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Old 04-30-2022, 10:34 AM   #1
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Name: Gilda
Trailer: 2011 Scamp 13'
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Camping Food & Supplies, Where Do You Get Yours?

My question to you is "Where do you get your camping food and supplies?" How do you keep your pre-camping planning, supplying and packing "easy- peasy"? Over a lifetime of camping this continues to be my basic question. As young adults we were backpackers and the lessons learned I apply to car and trailer camping. Of course, we now take great advantage of the fact that we can carry more weight in more space with some "refrigeration". We only have a cooler with ice. Others of you may have refrigerators and freezers. I want to hear from all of you as our shared experiences informs others.

During The Pandemic and recently for a plane trip vacation I discovered the joys of shopping for fresh food and other things online to be picked up (within 2 hours!) or delivered to my home or destination. Thank you "essential workers"!!!!

Let me preface this by saying, I really am NOT a fan of Walmart nor Amazon for that matter, but a Walmart store is right next door to where I store my camping trailer, 1 hour from our home. You may have other stores that you prefer. To streamline my camping experience I can order food and supplies and pick them up just prior to my trip, bring them to my trailer, unload and pack them immediately and be on our way! Easy, peasy!! I'll bet some of you do this while on the road. We are often "off the grid" and/or have limited internet reception, but the old - fashioned way of walking the aisles in a store works as well. ;-)

I, just now, found a heading on the Walmart website titled "Everyday Meals" to prepare in 30 minutes. Many of them could be prepared in a campsite depending on your individual needs. Click on the headings and you have a few suggestions.
https://www.walmart.com/cp/everyday-...xTID1adJVkX8Ed

Walmart does have an RV camping section where we can purchase toilet chemicals, TP, wheel blocks as well as much more for large RVs. Look up "RV camping supplies". When I looked up "camping accessories" I was blown away by what they offer including a "weekend kit" of dried meals, always nice as a back-up for camping, for the car, for the emergency kit or, obviously, backpacking. If you simply search "camping" all the equipment is sub-categorized into tents, sleeping bags, etc.

I'm looking forward to hearing your best ideas.
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Old 04-30-2022, 06:41 PM   #2
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Name: Tom and Joy
Trailer: Scamp 16
Santa Rosa, California
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On the road I put on my shame face and head for Walmart. They're in every town, they are close to freeways, they always have parking to accommodate my trailer, and they have everything I need to buy. And, I'm finding more and more food items for one, rather than family size, which is perfect for the tiny fridge.
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Old 04-30-2022, 06:48 PM   #3
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Name: Phil
Trailer: Casita
Alabama
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Camp food

We eat pretty much the same when traveling as we do at home, with the exception of leaning more on frozen and canned food. We have a fridge with a freezer. When we have a trip coming up, we'll set aside portions of leftovers to freeze for easy prep. We like frozen dinners from Trader Joe's, so we'll get those when a trip is coming up. Aldi has similar items, just not as many choices, but Aldi is our go-to for most of our groceries. Our Casita has a microwave, so when we have hookups, which is nearly always for us, heating up stuff is easy. But, so is using the propane stove. On the road, we'll shop for fresh food wherever it's convenient to park with the trailer. During the worst of the pandemic, we'd do like you said-- order pickup from Walmart, but now we walk the aisles.

So, we just shop with a trip in mind when we have one planned. Our Casita is stored a few minutes away. We tow it home and load it from the fridge and home pantry the day before leaving. So, not a lot of meal planning. Having that little freezer in the camper makes all the difference. We've done the cooler thing in the past, which forces you to have to think more about getting re-supplied, I think.
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Old 04-30-2022, 06:49 PM   #4
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We purchase there. We also eat out because camping for us is a vacation and cooking meals in the camper, well, the cook is on vacation too.
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Old 05-01-2022, 09:29 AM   #5
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Name: Ed
Trailer: Casita 17 ft SD
Colorado
Posts: 206
We get everything from the same stores we use for household groceries. We load with enough food for the whole trip. Our trips are for up to a week.
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Old 05-09-2022, 07:06 AM   #6
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Name: Linda
Trailer: Scamp 16'
Ontario
Posts: 32
Minimal cooking and cleaning whilst camping

There's nothing worse than getting home after a day of hiking or exploring and having to prepare a meal. Like someone else said, I'm on vacation too.

I do 2 different things to make my life easier:

1. Dehydrate home-cooked meals: The dehydrated meals you can buy are expensive, too salty, small in portions, and not to my palate. I either cook extra when cooking my regular meals, or have a day of cooking where I make 3-4 different meals for the purpose of taking them camping. I own a dehydrator which are really not expensive anymore, especially when you consider how much money you will save by eating your own food.
I dehydrate:
  • stews
  • spaghetti sauce
  • pulled pork or chicken
  • veg to go with a meal
  • beef jerky
  • fish jerky
  • fruit
The trick is to cut your pieces of meat or veg smaller than you normally would so that it dries thoroughly and rehydrates more quickly. I also would use ground beef or chicken instead of chunks.
I dehydrate 1 or 2 serving sizes per rack in the dehydrator so that I know how much to rehydrate at camp. I put the number of servings I need for a meal in a ziplock and then store in the freezer until trip time (just for extra assurance against spoilage).
At camp, put the dried food in a pot, add enough water that looks right for the serving size, then bring to a boil. Take off the heat and let it sit for 15-20 minutes. If it's too dry, add more water and wait a bit longer. If it's too wet, you can boil it down a bit or enjoy some "chili soup" instead.
Benefits of dehydrated food:
  • no refrigeration required
  • weighs almost nothing
  • takes up very little space
  • one pot to clean
  • uses minimal fuel at camp for rehydrating
  • easy peasy

2. Vacuum seal home-cooked meals: I have a vacuum sealer (also not expensive) and put serving sized portions in to the bags. I use things that don't dehydrate well, like meatballs, slices of roast meat, etc. I put the whole plate of food in there (rice, veg, meatballs, sauce). I freeze them. At camp I boil a big pot of water and throw in the whole bag to warm it up (boil-in-the-bag). Each person gets a bag to cut open and dump onto their plate.
These are only good for the first few days if you don't have a freezer. When I'm out on a canoe trip, I'll wrap them in a sweater to keep them cold longer.
Benefits:
  • no pot to clean
  • uses minimal fuel
  • easy peasy
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Old 05-09-2022, 07:09 AM   #7
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Name: You can't call me Al
Trailer: SOLD: 1977 Scamp 13'
Massachusetts
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Scamper Linda View Post
I do 2 different things to make my life easier:[*]easy peasy[/LIST]
FANTASTIC post.
I'm going to print it for reference.

I have a vacuum sealer I use ALL THE TIME for preparing fresh and frozen camping meals.

I don't have a dehydrator.
Do you have a recommendation for a quality one?
I like paying more for quality so I don't have to buy another one before I die.
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Old 05-09-2022, 07:20 AM   #8
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Name: Linda
Trailer: Scamp 16'
Ontario
Posts: 32
Quote:
Originally Posted by AlanKilian View Post
FANTASTIC post.
I'm going to print it for reference.

I have a vacuum sealer I use ALL THE TIME for preparing fresh and frozen camping meals.

I don't have a dehydrator.
Do you have a recommendation for a quality one?
I like paying more for quality so I don't have to buy another one before I die.
I'm the same as you for buying quality stuff. This is the dehydrator I have (which came as a package deal with my husband 18 years ago):
https://www.amazon.com/Nesco-America.../dp/B00004W4V4
I like the fact that it is expandable to 12 trays and each tray is the size of one large serving of stew/chili (2 cups fresh food). You need to rotate the trays at the halfway point (switch the upper and lower ones around).
People also seem to love Excalibur Dehydrators, but they are of a fixed size because they are like a toaster oven with trays (can't add to it in the future to make it bigger).
Have fun doing your research and shopping!
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Old 05-27-2022, 11:42 PM   #9
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Name: Jann
Trailer: Casita
Colorado
Posts: 1,307
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gilda View Post
My question to you is "Where do you get your camping food and supplies?" How do you keep your pre-camping planning, supplying and packing "easy- peasy"? Over a lifetime of camping this continues to be my basic question. As young adults we were backpackers and the lessons learned I apply to car and trailer camping. Of course, we now take great advantage of the fact that we can carry more weight in more space with some "refrigeration". We only have a cooler with ice. Others of you may have refrigerators and freezers. I want to hear from all of you as our shared experiences informs others.

During The Pandemic and recently for a plane trip vacation I discovered the joys of shopping for fresh food and other things online to be picked up (within 2 hours!) or delivered to my home or destination. Thank you "essential workers"!!!!

Let me preface this by saying, I really am NOT a fan of Walmart nor Amazon for that matter, but a Walmart store is right next door to where I store my camping trailer, 1 hour from our home. You may have other stores that you prefer. To streamline my camping experience I can order food and supplies and pick them up just prior to my trip, bring them to my trailer, unload and pack them immediately and be on our way! Easy, peasy!! I'll bet some of you do this while on the road. We are often "off the grid" and/or have limited internet reception, but the old - fashioned way of walking the aisles in a store works as well. ;-)

I, just now, found a heading on the Walmart website titled "Everyday Meals" to prepare in 30 minutes. Many of them could be prepared in a campsite depending on your individual needs. Click on the headings and you have a few suggestions.
https://www.walmart.com/cp/everyday-...xTID1adJVkX8Ed

Walmart does have an RV camping section where we can purchase toilet chemicals, TP, wheel blocks as well as much more for large RVs. Look up "RV camping supplies". When I looked up "camping accessories" I was blown away by what they offer including a "weekend kit" of dried meals, always nice as a back-up for camping, for the car, for the emergency kit or, obviously, backpacking. If you simply search "camping" all the equipment is sub-categorized into tents, sleeping bags, etc.

I'm looking forward to hearing your best ideas.
I make extra when I cook at home and freeze enough for a meal in a sealer bag. For soups and chili I freeze it in a container then put it in a sealer bag. Those items are larger so if in the trailer we sometimes take an ice chest with the larger items in it with 1/2 gallons of frozen tea and water to keep it all cold. It lasts 5-6 days. The smaller meals I put in the freezer since they'd thaw to quickly. I can easily do 14 days with no problems plus we use dry soups like Bear Creek and other ready to eat stuff and can go 3 weeks without really cooking. Just heating and eating pretty much. The items we buy on the road is salad, fresh fruits, milk, etc. Sometimes we go into a store we don't have and look around and buy stuff. A lot of that may just go home in the car. We use our regular TP since it is for septic tanks which we have at home. We don't really buy camping stuff, we use all our normal stuff like shampoo from home and put it in smaller bottles. We stay away from instant stuff and quick meals that you buy since usually they are not healthy and my home cooking is much more so. I make a list of meals or meats that I cook so I'll know what is in the freezer. Then packing is much easier and we can choose what we feel like eating. We shop Walmart a lot since they are everywhere but use grocery stores we are familiar with to buy our fresh items since we find Walmart's fresh veggies and fruits to go bad faster. We never buy meat at Walmart. We don't buy fresh meat when we travel either since we precook everything.
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Old 06-03-2022, 05:22 PM   #10
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Name: Mike
Trailer: In the Market
Alaska
Posts: 77
I've noticed a lot of people getting boxes of free supplies at food pantries.


Or you could just dumpster dive. I saw a guy find like 20 packs of tortillas one time. Right up there with eating reheated pre-made food out of a plastic bag. Sounds delicious!
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Old 06-04-2022, 05:19 PM   #11
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Name: Mitzi
Trailer: LilSnoozy 12/01/16, Tug 2012 Dodge Citadel
Florida
Posts: 573
I ordered a 1.5 liter pressure cooker from Hawkins. Most Americans reviewing it had lots of pressure cooker experience and disliked it. I have pressured canned for many years with my All American canner but never used a pressure cooker. I and a guy with no pressure cooking experience but buying it for camping loved it.
The lid goes on differently from American pressure cookers. Hawkins does most of its business in India and the Indian ladies love theirs. You are using a low tech method- the Hawkins whistles when it reaches pressure. Reduce heat until you get only a small jiggle. You will need expereince to learn which foods you cook for 1, 2, or 3 whistles. I escpecially love mine for cooking dried beans. You need to add a generous pat of butter to keep bean froth from clogging your pressure gauge. It's important to me not to have leftovers as dh detests them. So cooking small amounts works well for me.

I bought a specially designed 1 qt crockpot that has places for an elastic band to stretch over the lid so it doesn't get jarred open during travel. Actually, I haven't used it in transit, so I guess I could have used my regular 1 qt crockpot.

I have an electric kettle that will do for instant coffee and hot cereals.

Right now I am searching for an 8 inch electric fry pan. I have one that is the size to hold a slice of bread, which won't work for 2, and one that's 12 inches which is really too big for 2. Have I mentioned DH detests leftovers?

He originally wanted to go out for dinners and I had to convince him that lunches out are cheaper than dinner out and I don't want to reach somewhere and then go hunt up a restaurant.
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