Backpacking Cookbooks - Vegetarian, Raw and Hydrated Meals
March 22, 2008
Check Back Here Often! We continually find new cookbooks & resources with ideas on preparing, packing and finding trail foods that are ready for your long distance trek.
New Additions
- Backpacking Cookbooks - 8 great books to get you up to speed on technique, packing & great tasting food on the trail.
- Added 3/19/08
- Vegetarian Backpacking Cookbook! - 150 trail-tested recipes, the meat-free sequel to the best-selling Lipsmackin’ Backpackin’
Cookbook Categories
Backpacking Cookbooks
Trail Food: Drying and Cooking Food for Backpacking and Paddling
“Very good little book!”
“More helpful than a barrel of jerky”
“Fantastic for backpacking meals…”
Simple Foods for the Pack: More than 180 all-natural, trail-tested recipes (Sierra Club Outdoor Adventure Guides)
“Used for BSA backpacking…”
“Anyone planning a wilderness trip should read Simple Foods for the Pack.”
Making & Using Dried Foods
“Similarities to previous out of print Garden Way Book”
“If you want methods buy this book”
“This book is great. Very informative.”
Lipsmackin’ Backpackin’: Lightweight Trail-tested Recipes for Backcountry Trips
Not Just for Backpacking, Truly Lipsmacking Recipes!
From bland to BAM! (to borrow from Emeril)
Make sure you have a dehydrator
Freezer Bag Cooking: Trail Food Made Simple
“Excellent resource for the ultralight backpacker!”
“Tasty backpack food for for less.”
a good start
The Well-Fed Backpacker
“June’s Recipes are Incredible”
“Well-fed”
“Very good, basic guide to backpacking cooking”
Simple Foods for the Pack: More than 180 all-natural, trail-tested recipes
“Used for BSA backpacking”
Backcountry Cooking: Feasts for Hikers, Hoofers, and Floaters
“I reviewed this book and found it fantastic…”
“Expedition cooking….”
“This book was a brilliant work of art.”
top
Vegetarian Backpacking Cookbooks
Lipsmackin’ Vegetarian Backpackin’
“Vegitarian Backpacking Cooking Bible”
“Another former Marine Vegetarian”
“Great book for trail food and not just for vegetarians!”
top
Food Dehydration
How to Dry Foods
“The only dehydrator book that you’ll need!!!”
“Beyond banana chips and beef jerky….”
“This is the best reference for drying foods on the market”
Making & Using Dried Foods
“Similarities to previous out of print Garden Way Book”
“Awesome”
“Compare to How to Dry Foods”
Eating Raw
Raw Food Made Easy For 1 or 2 People
“Delicious recipes– you don’t have to be a raw foodist to enjoy them, either”
“A quick-start manual for raw foods”
“FINALLY, a realistic raw foods book!”
The Raw Food Primer
“Enticing Raw Foods”
“Fantastic Foods for All”
“this book is an absolute joy”
Rainbow Green Live-Food Cuisine
“These are the best recipes”
“Most up-to-date and insightful live-food book available”
“The Best Program in Raw Foodism”
top
Foraging, Wild Berries and Mushroom Hunting
A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants:
“How To Eat Nature,”
“Up to the usual Peterson Field Guides standards”
“Excellent book for identifying wild edibles.”
The Forager’s Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants
“The best available book on edible plants!”
“Excellent Source for Information on a few plants…”
“The BEST book for a beginner”
top
Don’t want to mess with cooking on the trail? Going for a short hike? Packaged backpacking meals are perfect if you are planning a busy day, looking for a lightweight solution for a short hike or want something different on a long distance hike.
39 Tent Reviews - From Lightweight to Expedition
March 20, 2008
When it comes time to shop for one the major components of your gear whether it’s a sleeping bag, backpack or tent, it’s important to get user feedback and pick what’s right for you and your budget. The Tent Reviews below are what we have compiled for some of the best selling tents on the market from some of the top brands like: MSR, Black Diamond, The North Face and Sierra Designs. Don’t forget to check out these clearance and discounted tents
.
Other Tent Resources on CascadeGear.com
Being ready for food poisoning on your hike
March 16, 2008
I must admit, I fear food poisoning more than any other threat when I am outdoors. I can control cold, heat or even an animal encounter but food is something I must put in my body and being miles or days away from a hospital or even a convenient store pharmacy does not sound very appealing to me. I do have a background in culinary arts and have always been hyper sensitive to food borne inflictions, but being on the trail requires a bit of common sense, preparedness and ingenuity.
Meat
I love a good pork chop, bbq salmon and yes even a hot dog or bratwurst when I am camping, and it’s a special treat if you can pull it off while you are backpacking over a few days. I follow very specific rules when I am attempting this and will pack it out if I have doubts to the quality of meat before it goes on the grill (or skewered…).
- Pack the meat right before you take off on your trip, if you are driving to the trail head pack it in a cooler with lots of ice. The idea is once you hit the trail it is frozen solid. If the outdoor temperature is over 75 degrees, after a long day on the trail it’s probably about time to eat your chop. Another day on the trail and you are risking that meat for dinner the next night.
- Spam does not go bad.
- Stay away from ground meat. Hamburger, chicken and even turkey thaw out very fast and are prone to bacteria in the way they are handled. Don’t even bring it with you.
- Pre-season your meats before you freeze it. Not only increases the flavor of the meat, it requires no preparation time when you are ready to cook. Just slide it out of the zip-lock bag onto the grill or pan.
- If you need meat on day 2, you have 2 options: 1) The meat is still frozen in the morning of the second day (good job packing that!) or 2) cook a hotdog. Hotdogs are packed with preservatives and can last several days if it isn’t to hot.
- Cook your meats all the way through. Medium well is appropriate for being in the woods.
- Seal all bones, gristle and leftovers in your bear bag. Seal it up tight.
Food
There are a ton of great books on foraging and eating outdoors, know what you are doing and don’t take any chances. Did you see the move “Into the Wild”?
- Foraging: Behavior and Ecology
- Living off the Land, Revised and Updated Edition: An Illustrated Guide to Tracking, Building Traps, Constructing Shelters, Toolmaking, Finding Water, Foraging For Food, and Much More
Clean
Just like in a kitchen, keeping your hands, utensils AND ingredients clean are important food safety precautions.
- Get yourself a bottle of all natural soap, clean your hands before you start cooking, after you handle meat AND just before eating. The hand sanitizer works great if you aren’t covered in chunks of pork fat.
- When working with food, use paper towels or some other disposal rag when you are wiping your hands and face. Using your camp towel, shirt or other fabric could transfer or result in bacteria growth. Store this in your bear bag.
- Use sand or a paper towels to clean your bowls & utensils. Don’t use your camp towel (the one you dry your face with). Be patient and leave them clean and dry.
Water
Keeping your water safe to drink is essential. There are many different water filtering and purification devices on the market today, bring what makes sense to your pack size and adventure.
- MSR MIOX Purifier
- Katadyn Micropur Purification Tablets
- Hydro Photon SteriPEN Adventurer
- MSR SweetWater Microfilter
- Katadyn Hiker Pro Water Microfilter
First Aid
I guess it could happen to anyone. You don’t follow the rules and you wind up with either a bad case of cramps & diarrhea or worse. There are several things you can do to try and cure the crud but time is usually the only thing that works 100% of the time.
- Constantly drink water. If you have a natural source around treat some immediately and begin drinking. You can’t drink to much, at least a liter an hour. The organisms responsible for most food poisoning incidents tend to draw moisture from surrounding tissues into the intestines.
- Eat bread. It can help soak up the undigested poison and pass it through your body quicker.
- Take your multivitamin. Give your body a boost of energy, metabolism and vitamins to help you through this.
- If you brave or it’s an absolute must, you could always swig some syrup of Ipecac.
Food Remedies
There are several foods that have been known to cure food poisoning. I am simply referencing other sources of information found on the internet and don’t condone or rely on these statements to cure your belly ache. You may or may not be carrying these items but you never know.
- Bread
- Apple Cider Vinegar
- Grape Fruit Seed Extract
- Lemon Juice
- Herbal Tea, Chamomile, Mint
- Ginger
Obviously the best cure is the prevention. With all of this worry and remedy around food poisoning I still find it important to explore the most fun ways to cook my favorite meals on the trail. Just need to be careful!
-
RSS
