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Emergency Essentials/BePrepared

Backpacking 101: An Introductory Guide For New Packers

Are you interested in breaking into backcountry travel, but not sure you have the physical fitness?  Want to walk into the wilderness but worried about wildlife and safety?  How about going to the bathroom and take care of simple hygiene in the woods? Wondering what gear to purchase and who you should buy it from?  If you answered yes to any of these questions, then my next series of articles is for you!

Red Creek, Dolly Sods, WV
Safely Crossing Red Creek, Dolly Sods, WV

My Full Monty (A Blogging Disclosure)

I like to write about things that interest me, and if you have read any of my blog so far, you will find it primarily about food preservation, foraging, backpacking, blah, blah, blah. I also like to talk. So blogging has become a natural extension of this love affair with the wild; when I am not outside because the weather stinks, or life constrains me indoors with work or family obligations, I can always revisit my outdoor experiences with my blog.  Not nearly so blissful as that last walk in the woods, but, hey, bloggers beggars can't be choosers.

Anyhoo, what I am getting to, is that in order to help fund some beer money, I have monetized my blog. I am telling you this to be nice and transparent to my readers. I am definitely NOT doing this to get rich, but since I spend hours every week writing about the stuff, I figure I may try to make a few cents in the process.  Moreover, I promise not to write about or recommend stuff just to make a few cents off the product.  Although I am an admitted gear junkie, and I spend way more on freeze-dried food than anyone should, I am actually a value-driven cheapskate at heart.  

So here goes!

1.  I provide links to Amazon products that I use and would recommend, and in return I get a [very] small commission.  You don't pay any extra to buy these products from the links I provide. As an aside, my 16 year-old purchased an Amazon Prime membership without telling me a few months ago. To say I was pretty upset when I saw the $99 charge at the time is an understatement.   Once I recovered from my apoplexy and realized 2 day shipping is included with the membership (Christmas purchases were delivered on Sunday!), I am very happy with the purchase.  And right now I am in a hotel on a ski vacay with the kids and watching the "Harry Bosch" series based on the books by Michael Connelly. You can only get this as an Amazon Prime subscriber.  Love it! 

2.  So far I have paid for every product I have reviewed in my blog, but from time-to-time in the future (hopefully the very near future), manufacturers of these products may shower me with gifts of the newest stove or a new Caldera Cone (hint, hint), and I will write a review.  If I write a review of an item I received for free, I will be sure to mention that in the blog article.

3.  I have been buying and recommending freeze-dried food from Emergency Essentials for a long time.  Just recently I found out that they have a Linkshare marketing affiliation program.  If you link to their website through mine and buy something, I get a kickback.

4. I allow Google Adsense to be displayed on my site. I don't always use those products (especially if it has something to do with hygiene, lol), but so far I have made a whopping $18, so I am almost to a 12-pack of my favorite craft brew. 

Now that I have some housekeeping out of the way, it's time to get outside!


Just in case you ran out of interesting things to read on my blog, you can check out the FTC disclosure rules for yourself!


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!

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...