canoe country cuisine o by Dave Foley Eating Well In The Wild training like a pack animal S over portages, paddling into wind-whipped waves and searching for a campsite, you've quite forgotten it has been several hours since lunch, but your body hasn't. Sud­ denly, as you step onto a granite slab to check out your overnight home, hunger pangs well up. You are starving for dinner. Though kept at bay with handfuls of trail snacks at portage landings or paddling breaks, the wilderness appe­ tite-like some creature within you-must be satisfied. If you are hungry enough, almost any food will knock back the craving. I discovered this on a solo overnight as a Boy Scout, when ants became stuck in my gooey bread dough. Desper­ ately hungry, I rolled the dough around a stick, thrust it into the flames of my campfire and, soon after, ate the sticky mess despite the insect garnish. The palatability of most camp meals falls somewhere between the Donner Party menu and what you order in a restaurant where the waiter carries a chalkboard and later returns with a pepper grinder. The best camp cooks dig into dinner packs and whip together meals which, even if served at home, would draw raves. Essentially what you put on your plate depends on how much you are willing to lug down a portage trail. BWfs publisher Stu Osthoff's trip menus feature steaks, chicken breasts, bratwurst and ground beef plus lots of fruits and produce. These are all carried between layers of ice in a food pack system which keeps food Eggs, onions, potatoes, garlic and cheese are fresh food supplements that add variety and taste to the standard canoe country dried food menu. (Wink Lake) . 58 /the BOUNDARY WATERS JOURNAL Taco Tuesday in the BWCA w. You do not have to settle for bland, expensive, measly portion freeze-dried food on your canoe trips. You can pack-in ice to keep foods fresh or select non-perishable real food. (Fourtown Lake) fresh for almost a week. We when I hoist a pack onto my dinners of that era typically :wouldn't hesitate to accept an shoulders or lift it out of the had the texture of wet papier­ invitation to dine with that canoe, my back complains. As mache. Today these meals-in-a­ crew. However, even though alluring as campsite dinners of sack actually taste pretty much these packs are comfortable to steak or chicken might be, if we like they're supposed to; how­ wear, the weight of the con­ carried those into the bush, as ever, there are plenty of tastier tents scare us. well as the ice needed to keep and cheaper options available. My wife Cyndy and I are both them fresh, the extra weight Our food planning starts at small-framed lightweights and bulk in our packs would home, where we draw up a whose bodies, while ideal for mean we would have to rough menu, inventory our running, are pretty inadequate shorten our trip length. kitchen, develop a shopping for assuming the role of When making trip food list and then head for our local packhorse. We begin our ten to choices, if weight and conve­ grocery store. Into our cart go twelve day Quetico trips with nience take precedence or the same foods you would find three full portage packs, each you're not charmed by outdoor in most pantries: boxes of rice, weighing about fifty to sixty cooking, then the racks of pudding, pasta, tortillas, pounds. Since we tend to freeze dried and dehydrated Bisquick mixes and soup change campsites most nights entrees which line the walls of packages. The ingredients for and usually portage two or outfitter and camping stores trail mixes-nuts, chocolate, three dozen times on a trip, will serve you well. These just­ dried fruits and seeds get piled those packs spend a lot of time add-water meals have come a into the cart as well. on our backs and being jerked long way since the 1970s when Moving into the produce in/out of our canoe. comments about these meals section, we select hardy non­ Even though we prepare by sounded like "I think this crushables like smaller pota­ doing sessions in the weight might be lasagna but it could toes, onions, carrots, cabbage, room throughout the year, be hunter's stew." Freeze dried fresh garlic, avocados, apples, SPRING 2009 59 lemons and limes. From the dairy rack we pick up eggs, which will later be safely packed in a sturdy plastic egg carrier, and also purchase bricks of cheese which, surpris­ ingly, hang tough even during hot summer trips. After travel­ ing for several hot days, the cheese may begin to ooze a bit but still tastes great. Pre-grated cheese, however, can be a problem as it may develop non­ eradicable mold. It is surpris­ ing how durable most foods are, even when pressed into a jam-packed portage pack. The real work starts in our kitchen. While I'm out testing our stove, sharpening knives and collecting our camping equipment, Cyndy, with boxes of ziplocks and a bulk roll of plastic food storage bags, puts together the meals. I'm the gear ­ guy and she's the food person, so the details concerning the packing and cooking of meals Those who can bake up fresh pizza, muffins and cakes in comes largely from her. canoe country are always very popular. For about two days our kitchen counter and table • ofTqp rIVe Shops in USA" become an assembly area acker rotagazine strewn with containers, bags,' Outdoor• Equipment Store" small plastic bottles and food / 5T. PAUL Magazine packets as the ingredients for each dinner are allocated and OUTDOOR bagged. Most foods and season­ A~TURE ings are packed in plastic bags. J;",PO Messy ingredients such as 100 Presentations, butter, cooking oils, vinegar, 70 Exhibitors, SALE! brown sugar, syrup, jams and Radical Reels FIlm Festival World's LargeRI Canoe and Kayak Auction! salsa which can be crushed or spilled are put in high-quality durable plastic jars with screw­ top lids which are made for backcountry travel. Into each dinner bag goes the basic cooking instructions, elipped from the package or recipe, along with smaller bags of ingredients. If the ingredient Bell and Wenonah Canoes isn't readily identifiable such plus the largest selection of kayaks in Minnesota - BY FAR! as Bisquick, flour or powdered And as the name implies: milk then a correctly labeled The premier source for climbing, XC skiing, and backpacking gear in the Midwest. swatch of paper is dropped Visit us in Minneapolis or at: into the bag. It takes several www.midwestmtn.com hours to pack it all. If you don't have the time to devote to this locally owned since 1971 . 309 Cedar Ave. So. MPlS MN 55454 task, or the eagerness to be a 612.339.3433 1.888.999.1077 [email protected] 60 /theBOUNDARY WATERS JOURNAL wilderness cook, you might do on Thai and Middle Eastern meal selection. To backs al­ better buying prepackaged entrees. Shopping in the "Inter­ ready tender from toting heavy meals at the store. national Foods" aisle of a large packs overland, it becomes Being sure you have every­ grocery store you will find obvious that food fed to the thing you need on a trip is one packaged dinners under labels stomach is that much less thing; being able to put your such as "Simply Asia" or "Near poundage to be carried on the hands on it when you want it is East." Working from cooking shoulders. Consequently, when another. I wasted too much directions she has clipped from the cook asks what the group time rooting through food bags the box and inserted into the wants for dinner, she is likely searching for a particular item meal package along with the to hear the response, "What until Cyndy finally solved the addition of appropriate season­ weighs the most?" You can bet problem. ings these meals charm even the first dinners chosen will be We now pack our food in picky eaters. the heaviest. colored stuff bags: drinks are in With just the two of us to For ten years I was trip leader the black bag, breads and feed on our trips nowadays, the at a YMCA camp. Kids are crackers are in the blue one, range of menu options is fairly notoriously finicky eaters. purple has the desserts and extensive. When our kids, as Many will blanch at the treats, while trail mixes, nuts young teens, and their friends thought of onions or garlic and fruit are in the brown one traveled with us, Cyndy made infiltrating the dinner stew. and a series of silver bags have sure the meal plan would be While it may be fair to justify Magic Marker labels of "din­ appealing to that group. Obvi­ discretely adding flavor en­ ners," "baking materials" and ously you can't cater to every hancers like garlic or onions "breakfast." Other distinctive whim, but if the troops reject without telling the crew, I may bags contain spices, produce the meal, they will be dragging have violated camp cookery and cheeses. A chart written on and whining on the portages ethics by not divulging the sturdy cardboard in waterproof the next day. presence of a horsefly in one of ink stuck in the top of the pack Besides this isn't the military, our meals. takes the guesswork out of food it's a vacation. By the end of On that occasion I was super­ selection by reminding us what the day, when the hiss of the vising the preparation of a large is found in each colored stuff camp stove starts, everyone's pot of beef stew.