_dry Camps Recipes

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• If you're not a duck hunter or married to a duck hunter, just skip this recipe. Personally, I've never tried to cook a coot, primarily because I've never even shot at an "Ivory Billed Mallard". Remember, this is the guy who will eat every thing except grits and green lima beans. In this modern age, it seems to me, too many people blame events in their childhood for the mistakes or failures they make as adults. Some rightly so, but I can't help but feel a lot of it is over done!So where is all this leading, you ask yourself? Yup! you guessed it, my childhood. Since my dad first took me duck hunting at age three, the list of things I've done in life longer than I've duck hunted is fairly short. Memories of those first duck hunts are still vivid. Back in that distant past, I learned that the preferred duck of those who wait at home while others duck hunt, to be mallards. Those of the green headed variety! My dad, being a pretty fair hand with a shotgun, seldom got skunked in those days. He'd been there before, but it was a new experience for me, just four years old. About the only thing flying in the marsh that day were coots, which Dad had several different adjectives to describe. I didn't understand why dad didn't shoot them as they patterned by. At that time I obviously thought-ducks are ducks! Wrong! How long I pestered Dad to shoot them, I can't remember. What I do remember is him saying, "Mother didn't like any kind of ducks except those with green heads" and it wouldn't be very smart to take something home she didn't like. Though I was just four years old, that part I understood! I'm sure Dad first passed this recipe on that day. Over the years, Dad repeated this recipe so many times I've memorized it without ever having cooked it.A Back Country Guide to Outdoor Cooking Spiced with Tall Tales - Fowl & Fish

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• Keeping fresh produce in camp requires some planning, especially if you have to plan for salad hounds. Consider taking cabbage and making coleslaw instead of lettuce. The cabbage will keep several times longer than lettuce. A couple of years ago we shredded cabbage for coleslaw and packed it in resealable bags for a river trip. Squeeze as much air out as possible before you seal it. On day five we popped open the bags and made the dressing and had fresh slaw in less than ten minutes. If soups or stews are on your menu, throw in a few turnips and parsnips. Like potatoes, carrots, and onions they will keep fresh in a cooler or pack box for several days without ice. If you don't grow a garden, stop if you can at the local farmers' market on your way out of town on a summer trip. Farm fresh veggies taste better and are better for you. I try to keep canned veggies to a minimum just to save weight in my garbage sack. Also taking fresh veggies instead of frozen ones will reduce the amount of money you spend on ice. Depending on how long your trip is, many fresh veggies can be peeled, sliced, diced, etc., at home, which also saves preparation time in camp and reduces your garbage to bring out.Spiced with More Tall Tales - Vegetables and Salads

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• It doesn't matter whether you backpack or rough it in the luxury of a $100,000.00 RV, water and its availability impacts every camping trip. It's one thing to watch news reports about water shortages somewhere in the country but it hits home when you pull into your favorite campground late at night to see a sign at the entrance which reads "No Potable Water" or worse yet, "No Water Available"! It's impossible to plan for every eventuality but without water just about everything grinds to a halt.When you're loading up before the trip, take as much water as practical given space and weight considerations. At the very least invest in two or three collapsible water jugs. If you find yourself in a campground without water you can at least backtrack to a place where water is available.If camping where there is no water, you're limited by the capacity of your RV's water tank or how many water jugs you hauled from home. In these instances water conservation becomes a concern for everyone in camp! Without becoming anal retentive there are lots of things you can do to cut water consumption. The most important is to simply make everyone aware of the situation. As an added incentive, anyone caught 'wasting' water gets assigned to make the next trip back down the road for more water!Here are strategies I've used over the years to conserve water. Unless I'm cooking for a large group I use one meal's rinse water for the next meal's wash water. Heat one basin of water for everyone to wash up with before supper. You can also take the last of the morning's coffee and rinse off the breakfast dishes. That evening when you get back to camp wipe them with a moistened dishcloth to which you've added a couple of drops of dish soap. Rinse them in the water you heat up for hand washing and they're ready for supper. Even in cooking you can use the same water for two things. Say for instance you're having pasta and steamed broccoli. Drain the pasta into another pot and use the same water for steaming your broccoli. A little common sense will do a lot to stretch your water.Other steps you can take include boiling, filtering and/or purifying non-potable water. Check large sporting goods stores and outdoor catalog outlets to locate water filters. The extra money that a filter costs and the effort required to filter enough water for drinking, cooking, and brushing your teeth is worth it!I grew up drinking out of springs and live streams. When Dad and I fished our favorite "cricks" in SE Idaho, we regularly quenched our thirst literally at our feet. Our only concern was getting upstream beyond where domestic livestock grazed! Unfortunately water quality goes down when man, in the name of progress, intensifies his use of the land and the water. In many cases the water may appear to be of the same quality as when Dad and I drank it years ago, but of course it's the little critters that you can't see in the water which are the problem. Before you head for the woods, stop at the drugstore and pick up a small bottle of iodine from the pharmacist. Add two drops of iodine per quart of water and let set overnight before drinking. If you have enough water from home or enough filtered water for drinking, treat non-potable water with iodine for dish washing and other cleanup chores.Thinking ahead and attempting to plan for the unexpected takes the worry out of the water problem!Spiced with More Tall Tales - Vegetables and Salads