with you?
- Thread starter nickidan
- Start date
Does anyone know any good sources or ideas for things like vegtable oil substitutes in the bush - aka something to grease your pan with etc?
Butter can be problematic, especially if the weather's warm. A small tin with close fitting plastic lid works well, or a smallish screw top jar. Many people don't bother with butter but its very nice on warm bannock or fresh bread and a tspful of butter turns a bowl of porridge into something special. If you're not bothered about butter, a 50ml or 100ml or larger screw-top plastic bottle full of the veg oil of your choice will do. Keeping your bottle of oil in a ziploc bag is a good idea.
When I am walking in warmer climes I carry a .25 L sigg bottle which I fill with olive oil, that works for frying and makes dry bread more palatable.
I make up my own ratpacks. One Ziplock bag per day. Into each goes:
2 Instant coffee sachets
2 Tea Bags
1 portion of porridge or muesli in a pour and store bag with dried milk and brown sugar mixed in-Just add hot water
2 granola bars
1 pack oatmeal biscuits
1 or 2 baby bell wax coated cheeses
dried sausage
1 packet of cous-cous or instant noodles or sainsbury instant mash All these can be put into pour and store bags. Just add hot water the rest is used for a brew
Dehydrated meal or sausage or small tin of tuna or bully beef
Couple of pepper sachets filched from motorway service station
One packet of tissues or rolled up loo paper.
This isn't gourmet food but it gives calories, is fairly light and compact and you can check weight before leaving home. I've been doing this for about twenty years since I got fed up with ending up with a lot of left overs of one thing and nothing left of something else.
I usually keep in my pack a liitle nalgene botle or Marmite and a larger one of honey. I used to take booze but ca't carry enough. As
the lady said to Dr Johnson, "Will you take a little wine?" "No, Madam. Either a lot or none at all."
2 Instant coffee sachets
2 Tea Bags
1 portion of porridge or muesli in a pour and store bag with dried milk and brown sugar mixed in-Just add hot water
2 granola bars
1 pack oatmeal biscuits
1 or 2 baby bell wax coated cheeses
dried sausage
1 packet of cous-cous or instant noodles or sainsbury instant mash All these can be put into pour and store bags. Just add hot water the rest is used for a brew
Dehydrated meal or sausage or small tin of tuna or bully beef
Couple of pepper sachets filched from motorway service station
One packet of tissues or rolled up loo paper.
This isn't gourmet food but it gives calories, is fairly light and compact and you can check weight before leaving home. I've been doing this for about twenty years since I got fed up with ending up with a lot of left overs of one thing and nothing left of something else.
I usually keep in my pack a liitle nalgene botle or Marmite and a larger one of honey. I used to take booze but ca't carry enough. As
the lady said to Dr Johnson, "Will you take a little wine?" "No, Madam. Either a lot or none at all."
I think if you're carrying food for any slightly longer time period than an ovenighter then weight and bulk are important factors. There is no way around the fact that a week or so in the hills when you can't be sure of the re-supply points means some weight. Some people talk of 1kg per day so 7 days between re-supply = 7kg added to your pack. My base weight is actually less than that.
Unfortunately IMHO it does mean dehydrated food for at least the bulky carbs part if nothing else. I personally take LLWF food with dried pasta on an overnighter though. Quick cook or if not then some of the normal but quicker cooking like macaroni or even fresh pasta as that cooks quicker too. I do use a can top gas stove or a meths burner though not a fire so fuel efficiency is also important to me.
Since I don't own a dehydrator and can't wait around making it using the oven method I really have to buy dehydrated foods in. I do get camping brands with Drytech Real Turmat (bright orange packet) or MX3 being my personal faves. The MX3 is not available in double packs like the Drytech make. The singles are not enough for active types I reckon. The double is just right for me because its actually more like 1.5 times the single serving or what I call a decent main meal size.
If you are going to be going for some time check out outdoorsgrub.co.uk (link below) for dehydrated foods. They stock the better flavours and include MX3 (French company) and also a few US ones too that are so much better than the ones available over here in camping shops. The cod and potato one is really nice from Drytech BTW. Also add more water than they say and leave it to soak in for longer than they say in a pot cosy. The taste is a lot better that way.
http://www.outdoorsgrub.co.uk/
Pepperoni is good too.
Unfortunately IMHO it does mean dehydrated food for at least the bulky carbs part if nothing else. I personally take LLWF food with dried pasta on an overnighter though. Quick cook or if not then some of the normal but quicker cooking like macaroni or even fresh pasta as that cooks quicker too. I do use a can top gas stove or a meths burner though not a fire so fuel efficiency is also important to me.
Since I don't own a dehydrator and can't wait around making it using the oven method I really have to buy dehydrated foods in. I do get camping brands with Drytech Real Turmat (bright orange packet) or MX3 being my personal faves. The MX3 is not available in double packs like the Drytech make. The singles are not enough for active types I reckon. The double is just right for me because its actually more like 1.5 times the single serving or what I call a decent main meal size.
If you are going to be going for some time check out outdoorsgrub.co.uk (link below) for dehydrated foods. They stock the better flavours and include MX3 (French company) and also a few US ones too that are so much better than the ones available over here in camping shops. The cod and potato one is really nice from Drytech BTW. Also add more water than they say and leave it to soak in for longer than they say in a pot cosy. The taste is a lot better that way.
http://www.outdoorsgrub.co.uk/
Pepperoni is good too.
Look at any food's kcals/100g figure. Aim for 400kcals/100g average as this will make the weight better for your food intake requirements. Oatcakes are good with a nice tube of primula. Simple lunch that actually keeps for a while. Tuna sandwich foil packs too. Oatcakes are better than breads for keeping. Even better than pita breads (wholemeal lasts better than white pitta breads BTW).
Plus your favourite trail foods (jelly babies, GORP, dried apricots, etc.). I take cereal bars (always have about 5 or 6 in my daypack side pocket too. "Just in case" food for me. I do hit the wall rapidly when blood sugars drop. One moment I am pushing on, fit as a fiddle then the energy switch is flicked and I am almost unable to proceed until I have eaten and the foods have entered my system. I am the only person I know with that effect happening so fast like a light switch being flicked off. It has been known that I have been storming up a hill at a fair old pace one moment then have been unable to walk up any further the next. Better to have something slow release in your pocket and keep snacking regularly. Just like you do with water in a drinks bladder while on the move.
Plus your favourite trail foods (jelly babies, GORP, dried apricots, etc.). I take cereal bars (always have about 5 or 6 in my daypack side pocket too. "Just in case" food for me. I do hit the wall rapidly when blood sugars drop. One moment I am pushing on, fit as a fiddle then the energy switch is flicked and I am almost unable to proceed until I have eaten and the foods have entered my system. I am the only person I know with that effect happening so fast like a light switch being flicked off. It has been known that I have been storming up a hill at a fair old pace one moment then have been unable to walk up any further the next. Better to have something slow release in your pocket and keep snacking regularly. Just like you do with water in a drinks bladder while on the move.
You've had some pretty good suggestions so far................................................As you said you were leaving from the lakes ( presumably staying a few nights)
I would like to remind you that the lake district is a national park & as such certain things are not allowed such as wild camping, lighting fires & picking plants.......
I would advise you to take a stove of some kind,( & plenty of fuel).... if you do wild camp be discrete about it i.e. pitch your tent just before night fall & make camp as high as you can in the hills & no fires (there's nothing to burn up there anyway) unless you want a helicopter in your face & a mouthful of abuse.( & probably a fine)
As already mentioned, don't rely on " feeding off the land" even if you have some experience & know what to look for, it's very, very hard, even more so if you don't know the terrain & are on the move all the time.
A last word of caution, if you plan to resupply by choosing villages on a map, be sure they have a shop of some kind before hand.......It's a long way to walk to the next on an empty stomach.
Try to carry simple food, easy to prepare as you don't know the conditions ( cooking or otherwise)you will have to face in advance, also carry a good supply of chocolate bars ( snickers, mars bars, whatever you prefer) or biscuits, because when things get bad, it's amazing how a brew & a biccy can completely change the situation.
I would like to remind you that the lake district is a national park & as such certain things are not allowed such as wild camping, lighting fires & picking plants.......
I would advise you to take a stove of some kind,( & plenty of fuel).... if you do wild camp be discrete about it i.e. pitch your tent just before night fall & make camp as high as you can in the hills & no fires (there's nothing to burn up there anyway) unless you want a helicopter in your face & a mouthful of abuse.( & probably a fine)
As already mentioned, don't rely on " feeding off the land" even if you have some experience & know what to look for, it's very, very hard, even more so if you don't know the terrain & are on the move all the time.
A last word of caution, if you plan to resupply by choosing villages on a map, be sure they have a shop of some kind before hand.......It's a long way to walk to the next on an empty stomach.
Try to carry simple food, easy to prepare as you don't know the conditions ( cooking or otherwise)you will have to face in advance, also carry a good supply of chocolate bars ( snickers, mars bars, whatever you prefer) or biscuits, because when things get bad, it's amazing how a brew & a biccy can completely change the situation.
Agree mostly with blacktimberwolf except the wildcamping is not legal but widely accepted in the Lakes above the intake wall and out of easy sight of farms and buildings. Been doing it for a long time there and never had a problem. Even the odd desparate, last minute valley camps in a field (last resort and no choice but earlyup of course). IF (and that is a big if IME) a farmer asks you to move on do so politely and camp a few miles on.
Fires are not advised except say a managed woodstove one. Not much wood higher up where safe to camp.
If you are having an epic I have always said. Stop, eat, drink, look around for a bit then come back to your problem. That's mostly with epic but temporary locational inaccuracies of course (getting hoplessly lost) but I guess applies for other types of epics too. Kinda like blacktimberwolf said.
I'm off for a Knoydart wander soon (full week in the hills unsupported with full food). So kinda in your position too.
Fires are not advised except say a managed woodstove one. Not much wood higher up where safe to camp.
If you are having an epic I have always said. Stop, eat, drink, look around for a bit then come back to your problem. That's mostly with epic but temporary locational inaccuracies of course (getting hoplessly lost) but I guess applies for other types of epics too. Kinda like blacktimberwolf said.
I'm off for a Knoydart wander soon (full week in the hills unsupported with full food). So kinda in your position too.
Thats comforting
The intake walls being the walls that separate the fields from the bush yea?
Also do you think a hobo stove could be classed as a "raised" fire?
Two very good points, I've fallen foul of the first a few times.
nikidan - I don't want to sound preachy and spoil your fun, but this does not sound like a very good plan :-(
If you are walking then you should plan a rough route, where you plan to stop and when you expect to get there. You should also tell someone what that plan is. People get lost and injured in the hills all the time, without the above people may not know you are in trouble until it is too late.....don't expect to rely on a mobile phone in the hills
Also knowing what the weather will be like is crucial if you are going to be in the hill, the weather can change very quickly and you can get caught out by the conditions, again the results can be less that satisfactory.
widu13
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
+1 vote for Ghee as a butter/cooking oil substitute. It tastes nice and will last for months even in the heat.
Thankyou for your concerns puddock i hear where your coming from and i take onboard what you are saying... the thing is - thats exactly what im aiming for. i know it sounds ridiculus but so does a Celestial teapot!
I want to put myself in that situation - and deal with what comes at me. and come on man, this is the uk! if something goes wrong its not that far to go for help.
I WILL be plotting a rough route of course and plan on not going to far from civilization.
I want to put myself in that situation - and deal with what comes at me. and come on man, this is the uk! if something goes wrong its not that far to go for help.
I WILL be plotting a rough route of course and plan on not going to far from civilization.
I've been reading this thread with interest as on 1st June I'm getting a sequence of buses up to Rhayader, and then walking home again, mainly via the Wye Valley Walk. Would rather that my pack was lighter than it was the last time I did something like this. Resupply won't be a problem, but going into towns is a pain...
HELLO FELLOW TRAMPER!!
Have you done this sort of thing before? ide love any advice you could give me!?
20+ years ago! I took too much stuff, and gave myself blisters and backache. To be honest, the information in this thread has been uniformly excellent. My only tip would be to pace yourself initially. Overdo it on day 1, and you spend the next several paying for it. And pack carefully, over a period of time, so you have a chance to consider your kit, and pack it effecvtively.
Best of luck with your trip.
We bought a dehydrator. Some things turned out amazingly well such as sauces, others were not so good (bananas, etc). We go on week long backcountry canoe trips in the
summer so weight is an issue (lots of portaging). Bannock and flavoured oatmeal packets are a staple. Another good one is falafels fried in the pan.
We supplement all the dried foods with fresh caught fish and berries that we find.
summer so weight is an issue (lots of portaging). Bannock and flavoured oatmeal packets are a staple. Another good one is falafels fried in the pan.
We supplement all the dried foods with fresh caught fish and berries that we find.
