Traverse Portable Food – what a discovery!
Someone in my home community of Peterborough Ontario has a business making freeze dried meals for campers and hikers. This was a new business, so it made sense that we hadn’t heard about them. Someone I knew through work mentioned it because they had heard I liked camping.
This will provide a great addition to our meal planning.
Freeze-dried food is very different than dehydrated meals.
Freeze-dried food is quick to cook, saving on fuel. Light as a feather, making it easy to portage. Ready in no time, so there is no waiting when you are tired and hungry. AND it tastes exactly like it does at home.
Cheesecake
We decided to test out the cheesecake first – yes you read that right – freeze dried cheesecake.
We ate the cheesecake right out of the bag – no need to rehydrate. It tasted like real cheesecake. It had a unique texture that we all loved, but none of us could put our finger on – maybe sponge toffee?
Strawberries, Raspberries and Peaches
We tried fruit next. We ate the fruit right out of the bag and we rehydrated the pieces in milk. Topping for both cold and hot cereal, what a treat. Both ways were delicious. The freeze-dried fruit had that freshly picked taste and a melt in your mouth texture. When we put them in our cereal, within seconds they looked and tasted like fruit we would have at home. We purchased many packages of each for our trips and we also ordered some for friends.
Don’t tell the people at Traverse Portable Food – who seem like hardcore/healthy eating campers – but we put their fruit in wine. Excellent sangria. It was the end of the trip so we had to supplement with some dehydrated pineapple, but the freeze dried fruit was the best. Wait they freeze-dry candy, maybe they would be OK with sangria.
Shrimp and Seafood Sauce
Yes – shrimp on day 5 of a canoe trip. We sat under a tarp on a dark rainy afternoon eating shrimp. I think our paddling partners were keeping an eye out for bears, but the bears would have had a fight on their hands if they had tried to take this tasty treat away from me. Again, they were quick to rehydrate and so good.
As we ate we talked about a short weekend trip we did as a group years ago. One of the people we were with had made a seafood casserole. It sat in a cooler for two days, on a hot summer weekend. They had made the meal for all of us. There was a lot of whispering going on “What are we going to do?” “I can’t eat that.” “We will all be sick!” Finally the person who had made the meal said “We can’t eat this.” There was a collective sigh of relief before we all offered up our leftovers and ’emergency’ sidekick meals. In hindsight, that was before food barrels. What did they do with the cooler at night. hmmmm
Chicken Gumbo
We had all our meals planned when we discovered this great company, but we wanted to try one of their meals, so we ordered one serving of Chicken Gumbo and planned to share it for lunch. You just add boiling water to the bag and just like that, lunch is served. It was plenty for the two of us even following a morning of paddling. So yummy.
Next Year
I am so tempted to just order food from Traverse Portable Food, but I would miss some of our favorite meals. However, we will definitely be trying a few of these meal options next year. The turkey, stuffing, potatoes and gravy sounds intriguing. We are also planning to get the ice cream bars!!
Learning Something New
I had never thought about the difference between freeze drying and dehydrating so I did some research. I found this post helpful – freeze dried vs dehydrated foods.
Menu of Options
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Beef Stroganoff
Bang Bang Shrimp, with Rice and Broccoli
BBQ Spaghetti
Chicken Gumbo
Shrimp Cocktail with Marinara Sauce
Hummus (garlic)
Chicken Fajitas with Mexican Rice
The Holiday Dinner (Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy)
Herb & Garlic Cream Cheese
Philly Cheesesteak (for wraps)
Treats
Skittles- Regular
Sour Jolly Ranchers – Regular
Cinnamon Jell-O Bites
Eggnog Bites
Cheesecake Bites
Saltwater Taffy
Ice-cream Sandwich Bites – regular and/or peppermint
Fruit Rollup Bites
Contact:
To order or to learn more:
https://www.facebook.com/Traverse-Portable-Food-112403024415793