Change of food tasts

imported
#1

In my last post regarding prepration of home cooked food, several mentioned that they would rather purchase food on the trail as they got really tired of the food they prepared and dehydrated. The overall reason seemed to be that their tasts changed. My question is in what general way did the tast change? More spicy, less spicy, different food requirements, more fresh foods, more carbs, less carbs, etc.

I sincerely appreciated all of the responses to my last message, they have helped me a lot with my 2006 planning. My husband and I are making the AT trip.
Thank you in advance. Sincerely, Margaret

Margaret

#2

Look at it this way: Today is May 13. Do you know what you’d like to have for dinner tomorrow or the next day? Probably. You know what you’re craving now, and you can eat those foods in the next couple days.

Now answer this: Today is May 13. Do you know what you’d like to have for dinner on June 27? Or July 18? Or August 3? Of course not. That’s why it’s better to buy your food as you go. By minimizing maildrops and buying along the way, you have the food that you’re craving RIGHT NOW, not the food that sounded good three or four months ago.

yogi

www.pcthandbook.com

yogi

#3

Thanks Yogi. I was just thinking that a specific type of food began to be craved by June 27. More salt, less spice, etc. You are 100% correct that I do not know what I will want to eat on June 27. I am thinking now that mixing the two methods may be the best for me and my husband. He is all for buying it along the way, but I have all of this equipment that I need to use–dehydrator, vacuum sealer, etc. Thank you for your assistance. Margaret

Margaret

#4

I didn’t prepare alot of food but I did buy alot of bulk prepackaged food, i.e lipton noodle or rice meals, crackers, etc and sent them to 19 drop spots. Within the first month I was tired of the same repetitive foods and had seen a lot of alternatives that other hikers had bought or sent to themselves. As a result, a good deal of what I had sent myself was sent home, given away or still sits in a post office.

steamboat

#5

Hi, Margaret…

I didn’t notice any specific trend in what other hikers (or I) craved less or more as our tastes changed. But they all changed, that’s for sure, and it had nothing to do with less spicy or more salty, etc. Like Steamboat said, we looked around at what other hikers were eating and said, hmm, I think I’m gonna try that. Or we simply made our choices as we wandered through the market. I think it’s better to be spontaneous about many things on a long-distance hike, food definitely one them. And having to get to a maildrop before a post office closes for the weekend or holiday was a hassle for a number of people. (So I’d use no P.O. drops whenever possible, if you ARE going to use them.) I don’t really see that using maildrops saves you much, if any, money, either. I didn’t use food maildrops on my AT hike (just a couple of bounce boxes–shopped in one place and sent it ahead, where there wasn’t easy access to a grocery store), but I do use my dehydrator to prepare food for other short, multi-day hikes. It’s gotten plenty of use, just not for my thru-hike.

Anyhow, just another vote for not going all-out on the food-drop thing. More often than not, people end up with the same opinion as Yogi, Steamboat and I have. Not all, of course, but it seems like most.

ramkitten

#6

Margaret~
Often times, our food cravings are directly related to our bodies’ physical needs. So…purchasing along the way can help to meet those nutritional definciencies. Using the maildrops is great for items that you definitely want and might not be able to find along the way. For instance, I love ProMas bars and relied on them for a protein source.
They are not always available so getting them shipped to me was perfect. I had no experience before I began my thru-hike so getting my food shipped each week was good for me.
However…as time went by, I became more and more comfortable making food purchases along the way.

Ladybug

#7

Dear Margaret,

I think one change you will find as you move along the trail is that you will come to desire real food as opposed to heavily processed, salted, preserved food.

The main cause for this will be, I think, that your body will require serious nutrition, given the work it is performing every day. Fortunately, your body is built to do that work, and prospers as a result, if rest and nutrition are adequate.

For me, as I approached a town, I developed a desire for salads and ice cream. Pretty clear what was going on: the nutrients and roughage in the salad; the fat, sugar and calories in the ice cream.

The problem with choosing all your food beforehand, or a large portion of it, is, beyond the repetition, is that the food is heavily processed and therefore, beyond calories, often nutrition-weak.

Here are some foods I found welcome on the trail:

  1. Cheese–you will come to love it! With bread and tomatoes, you have a magnificent sandwich!
  2. Non-fat dry milk, honey (or sugar), and water filling Nalgene bottle to 75%, then shaken vigorously. This is your basic, unbelievably good, milkshake. Drink two at a time and be in heaven.
  3. Onions, red and green peppers, garlic, olive oil, potatoes–fried, with rice or alone.
  4. Apples, oranges, grapes, bananas.
  5. Spaghetti, with tomatoe sauce, and a can of chicken thrown in.

The point is: Real Food!

And don’t forget to take at least a multivitamin and mineral supplement every day, maybe with your milkshakes!

Just trying to be helpful here.

Sincerely–Conan.

Conan

#8

I sincerely appreciate all of the responses and I definately appreciate all of the expert advice. I am taking the advice of all of you. We will purchase the food items as we hike. We might use a bounce box, if we feel it necessary. I will keep what I have already dehydrated to have it handy for a mail drop from a family member if necessary. I will use my dehydrator and vacuum sealer for other uses–preparing for a hurricane this summer. My husband wins his case for purchasing along the way and I am happy with this decision. It means more time for getting in shape for the trip. We hope to meet some of you on the trail in 2006. Thanks again! Sincerely, Margaret

Margaret

#9

Don’t worry about it girls, those cravings for pickle and ice cream floats will only last another 6 months. :tongue

Pappa

#10

For foods and other expendables that are difficult or impossible to find along the Trail–especially those with special dietary/medical requirements or just a preference beyond the ordinary–maildrops or bounce boxes are a way of life. Personally, I’d go for the bounce box knowing what I know now.

Otherwise, IMHO buying along the way works best about 85% of the time for all other edible and non-edible resupply items.

Skyline

#11

goto
www.waltonfeed.com
you will find some great inexpensive dehydrated goods here. one poster spoke about not knowing what you would like on a certain date. perhaps instead of trying to prepare a menu, prepare a ration. in otherwords, carry the makings of food items you like, dehydrated. at one point i carried each meal in a seperate zip lock. now i carry each item in its own bag and measuer out what i need for whenever i want it. i use the NOLS rationing system as a basic starting point. i will rehydrate veggies/beans etc as needed about an hour before i hit camp and the items will be rehydrated by the time i arrive.

i once tried to hike eating the pop tart ramen… etc diet. it is just not at all tasty. carrying a backcounty pantry gives you greater versatility than shopping at grocery stores. you can purchase tvp (protein source) all your veggies and the nutrition is better than canned and frozen foods, super easy to prepare and offer one the ability to create to taste.

the work in dehydrating all the food is HARD! if you compare how much the produce would cost to dehydrate + the amount of time to dehydrate, then look at the major dehydrated food vendors www.waltonfeed.com www.suttonsbartrading.com and www.beprepared.com
you will find a whole new world of goodness!

some super foods for nutrition:
Quinoa
Yerba Mate
TVP (waltonfeed has flavored tvp! chicken an beef)
braggs soy sauce

highly recomend browsing through the grocery before purchasing. just read some of the nutrtional facts and research before making such an enormous decision. poor nutrition has certainly wrecked thru hikes.

take care,
chris

cmr