Today we have a guest article written by Adeline Cid who is an enthusiastic survival specialist and has extensive training on disaster preparation. She is a strong advocate of quality readiness and have tried and tested Daily Bread and believes it provides the highest quality food storage products.
Food Storage for Outdoor Cooking
Food storage is a very efficient way to feed your family during a weekend camping, hiking or mountain biking trip. Using your storage during your outing is a good way to practice rotating your foods for longer shelf life. This is also an opportunity for you to learn various ways to cook your foods outdoors.
4 Conveniences of Food Storage for Outdoor Cooking
There are a few hassles that come with cooking outdoors. Some of them include:
- No refrigeration
- Excessive weight of packed foods
- Lack of kitchen facilities
- Lack of cooking utensils
Many of these inconveniences can be overcome as long as you’re prepared. Here are four reasons why food storage is very convenient during camping and other outdoor outings:
- No Refrigeration Needed – Food storage doesn’t require refrigeration or freezing. This eliminates the need to pack multiple coolers with massive amounts of ice to store your foods. Dehydrated foods stay safe even in extreme temperatures. All the require is re-hydration using hot water, and they’re ready for consumption.
- Just Add Water – Imagine cooking a tasty, homemade meal without having to measure spices and chopping vegetables. Dehydrated food products can be pre-assembled before you leave on your trip. Now, all you need to bring with you is one cooking pot, one measuring cup and a supply of water. For best results, boil the water first before using it to re-hydrate your food storage.
- Lightweight – Many camping trips take place in remote areas that vehicles can’t access. That means that you’ll be carrying your entire food supply to your camping grounds. In this case, every single ounce counts. You already have to tote all your camping gear and emergency supplies. Just imagine how much easier it will be if your food is lightweight. When compared to canned foods, dehydrated food weigh much less. Be sure to bring along some resealable plastic bags for your leftovers.
- Less Space Needed for Larger Meals – There are occasions when camping trips include large groups of people. This means storing and preparing large amounts of foods at one time. Dehydrated food supplies make it much more convenient to store foods needed to cook meals for large groups. Many of these foods come in one-gallon cans, making it convenient to take with you as you hike to your camping grounds.
Cooking Outdoors Using Your Food Storage
During a camping, bike riding or hiking trip, part of the fun is enjoying the great outdoors. Cooking outdoors can be used a family-fun time, but only if you’re prepared. Remember, you won’t have access to electricity or gas for cooking your foods the traditional way. However, there are a variety of other ways that you can prepare your foods outdoors:
- Camp stoves: kerosene, butane, propane
- Dutch ovens
- Bar-b-cue grills
- Cooking over an open campfire
The key to packing your food storage for your outing is to pack foods you actually enjoy eating. Daily Bread carries gourmet meal plans, emergency supplies and cooking kits for your camping needs. Buy stored food online from Daily Bread.
Although I do agree with the convenience of freeze dried and dehydrated food storage, the one thing I think people need to consider is the extra water that is required to re-hydrate this type of food. Water is very heavy to carry at 8.3 pounds per gallon. I do think it has its place. However I do not think it should be your only source. I live in a very arid, hot area of the country and water is always #1 on my list. Just my thoughts.
I agree with you that water should always be number one. One thought I had on the subject is just packing the dehydrated or freeze dried food, and utilize a filter to purify water where I am at. Here is Minnesota that’s easy, where you live, probably not so much.
While I agree with author that dehydrated foods are very convenient and that you should use what you prep (and prep what you use) the caloric content of each “serving” is woefully inadequate to sustain an average person. I simply caution folks to plan their preps carefully and to not rely solely on bucket meals.
I agree, I think dehydrated and freeze dried food should be used in addition to, but not make up your entire food stock.
There are many types of Dehydrated foods. Pastas, fruit, meat, nuts, grains and vegetables. If you dehydrate your own, and consider you caloric need, you can overcome the problem. It is the factory prepared stull that is inadequate per serving. Also expensive.
Yes, you must make sure you have an adequate supply of water. I may be wrong on this point, but I believe that the dehydration process destroys the vitamin C. Long term you have to supplement this.
One last thing. Many dehydrated foods can be eaten without hydration. Fruits and vegetables actually concentrate their flavors when dehydrated. I often eat a small handful of dehydrated mixed vegetables, some fruit, and jerky for a meal. Just watch how much you eat, and drink pleanty of water.
Even given the issue with re-hydration these types of food can be a great thing to have around for any emergency. Many dehydrated foods can be eaten as they are, while yes others require water to make them palatable again.
Chris’s idea of a water filter in areas with plentiful water supplies is a great idea to reduce the need to carry water and with proper purification practices this works great.
In arid areas Suni stated this would not work as well. In this event you could use a mix of dehydrated and prepacked foods such as MRE’s or canned food’s that you do yourself. Of course you are back to more weight again, but either way you there needs to be some flexibility to the problem and nothing is going to be perfect.
Still all in all a great article Chris.
God additions, thanks.