Just Add Water

Years ago, I used to spend a couple of weeks dehydrating food for my son's yearly camping trip into the mountains with his uncle. My uncle would get all of the kids in the family, 5 or 6 at the time, load them in a van with tents and camping gear and off they would go for a couple of weeks.  We're not talking high tech camping in a state park, but primitive dispersed camping in the wilderness.  For this trip I would dehydrate fruits, vegetables and meats.

I am not a fan of prepackaged food or can soup. I would rather cook my own with the ingredients I want in it.  So I got to thinking about applying food dehydration to vandwelling. It seems it would be eminently suitable. It is light weight, compact and most re-hydrated things are almost as good as their fresh counterparts. Well thinking for me always equates to researching... so off to the internet I go.

The first thought is how are you going to get or dehydrate food? There are any number of instructables on solar food dehydrators. But this is not something I'm really interested in. So my choice would be to buy it. Unfortunately most of the suppliers of this type of product are survivalist, who want you to buy a years supply (or more) to feed a family of 4.  Although I have found a few where you can get stuff in smaller quantities. Another source for these products are backpacking suppliers. But here the quantities are so small and expensive as to be prohibitive. And then there are the gourmet food suppliers.  GOURMET equals at least double your money, so not much help there.

Ok so I have now done my "fanny" research (sitting on my butt behind the computer).  I thought it time to check out the local Walmart Supercenter.  Most of us eat dehydrated foods on a regular basis. When you buy that bag of noodles for a casserole, you are eating dehydrated food.  After a couple of hours wondering the aisles of the store, poking, prodding and inspecting products I had never paid attention to before and keeping in mind that I only wanted to prepare food for one with a small appetite.  I found that there is quite a bit you can get locally before you have to move on to more expensive or internet based suppliers. The first thing I can tell you is that the potatoes are covered. You can get dehydrated potatoes in almost any fashion you desire.  You just have to think outside of the box (pardon the pun).  That box of au gratin potatoes is nothing more than dehydrated potatoes, cheese powder, powder milk, powder spices, thickener and a few chemicals for good measure. Basically the same with just about any other flavor such as sour cream and chives. Once you have that box you can use those potatoes for about anything you want after you have re-hydrated them. Once re-hydrated you can pan fry them if you choose and save the cheese packet for something else. That box is also designed to feed a family of 3-4.  So as a solo, use only what you need and put the rest in a zipper bag, removing as much air as possible. Ok, now that we have covered the most abundant dried vegetable, and a different way to look at the packaging.  I will endeavor to list some more of the shelf stable items you can find in many local stores.

Whole Milk Powder - Nido - Generally found in the Spanish food section -- Plentiful in the south, not sure about in the north.

Some other useful items found in the Spanish food sections are tomato/chicken, cilantro, garlic and onion bullion. Bullion cubes last for years, but go lightly as they are full of sodium.

There is dried fruit and nuts in the snack section, many of which could be re-hydrated for desserts and smoothies.

Buttermilk powder - in the baking section along with that nasty non-fat powered milk (ok, so some might actually like it).

There are the noodles mentioned earlier and instant rice now comes in white or brown... I know, not as good for you as the other... but the object of this exercise is small portion, light, compact, eatable, shelf stable food.

In the spice section you can get, dried celery, chopped onions, dried chives, among other more commonly used spices.  Oh, and there is Molly Butter which won't give you actual butter but will give you butter flavor.

Let us not forget beef jerky and bacon bits.  I know many would be tempted by the "real" bacon bits.  Don't they won't last as long as the imitation.  The imitation are tolerable if used for cooking with and actually impart more of a bacon flavor to your recipe.  There are some more shelf stable meats available in the grocery but they usually spoil shortly after you open them. Remember I am looking for long term stability. Things that will last at least a month or more. I don't think I would want to eat shelf stable bacon after it had been open and without refrigeration for a month.

I am intentionally skipping the canned goods since most of them are not small enough proportioned for me. I am concentrating on items that you can use as much or as little as you wish and the remainder stays stable till further use.  The only one I will include is can cheese. You know the kind with the spout on top so that you can make fancy designs on your cracker.  This is real cheese that can be used for a variety of cooking applications. It generally comes in american, cheddar and sharp cheddar, it also needs no refrigeration.

What I did not find in the grocery was readily dehydrated quantities of carrots, broccoli, green beans, peas, some of the more obscure powders like tomato, butter, whole egg, and sour cream.  For those I found a couple of websites that deal in smaller quantities.  The first one sells it quart sizes... a quart of diced carrots at the moment is $6.45.  You have to remember these are dehydrated so you are talking around 3 quarts once they have been re-hydrated.  It would take me a few months to use that many carrots as a single person.  If I bought can carrots and discarded what I did not use, I would ultimately spend more that $6.45 for the equivalent amount.  Here is the link if you are interested in checking them out:  http://www.internet-grocer.net/2-half.htm  .  The other place I found has even smaller quantities and smaller prices, so that you could try some of the stuff before you bought for longer term. It is located here:  http://www.barryfarm.com/our_store.htm.  The items this place carries are a little more limited though.

The last dietary staple necessary for some (not all) is meat.  This one you will most likely have to bite the bullet and get in the #10 (gallon) can from a survivalist store.  The place above only carries canned meat and TVP (textured vegetable protein).  You can get actual freeze dried (another form of dehydration) meat and cheese at many survivalist stores.

Ok now that I have shown you where to get the dried food. My next post will deal with what to do with it once you have it ......... buen viaje (safe travels)