Freeze-dried camping food rarely evokes the sensations Andrew Zimmern gets from deep-fried scorpion-on-a-stick. But Lillian Hoodes, an avid backpacker and founder of TrailFork Camp Food, created freeze-dried camping food that is not only good for the taste buds, it’s good for the environment. All TrailFork meals are packaged in 100% home-compostable packaging*and are burnable in a campfire.
TrailFork Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal compostable and burnable packaging burning in a campfire
*You still gotta pack out your trash, people. Leave no Trace.
I had the opportunity to try TrailFork Peanut Butter Banana Oats and Pizza Casserole the week of Memorial Day on a sea kayaking trip to Lake Superior’s Apostle Islands.
The weather was typical spring on Lake Superior. It rained. When it wasn’t raining the menacing sky threatening to rain. The water temperature was around 38 degrees. The nights down to the high 30s and the mornings were damp chilly. Hot food in the form of oatmeal and casserole makes nature’s adverse elements bearable.
What I Loved
Peanut Butter Banana Oats: Apple-n-brown-sugar-flavored Quaker instant oatmeal it ain’t. It’s more like the steal-cut oats that I buy in bulk at my co-op, cook for 40 minutes and then add bananas, peanut butter, walnuts and cranberries.
In Minnesota, we call this concoction “paddler’s porridge”. The TrailFork version took less time to cook and filled me up. As for flavor, it’s oatmeal. On its own its bland. But mix in some almond or peanut butter and some honey and voila.
TrailFork PIzza Casserole compostable and burnable packaging burning in a campfire
Pizza Casserole: It’s not what comes on the menu at California Pizza Kitchen but when camping it’s as close as one can get.
Still, the veggie sausage, spiced marinara, red and green bell peppers, and the mozzarella cheese topping made a four-day sea kayaking trip on the Apostle Islands that much more of a slice of heaven.
Final Thoughts
Per instructions on the package, pour the freeze-dried food into a pot, add boiling water and cook or reconstitute accordingly.
Because TrailFork’s packaging is home-compostable and burnable in a campfire, it isn’t lined with foil to aid the reconstitution and cooking process. This is a culture shift from the days of Mountain House and Backpacker Pantry but one I have been waiting for and embraced.
A couple other notables of TrailFork that I have to call out.
- Woman-owned, woman-developed. Grit and Gear is a women-centric site and we promote women in the outdoors, women-run and led-companies, and women athletes. This is a product we can easily get behind because TrailFork hits all our hot buttons.
- Gives back 1% to the planet by donating to the Friends of the Cedar Mesa in Utah.
- Vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, and paleo friendly.
- Customizable. Tell them what you like and they’ll cook it up for you (for a fee).
