The Pennsic War is unique in the SCA. To my knowledge it is the only two week long war that is scheduled every year. While there are plenty of food merchants at this event, if you want to eat your own food for the entire time, it is definitely possible, it just takes a bit more planning.

So how do you camp for more extended periods of time? Well, we use a combination of the tactics that we have already discussed and a few other handy tricks. The first trick, which we sometimes use even for week long events, is to freeze gallon jugs of drinking water in the deep freeze. You must purchase drinking water in plastic bottles with screw tops. The pop-off tops will fall off from the pressure of the ice when the water freezes.

We use two or three of these frozen gallon containers in the bottom of a five day cooler. This cooler is dedicated completely to zero degree frozen food. The food is packed into the cooler, the top is shut tightly and a blanket or quilt is used to increase the insulation factor. We are extra careful to keep this cooler away from the wall of the tent, especially if that wall gets sun. The more stable that you can keep the temperature, the better. This arrangement will usually keep the food in the cooler completely frozen for four to six days, especially if you have frozen the food in blocks. When the gallons of water are finally melted they become an excellent source of safe cold water for drinking.

So, you can rely on fresh food for two to four days, then frozen meals for 2 to four days, and then? Well, there are some “fresh” foods which are just plain less susceptible to spoilage than others, for instance, carrots and ham. A ham steak, with canned yams and biscuits makes a lovely dinner. As long as you keep the ham on ice it will keep for weeks. I usually carry water proof boxes of flour, and brown sugar with me. Canned yams + brown sugar + butter + frying pan = candied yams. Yum! Carrots will keep for weeks if you keep them from drying out. Boil them and serve with a little butter, or candy them. Delicious and nutritious either way. Oh, and you can even buy canned ham – that is good for years. Which brings me to another topic – canning.

Canned food (Photo credit: excelglen)

Obviously you can always resort to commercially canned food (commercially prepared dehydrated food, too). Almost anything that you can think of comes in a can – soup, stew, hot dogs and beans, meat, fish… But, yes, we can our own food to take camping – beef roast in broth is just as good canned as fresh. We have even experimented with canned soup concentrates, sauerkraut, pickled vegetables, cookies and cake, all of which were yummy.

Our goal when we camp is to have safe, delicious food that takes a minimum amount of preparation. As merchants our schedule is often dictated by the presence of customers, but good food is still important to our health and general well-being.

Next Time: Eating Well When You Camp – Canning a Cake

So last time we discussed some ideas about what sorts of pre-cooked home-made dinners could be vacuum packed and reheated in hot water. This food is truly yummy – after all you made it yourself, but extra calories are often a mandate when you are camping. So what can you do that will be yummy, and maybe even a little healthy? Now first of all, let me say that I use very few preprocessed foods at home when I cook, but I have found a few that are truly awesome, especially when camping.

Dehydrated potatoes. A standard for our camping events. You can buy them completely plain, and rehydrate them with milk and butter, or by the “butter flavored” version and just add boiling water. They take less than 5 minutes to make, and they are darn good. Some versions even come with things like cheese and bacon – check it out in the pasta aisle.

Couscous and couscous blends. Be sure to read the instructions well to be sure of what you are buying. Some of these products are almost totally instant – add boiling water, allow to sit, fluff it up with a fork and serve.

Dehydrated stuffed pasta meals. I try not to mention brand names, but Barilla makes some really good pasta dishes – ricotta & spinach, and three cheese. A two person package is small, shelf stable, and cooks up in about 10 minutes in boiling water. You can serve it as a meal, or a side dish. Add butter, or sauce, depending on what you prefer. These meals also come in a four person serving size. The quantity is fairly generous.

Pre-made Roll Biscuits. These are the biscuits that come in the tubes, usually in the dairy section at the grocery. We rarely use them at home – we prefer to make rolls from scratch, but they cook up really well in our little camp oven. Be careful not to burn them, some camp ovens are a bit fussy. Once you have conquered biscuits you can also buy breakfast rolls and cookie dough. We often make our cookie dough at home, create uniform cookies with a scoop, and freeze the uncooked cookie dough. If you want instant friends at a camping event bake up some fresh chocolate chip cookies or cinnamon rolls in camp.

2009-03-12 – Potatoes & Biscuits – 0007 (Photo credit: smiteme)

Canned Fruit, V-8 Juice, individual fruit cups, granola bars, individual yogurt cups, individual fruit juice drinks, and store-bought cookies are only a few of the other items that you can add to your basic cooked meals to make them special. Reheated Roast Pork and gravy served with applesauce and freshly baked biscuits – not a bad way to finish the day. “Cheating” by adding a V-8 juice or fruit juice during the day helps to up the “healthy factor” on your diet, and obviously reading the labels and choosing your products carefully makes a huge difference.

We even carry an emergency kit for my Service Dog that includes a container of shelf-stable pre-cooked rice and a can of chicken stock. This will actually work for people with upset tummies, too. We rarely need it, but it is cheap insurance.

As someone who regularly camps at SCA events for a week or more, having something safe and yummy to eat is a very important thing to me. And you may ask: But What do We do for a REALLY long war like Pennsic? Next week.

Last time we asked the question “Why the BBQ on Friday?” And the answer? Raw meat. Raw meat spoils waaay faster than cooked meat. Properly cooked meal, which has been cooled down carefully and stored safely has a much longer “cooler life”. So on to a brief discussion of pre-cooked meals.

For people who are good cooks, have food allergies, or just want to be able to eat specific dishes, there are many excellent options for camping. Remember those vacuum bags that we mentioned last time, well those waterproof lovelies can be safely used to freeze pre-cooked meals from home and then used to reheat them in camp.

If your brain draws a blank when you think of precooked meals, let me mention just a few of the very successfully reheated meals that we have had in camp over the years.

Beef Stew, Chili, Chicken Pot Pie filling, or any thick soup. Simply freeze in a plastic container and once the food is solid, pop it out of the container, place it in a vacuum bag, vacuum the bag, label, and place back into the freezer until you are ready to use it. Pre-freezing the very wet contents make it easier to vacuum the food well and avoid freezer burn if you store the food for a while. We often do a big bunch of frozen dinners after Thanksgiving or a big roast and use them for both home and camping. I love to use the disposable plastic boxes that come with pre-packaged cold-cuts for freezing wet foods. The sides of the boxes slope outwards slightly, which makes it easy to pop out the solid blocks of food. The blocks will also melt more slowly than thinner flat packs of food. We know from experience that a full container, with lots of chunks of meat, is enough for two of us for dinner, so a dinner for four is two large blocks.

A nice beef stew for dinner. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Turkey and gravy, or Pot Roast and gravy, or Roast Pork and gravy. Just put the pre-sliced meat into the bag and add gravy. The safest way to do this is to pre-freeze the gravy and put the block of gravy in with the meat right before you vacuum it. Be sure to label – sometimes it is NOT obvious what the food is. We have had a couple of “creative” meals at an event where someone forgot to read the labels on the bags and two things looked alike.

Lasagna! Lasagna is one of those things that really does freeze and reheat well. You can make your own from scratch or use pre-frozen lasagna (be sure that it is fully cooked). Lasagna reheats well in a boil and seal bag. The one drawback is that it takes a LOT longer to reheat than some other foods, but it is yummy.

Vegetables? We use frozen peas a lot when we camp. Just put half a bag of frozen peas, or other vegetables, into a vacuum bag, vacuum it, and label. You can even add a couple of tablespoons of butter or seasoning, so that the vegetable comes out “completely ready”.

Now we are not just eating the frozen dinners for supper – honestly that would NOT be enough food when I am camping. I get HUNGRY, and therefore next time we will discuss: Convenience Foods that are Worth Using.