Backpacking Food

Freeze-dried or dehydrated? That is the question. When making your own backpacking meals, is it nobler to buy freeze-dried ingredients or dehydrate them yourself in a food dehydrator? I think it really comes down to how you want to spend your time and how complicated your meals are. I spent one …

The Backpacking Chef’s backpacking and camping cookbook called Recipes for Adventure is chock full of healthy, hearty, and homemade backpacking recipes. I know this first-hand because I’ve made many of them, like this Ratatoille. But while the meals and snack recipes in Recipes for Adventure are excellent, the real value of …

Simple one pot backpacking meals are a great option if you want more variety in your backpacking diet, you want to eat real food with less preservatives, or you want to adapt your meals to seasonal or locally available ingredients that you encounter on your hike. But if your existing stove …

Have you even opened your backpacking food bag and lost your appetite at the prospect of eating the same boring meal again? Do yourself a favor and increase the variety of food you bring on backpacking trips. Develop a menu that keeps you interested in eating, so you can refuel with …

The S29 Ursack is a soft-sided bearproof bag that you can use to store your backpacking food and smellables in at night. They’re different from a traditional bear bags that you hang a minimum of 10 feet off the ground and 5 feet away from the trunk, because they’re made out of a bear …

The best ultralight backpacking foods are high in calories, compact, and fast to prepare. In order to keep your food load as lightweight as possible, you want to carry foods that have 100 calories per ounce or more. One ounce is 28.3 grams, a fact that will help you compare food …

As a rule of thumb, you can figure on using 2 lbs of food per person per day on a 3 season backpacking trip. Depending on your body weight and exertion level, you may need more or less food, but that’s a pretty reliable estimation to begin with. When I …

It’s a sad fact that many of the grocery stores you used to find in small towns along the Appalachian Trail and other hiking trails have been replaced by gas station convenience stores. The quality of food available has suffered and it can be difficult to walk away with anything resembling …