Chilly Weather Chickweed

Foragers may lament cooler weather, since the prospect of identifying new plants is dim at best. However, winter is a time to indulge in delicious greens if you know what to look for.

A favorite winter staple is chickweed. Here in the Mid-Atlantic, common chickweed, or Stellaria media, usually makes an appearance in December and remains a source of renewable nutrition until February or March.  Another type of chickweed we see a lot of is mouse-eared chickweed, or Cerastium vulgarim, but this veggie comes up a little later.

This versatile green is great raw, right out of the ground. However, if you prefer cooked greens, chickweed is terrific thrown into a pot of soup. I also like to dress it up with a little olive oil, lemon, and salt.

Clarifying Butter for Backpacking and Long Term Pantry Storage and Use a Sealer to Make Individual Packets with Video

I love butter.  Butter makes everything better, and unless you are vegan or have some aversion to dairy then you probably agree. Not that nasty food product impersonating butter - margarine (yuk!), but real sweet cream, lightly salted and churned until it solidifies into a little concentrated piece of heaven. Here is a post for anyone who wants to make butter a shelf-stable addition to your pantry or package it up to enjoy on the trail or away from home.

Dehydrating (and Rehydrating) Almond Milk to Use at Home and on The Trail

Eating well in the woods is an oxymoron for most backpackers, especially for a Paleo slow foodie who also tries to be lococentric in their eating efforts.  Trying to stick to a diet on a vacation with access to a grocery store and good local produce is definitely challenging, even with modern conveniences like refrigeration and a kitchen.  Venturing out in the backcountry in the middle with everything on your back, and sticking to an eating plan is down right nerve wracking, if not impossible.  

One aspect of Paleo is dairy free.  Fortunately, alternatives abound for milk substitutes these days;  coconut milk, soy milk (not paleo, I know), rice milk (also not paleo), or my current favorite, almond milk. Nothing tastes better than homemade almond milk, made from whole raw almonds, soaked and then blended and strained.  Add a touch of vanilla and honey and you have ambrosia in a glass.  But I am not about to lug a carton of milk into the wilderness in my backpack. This post focuses on a dehydrated solution for dairy milk.  Read on by clicking the "read more" button...

Dehydrating Liquids in the Excalibur Dehydrator

I really love my Excalibur, but not so much the flat trays. While circular dehydrators (like the American Harvest) have a small rolled edge that prevents a small amount of liquids from dripping off, the Excalibur Paraflexx tray liners are completely smooth and flush with the edge of the tray. I prefer the Excalibur for a lot of reasons, but the flush edges means anything that is not solid will run right off the tray :-( This post demonstrates how to make a "bowl" from the drying sheets available from Excalibur or purchased from third-party vendors.

I have been dying to find a way to dry soups and stews, but the mess just isn't worth it! So far the only suggestion I have found is to use parchment paper to make a bowl, but almond milk (and a lot of other foods) stick to the parchment, making a huge mess and wasting a lot of the food.

Finding a way to dry liquids has been a special challenge, but I have finally come up with an easy way to dry any liquids with the dryer! Using the Paraflexx liners (or the generic ones from Amazon), and a few binder clips at the corners of the flexible liners, you can make a "bowl" that will fit your tray perfectly!

A Paraflexx Liner and four binder clips is all you need

Simply pinch the corners and clip to make a bowl as deep as you like

Now you can dry liquids very easily with no mess!

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In this video, I demonstrate drying almond milk and an awesome mushroom and beef gravy.

Dehydrating Your Own Meat to Use in Trail Meals and Long-Term Storage

• ”A clever cook can make good meat of a whetstone.”  ~~Erasmus

Home dehydrating meats will add essential protein to trail meals, and is a very practical skill.  Meat can be purchased on sale and dried for future use, which is great if you want a ready supply of meat available for trail meals, or do not have a ton of freezer space.  A dehydrator is useful but an oven can be used as well.

Homemade meat jerky and sticks made from raw meats are delicious, and easy to make with the right equipment, but that is for another post.  This post deals with drying already cooked meat that can be rehydrated in a freezer bag quickly in camp or a hotel room.

Home Dried Ground Beef Ready for Trail Spaghetti

Read the full post by clicking on the "Read More" tab below...

Dehydrating Your Own Vegetables to Use in Trail Meals and Long-Term Storage

Living on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, we have growing conditions perfect for some of the best tomatoes, squash, watermelons, cantaloupe, and corn, that are so good other folks in the Mid-Atlantic drive hours to pick up local produce. I used to have a large, time intensive garden, but over the years so many friends and neighbors give away boxes and bags of their garden's bounty that I would find myself swimming in more produce that I could use, let alone can and dehydrate, before the stuff went bad. I gave up the garden years ago to pursue my foraging hobby, but without a loss of those great veggies; just a few days ago, my neighbor brought over another flat of huge, beautiful tomatoes that were going to be ruined with the first frost. Score for Demeter!!

Drying veggies in season is a great way to take advantage of the earth's bounty! Buying or growing in-season local foods are more fresh, and the cost less money than out of season foods, and decrease fossil fuel usage from produce that is transported across the country or world. The benefit of dehydrating produce is that hundreds of pounds of fresh vegetables can be stored in a few dozen mason jars once the water is removed, freeing up lots of freezer space. Dehydrating also makes seasonal produce available year-round for recipes and snacks.

Drying Fresh, Seasonal Vegetables is Easy and Saves Money

DIY Camping / Survival Meals: Flour Free Paleo Banana Nut Pancakes with Maple Sugar Syrup (Gluten Free, too!)

Eating a flour-free, grain-free, yet easy, meal on the trail is a challenge for those who want to eat healthy when enjoying (or surviving) the great outdoors. Here is a delicious replacement for pancakes while out on the trail, or a survival meal to quickly rehydrate when away from home.