Freeze Dried Foods

[5thGenTexan]

I was looking at the summer camp menu last night and noticed one night the main entree Isa turkey corn dog.

I'm not sure that will hold me.  Probably great for a kid.  I'm thinking throwing in the jet boil and something like this.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Mountain-House-Beef-Stroganoff-w-Noodles-Freeze-Dried-Camping-Backpacking-Food-2-Serving-Pouch/298261838?fulfillmentIntent=In-store

 

 

[T2Eagle]

6 minutes ago, 5thGenTexan said:

I was looking at the summer camp menu last night and noticed one night the main entree Isa turkey corn dog.

 

 

That is just gross on oh so many levels.

I always made sure to have my own jar of peanut butter and box of crackers at camp, plus various other packaged semi healthy snacks, for nights like that.  At our camp breakfast was always the best meal, and I made the most of it.  Lunch and dinner were more hit or miss.  Dinner always included a salad bar and I could usually do pretty well there.

My consistent feedback on our camp's food was that they could do better providing healthier versions of what they served.  Not everything has to be prepackaged, highly processed frozen stuff from GFS, pre-loaded with sugar, fat, and salt.  I specifically told them to check out videos and books from Jamie Oliver showing you could do cafeteria food just as well with fresh ingredients if you just put some thought into it, especially as they had a fair amount of free or discounted labor they could call on for help

[DuctTape]

Freeze dried meals are pre=packaged highly processed stuff loaded with salt, sugar etc.. Bringing some extra food for yourself is a good idea, but you can do much better than freeze dried. An easy way is to dehydrate your own homemade meals. Generally any one-pot meal or casserole style will work. One doesn't even need a fancy dehydrator, it can be done with a oven on low and the door propped open. Even better if you have a convection oven as air movement is more important than heat in dehydrating.

Camp menus like this are just one reason I dislike dining hall style summer camps. At patrol cooking camps (IMO, "real" summer camp) the food is fresh and and healthier.

[yknot]

1 hour ago, T2Eagle said:

That is just gross on oh so many levels.

Yes

1 hour ago, T2Eagle said:

I always made sure to have my own jar of peanut butter and box of crackers at camp, plus various other packaged semi healthy snacks, for nights like that.  At our camp breakfast was always the best meal, and I made the most of it.  Lunch and dinner were more hit or miss.  Dinner always included a salad bar and I could usually do pretty well there.

Where do you store your personal food? 

1 hour ago, T2Eagle said:

My consistent feedback on our camp's food was that they could do better providing healthier versions of what they served.  Not everything has to be prepackaged, highly processed frozen stuff from GFS, pre-loaded with sugar, fat, and salt.  I specifically told them to check out videos and books from Jamie Oliver showing you could do cafeteria food just as well with fresh ingredients if you just put some thought into it, especially as they had a fair amount of free or discounted labor they could call on for help

Some of the local school cafeterias have started incorporating farm to table. Not everything, but it's not that hard to incorporate local fruit and produce in season. Although my kid's daily lunch food ticket is between $10-$12 and likely to go up. 

[RememberSchiff]

2 hours ago, DuctTape said:

Freeze dried meals are pre=packaged highly processed stuff loaded with salt, sugar etc.. Bringing some extra food for yourself is a good idea, but you can do much better than freeze dried. An easy way is to dehydrate your own homemade meals. Generally any one-pot meal or casserole style will work. One doesn't even need a fancy dehydrator, it can be done with a oven on low and the door propped open. Even better if you have a convection oven as air movement is more important than heat in dehydrating.

Camp menus like this are just one reason I dislike dining hall style summer camps. At patrol cooking camps (IMO, "real" summer camp) the food is fresh and and healthier.

My preference, Boy Scout camps provide secure pantry and refrigerator space and loaner cookware for attending units . Units/patrols bring their own food according to their needs. The only food ordered by a camp would be for their provisional camp.

Mess halls for Cubs.

My $0.02,

Edited May 12, 2022 by RememberSchiff

[T2Eagle]

2 hours ago, yknot said:

Where do you store your personal food? 

 

Everybody in the troop is allowed a "chaos" bucket: generally a five gallon bucket and lid.  Any personal food, especially all the junk they buy from the trading post, is kept there.  They're stored in the trailer at night so there's no temptation to have food in the tents.   In addition to food storage, scouts tend to keep in them stuff they're working on like their handbooks, mb paperwork, projects, etc.  That way they're not going in and out of a hot tent as often.  They also make great seats for sitting around the campfire

As SM I used a plastic toter rather than a bucket, but for all the same reasons.

[InquisitiveScouter]

13 hours ago, RememberSchiff said:

My preference, Boy Scout camps provide secure pantry and refrigerator space and loaner cookware for attending units . Units/patrols bring their own food according to their needs. The only food ordered by a camp would be for their provisional camp.

Mess halls for Cubs.

My $0.02,

@RememberSchiff, sorry, but this does not meet the country-club merit-badge-mill motif we are going for.  Gotta shave off as much Troop & Patrol work as possible to maximize the number of merit badge classes a Scout can attend and be awarded!!! (I did not say earn)

C'mon, man! Get with the revenue program!

Edited May 12, 2022 by InquisitiveScouter

[OaklandAndy]

17 hours ago, T2Eagle said:

feedback on our camp's food was that they could do better providing healthier versions of what they served

After working in the Dining Hall last year, I asked basically the same question as your feedback suggested and was told that healthier options cost more money and took longer to prepare. So in the end, it's cheaper to buy unhealthy bulk food and all you have to do is throw it in the warmer to thaw out. So glad they asked me to take over Shooting Sports this year. 

Edited May 12, 2022 by OaklandAndy

[RememberSchiff]

As suggested by @InquisitiveScouter   and  @Eagledad, I  created a new topic

 

[SSScout]

Best to go to the source....

   *(( The true author of this article is unknown. It is here copied from the COME HOSTELING newsletter, Sept. 1980, of the Potomac Area Council of the American Youth Hostels, who received it from Dick Schwanke, Senior PAC Staff Trainer, who read it in the APPALACHIAN HIKER by Ed Garvey, who got it from the Potomac Appalachian Trail Conference Bulletin, which quoted it from THE RAMBLER of the Wasatch Mountain Club of Salt Lake City, which reportedly cribbed it from the I.A.C. News of Idaho Falls, which reported it from the 1966 PEAKS & TRAILS. I offer it here for your enjoyment and inspiration. Note that some of the ingredients are a bit dated. Adjust as necessary. Enjoy!))

 

 

"Courageous Cookery"          by John Echo*    

            Once the convert backpacker or cycle camper has accepted the subtle gustatory nuances associated with sustained operations beyond the chrome, he should try the advantages of ultra fringe living so that he will realize what he is paying for his nested pots and pretty pans carried so diligently and brought home so dirty after every "wilderness experience". The following system works. It is dependable and functional. It works on the big rock. It even works when the weather has gone to hell, you are wet and cold and the wind is blowing down the back of your hairy neck. It is not for the timid. It consists of a stove, a six inch sauce pan, a plastic cup and a soup spoon. If you insist on a metal cup, you must never fail to mutter "I'm having fun, I'm having fun", every time you spill the soup on your sleeping bag.

          Breakfast: Instant wheat cereal-- sugar and powdered milk added-- ready two minutes after water boils. Eat from pot. Do not wash pot. Add water, boil, and add powdered eggs and ham. You'll never taste the cereal anyway. In three minutes, eat eggs. Do not wash pot. Add water or snow and boil for tea. Do not wash pot. Most of the residue eggs will come off in the tea water. Make it strong and add sugar. Tastes like tea. Do not wash pot. With reasonable technique, it should be clean. Pack pot in rucksack and enjoy last cup of tea while others are dirtying entire series of nested cookware.

          Lunch: Boil pot of tea. Have snack of rye bread, cheese and dried beef Continue journey in 10 minutes if necessary.

          Dinner: Boil pot of water, add Wylers dried vegetable soup and beef bar. Eat from pot. Do not wash pot. Add water and potatoes from dry potatoe powder. Add gravy mix to taste. Eat potatoes from pot. Do not wash pot. Add water and boil for tea. Fortuitous fish or meat can be cooked easily. You do not need oil or fat. Put half inch of water in pot. Add cleaned and salted fish. Do not let water boil away. Eat from pot when done. Process can be done rapidly. Fish can even be browned somewhat by a masterful hand.

          Do not change menu. Variation only recedes from the optimum. Beginners may be allowed to wash pot once a day for three consecutive days only. It is obvious that burning or sticking food destroys the beauty of the technique. If you insist on carrying a heavier pack, make up the weight you save with extra food. Stay three days longer.