SC - war food

[Alderton, Philippa]

As far as camping foods, there are several ways to simplify life at an
event.

I don't can, but Ras does, and he brought a wonderful collection of canned
goods to Pennsic last year. Canning is great, if you've got somewhare safe
to keep the jars.

Dried foods, beyond mere beans and rice, are your friends. Get yourself a
dehydrator, and dry herbs, meats, and vegetables. You can either have each
in its own bag and mix to taste, or pre-package say, dried stew and pour it
into a pot, add water, and let it simmer until done. I usually add the meat
first, and whatever veggies later. Dried foods are light to pack, and mostly
only require water. Almost anything can be dried, too.

One of the things Ras and I did independently of each other last year was to
bring some pots of fresh herbs and use them around camp as decorations with
Thorclaw's Gargoyles. Had nice fresh herbs, and a garden as well ;-)

Garlic and onions are easy to keep- just keep them in a net bag with plenty
of airflow in the shade. You can also pre-clean garlic and put it in jars
with olive oil or vinegar or wine- it keeps well, and you can use the
preserving fluid later in something else.

Frozen foods can work well if you know what you're doing. Last year, Ras and
I split on a lamb, had it cut into 6 sections, frozen solid, put it in a
cooler, kept it cold, and finished it up about Wednesday of War week. The
trick there was keeping it cold, and not opening the cooler other than to
quickly remove food or add ice, and sealing the meat well. Yes, the meat was
as good at the end as at the beginning- neither of us will serve
questionable food. We served a couple of lamb shoulders, a couple of legs, I
made a crown roast stuffed with the kidneys, heart, and such, and I used the
scraps to make the lamb stew for the Cook's potluck. Ras also cooked us
brains and eggs for breakfast- very good, but also very rich.

 Another idea, and you can do this with the dried food as well as the frozen
food, is to get and use those seal-a-meal bags. You can fill them with a one
pot meal,  and throw them in a pot of boiling water. You can freeze the
foods into convenient shapes for your cooler and use them to keep other
things cool, or just pack them tight so that you don't need ice. Very labor
intensive ;-)


Phlip

phlip at morganco.net

Philippa Farrour
Caer Frig
Southeastern Ohio

So many Gods, so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind,
When just the art of being kind
Is all this sad world needs.



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