The Common Ground ~ Vegetarian Camping Au Naturale

With summer in full swing, the seasonal sights, smells, and temperatures are sure to entice us into all sorts of outdoor adventures. Here are some helpful suggestions on ways we can enjoy the wonders of our planet without compromise to its health or ours...

Vegetarian Camping Au Naturale

The vegetarian campfire can be a glorious one. Here are a variety of camp foods that are quick and easy, super tasty, lightweight, and inexpensive. Many of these recipes are also useful for quick meals at home, travel food, and for stocking in your emergency food pantry.

Just Add Water

Common Ground carries a variety of dehydrated, quick-cooking vegetable, bean, grain and noodle mixes that are ideal for camping. These convenience foods can easily be repackaged in baggies for the backpacker needing to conserve space. For those chilly nights, we carry a variety of healthy soup mixes and ramen noodles are always a hit. Our bulk section is also full of ideas for homemade soups – pastas, broth powders, dried vegetables and fruits, sea vegetables and herbs. Quick-cooking grains include: couscous (5 minutes), quinoa (12 minutes), quick brown rice (15 minutes), and bulgur (20 minutes). Instant hummus, black beans, and refried pinto beans are great served with crackers, chips or vegetables. TVP is easily rehydrated in seasoned water or broth to provide protein in a variety of camp meals. We also carry vegetarian burger and falafel dry mixes for frying up over the fire.

Around the Campfire Ahh, the beauty of two slices of bread and a fruit or savory filling grilled up over the fire… If you’ve never experienced a “camper pie”, do yourself and your camping friends a favor and pick up a few pie irons at the local camp supply. The filling possibilities are endless – just spray both sides of the pie iron with natural cooking spray, saddle with two slices of your favorite bread, and fill with a few tablespoonsful of fresh fruit sprinkled with sweetner, pie filling or preserves; chocolate, banana slices and peanut butter; hummus and tomato slices; pizza filling; or your favorite rehydrated stew and roast in hot coals for a few minutes per side. You won’t be sorry. And what's camping without hot chocolate? You can either make your own mix before leaving home by using cocoa, granulated sweetener, and powdered milk (soy or cow's), or take a prepared mix with you.

Snack & Trek Foods We stock a variety of packaged and bulk trail mixes with your favorite assortments of dried fruits, nuts, and seeds; fruit leathers; wasabi peas; sesame sticks; veggie jerkies; granolas and energy bars - all great snacks for camping and backpacking. A small tub of nut butter and a bag of crackers can provide extra energy for those strenuous hikes.

Breakfasts Camp breakfasts can be as simple as grabbing a few handfuls of granola or as elaborate as homemade pancakes made from dry ingredients mixed and packed before leaving home or a pancake mix and some powdered Ener-G egg replacer. Instant oatmeal or hot cereal cups are other easy breakfast ideas. If milk is a necessity for your cereal or cakes, you can pack powdered soymilk or cow’s milk. Couscous with dried fruit is another good hot cereal for breakfast; just add boiling water, cover and wait about five minutes.

Buzz Off!

And for those uninvited guests that so often show up to challenge the fun of being outside, we carry natural repellents and relief. DEET, a popular ingredient in many brand name bug sprays, is an effective repellent but is known to degrade the environment and have adverse effects on the brain, especially in developing fetuses and young children. Herbal and essential oil formulas can deter pests safely and naturally.

Selected Sources: "DEET-based Insect Repellents: Safety Implications for Children and Pregnant and Lactating Women" Gideon Koren, et al., Canadian Medical Association Journal, August 2003

Essential Oil Insect & Tick Repellent

from Taste for Life, July 2004

20 drops rose geranium or myrrh oil
3 drops each: citronella oil, rosemary or lavender oil, clove oil
1 T. bay rum or alcohol-based bay tincture
1 T. alcohol-based black walnut tincture
1 c. aloe vera juice

Mix all ingredients together and pour into a spray bottle. This spray will work for your animal camping companions too!