erbfarm

just had a major ice storm here in NH that knocked our power out for 8 days.....Now that I know what it's like to eat stuff you can make w/ hot water for more than a week, I know I could never survive a tour w/ that kind of cuisine. I"m thinking of getting a lightweight portable grill (called the Grilliput I think) and an equally lightweight dish-type thing to hold wood charcoal in so that I can grill veggies and fish on tour. I know a lot of campgrounds have fire rings and such but this little set up (I think costing around $40 for both pieces) seemed versatile enough that you could set it up in state parks, campgrounds, and even church yards without too much fuss or bother. It's either that, or look into a few more gadgets (like grills) that I could use w/ a conventional backpacker stove. Any suggestions for ways to up the standard of tour food? I really prefer to cook for myself rather than eating out. thanks

Machka 

You didn't have any means of cooking food ... so what did you eat?

If it were me, I would have eaten things like:
-- sandwiches of all sorts ... different types of bread, meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, etc.
-- pita sandwiches
-- wraps
-- crackers and cheese
-- pickles and olives
-- fruit
-- raw veggies
-- cottage cheese
-- yogurt
-- puddings
-- canned fruit
-- jellos
-- cookies
-- pastries
-- granola bars
-- cereal


None of these things require cooking, and yet provide quite a varied diet. Wander up and down the aisles of your local grocery store and really have a good look at what your options are.

carkmouch

But many of them do require refrigeration---electricity.

However, one could store it outside in the cold...

mev

May not apply to the NH power situation, but when on tour, I'll frequently forage on some of the same things that Machka mentioned. Even along a fairly remote road through Siberia we came on villages with little shops often enough to pick up another loaf of bread, chunk of cheese, apples, yogurts, etc. Didn't carry huge amounts but picked things up as available/needed which cut down on long-term refrigeration. The Australian outback had some more remote stretches, but main roads towns were not much more than 600km apart and roadhouses typically in between as well. Most of North America I've toured those little convenience stores or groceries are quite a bit closer than either Siberia or the Australian Outback.

I moved a bit more to foraging after a trip along the Dempster Highway in northern Canada. There was ~230 miles of gravel road that took me 3 days to cross before reaching the Eagle Plains Motel. I had carefully prepared ~8 days of dried meals and other food to take along the way. On that trip, I found that I preferred to eat many smaller amounts through a longer day than spend too much cooking and eating the meal at end of the day. That was influenced a bit by a fair amount of mosquitoes at a few of the campsites. After that trip, I figured if I could get by w/o too much cooking larger meals even in areas with gaps of ~3 days between civilization, then I could also forage and get smaller amounts in trips through more densely populated areas some cooking but also a fair amount of no-cook trips.

erbfarm

this summer, I'm planning on doing tours along well traveled routes in New England so I won't ever be too far from civilization, as it were, and will be able to get food to grill. I guess I'm just wondering what options are available for meals that are other than boil water n' serve. I'm probably a bit more fussy than the average tourer b/c I live on a farm and grow my own food, have my own organic eggs, fresh goat milk, etc. so in general, I don't do too well on packaged foods or even restaurant fare.

foamy

I've weaved a disposable grill out of green twigs and such before. Weave it in a fan shape so you have a handle. Only takes a few moments once you've found the right matierial. I wouldn't consider a wire grill that I had to clean and pack. Just grill slowly and don't burn the twigs or sticks up or your dinner goes in the fire. The old fashioned hotdog/sausage stick works very well too.

spinnaker

Actually you can cook steaks, chicken pork chops, shishkabob all that way too. I have even done ground meat that way too but a little more dangerous.

TheBrick

I don't understand why you could only cook food you can make with hot water with a camp stove as you are suggesting in your post.

late

When I backpacked I loved my Bakepacker
https://www.bakepacker.com/

staehpj1

+1 We ate lots of local foods and fresh veggies cooked on a camp stove.

Grilliput looks kind of cool, but seems a little heavy for what it is. A cheapo cooling rack would be lighter and pack flat in the back of a pannier in a plastic bag.

I would be more inclined to just improvise something when I felt like grilling or rather than grill cook stuff in foil over coals or on a stick(s).

J.C. Koto

Yea, I've done this too, and it works very well. It's also a lot of fun in a living resourceful off the land sort of way. MOST IMPORTANT -- make sure the sticks do not come from a poisonous plant!!! Sounds obvious, but when you're tired and hungry, well, bad things can happen.

Make the "grill" smallish, so the meat and stuff covers most of the wood. This will act as a heat-sink preventing the wood from burning through.

Also, don't forget about the venerable "hobo dinner" -- meat and veggies, etc, wrapped up in foil and tossed on the fire for a while. One of my favorite things about camping, these are!

yater

Why not throw your meat on a little pan/skillet and cook it on the stove? You can mix in veggies, onions, etc. If you must grill, find a campsite....but I sure wouldn't carry one with me.

yaybikes

bold

zoltani

I have always found that food tastes so much better when bike touring or backpacking. After you have been out there all day being active anything tastes good. There are things I can eat on tour that I would never cook when i am at home. You might be experiencing that phenomena. Of course food you cook with a camp stove is not going to taste as good when you are at home vs. on tour.

robow

I once saw a photo, (I'll see if I can find it) of these guys grilling meat on their spokes, as they had taken a wheel off and it was held over the fire by resting the rim on rocks. There were enough beer bottles in the photo to make me think that maybe they were that looped.

Or you could go this way

Machka 

Every now and then someone comes on these forums with the mistaken idea that when they go camping they have to eat that prepackaged camping food found in REI and places like that.

I've spent quite a bit of time cycling and camping, and have never eaten those prepackaged camp foods. I've no idea what they're even like.

Instead, I eat real food when I cycle and camp. The list I gave in Post #2 is a good example of what I'd eat if I were left to fend for myself ... because I don't cook. If items on that list required refrigeration, I'd eat them sooner rather than later. For example, I might have the yogurt right outside the grocery store. The cottage cheese and meats I'd eat in camp that night, or for lunch ... it's nice to stop at a little grocery store in some little town, buy the fixings for a good sandwich, and eat it in the park across the street. Most of the rest of the stuff will keep for a while.

And that list is not exhaustive ... the bakery section of most grocery stores, for example, contain a plethora of possibilities. Take fruit cake for example ... I lived on that stuff in Australia. If you walk up and down the aisles, you'll see lots of things you could eat without cooking. Another thing Australia had that I don't think they've got here in Canada is canned potato salad. It was really good!! Very tasty. But you can usually get plastic tubs of potato and other types of salad here ... they make a nice lunch. Just a couple more examples.

If you cook, that opens up the rest of the grocery store to you.

And erbfarm, if you want organic, make a point of stopping at fruit stands and markets along the way to pick stuff up.

staehpj1

I generally ate fresh food when I could and sometimes supplemented it with canned or boxed stuff from the supermarket or general store, but freeze dried food does have a place on tour.

Freezed dried food fills a few niches for me.
1. Freeze dried meals are a good thing to have for an emergency meal in case you get stuck away from stores or get to a tiny town only to find the only store has gone under. The main courses generally are not very good, but in a pinch it is nice to have something rather than nothing and for a spare meal in the bottom of the pack lighter is better.
2. Freeze dried veggies are actually pretty good, especially the peas and carrots. They are very light to carry and there are times when the local general store has very little in the way of fresh veggies and I think freeze dried are better tasting than canned.
3. Dried or freeze dried onions and or mushrooms were a nice addition to sauces and other dishes.

Oh and by the way I found that dried hummus was delicious. I don't know if it is freeze dried or just dried though. It makes for some great lunches combined with a crunchy vegetable and some kind and made into wraps. If you want to add some tuna or salmon the foil packed stuff goes nicely with it.

Dried apple cider is another nice thing to have along. Some times it is just a nice change of pace and sometimes it helps mask the taste of nasty water.

Edit:
I forgot to mention that we found freeze dried veggies in small markets fairly often when we were on the western half of the TA. Also if you pass through Lander Wy, stop at NOLS. The folks there were great. They let us shower and gave us a lot of free food that had gone out on trips and come back. They can't reuse it so they give it to touring cyclists. They also will sell you whatever you need from their stock room in usable quantities for a good price. This includes more stuff than you can imagine including dried freeze dried and other foods. We had so much stuff when we left that we had to head straight for the post office to mail boxes ahead to 4 locations down the road.

robmcl

I bought the Grillput late last summer when it was on sale at REI but I got it too late to use it. It is nice and compact and will fit in a rear pannier. However, I think it is a bit heaver than it needs to be. I have a folding cooler bag that I take with me and the idea was at the end of the day to stop somewhere and get a piece of meat and a six pack of beer to take to the camp ground. To me one of the pleasures of life is to sit around, drink beer, and watch meat grill. Also, when touring alone, I find that I get bored if I get to the camp site too early. This will give me something fun to do.

Badwx

Dehydrate your own vegetables and fruits. I dry cranberries after stocking up from thanksgiving. I hate the added sugar in commercial cranberries. I enjoy the tartness in my oatmeal. Even meats can be dehydrated if not fatty.

JohnyW

Hi

I use this. It's too high, stands not proper and too small for a big fish. But in general it works.

For a steak (Origin: Meat on stick) you can use a branch of tree also.

Thomas

staehpj1

I am curious how you manage that. I personally don't carry more than a few days worth of food at most. On a long tour you would certainly be out of home dried stuff within a couple weeks at most and that would probably mean carrying quite a bit of food at a time. I sometimes carry enough of a few items to go for a while, but for most things it makes sense to buy daily when you can.

So your suggestions raise a few questions in my mind. How much of this home dried food do you take? How long are your tours? Are you using mail drops or something to stock up on stuff from home?

positron

I have gone the dehydrated route, and it can work. Its not so practical for bulk stuff like beans, lentils, rice, or whatever...because you end up carrying too much for any extended trip (1 week+). However, it can be really nice to have a decent stock of a few tasty nutritious ingredients to add to the basics you pick up everywhere. For example, I eat a lot of oatmeal, but I don't carry it along the way. I do carry berries and fruits though, since a little added to oatmeal really picks it up and it can be tough/expensive to find on the road. A bag will last a long time. Another thing I have really been glad to have was dehydrated roasted green chiles, which help any bland dish IMO. And I also carry a decent amount of curry powder, which I add to many things.

As far as grilling goes, i like to do it especially when camping. I wouldn't carry a grill though, but rather use the opportunity when I found a campsite with the facilities.

Stuff wrapped in tinfoil and thrown in the fire is a great way to cook. some fresh veggies, russet taters, mushrooms with oil and garlic, sweetcorn in the husk. yum. tinfoil cookery is one of my favorite pastimes when sitting around the fire.

benajah

Check out any outfitter (hiking backpacking store) there are tons of things to use to cook, just experiment. I have pretty much lived in the woods since I was about 3 and it is certainly a long way from "roughing it" when it comes to eating. I can't offer any specific advice as to products, etc as its a matter of personal choice and experimentation, but there is more stuff out there in the stores than you could imagine, but go to an actual physical store where you can actually touch things and look at them and shop around.
You can bake bread over a campfire with a dutch oven (you can get them ultralight) you can grill most anything you want, you can do any type of cooking in the back country you can at home.
Wilderness cooking is sort of my "thing" I even wrote a book on it once but couldnt get it published

bizzz111

convert one of these into a pannier

https://www.promopeddler.com/06-91/ba...-qqp452818.htm

Niles H.

You could do what these guys did -- either including the mailing, or just using the dehydrator technique (some of those foods can be quite good), and the foraging:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AXhlHoNxo8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm1IT...eature=related

***
You could also learn to use some additional favorite seasonings, and acquire better cooking skills. Boiled and steamed foods don't have to be boring.

Grilling is one way to go; but there are many others.

Food can be buried along with some hot rocks. Many native people used this technique. Food was often wrapped in or surrounded by leaves or other vegetation.

You could use an alcohol stove, or some other lightweight backpacking stove -- and you can do a lot with these stoves besides boiling. Stir frying doesn't have to involve a lot of oil, and some people don't mind frying with healthful oils that are not overheated. Dry saute is another technique.

There are lightweight 'toasters' that can be held over a fire.

There are grills made specifically for backpackers that weigh very little, and are very compact.

***
You can learn to prepare non-boring cuisine that doesn't involve cooking. You sound like you are into organic foods -- you can find good books on preparing meals from fresh, raw, organic foods (the raw foods movement has some good books that are available from Amazon.com and from libraries).

I used to think that fresh foods needed to be elaborately prepared and seasoned. They don't. A really good, ripe, fresh tomato is excellent just as it is -- no need for all the junk people usually put on top. You don't even need to slice it up, much less cook and elaborately season it. Same goes for really good apples, peaches, berries, and all kinds of other things.

If you do an openminded tour of a large natural foods store (especially the bulk bins, but elsewhere too), you will probably be able to expand your repertoire considerably.

That sort of learning can free up a lot of time, trouble, and money that goes into more elaborate forms of food preparation and cooking.

Some of the best foods I've ever eaten were not cooked, and I prefer it that way.