What food do you take on extended trips?

[travelrover]

Hi team

This is not a subject that I have seen discussed here. We (wife and I) are planning an extended trip this time next year where we will be remote for more than a week at a time and was just interested in what other people take in terms of food. Fresh, frozen, freeze dried, dry etc...

By remote I mean no or very limited opportunity to resupply food/water or fuel during these parts of the trip and of course this can vary further if its wet.

We have a 55 litre fridge/freezer which will be used as a freezer and a similar sized esky which we rotated ice packs into from the freezer to keep other items cool. In terms of cooking we have a two burner Colman gas unit and a grate for open fires.

Normally we plan our 'menu' and snacks before we go and pack and portion accordingly with everything numbered or dated so we just work our way through. That's fine for a couple of weeks and can be great at saving space and weight but we will be at least twice that this time and what supplies we can get along the way may be somewhat limited. I am also conscious of weight and water usage.

So I am very interested to see how other folk approach this?

Cheers - Simon

[trout1105]

2x 12v fridges are a much better option to one 12v fridge and an esky, If you have room to carry the esky think about replacing it with another 12v fridge.
I usually use 1x 80l as a fridge and another 40l as a freezer.
I pack the meat into portions for 2 and vacuum seal them for the freezer and carry a well stocked tucker box with dried goods, tinned stuff, brew gear and suaces etc.
Spuds, onoins and pumpkin will last for at least 2 weeks in a hessian bag[thumbsupbig]
Unsliced bread has a better shelf life than sliced bread But after 2-3 days the camp oven will have to come out for damper/bread making which is after all one of the fun parts of heading remote.
Powdered milk is a good option if space is limited otherwise long life milk is the go.
If I am going away for 2 weeks I will usually pack enough food for at least 4 weeks.

[Saitch]

2x 12v fridges are a much better option to one 12v fridge and an esky

If I am going away for 2 weeks I will usually pack enough food for at least 4 weeks.

Too right! To me, an esky on an extended trip is like having a canvas water bag i.e. very inefficient.
You probably do this, Travelrover, but just in case.......with a bit of trial and error, you can pack a 12v 'fridge with frozen goodies on the bottom and cold stuff on top and the contents will stay that way.
I travelled for 14 weeks with a 40 litre Engel using this method, admittedly on my Pat Malone, but the good woman and I have been away for a couple of weeks, with no tucker issues.
We upgraded to a 60 litre Engel a couple of years ago and that is even better.
Pre-cooked, frozen curries, spag bols and stews are our staples. Everyone knows they taste better, with a bit of age!

Trout's 4 week theory is spot on. Years ago, I would carry ADF rations, but that's not really a necessity these days. Also, my 'Supplier' is no longer working.[bighmmm]
No such thing as too much water, either.

[ramblingboy42]

I'm kind of with Trout on this but there is now so much fresh food available "on the track" , I'm finding less and less the need to carry as much as I used to.

My major weight these days comes from water and milk ....and beer. Even beer is readily available, and I used to carry enough for the trip but dont need to now. There is always ice everywhere you go. For breakfast I usually eat those multi paks and eat out of the packs. Water , I find , I use 600ml/1lt bottles as much as I hate the plastic but it carries very light when empty and 10c back at the recycle when you get home. I do not carry glass.

Sandwich for lunch is easy , so really consider your evening meal for your main food plan.

I have been travelling out bush for nearly 40 yrs and it's all changed so much.

Unless you are intending to go somewhere very remote for say 10 days I wouldn't get too bothered. Just plan a meal you would eat yourself , multiply that by the number on board and do that for each meal. You will never eat what you plan to, just make sure you have the water you might need.

Enjoy, hope that's useful.

[jspyle]

We use wraps instead of bread, seem to last about 2 weeks just sitting in the ticket box.
I make a damper after the evening meal unless camped up for a couple of days, saves time packing up.

[Slunnie]

It depends on how remote we are going and how prepared we want to be.

So for example for a week, and there is only 1 day lead up to the trip (Eg Fraser Island), I used to just take a 60litre Evakool Esky. I now run an Evakool ED50 fridge/freezer set as a fridge, and the Evakool esky which is full of frozen ice in containers in the bottom of it. A mix of fresh foods and dry foods. With an Evakool esky and block ice you can come back from a week away and still have ice, I think you'd be lucky to do that with most other eskys. This esky really had me questioning the need to buy a fridge at all. This is for 2 or 3 people.

Where there is a long lead up to the trip ie, it might be a 4 or 5 days getting to the trip to start with such as the desert - Fridge/freezer set as a freezer and another fridge on the back seat. We run frozen foods in the freezer such as prepared meats etc, and cold stuff in the fridge. Food is a mixture of fresh and dry also. This is for 2 people.

I dont do powdered milk ever. If I have to carry the water for it, then I'll just carry the milk, even if its longlife. Powdered milk is just crap.

If its only me, then I just use the fridge/freezer set as a fridge.

[Red90]

Beer and tenderloin.

[V8Ian]

Don't forget the yogurt and Co Co Pops.

[Hoges]

For an extended trip which for us is about a week[bighmmm].... we have a mix of vac sealed/frozen (-18degC) meal portions which I usually prepare in advance over a few weeks when I'm doing the cooking ---curries, home made soup, casseroles, spaghetti bolognaise sauce etc. I pack them into a 15L high lid (=22L) Brass Monkey fridge which is very efficient at -18 degC. Our Bushman fridge configured to 52 L is used for milk, cheese, fruit, eggs and other staples. Drinking water usually 1 or 2 10L spring water casks from Woolies. Other water from 20L Proquip water jerry can. Instead of bread we often use wraps or "Cruskits" for lunch. Green veg, apart from frozen peas and beans which are kept in the small freezer, are in the Bushman. Dry goods and tinned stuff as well as cooking gear all fit into a single 52 L plastic container. I have a Kelly kettle and a gasmate single burner with a MSR dragonfly for backup for cooking (bushwalking habits die hard)....

[Homestar]

If you get back into a decent town when restocking, I've found most Butchers will vac pack meat you buy from them for you, and I've always found someone obliging enough to do this, but it does depend on where you are planning to restock along the way.

These days I'm more often in the motorhome so have plenty of room for a weeks food, drink and everything else I want - yes I'm getting soft, but I can live with that. Just came back from 8 nights away in it. [smilebigeye]

[Tote]

Most of my ideas are already covered above, Wraps instead of bread - unopened these have a shelf life of months in some cases. Curries vacuum sealed keep very well just refrigerated and are easy and quick to cook in a billy. Bags of microwave rice can be boiled in a billy with a bit of water added. We also use the fruit juice poppers for quick drinks.

Regards,
Tote

[Slunnie]

Most of my ideas are already covered above, Wraps instead of bread - unopened these have a shelf life of months in some cases. Curries vacuum sealed keep very well just refrigerated and are easy and quick to cook in a billy. Bags of microwave rice can be boiled in a billy with a bit of water added. We also use the fruit juice poppers for quick drinks.

Regards,
Tote

Admittedly we take LPG, stoves and pots etc for convenience. You can never use up GVM and space fast enough. :lol2: