Food storing ideas

[Scott_Fraser]

What is the best way to store your food during extented walks? Containers, bags or just individually placed into your bag to fill in all the gaps?

This isn't a huge dilema for me during bushwalks, but I would be interested to know if others have any good advice or preferences.

In recent times I have opted for storing food in tuperware to avoid it being crushed, but having the square shaped container can be difficult to pack evenly into my bag.

[Son of a Beach]

I'll be interested in hearing others' replies to this as well.

For myself, for most food I remove any unessential packaging and put it in zip-lock bags. This is especially suitable for powders, or foods made up of many small pieces (eg, oats, tea leaves, home dried vegetables, home made jerky). One advantage of this is that with all these bags in together, they will mould together to fit the space available between them all.

I sometimes use hard plastic containers (eg, tupperware) for crushable items, such as cracker biscuits, or weet-bix (which I occasionally take), and also for foods that would be difficult to get out of plastic bags (eg, butter).

Of course some foods don't need any repackaging at all (eg, most chocolate, commercially freeze-dried meals).

Then all food goes into one large strong calico bag to keep it all together, and in case anything leaks (I don't double-bag everything, as I think this is a waste of bags and a plastic burden on land-fill later).

For long extended walks where I have several crushable items, I'll pack them together into a rather large plastic container (about 30x20x10cm?), which is then packed separately from the calico bag (and the container's lid ends up making a great flat surface for spreading butter, etc, onto mountain bread, ryvita, etc). Any free space in this large container gets filled up with non-crushable items (eg, my zip-lock bags) to prevent the crushables moving around and breaking. As as the walk goes on, and the crushables are gradually consumed, more of the non-crushables are added to the large containter, to prevent what's left from shaking about and breaking (and to take up less space in the rest of my pack!).

[norts]

For crushable items, ie vitawheats, I use two bottom halves of 2litre milk bottles pushed together. A very light but sturdy container and easily replaced if one is damaged. I carry cereal in a 2 or 1 litre (depending on the length of a walk)milk container. Stops the cereal turning into crumbs, I cant stand crumbs. Takes a bit to get it into the bottle, I use a funnel. I can get 8 days or 4 days respectively in a bottle.
Every thing is taken out of its original container and put in zip lock bags. I split my daily scroggin, chocolate jelly beans into zip lock bags, then I know how much I can eat each day. Dont take muesli bars out of packet and put in with scroggin, goes horrible.
Powdered milk is double zip locked and if it is a long trip I will split it into two bags( just in case I drop a bag or spill water into it)
All food is in a stuff sack, easier to find and easier to throw into tent if the rain is coming down and also protectes zip lock bags.
I reuse zip locks , plastic bags hanging up all over the place, drying when I get home from a walk.

Roger

[corvus]

Gees I thought I was being some sort of a compulsive with my packing I now realise that I am as sane as the rest of us ,but I must tell you about the newest and best Zip-locks (sorry about the add) They are MULTIX brand resealable freezer and storage bags (I use 20x20) with an expanding gusset bottom . The are not only good storage /carry bags but you can use them to rehydrate food by adding boiling water ,double them if in doubt.
corvus

Last edited by corvus on Sat 31 May, 2008 5:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Son of a Beach]

The are not only good storage /carry bags but you can use them to rehydrate food by adding boiling water ,double them if in doubt.

Are you serious? They'll handle boiling water? Because if they did, that would be very useful indeed. (We already use multix for freezer bags and cling wrap - I haven't seen their zip lock bags).

[corvus]

Yes indeed they handle boiling water, bearing in mind that when you pour the water is technically off the boil and you are adding it to dried cold ingredients and ideally they need some sort of "cosy" to retain the heat whilst the food reconstitutes and to keep the bag from flopping about .
I believe you can puchase these cosies on line (I made my own)and from memory they were mentioned in a thread on this forum some time back.
corvus

[tasadam]

the newest and best Zip-locks They are MULTIX brand resealable freezer and storage bags corvus

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=609&p=4121&hilit=multix#p4123

So you are saying they make zip-locks now? Quite different to the freezer bags I am used to?

http://www.multix.com.au/products/freezer.html
Which ones?

I don't know whether anyone else thought you were referring to the non-zip lock freezer bags like the ones I am used to - from the Multix link I put here, the picture of the yellow pack along the bottom.
Cheers.

[corvus]

None of those I have taken a photo of the ones I use can you advise how to post it on the forum please

[tasadam]

Image of Multix bag, courtesy of Corvus.

...can you advise how to post it on the forum please

Attaching images -
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=562

More stuff on images -
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=163

Sing out if you need a hand.
Cheers!

Attachments

Multix ziplock bag photo cortesy Corvus

DSC00123.jpg (51.3 KiB) Viewed 11511 times

[Dave Bremers]

Ah very clever with the two 2L bottle halves! Perhaps if you use a 2L bottle half and then only the bottom of the other bottle you would have a system which compacts as you eat the rye-vitas/vitawheats etc.

Will definitely think about rehydrating in zip locks. I will make a cosy for my steel mug too for rehydrating in that.

I think that 90% shadecloth (that means 90% fabric with about 10% gaps) should be the hikers new best friend. It is sturdy, breathable, durable and light. I keep my food in it to protect it from other items in my pack and to make it easier to find everything and throw it in my tent. I've even made 'arm gaiters' out of it for this expedition viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2977

Its available from bunnings in any possible colour you could want. Stitches with a regular sewing machine. Try it.