Episode 28 | Making Your Own Backpacking Meals
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Summary
In this episode of the Backpacking Light podcast, Andrew and Ryan discuss the gear, skills, and hacks you need to create your own backpacking meals. This giant two-hour episode is chock full of actionable tips, with input from Backpacking Light’s resident dehydration expert, Dave Swink, and Aaron Owens Mayhew, MS, RDN, CD from the Backcountry Foodie.
Just a few of the things covered:
- All the gear you’ll need to get started with at-home dehydration
- How to make good backpacking meals using only ingredients from dollar stores
- The best tricks to decrease food prep time and increase the taste and texture of your dehydration efforts
- Which foods to dehydrate and which foods to stay away from
- …and more!
Also in this episode:
- Van life
- A new Dyneema shelter from Tarptent
- Luxury couples backpacking gear
- What’s new at BPL
Outline
- Introduction
- Catching up
- Ryan has been focusing on the live online Trek Planning Course.
- Andrew is in the middle of a huge round-up of cottage industry pre-packaged backpacking meals.
- Interview #1 – Dave Swink
- How Dave got into dehydrating
- Dave’s current setup
- Prep time is the biggest barrier to entry
- Some of the skills Dave has learned to lessen prep time
- The problem of blueberries
- Foods that are good (and bad) for dehydration
- Fruits are great for snacks
- Bananas are great for flavoring
- Watermelon is surprisingly dehydratable
- Meal bases and rice types
- Keeping meals simple
- The importance of food safety
- Dave’s favorite successes
- The importance of variety and texture
- Food saver bags vs. ziplock style baggies
- Dave’s favorite resources
- Chef Glenn McAllister (backpackingchef.com)
- Dehydrating Divas and Dudes (Facebook group)
- 21st Century Simple Living
- Dave’s desert island food picks
- Dehydrating Skills
- The advantage of preparing separate ingredients
- Fats, oils, and meats
- Cured meats – like Patagonia Provisions Smoked Salmon
- Cold soaking
- Techniques, pros, and cons
- Ryan’s hacks for food-prep efficiency
- Large blocks of food prep time
- Testing in the field vs. testing at home
- Spoiled meals
- Freeze-dried meats vs. dehydrated meats
- Dehydrating Gear
- Oven vs. dedicated dehydrator
- Ryan uses this freeze dryer – Harvest Right Home Freeze Dryer
- Dehydrator machines
- Storage gear
- Mason jars
- Mylar
- Vacuum sealers
- Prepping for trail
- Shield Pro mylar bags
- Impulse sealer vs. vacuum sealer
- Seasonings
- Ryan packs seasonings separately.
- Oxygen absorbers
- How large should your oxygen absorbers be?
- What’s New at BPL?
- New Favorite Thing
- Interview #2 – Aaron Owens Mayhew, MS, RDN, CD
- Prepping food for the PCT
- How Aaron went from a thru-hiker to owning her own business
- Backcountry Foodie’s early days as a 1-on-1 consulting business
- Aaron’s cookbook
- Backcountry Foodie’s current online/membership-driven model
- Recipes
- Meal planning
- A curated list of resources
- Food misinformation on the internet
- Some common mistakes people make when making backpacking meals
- Fuel yourself on the trail like you fuel yourself at home (hopefully in a healthy fashion!)
- Avoid flavor fatigue with variety and enough spices and flavors!
- Aaron’s guiding principles for meal planning (it’s more than about calories/ oz)
- Eating as you eat at home
- Water needed for each recipe
- Pliability and space
- Macros
- Maximizing food
- Aaron’s tips for making logistics easier
- How to re-supply from non-premium grocery store chains
- Knowledge + creativity + being open to new things
- How to get 700 calories into a powdered drink
- Using bags instead of bottles for meal replacement shakes
- Reading food labels
- Van life
- Having a dog
- Showers and such
- How Aaron measures success for her business and life
- Plans for the future
- On trail food trucks?
- Making and packaging Backcountry Foodie meals
- Advice for making a career out of a love of the outdoors
- Take the leap!
- Research, study, and learning
- Adjusting your expectations
- Make use of webinars
- Get a business coach
- Figure out how to weed out good advice from bad advice
- Tap into people that have skills that you don’t
- Aaron’s favorite backcountry meal
- How Aaron comes up with her ideas
- Creating recipes while in the van
- Aaron is a utilitarian coffee drinker
Resources
Related Content
- Did you enjoy this food-related episode? Check out episode #3 of the Backpacking Light Podcast, where we focus on the nutrition side of backpacking food.
- You should also check out our Nutrition Webinar.
About the Backpacking Light Podcast
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Credits
- Backpacking Light - Executive Producer
- Ryan Jordan - Director and Host
- Chase Jordan - Producer
- Look for Me in the Mountains - Music
- Written by: Chris Cunningham and Ryan Jordan
- Performed by: Chris Cunningham (acoustic guitar, lead and harmony vocals, harmonica), Chad Langford (upright bass), and Tom Murphy (mandolin).
- Produced by: Basecamp Studios in Bozeman, Montana
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(Updated April 9, 2024)
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