[pct-l] Food...

[Jeffrey Olson]

My favorite dinners are a compilation of cheap, healthy components. 
There are four basic levels.

The first level is the base; pasta (corn or wheat), instant rice, cous 
cous, polenta (grits) or potato flakes. 4 oz for the first couple weeks, 
6 oz for the rest of the hike.

The second level is a dehydrated soup; split pea, black bean (with extra 
salt) or my favorite, curried lentil. 2 oz for the first couple weeks, 
and 3-4 oz for the rest of the hike.

The third level is the "binder." I never knew about binders until I got 
disgusted with prepackaged freeze dried food - mostly price. The binder 
is the ingredient that ties everything else together. Rice and black 
bean soup mix gets old real fast. The bind I favor is parmesian cheese - 
Kraft or some other generic version. The stuff lasts forever and has 
good fat content. For the first two weeks - 2oz, and 3-4 oz for the rest 
of the hike.  Four ounces of Kraft grated parmesian is about a cup by 
volume...

You can carry oil or margarine, fake and tubbed, but I've found that 
good old Kraft Parmesian makes me smack my lips as I wolf down dinner. I 
usually include an ounce of 4% dehydrated milk as another binder. You 
can buy olive oil packets for 34 cents an ounce or so.

The fourth level is where you get creative, and can use the dehydrator. 
Anything goes. An oddity I like is to include dehydrated blueberries, an 
ounce or two, in a dinner once in a while. Vegetables, etc. You can 
sunflower seeds, nuts, grape nuts - whatever the imagination comes up 
with!!!

If you use potato flakes, include fake margarine and about three ounces 
per person of soy baco bits. That's a lot of baco bits, believe me... 
They are salty and absolutely wonderful. Potato flakes makes the 
greatest volume per weight, but there are some issues with the 
hypoglycemic spike some people might have to consider.

I package dinners at home.  Use a quart freezer bag (or gallon if you 
use more than  3 cups of water.  Put all the ingredients in the bag.  
Secure with a small strip of duct tape or newspaper rubber band.

When I want to eat, I boil two or three cups of water and pour it over 
the ingredients in the bag.  You've got to stir the concoction until its 
mixed well.  It should be very soupy in the beginning and thicken up as 
the water gets absorbed by the levels one and two food.  You'll learn 
that different thicknesses are part of what varies with the meal and 
helps dinners keep from getting distasteful or boring.  Soup one cold 
night, stew another, and thick gruel another...  LOL

Soaking water in the freezer bag eliminates the need to wash any 
dishes.  When you're done, lick the sealing edge clean, roll so there's 
the least amount of air in the bag, and seal.

Freezer bags don't melt or distend when boiling water hits them.

You can vary your dinners so you don't have the same dinner but twice a 
month. I found I preferred more curried lentil dinners and fewer black 
beans. I really liked potato dinners once a week. They make a LOT of 
food for the weight, and taste so, so, good with the margarine and baco 
bits. I'm a little suspect about the potato dinner's nutrition, hence 
they are a treat - once a week.

This stuff is all bought in bulk. The idea of shopping as you go has its 
fans, but I don't like leaving the trail, and I know what I will eat on 
the trail. Mac and cheese, Ramen noodles or snickers bars it ain't...

My package disappeared from the Big Lake Religious camp and I had to 
hitch into Sisters for a resupply at the store at the edge of town. $50 
for five days. I so appreciated my next food drop at Timberline Lodge... 
The store bought stuff just wasn't the same.

I figure that I would spend about $5 a day in 2014 if I ate nothing but 
bulk food. My sister lives in Bend OR and shipping the food was not that 
expensive.  I didn't have any cravings for town foods, except beer.  I 
think this was so because I continue to like the dinners to this day...

When I add mealpack bars, or power bars, or any of the "someone else 
does the work" foods, the cost easily doubled. That said, I'm a convert 
to the 4oz bars you can buy for $1.30 or so with shipping - 
http://www.bearvalleybars.com. <http://mealpack.com/> You get 440 
calories for not much more than a buck!!! You have to buy a minimum of 
50 bars, but that's not a big deal.

Just some reflections on past long section hikes...

Jeffrey Olson
Rapid City, SD