Tim (from KetoSupplies) said our house must be looking like his warehouse… I'm actually pretty sure it was way more messy.
Itinerary Version | 9 |
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Itineray Date | 2021-05-22 |
Overcoming Supply Issues
I detailed in Supplies Purchasing the current difficulties getting our supplies requirements filled. Thankfully, we were able to fill the gaps in what Campers Pantry could supply through Various Camping Stores, though it made a mess of the spreadsheet… and for many of the recipes I ended up tweaking them to make full use of what was actually available.
Repackaging
We don't take the meal packages with us on a hike: they are too bulky and weighty. We've bought a plastic sealer and use Freezer Bags (spreadsheet calculated we needed 1,960, but I've often managed to get two packages out of one freezer bag) as the containers for the meals. Many of the items are packaged as a serving (soups, meals, etc.), and the other items are often packaged per food drop.
Breakfasts
We both have muesli for breakfast, to which milk powder is mixed in and bagged up into single serves. Mine is obviously Keto friendly.
Entrées
Our entrées are composed of Campers Pantry tuna lunches and hummus. Because the standard serve was more than we could manage on our (recent hike over Mt Solitary), I had the bright idea of having 3 different sizes over the hike's three thirds (thinking we'll most likely be more hungry as the hike progresses).
Tuna lunches
- First Third (x11)
- Middle Third (x19)
- Last Third (x9)
Hummus (over the whole hike)
- Hummus (x10)
The Total 49 entrées removed 664.76 gm (557.46 [tuna] and 107.3 [hummus]) and took 1.91 hours.
Soups
Sandi's Soups
We use Backcountry for Sandi's soups, which we also did on the Australian Alps Walking Track as well. I've only been able to source two of the three soup flavours, Mushroom and Potato and Chicken and Corn, so Sandi (who in my opinion is a little too addicted to variety), will have to cope with the reduced selection.
Sandi's 63 x 60 gm bags removed 705.89 gm of packaging and took 0.53 hours.
Perry's Soups
Because of my Keto diet, I compile my own soups (three different recipes) using the following ingredients:
- NutraDry Bone Broth
- NutraDry Vegetable Powders (Spinach, Cauliflower and Kale)
- Forest Super Foods Australian Greens
- MCT Powder [KetoSupplies]
- Collagen
- Lupin Soup [KetoSupplies]
Obviously there is no weight saving here as there is no individual packaging removed, but I mixed and bagged up 60 x 90 gm bags over 1.75 hours.
Main Meals
All our main meals for this hike come from Campers Pantry (which is a first for us), and on the couple of 'test' hikes with them, we've been impressed with the size and quality. As mentioned previously, there have been supply issues, but we've managed to scrape together the following meals:
- Meat Meals: 51
- Moroccan Pork: 3
- Lamb Casserole: 10
- Spaghetti Bolognese:11
- Tuna Mornay: 7
- Beef & Black Bean: 10
- Beef Teriyaki: 10
- Vegetarian Meals: 9
- Cauliflower & Pea Dahl: 3
- Balti Vegetable Curry: 6
The total 60 meals removed 964.4 gm of packaging and took 2.53 hours.
Desserts
Sandi's Desserts
Sandi is having a mixture of Backcountry and Campers Pantry desserts.
- Backcountry
- Apple Pie (x10)
- Apricot Crumble (x10)
- Chocolate Brownie (x12)
- Carrot Cake (x14)
- Berry Cheesecake (x6)
- Camper Pantry
- Cinnamon Rice (x3)
- Vermicelli Pudding (x3)
- Rice & Apple (x2)
The total of 58 deserts removed 605.53 gm of packaging and took 1.89 hours.
Perry's Desserts
Because of my Keto Diet, my desserts mainly consist of a Keto Bar, Cookie or chocolate, which are not repackaged.
Scroggin
Sandi's Scroggin
Back before Keto, I used to say I made the World's Best Scroggin… and although that's not actually verifiable, it was pretty nice. Since Keto, Sandi's been making her own, and generally not as happy with it – so I've gone back to a recipe more like what we had on the Alpine, so I'm hoping Sandi will be happy with it.
Perry's Scroggin
Because of Keto, my scroggin is basically mixed roasted nuts. The Royal Nut Company make a great product, to which I've added their CocoNut blend.
Homemade Keto Bars
Originally, I was somewhat daunted by the cost of the Keto Bars I was purchasing (they really seem to have us over a barrel, and use it to good effect on our wallets), so I investigated making our own bars and tested their longevity.
Two bars made it through: Chewy Nut Bar and Chewy Protein Bars, which I've used as my lunch bar.
4 x 16 bar batches were made (about 3 hours in cooking time, thanks Sandi ), and cutting and packaging took another hour.
Other Items
- Loaded Coffee: 14 packets took 0.81 hours
- Hot Chocolate: 14 packets took 0.51 hours
- Electrolytes: 28 bags took 1.35 hours
Summary
All up, this exercise has taken well over 30 hours, but has removed 3.2 kg in unnecessary packaging. Not that all that 3.2 kg would have been in one place at the same time, but without the packaging it makes packing smaller much easier and reduces the amount of rubbish we generate during the hike.
Type |
Bags |
Saving |
Time |
---|---|---|---|
Entrées |
49 |
0.66 kg |
1.91 hr |
Soups |
123 |
0.71 kg |
2.28 hr |
Main Meals |
60 |
0.96 kg |
2.53 hr |
Desserts |
58 |
0.61 kg |
1.89 hr |
Cheese |
21 |
0.22 kg |
0.98 hr |
Scroggin |
120 |
- |
3.73 hr |
Homemade Keto Bars |
64 |
- |
4.0 hr |
Coffee / Chocolate / Electrolytes |
56 |
- |
2.67 hr |
As a matter of interest, it also generated:
- 1.3 kg of rubbish
- 1.95 kg of recycling
Next TaskFood Drop Label Laminating
where we'll laminate the Food Drop labels, ready for the Food Drops.
Our Resources
The Friends of The Heysen Trail have a huge amount of resources available, which we have obviously availed ourselves of quite liberally. I'll be updating this as required…
Read more...