When you are camping in the great outdoors, there is a lot you have to plan out so that when you get there you can have fun and enjoy nature. In order to make sure you are well and fed, you need to know how to safely and properly store your food.
Campground meals are meant to be enjoyed without the worry of spoilage or being ransacked by the local wildlife. As long as you can plan intelligently, provide decent storage, and take necessary precautions to secure your food from the elements and from animals, you can look forward to many, worry-free meals while you are camping.
Avoiding spoilage is one of the hardest things to do while you are without your indoor kitchen. This is easier to do that most may think; all you need is two coolers for your storage needs.
One will be for your perishable items, and the other for drinks and snacks. Just like you do not open the oven door when you are baking, you do not want to open the lid of a cooler unless you really do need to get something.
Continually taking the lid off will let the cold air escape, which can cause items to go bad faster. This is why you should store your drinks separate from the cooking food.
The drink cooler will be opened often, letting cold air out, but the food cooler will only be opened when actual meals need to be cooked. Keeping drinks in a separate cooler eliminates this problem, and your items will stay colder and last longer without spoilage in its own cooler.
The smell of spoiled meat in a cooler is usually enough to teach people how to properly store their camping supplies. If the smell does not make you change your ways, stomach aches and other bodily discomforts will teach you that you should better store your supplies.
The most common mistake that campers make in regards to food storage is to leave it out while they go off to play for the day. Covering it up on the picnic table will not keep the small animals and creatures from raiding your campsite; and it will surely not deter the big animals like bears and foxes.
These creatures can ravage an entire campsite in a matter of minutes. When you are not preparing or eating meals secure all of your food in containers, place them in the shade or in your car, and dispose of all garbage in appropriate receptacles.
E-coli can be a big problem at the campground. To avoid this, you should invest in a quality cooler, keep perishable items in a separate cooler from drinks, and replenish the ice level daily.
If necessary, keep your items in airtight bags or containers. This will help they stay fresh longer and will keep any bugs or dirt from getting onto the items.
Freezing items ahead of time will extend their storage time and decrease the need for replenishing ice. This is particularly useful for chicken, which most campers tend to eat in the first couple of days because it spoils faster than other meats.
Also, there are numerous recipes that can be prepared ahead of time and then frozen. When you get to the campsite, you can cook the meal without requiring all the fancy utensils that you used to prepare it at home.
Though the movies and "reality" television shows portray campers catching their own meals while out in nature; this method is not necessary. It is very hard to hunt animals and then go through the trouble or cleaning, skinning, and cooking the meat to eat - all in one day.
Fishing is much easier if you are near a well populated stream with edible fish, but even then you have to go through the trouble of cleaning, gutting, and de-boning your catch before you can eat it. If you want the experience go ahead, but make sure you pack enough food so that you can eat if you do not get so lucky with the hunting or fishing.
You need to plan on packing enough food for a good breakfast, a hearty lunch, some afternoon snacks, and an evening dinner. You need each of these portions for each person and for everyday that you plan on spending in nature.
Author Resource:-
Jack R. Landry is an accomplished expert in family preparedness and has been giving seminars for over 15 years. He recommends that everyone have on hand an Food Storage in case of any emergency or disaster.
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