Food saving - Appalachian Trail

imported
#1

Im abour a year out before i leave for my SOBO hike. I have everything i need except mt food. Instead of buying costly freeze-dried food I would like to dehydrate my own meals. But before i go out and buy a dehydrator and vaccume sealer i have a few questions. Since there is so many meals to dehydrate should i start making them now? will they last intill it is time to go and the time while im on the trail? or are these just good for weekend trips? How should i store them? is there anything else i need to know? I bought the books “Lip Smalin’ Backpackin” and " Backpacker’s Courmet" which has tons of dehydrating reciepes, but i dont want to make them and find out when im on the trail that it spoiled and i have wasted money when i was trying to save money. Thanks for you help!

Anthony

#2

If you really want to save money, but your meals along the trail. You’ll end up saving yourself money because you won’t throw away as much.

Dehydrating is nice, but I see it as actually costing more money than saving if you count all the real costs (especially time). Lipton noodles, mac and cheese, knorr. Plenty of cheap meals can be bought along the way…

Gravity Man

gravity man

#3

Unless you have specific dietary needs, buy your food along the way. It will be MUCH easier, probably cheaper overall, and you’ll be able to vary your diet as your tastes change.

Colter

#4

I wasted alot of money on food. It was my only planning regret. It’s very tempting to buy things in bulk, thinking you’ll be saving, but after postage (and hassles) it’s not true. I lost money on that.

I dried alot of stuff before my hike, and still have most of it. The truth is, you just want to eat dense food after the first month or so. Before you know it, you’ll be carrying bagels, cheese blocks, green peppers, Sub sandwiches, cookies, doughnuts, weiners and buns out of town. And, there are alot of towns. You may not think now that you’ll want to dip into those towns, and of course to each his own, but the lure of a big, fat, juicy burger, pizza or real perked coffee and a box of Krispy Cremes lures many an nature idealist into the diner.
:wink:

Seriously, your caloric needs will be so high (and increasing), your tastes will changes, tempeature affects appetite, etc. Impossible to predict a year out what you honestly will eat on the Trail.

A simple solution is to send yourself food drops for your first month on the trail, say to Hot Springs. By then, you’ll have the system down. You’ll have no fears of flying free of food drops. Inexpensive food is not hard to find (how expensive are noodles, after all?), 10-cent ramen packs can be a base for any meal except oatmeal (which you won’t want afetr the first month either, LOL).

Sometimes, in a town that had a Walmart, I would buy extra tuna, salmon, ham or chicken packs, as those nifty little protein sources weren’t always available at small markets. Rather than carry them, I shipped them ahead in my drift box.

LiteShoe

#5

After months and $$$ dehydrating I ended up telling my husband to take them out of my maildrops. I ended up buying along the way… It is much better. Sue/HH

Hammock Hanger

#6

As others have said, it is very easy to buy along the way, however dried food can make for more variety and a more healthy diet. The usual hiker diet is really sparse on healthy foods, consisting primarily of white flour, sugar and fat. Over a six month period - it won’t kill you, but some people like to eat a more healthy diet. I didn’t dehydrate any meals, however on one of our long hikes friends frequently sent us dehydrated food which made a very nice change of pace from the usual Liptons and mac n cheese. It is possible to mix the two styles. Put packets of vegetables in your drift box to spice up the packets of noodles you buy along the way. (But make sure you like them - broccoli was a frequent goodie sent to us by our friends. I always ate it, and enjoyed it, but my husband got very tired of it and would pick out the pieces to give to me. But he hates fresh vegetables too.) We always enjoyed the spaghetti sauce and dried salsas that were sent by one friend. Other friends picked up fancy dried fruits at Trader Joes (mango, canteloup, strawberries, etc.) and they were always appreciated. Given the amount of time involved in dehydrating - buying what you can is worth the effort, despite the cost.

If you do decide to dehydrate, I think you can do a lot well ahead of time, if you then put the well sealed packages in the freezer. Meat doesn’t last long though. I think it only has about a two month shelf life, even when frozen.

Spirit Walker

#7

I dehydrated some foods to bring along and I did eat most of them, however the time involved in making them seemed a bit much. I really enjoyed spagattii sauce and dried peppers. They are a nice change from liptons and smell like “real” food. I bought elbows pasta to cook and was able to use them with the sauce or added to the liptons- double duty! Yours tastes will change though, and you may end up hating the food in your drop box. Buying along the way is my favorite. I love the suprise of what I’ll be able to find, especially at some of the smaller convenience stores. I never had a problem resupplying along the way.

Goosebump the snow princess

#8

Do not prebuy food and mail it to yourself.

Sure this is a choice of a lot of hikers, but what the best route is is this…

Send yourself travelers checks.

You spend 35-40 cent on postage…as opposed to 25$-30$ bucks for a box of stuff that after eating it for 3 months you will hate.

Travelers checks are safe and they cut out the middle man.

Lion King

#9

If you really enjoy preparing meals from recipes that you’ll then dehydrate and vacuum seal, and you’re sure you will like it on the Trail, nothing wrong with doing some. I’d think the closer you do it to trail time the safer it will be–especially meats.

But you may not want to do this for all your meals. For one, you really won’t save money–in fact you may end up spending more. It’s worth it, though, if what you’re making is something you really want. And of course if you have special dietary needs then make-your-own is the way to go because you might not be able to find those items some places.

Maybe prepare enough for about 25% of your meals, and ship to those towns where the pickin’s are slim. Or put some in your bounce box. The rest of your meals can be bought along the way.

What worked for me, but keep in mind I section hiked, was to dehydrate frozen vegetables, canned beans, etc. and add those to Lipton dinners and the like.

Skyline

#10

the best ive seen is a couple who ran complete, delicious meals through a food processor, then spread it over the dehydrator, calling it the “power mush” they had spent so much time on the meals, and did end up giving many away at post offices. but if you were lucky enough to be there! they were calorie and nutritionaly rich and everyone who got one was flaberghasted by the utter scrumptiousness.

so the lesson would be to go ahead and make some. some. maybe a months worth. then space out 10 maildrops and fill them with goodies you cant get in those towns. i like penut butter filled pretzels, fruit leather (i suppose you could make that) chocolate covered espresso beans, organic cereals and granolas, cliff bars i found on sale, etc…

so like every fifth town stop or so you would be glad to see that box. its true, most who try to plan 5 months of food dehydrated or otherwise find it to be a colossal waste of time and money. but to spice it up, thats no crime. i think it was the most recent backpacker that ran a bunch of dehydrated full meal recipies. if you pull those off, these same hikers that are trying to talk you out of it now will be drooling around your cookpot on the trail.

so far as shelf life, no clue. i would suspect the books to have that info. though ive seen meat and dairy free meals in ziplocs last at least 5 months. (since i saw them at the end of the trail)

good luck.

milo