I am now licensed to sell food

[JohannesBrahms]

@sqidmark We make fun, but seriously, what do you normally eat out on the trail? I'm curious.

[sqidmark]

So far I've primarily been a day hiker, but did spend a couple of overnight weekends on the AT in NJ last year. Last year was mostly about equipment shakedown and changes. I will get my wife to spend some nights in the woods with me this year, especially now that we've switched to hammocks.

Given that short duration, weight wasn't too much of a problem for me. I had pre-cooked bacon, hard boiled eggs, beef jerky, coconut wraps smeared with almond butter and coconut flakes, my favorite mix of nuts, coconut and dark chocolate. I did pick out a few commercial dehydrated meals that had short ingredient lists, sorry I don't recall them all off the top of my head. There were a couple that I thought were pretty good and one in particular that seemed to be about 90% salt, jamaican jerk sticks in my mind. I recall one curry meal from an outfit in Maine that was good. Potato soup, which could just be mixed in with something else. I had taken some powdered egg breakfasts, but found that when I got up I'd rather just pick up and go, eat on the run. I carried Larabar almond/chocolate turtles (but they've been priced to ridiculous since then). A banana, orange and grapes. Heaviest and most perishable stuff gets eaten first of course. I've also made dehydrated banana chips, orange and apple slices. Still have to perfect my methods for that though. I had filled a few tiny bottles with extra virgin olive oil to dump in with meals. I have some foil packets of tuna and salmon but was reluctant to open them in bear country, as that scent would likely travel pretty far. Too paranoid? For future trips of more than just a few days, we'd likely have to cut down or eliminate the heavier items, fresh fruits for example.

So pretty much the same type of things I eat at home. I have freezers full of grass fed beef from my brothers farm in ME, and we have our own eggs/chickens.

I'm hopeful that we'll be able to spend a week or two in the VA mountains this year. In the mean time we'll continue to refine/expand our selections.

<edit>Another thing we often sprinkle into meals while prepping is Dulce flakes. It's a seaweed that has 333% RDA of iodine per tablespoon. Go easy. My wife says it looks like dirt so that's what we call it.</edit>

[Deltair]

I agree with Rick. Soon Dutchware will a one-stop backpacking shop(if it isn't already)...

[Ragabash]

I will be the first to admit, being on any kind of self-imposed restrictive diet on the trail is somewhat masochistic. I'm a vegetarian, and have grumbled to myself many times about how much more convenient a little jerky would be than struggling to find creative sources of fat and protein for a prolonged trip. I don't have the same fear of tofu and TVP as some people. I cook with them a lot at home, but TVP takes a good long soak to soften up, and tofu is heavy! Any of the other "meat alternatives" are expensive or...less than delicious in my experience. Of course, it has been a while since I looked, so if anyone has pointers, I'm all ears!

For now it's peanut butter powder, dehydrated beans, and a few protein bars.

[HangingOut]

Those mylar bags are available from a number of online vendors. Varying sizes and thicknesses. Sealing can be done with a specialized hot seal device or an iron or hair straightener. Amazon is a good place to start. 1 gallon size 7 mil thick are a very heavy duty variety sold by the lds store online for long term food stores.

But they are not the kind you are supposed to pour boiling hot water into to re-hydrate and cook your food in. Packit Gourmet http://www.packitgourmet.com/ sell two kinds of food cooking bags. One kind you can put in boiling water to cook food and one kind you can pour boiling water into to cook the food (you should not use one kind for doing both). I don't like cooking food in any kind of plastic so I would prefer a foil bag like the main stream backpacking freeze dried meals use. You can get them in the far east but a small lot is thousands of bags. I would like to see Dutch buy in bulk and sell in small batches.

[craig.hertzog]

This is awesome news

[CedricMordrin]

Sounds like awesome news. Just started looking into making my own meals since I really shouldn't be eating dairy, grains, and a select few other items on the trail.

[Gqgeek81]

Dehydrated strawberry rhubarb pie
Brunswick stew or burgoo
Spam and pineapple
Korean beef

[Dutch]

I am so glad to hear the excitement for this.

[12trysomething]

I am so glad to hear the e cigement for this.

What does e cigment sound like when you hear it on a cold clear moon lit night in March?