Bushwalking Food
I've been thinking and reading a lot about bushwalking food lately. Rather than just taking whatever feels right (light weight and decent feed mainly) actually making a conscious effort to think about how much energy a food provides for a given weight. The next bushwalk I'm planning on going on is to the Budawangs on 13-14 May, and I wanted to try and experiment a bit with different food - we have been taking pretty much the same stuff on every walk so far so it's time for a change.
I started by reading through the very useful Bushwalking FAQ section on food. Based on this and other research I've done I should be aiming to get about 3,000-4,000 calories a day while bushwalking. I'm still trying to work out what sort of foods are best to make up these calories and keep weight down (my pack weight, not body weight). Things like cheese, nuts, muesli are all high energy foods.
I've also bought a Food Dehydrator, to try and experiment with some more interesting bushwalking food - such as Beef Jerky! I was reading a book recently that involved the Tartars, Mongolian warriors who essentially rode and conquered from Mongolia to Eastern Europe with nothing but their horse, weapons, and dried salted meat (slow horse meat? :)) under their saddles.
My first batch is good but needs some fine tuning. I think I sliced it a little too thin so it dried very quickly and is crunchy rather than pliable like the stuff you buy in the shop. Also it's a little salty, I might have overdone the soy sauce in the marinade. Still, it's just as addictive to eat as the store bought stuff. The next batch will be better! In terms of cost effectiveness though, ignoring the cost of the dehydrator, it cost be about $4 for 280g of beef which made 110g of jerky (3.63c/gram) - by comparison a 25g packet of store bought jerky is $3 (12c/gram).
I've dehydrated a bunch of fruit - apple, pear and banana - which is all very tasty and light weight and definitely cheaper than the stuff you get in store. I'm also going to try dehydrating spaghetti bolognese sauce for the next walk, for a more "home style" meal without all the weight that would normally entail.
Stay tuned!
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