Drying Food for wilderness trips

This time of year some of us are getting on the trail and others are still preparing.  We all have our own way of rigging and getting ready for multi staged wilderness trips.  I have developed a system over the years that involves drying my own backpacking food.  About 2 months before I start a trip I dry my own beans, tofu jerkey, stirfrys, pasta sauces and any reasonable meal leftovers.

My dryer is a top motor stack that air drys 4-6 trays.

It also has clear plastic sheets that are for leathers and drying liquid things

On the PCT a hiker introduced me to dried yogurt.  .Yogurt will dry into a chewy leather, and you know how you will sometimes miss that creamy dairy flavor. This stuff is nirvana after a few days out.

Sauce leather before processing to powder

A big item for us is sauce.  You can only eat so much Knorr noodles before they all taste like crap.  I dry red Pasta Sauces, Strogonoff sauce, and Alfredo Sauce.  You dry them into leathers, then chop them into powder.  I keep sauces in big plastic jars and put them and some dry beans in my bounce box.  To reconstitute the sauces you spoon or pour some hot pasta water into the ziplock and knead (in a high altitude windy camp this process is therapeutic) By the time the pasta is ready the sauce is ready to toss with the hot noodles.

Stroganoff

Marinara

I also dry a lot of beans to add protein to Knorr sides.  I like black beans, lentils and white beans.  You can be gourmet and cook the beans then dry them.  I buy canned, rinse them, then dry them.

Missing fresh veggies?  The trick to fresh veggies for me is to dry frozen peas, corn and various mixes.  Anything that dries bigger than a pea should be processed in  food processor until the bits are smaller or they will take too long to rehydrate.  You can dry spinach fresh from the farmers market -- just put it on the tray and dry it.  It tastes so good out there.

I know a lot of you are stoveless.  I have dried and reconstituted cream cheese, Yogurt, fruit smoothies and lots else.  I make my own tofu jerky.

The best thing about drying your own food is it makes your house smell fantastic.  And you get the benefit of healthy diverse food on those long trails.

Happy Trails
Mamamoab