Food Storage: Last month we
talked about lightweight food for the trail to get through a 3–7-day trek. The
next question is how to preserve your food and not let it get ruined in the
rain or crossing water? I have played with this for many years myself looking
for the “perfect” solution.
One of the things I tried early on and quickly abandoned was
storage tins. The problem with tins is that they are hard to pack, packed wrong
are very uncomfortable on your back or they can make saddle bags bulky.
Additionally, they rust. Once they rust, they can be very hard to open and if
they rust on the inside you get to taste that in your food.
I have used the red canvas that is often referred to and sold in various places. While it makes a good-looking bag, I have found that canvas, even if advertised as “water resistant” almost never is after some hard use. So, what are you looking for? The bottom line for me is to be a minimalist, cross-purpose use and waterproof.
Regarding cross-purpose, I am referring to how to carry
fresh meat. Last month I talked about how we carried the fresh meat in the
cooking bucket in the pack saddle. Well, when on foot, I do the same. In
addition to my copper boiler with the ceramic cup that fits inside, I’ll carry
another small tin “corn boiler” with a lid. Inside that I wrap my fresh meat in
a cotton cloth and put it inside. I can either boil that pot at night before
cooking or cook in my small copper boiler. By using the boiler for meat, I can
pretty much ensure that my pack will not be soaked in blood. Before leaving I
do wash all the blood out and dry the meat before packing it. In extreme cases
I leave the ceramic cup at home and use one of my small copper boilers for
everything.
For dry food nothing works better than a triple layer
system. Pictured are a cotton sack with my oatmeal inside and two oil cloth
bags. The pillow ticking bag gets stuffed into one oil cloth bag and I may use
a second sack if I think it may be particularly wet. If using a pack animal,
boat, or canoe, you can put everyone’s oil cloth food sacks inside a larger one
giving it that extra layer. The big bag with the gear pictured is what we used
in the pirogue for a month and 400 miles on the river, no leaks. All our
individual bags were inside that.
I do want to touch on
carrying medication. Most of us have some that we need to carry, and the tricky
part is keeping it dry so when we take it we don’t have a pile of gooey dust.
There are two things I like. One is a brass pill box by TDC
Company and the other is a horn box that was gifted to me. The wood top on the
horn box is “chimed in” so that it snaps shut and is watertight. I had both in
a brain tan bag on my belt and completely submerged when I swam out into the
flooded Missouri River to recover our bull boat and they did not leak. If you
know a talented horn maker, you can get a box made like I have pictured. Don’t
ask me, I’m not that good, LOL!
I sure hope you find this informative and offers you some
solutions for food storage. Strike a fire, get some coffee on and I’ll see you
in the woods!
