My favorite meal to prepare in camp is CampingJay’s Paleo Dutch Oven Chili. My chili recipe follows all the paleo / whole30 rules: no legumes, sugar, grains, dairy, or alcohol. Instead, you get a giant serving of meat and vegetables. Its just what the caveman in you craves.
I’ve started making homemade energy bars. I got tired of big brand bars with chemicals, preservatives, or too much fiber. A lot of the bars I bought in stores give me an upset stomach and deplete my energy. By making my own bars, I can control exactly what I’m eating. Continue reading Homemade Energy Bars
For the last few years, I have been making homemade backpacking meals. When you backpack every weekend, $8 store-bought meals get pretty expensive. I like doing this because I can control the ingredients and the results taste better than pre-packaged meals. Some of my recipes are really simple and others are a bit more complex, but they are all fun to make. One of my favorites is mashed sweet potatoes. Continue reading Homemade Backpacking Meal: Mashed Sweet Potatos
This post discusses a sample backpacking meal plan. The fourth priority on our Rules of Three list is food. While you can survive for about three weeks without eating, you won’t be able to travel very far. In order to keep up a strong traveling pace, a backpacker must consume anywhere from three to five thousand calories per day. Calories are energy and energy is what keeps you moving. Continue reading Sample Backpacking Meal Plan
A participant in my upcoming Intro to Backpacking Workshop at Harriman State Park asks about backpacking stoves, “Do you have any suggestions for cooking stoves? I’e gone camping and backpacking a couple of times, but every time I’e taken the easiest non-perishable foods because I don’t know which stove to purchase. Are there some that can be used across most seasons? Which are the best models? Which are the most economical and light weight, yet durable?” Continue reading Backpacking Stoves
One of my favorite snacks while backpacking is paleo beef jerky. It stays fresh for days without refrigeration, tastes great, and provides the protein you need to keep moving. Unfortunately, most store-bought jerky is loaded with corn, wheat, soy, sugar, and artificial preservatives. Follow this easy recipe for making your own delicious, healthy snack! Continue reading Paleo Beef Jerky Recipe
Backpacking in the winter is a lot of fun, but presents a lot of challenges. Its cold. Trails are tough to follow. Fire wood is buried in snow. One of the things I actually find easier about backpacking in the winter is finding water. In the summer, I often have to walk some distance from camp to find water in a spring or stream. In the winter, however, there is water everywhere. This article is about how to melt snow for water, which is actually pretty easy.
Every year I go on two or three car-camping or base-camping trips with friends, and I always find that I’d like to contribute more to cooking on these trips. When I was younger, my father always talked about cooking in the Dutch Oven on scout trips, but he never showed me how to use one. Two years ago, I borrowed one of his old rusty Dutch Ovens, and refurbished it, then tried using it on a camping trip in the Adirondacks. The results mixed, but I wanted to keep trying, and it is still a work in progress. Here is what I have learned so far about Dutch Oven Cooking
The goal of this blog is to help introduce people to the joy of camping. So far, I have been covering a lot of advanced topics, like gear care and navigation; and perhaps I have been neglecting the basics, like how to start camping right. Recently, a friend of mine expressed interest in getting started. Here’s her question:
Hey Jason! How are you? This is a GREAT PAGE!!! Where is there a nice spot to go camping that’s close [to home]? What would I have to do to camp there? I’ve NEVER been camping before and would like to try it this Summer!!! 🙂
This year while planning for our trip to the Adirondacks, we had the idea to shoot a bunch of video and make a documentary. We didn’t end up taking as much video as we had planned, but I do have a few interviews to share with you over the next couple of days. This one features myself explaining the wood gas stove and showing off a few of my home-made backpacking meals. For more information on making your own wood gas stove, check out this video from Intense Angler. You can also check out my article on making homemade backpacking meals for some cool ideas on eating healthier on the trial. For a full trip report on my 2014 adventure in the Pharaoh Lakes Wilderness, click here.
Continue reading Homemade Wood Gas Stove and Backpacking Meals