Bring Along: cucumbers, potatoes, onions, garlic, cabbage, carrots, lemons, oranges, corn-on-the-cob
Find Along the Trail: sorrel, dandelion, miners lettuce, chickweed, watercress, onions, wild rice, mint, chicory, plantain, fennel, anise, caraway, rose hips, asparagus, pine nuts
A small amount of fresh food is a treat when added to the usual dry diet of backpacking. The foods listed above keep well and go a long way. However, for snow camping, we do not recommend taking fresh foods along, except for oranges which you can eat the first day or so. When collecting wild foods, remember not to take the first ones you find (as there may not be any more), never to take more than you need, and to appreciate the plant for its life-giving energy.
Carrots, onions, and cabbage are good for stew and cucumbers for salad. Lemons, onions, and garlic have many possibilities and we recommend taking a lot of them along. Potatoes are good baked in the coals or fried for breakfast. Baking them at home first makes them quick-cooking to add to soup or salad, and lighter in weight to carry. Chopping up vegetables at home, maybe just odds and ends left in your refrigerator, combining them with cheese and herbs, and wrapping first in foil and then in a plastic bag makes a delicious supper to bake in the coals the first night in camp.