Camping

[ck1]

What food do you take camping when you are away from shops etc with no access to any kind of civilisation?

[Zacs-Master]

I usually take a cage full of live rabbits and kill / eat them as and when necessary. You will need some greens with it but hedgerow plants and mushrooms usually suffice.

[shoota]

Boil in the bag rice, Tesco tinned curries, Peperami, tinned new pots, tinned stewed steak, tinned sweetcorn, cheese and broccoli pasta packets.....
Anything that can be cooked in one pot on one burner.

[Zacs-Master]

And you never know whether squirrels carry Dutch elm disease.

[Buenchico]

It's many a long year since I've been camping but (since your post assumes basic facilities, with no refrigeration available and no shops to buy fresh food from), it has to come down largely to tinned or dried products.

I actually quite like some of the 'Vesta' range. (Yes, I know that they're rubbish really but I've usually got some at home as 'comfort food'!). They're easy to prepare at a campsite and (for me) quite tasty. (The instructions include melting a *** of butter in a frying pan but that's easily replaced by some cooking oil).

Then it's down to canned stews, baked beans with sausages, etc. Such meals can be served simply with a few slices of bread. (While it would be nice to have some lovely fresh 'proper' bread, supermarket sliced loaves last far longer, so that's what I'd take with me).

Tea and coffee can be served with UHT milk (which keeps for a day or two after opening, even without refrigeration).

However, let's be honest here. If I was looking for a campsite these days (I'm 61) I'd want it to be very close to a pub anyway!

[Buenchico]

Ooh! It seems that you can't say k-n-o-b on AB!

[Sparkles62]

Zacs, be sure to check if anybody in your group has any allergies, you can't be too careful, squirrels may contain nuts.

[shoota]

Take girl squirrels....

[sandyRoe]

Don't know about that. ^ Even something that was in contact with nuts can be hazardous to some peoples health.
Young girl squirrels, maybe?

[shoota]

Not a lot of meat on them babies SR.

[andy-hughes]

Why does anyone camp?

It's living in conditions that would be forced on us in the aftermath of a nuclear war - except it's voluntary.

The idea of eating and sleeping so close to other people, in third-world conditions seems utterly pointless to me. Sharing showers and toilets with complete strangers? Cooking over an open fire? Sleeping on the ground with other people grunting and snoring and trumping all around you?

WHY?

[sandyRoe]

I think that may be the best question I've ever seen on AB. ^

[Buenchico]

Andy obviously needs to buy a new dictionary. It seems that the word 'impecunious' isn't in the one he's got ;-)

[ChillDoubt]

andy,
Most of what you're describing is Glastonbury, not a night near a lake in N. Wales with another person in a 4 man tent with an airbed, with no light pollution as you marvel at a starry sky, in awe at your own insignificance.........

[andy-hughes]

Buenchico - "Andy obviously needs to buy a new dictionary. It seems that the word 'impecunious' isn't in the one he's got ;-)"

Sorry - you've lost me - ?

[Buenchico]

I was simply suggesting, Andy, that the reason that many people go camping is simply that they can't afford any other type of holiday. If someone has been stuck on the 15th floor of a tower block all year, with several screaming young kids and the area plagued by noisy neighbours and drug dealers, even the most basic of campsites can provide a much-welcomed break.

[Sparkles62]

Its a very enjoyable way to spend your holiday Andy, you would have to try it to experience the friendliness that you are met with from your fellow campers.
You only have to turn up at a camp site late at night or in the rain to find out how friendly everybody is, as they pitch in and help, make you a cuppa etc.
Sitting outside your tent at night looking at the stars, watching the space station go over, no light pollution, amazing.
You don't have to cook on a camp fire or sleep on the floor, camping is very civilised these days.

[sandyRoe]

Camping being a cheap holiday. Better than nothing for the impecunious? The few times I went was when I was a young teenager. It seemed freezing at night even in the middle of summer, and a diet of tins of beans made you pine for home cooking.

[shoota]

Especially if it's a naturist campsite.

[andy-hughes]

Thanks for your responses, and the valid points made.

Let me narrow down my point of reference to festivals.

I attend festivals regularly as a writer, and I always stay in hotels or b'n'b's nearby - for the reasons stated.

So - why would anyone find it enjoyable to camp at a festival, and I know the majority do - but it just seems a dreadful way to exist for three or four days when you don't have to.