Food for Thought: What Dave and Amy Eat on the Trail

06 October 2011

Student Response Worksheet (Upper)

Dave and I have a fairly simple diet when we are on the trail. We have to be conscious of the weight of the food, packaging, and the time it takes for foods to spoil. We eat some dehydrated food, but we do not eat prepackaged, freeze-dried camping meals. That would get too expensive and we don't like all the packaging.

We eat a lot of things that you would eat at home, like rice, pasta, and granola. Some things are different. I bet you don't have powdered milk with your cereal in the morning. Dave's mom helped us by dehydrating a lot of vegetables for us. She also made our favorite treat by putting several bananas, strawberries, and raspberries in a blender. She spread this on a nonstick sheet and put it in the food dehydrator. It is like a Fruit Roll-Up or Fruit by the Foot, except it tastes better, it has no added sugar or corn-syrup, and it is homemade.

For breakfast, we have a couple of choices: granola with dehydrated milk or oatmeal with dehydrated milk and raisins. Our lunches consist of foods that we can eat quickly and easily. We usually have crackers and cheese. Sometimes we will switch it up and have tuna or peanut butter and jelly with the crackers. We also have that yummy fruit leather made by Dave's mom and trail mix. Since it is fall in Minnesota, we have been lucky to get some Minnesota or Wisconsin-grown apples. Those have been a real treat! Sure they are a bit bulky and they spoil faster than the fruit leather, but we manage to eat them before they spoil.

We have granola bars or energy bars too. I usually carry one in my pocket to eat sometime between lunch and dinner. Several companies were nice enough to donate bars to us – and they are delicious. We are very happy to be supported by MacroBar, Larabar, and Clif Bar.

Dinner is when we have a bit more variety. Dave always cooks dinner while I set up the tent. He makes a couple of different rice and pasta dishes. Our favorite is probably rice and beans, with some of the dehydrated vegetables. He also makes rice with lentils and a curry sauce. The pasta is usually made with a dehydrated tomato sauce or powdered cheese sauce, with vegetables. We also carry a bag of flower, some baking powder, and a bottle of oil in order to make bannock. This is a special treat whenever we have extra time.

There you have it – our meals on the trail. It has taken us a while to perfect our system. We have a few special things like the dehydrated vegetables, sauces, and fruit leather. The rest of the stuff we eat can be found in any grocery store. This makes resupplying easy. We try to by locally grown, organic food whenever possible. This was difficult when we were way up north. As we head south, it is getting much easier.

We also don't pack each meal separately. Instead, we pack it in bulk, or pantry style. It can be kind of tricky to figure this out at first, but we like packing the food this way for two reasons. 1. We have much less packaging if we don't pack each meal in its own plastic bag. 2. We have a little wiggle room; if we had an easy day and we aren't that hungry, Dave can make less or if we worked really hard, he can make a bit more.

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Fennel's Field Notes

I suppose you might be wondering what I eat too. . . I think that my diet is a bit less interesting than Dave and Amy's. Lately, they have been feeding me dog food. They try to buy stuff for me that is high in protein and fat. If I am extra good, they give me a hunk of lard. Mmm. . . mmm. I love lard! This diet would be unhealthy for a human, but for a sled dog it is just right.

I remember, earlier in the summer, Dave caught fish for me. That was super delicious. I would watch him while he would stand on shore and cast his line in the water. I would get so excited when he caught a fish, that I would wade in the water and try to grab it! Dave and Amy would eat fish too, but they would always save plenty for me. I guess the fishing hasn't been too good lately. Sometimes I hear a splash in the water and I run over, hoping that I can catch a fish. So far, I haven't had any luck with this.