When I was a young bloke I used to do a lot of hitch hiking when travelling light and being prepared for long stays was a factor. Later on working in the bush the blokes would always want meat and three vedge and the hassle of carrying provisions heaps of tin cans / running a freezer etc always annoyed me.
I am wanting to disapear out bush for months at a time and hence am trying to work out how this would be feasible with just an engel fridge. I plan on playing about with dried meat and fish. Different pulses. I tried Quinoa yesterday and it is quite agreeable. Most importantly is to try to figure out how to make bland ingredients tasty. I like a good curry so there is a start. I have tried making surkraut without much luck.
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And I somehow rather fancy that I'd like to change with Clancy ..
Aldi have vacuum packed meat with a 1 month use by date if you want to give yourself 1 month head start on the meat part. You could always get your butcher to vacuum pack a selection of meats.
I am new to small van camping, I have always been a tent camper from out of the back of my sedan and previously my mc. So I am upgrading, the biggest issue for me, is storage of fresh vegetables, my plan is to use a 41 ltr esky that can hold 4 x Plastic Décor containers with plastic racks inside to store my vegetables. There is enough room in the centre for me to freeze 2 x 1 ltr bottles of water and just keep replacing and freezing every 12 hours. I wash and cut off the yuck bits first. They last over 4 weeks.
If you do not have the fridge that lets you run both together, use the freezer part, freeze meat/chicken etc and a Bottle of Frozen water.
My question to you, is it ok for you to be so far in the bush you can't come out once a month and let those who care know you are ok? Then stock up on the fresh food and live more healthily.
In your pantry you must always include a tin of Keens curry powder. Tip, cook slightly in a little oil first, then add the other stuff.
I am happy to give you some pre cooked recipes but I think the fun of bush camping is working out what to cook, knowing you have the basics covered.
Small tins of baked beans. Individual packs of plastic/tined fruit. Small tetra pack of fruit juice. Small tetra packs of longlife flavoured milk - cannot drink the plain stuff. Breakfast/museli bars. Nuts and dried fruit. Plenty of liquids, mainly water. Jerky. Tined meat, sardines, tuna or salmon and dry biscuits. I don't drink hot drinks. Go camping on a motorbike and can last a week without cooking or refigeration with mixtures of above plus other standard supermarket items. Freeze the juice and water and pack it in a small esky to keep a few perishables alive for first few days. If you can boil water, noodles or soup are good. Instant mash potato works. Not sure if you can get dried peas these days. Cereal with tinned fruit is better than using longlife milk.
I always carry home brand dehydrated peas & deb instant mashed potato, for the times when I can't get fresh. If I'm out bush I survive with a 35lt engel in the tug.
I like the previous idea for storing veges in an esky. I haven't got a freezer, but I will try some gel packs, in the engel & a small esky.
If I'm travelling I don't stock up on meat, I enjoy shopping at country butchers. I bought some rissoles at a Boonah butcher a couple of weeks ago, they were the best I've tasted.
Cheers Pete
-- Edited by wasn_me on Saturday 29th of August 2015 07:40:30 AM