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As the warmer weather
approaches, we look forward to another season of camping and enjoying the fun,
relaxation, and beauty that the outdoor environment has to offer. I am anxious
to get out on weekends to some of my favorite campsites around Kentucky and
Indiana. Of course I’ll have plenty of fishing gear and enough camping food to
bring along in case some of my family or friends join in on the adventures
that are sure to come with each outing. This is the most enjoyable thing for
me when I see others having a great time hiking, fishing, throwing Frisbees™,
or sitting around the campfire eating, telling stories or singing campfire
songs.
There are several things I try
to consider before I begin packing my gear and camping food for a camping
trip. First of course, is how long will I be gone? How much time do I have to
get away from the “9 to 5”, unwind and get refreshed by the fresh air,
sunshine, and peaceful scenery that nature provides so abundantly? This
summer, I’m going to try to get out more frequently on the weekends so I’ll
talk a little about short outings that are not too distant from home. This
will allow me more time for what I actually want to do, and that of course, is
to camp. I don’t want to spend 5 hours going and 5 hours coming, using
basically a whole day just for traveling. If I pick a place that's within a
100 mile radius, I should be able to find several dozen places to visit and
spend less than 4 hours of total travel time.
Ok, that sound great, I can
think of a dozen places within 100 miles right off the top of my head. Lake
Monroe, where my youngest son and I visited last year, is only 1 hour and 45
minutes from my home. That was a great weekend camping trip and my daughter
and her friends at IU came from Bloomington to join in the fun. Several of the
girls had not fished much at all, and I had more fun than they did watching
them scream and holler as we caught over 70 bluegill. It was a great thrill
for them to actually catch, clean, and eat fresh fish. Anyway, after we
cleaned them all, they were absolutely delicious dipped in a bowl of egg and
milk, rolled in cracker crumbs and cornmeal, and fried to a golden brown. And
of course we had several left over, which provided extra camping food for the
trip.
But let’s get back to some of
the essentials of planning your weekend camping trip and calculating camping
food quantities. After you’ve decided on how much time you have, you will need
to consider how many nature lovers are going camping. That’s usually the easy
part. So if you’ve got 5 people going, and you’re going to be gone for two
nights and two days, you’ll want to figure how many meals that will be. I’d
say it will be in the neighborhood of 2 dinners, 2 breakfast, and 2 lunches,
not including snack times. So we’ll need enough food for 10 people (5 x 2) for
essentially one day. That should calculate to an average of 8-10 ounces of
meat per person, 8-10 ounces of vegetables and fruit per person, and 8-10
servings of bread or grains per two persons. You can also use the 8-10 rule
for your drinks for a total of 8-10, (8-10 oz. drinks) including water, per
person per day. This may seem like a lot of liquid, but when you consider 3
meals a day and an additional drink in between, you are already at 6 drinks a
day. Remember, dehydration is a major cause of heat stroke. If you’re going
hiking, swimming, or playing any type of running sport, this will easily bring
the drink count up an additional 3 or more for a total of 9 drinks a day.
Let’s make an easy formula to go by.
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CAMPING FOOD QUANTITY FORMULA
5 people for 2 days = (5 x 2 = 10)
10
x 8-10 ounces = (80-100 ounces meat) or 5-6¼ lbs.
10
x 8-10 ounces = (80-100 ounces fruits & veggies) or 5-6¼ lbs.
8-10
servings bread or grain per (2) persons
8-10
(8-10 oz. drinks) per person (per day)
NOTE:
Hard
cheeses such as American and Swiss include in meat weight.
Soft
cheeses such as cultures add to fruits and vegetables weight.
Eggs
may be separate.
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So that’s a pretty good rule of
thumb to go by for your “3 squares.” If you like to snack, which goes great
with camping, add chips, marshmallows, or no bake cookies to "sweeten" your
camping food.
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