Friday, March 1, 2013

The food packing problem

When I started preparing for this journey I went online to find and buy all the items I needed.. knives, clothing and the like and I was not thinking about food at all..

That's pretty dumb of me.. I will be biking and hiking from west to east Europe, crossing the continent and like I have discussed before, if I want to obey local law and play it safe then I cannot be building fire's during the first stages of my journey in order to prepare food.
Bummer.. since biking and hiking across Europe will burn calories like you've never seen before.
That I'll be burning more calories then I can consume during those first stages of the trip is inevitable but I have to eat in order to go on forward as fast as I can.
I started packing some foods and small meals some time ago.. Soup, Rice, Baking powder and such but these all require boiling or some other method that needs a heat source. So I would have to add other types of food that can be eaten cold and that doesn't spoil easily.

So here's what I'm adding to my food list

Meat - In order to cycle and walk long distances on a daily basis I will need to eat food that is rich in protein and this was my biggest problem so far. Smoking meat is a great way to dry meat so it can be preserved for quite some time and it can be eaten without heating it. However smoking it again requires an open flame.. of course I could smoke meat before I leave but since I live in a residential area, smoke might sent the neighbours alarmbells ringing. There are other ways of drying meat including drying it near a radiator and that is how I made dried meat a couple of days ago (chicken) and I will make some more beef jerky today with this same method. By the time I'll leave I will be having loads of jerky to take with me.

Fruit and Veggies - I will be trying to dry slices of fruit and vegetables by using the exact same method. It should work and according to others it does work. Will give that a try soon for varieties sake.

Canned food - These foods will stay fresh for years if necessary and they usually can be eaten straight away. I will buy some before I leave. I especially love tuna in a can, very rich in protein aswell

Trailmix - I have been posting about making a trailmix before (in some diary entry I think) but guess what's new.. apparently my body has been creating some kind of allergy when it comes to nuts and nuts are high in protein and they were the main ingredient, the irony..
So my girlfriend ate the trailmix instead and I was on making a new one. I read somewhere that being allergic to nuts and being allergic to peanuts is not the same thing so I bough some salted peanuts and indeed.. Peanuts do just fine. I now have a small bag with peanuts and over the coming months I will add other stuff to it. Trailmix is however, meant as a snack and not a meal.

Chocolate - Yeah that's right.. If it's full of energy and it just doesn't seem to spoil then it's probably chocolate. It is considered an unhealthy food by the masses but in fact it has more energy then any typical energybar and it contains a lot of calories. Will take some with me for extra boosts.

Spoilable foods - I will be taking some foods with me that will spoil pretty soon without a refrigerator.
Some bread for example, foods that need to be eaten during the first days of my trip.

Vitamin Tablets - I will also be taking some vitamin tablets with me aswell, not realy necessary during the first stages of my trip but they might become important in the long run. At the moment I've packed Vitamin C and Iron tablets.

That's it.. This is the shopping list for a longterm wilderness survival trip in times when you can't build a fire and don't have a refrigerator... hope you enjoyed

1 comment:

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