View Full Version : vegan resupplies in town
backtrack213
03-03-2016, 10:10
Is it better to do maildrops or do the grocery stores tend to have what you need to get by? I'm mainly curious about dinner breakfast lunch and snacks are easy. Trying to figure out if i should have boxes prepared or just wing it.
Tipi Walter
03-03-2016, 10:19
A vegan diet is a difficult backpacking diet especially when thruhiking and staying on the trail and in towns. No dairy and no eggs limits your choices, especially at small food marts etc. If you have frequent access to big grocery stores along the way it's not all that hard to be vegan and resupply on the trail without the need for mail drops.
I've been a vegan on several of my last backpacking trips but I prepare all my food in advance with a home dehydrator. A big part of my backpacking diet is cooked organic brown rice and Amy's canned vegetarian chilis---all home dried and easily reconstituted in the field.
If you really want to get into it and have full control over your menu, get a big home dehydrator and start preparing all the food you will need for your hike. You will be busy. Box everything up and do mail drops. Problem with this plan is if you get sick and tired of the food you will be stuck with your future same-food drops.
Offshore
03-03-2016, 12:29
A vegan diet is a difficult backpacking diet especially when thruhiking and staying on the trail and in towns. No dairy and no eggs limits your choices, especially at small food marts etc. If you have frequent access to big grocery stores along the way it's not all that hard to be vegan and resupply on the trail without the need for mail drops.
I've been a vegan on several of my last backpacking trips but I prepare all my food in advance with a home dehydrator. A big part of my backpacking diet is cooked organic brown rice and Amy's canned vegetarian chilis---all home dried and easily reconstituted in the field.
If you really want to get into it and have full control over your menu, get a big home dehydrator and start preparing all the food you will need for your hike. You will be busy. Box everything up and do mail drops. Problem with this plan is if you get sick and tired of the food you will be stuck with your future same-food drops.
Do you vacuum seal your dehydrated food?
Is it better to do maildrops or do the grocery stores tend to have what you need to get by? I'm mainly curious about dinner breakfast lunch and snacks are easy. Trying to figure out if i should have boxes prepared or just wing it.
It depends on how you individually define your "need." I've food resupplied by buying along the way on shorter AT hikes with a vegetarian diet without great hassle by focusing on resupplying at larger grocery stores especially in the southeast. I too used to have the opinion that Vegan and vegetarian b-fast, lunch, and snacks are the most easiest but with some thought buying at large grocery stores Vegan/vegetarian dinners aren't that difficult either. And, yes I do understand the dietary desires of Vegans. When it comes to full resupplying of all goods including non food in a Vegan approach I can't advise though.
Tipi Walter
03-03-2016, 12:49
Do you vacuum seal your dehydrated food?
No, once off the drying trays I put the food in Hefty zip bags and store for the next trip. (Btw, I have found Hefty bags to stay closed better than Ziploc bags---just my experience). I would do the same for mail drops too as older dried foods have stayed fine in my pantry for 5 or 6 months w/o the need for vacuum sealing. But sealing couldn't hurt if you want to make the effort.
If you search for vegan, you'll find a few recent threads that might have some useful info.
It might be worth considering relaxing or completely doing away with off trail defined notions of B-fast, lunch, and dinner when hiking.
Tipi Walter
03-03-2016, 13:08
It might be worth considering relaxing or completely doing away with off trail defined notions of B-fast, lunch, and dinner when hiking.
This is fairly true, although it's a given to have a hot meal for dinner every day. My day 95% of the time starts with boiling up a pot of herbal tea with honey and getting a good mid-morning start to allow the sun to warm up camp (in the winter). On the trail I eat whatever is in my pockets or top pack lid, arranged in the morning before shove-off.
dudeijuststarted
03-03-2016, 13:17
You won't see vegetables until you hit New England. Maildrops for your staple foods or you will regret it, unless Clif comes out with a vegan bar and Dollar General gets exclusive rights to sell it.
No vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruit, Vegan pastas/grains, Vegan bars, etc in the southeast. Hmm?
garlic08
03-03-2016, 19:44
My vegan staples are readily available in groceries along the trail--rolled oats, nuts, dried fruit, corn and wheat tortillas, peanut butter, crackers, vegetables. I don't require much variety in my trail diet and I don't carry a stove. I was not religiously vegan on my AT hike, but it was a good guideline and was mostly possible.
bigcranky
03-03-2016, 21:35
No vegetables, nuts, seeds, fruit, Vegan pastas/grains, Vegan bars, etc in the southeast. Hmm?
Those are all readily available, but they all have added bacon, at least here in North Carolina. :)
To the OP, you might consider a hybrid of mailing some packages with homemade meals and other staples, and buying some things in town.
Vegan Packer
03-03-2016, 23:43
I don't have AT experience, but I have checked into this for future treks. My understanding is that it is very hard to eat well in the south, especially, and a lot of people rely on junk food that is not so good for your health.
I cook and dehydrate my own meals, and I really enjoy them, and I know what goes into them. For me, part of the enjoyment of the trail is having great meals along the way.
I have been testing what I make by leaving it out for several months, because even some dehydrated food can spoil, given enough time. So far, I have been successful.
As I continue to develop my menu plans, I have been posting them on my YouTube channel, "Vegan Packer." It is a new venture, but I will be adding more items as I make them for this coming season. (Make sure to subscribe, so that you can see the new items that I post.) Here is my first menu item:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcGVF6okjP8
VP, that turmeric hot drink is something I'm going to make. Sounds delish.
Vegan Packer
03-04-2016, 15:04
VP, that turmeric hot drink is something I'm going to make. Sounds delish.
Thanks. The next dish should post by about the middle of the month or so. More to come!
CamelMan
03-04-2016, 15:41
I managed to stay vegan between Springer and Fontana. I'm not sure what happens further north but it shouldn't be a huge deal if you're used to the daily hassle anyway.
If you read threads opining on AT hikers resupplying with a Vegan or vegetarian diet consider the date of the information. Organic food options have been hugely on the rise especially in large mainstream grocery store chains. Grocery stores like Krogers, Publix, Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Stop & Shop, Costco, Sams Club, Bi-Lo, and even Wally Worlds offer Organic, and with Organic, Vegan food selections. And, of course there's always Earthfare, Trader Joes, Wholefoods, health food markets, Farmer's Markets etc that carry Organic and likewise applicable Vegan selections. What I'm getting at it is not just a limited number of choosy infrequent large grocery stores that have a monopoly on offering Organic and Vegan anymore. Like it or not, personally applicable or not, with a Organic, vegetarian, gluten free, or Vegan, etc diet it is not hard to find the food you eat as it might have been even as little as 5 yrs ago for an AT thru-hiker.
Also, consider even though you may not find that huge grocery store with Vegan food at every possible AT resupply one could spend a day or two buying what you want at a location with one of these stores and mailing a few boxes ahead to where another large Vegan resupply grocery store is located with a bit of resupply research sourced from such materials as the AT Thu-Hiker Companion.
If you can successfully prepare for and execute an AT thru-hike it's not all that burdensome to maintain one of these specialized diets on the AT. What it takes is the willingness to succeed because the opps exist without much hassle.
Eat well, live well, and prosper.
Snowleopard
03-04-2016, 19:51
For a short hike, I'd probably dehydrate my own. That's hard on a thruhike without lots of mail drops. For a thruhike, I'd be very tempted to bring a small aluminum pressure cooker, such as a 1.5 liter Hawkins pressure cooker. This would let you cook up lentils, beans and brown rice much faster and with less fuel. It's a bit heavy for ultralight, but not too bad.
http://www.amazon.com/Hawkins-Classic-Aluminum-Pressure-Cooker/dp/B002MPQH58
From memory, it's a bit over 2 lb; if anybody is interested I could weigh mine. I use these in various sizes at home all the time. They do make
CamelMan
03-04-2016, 21:37
Also, consider even though you may not find that huge grocery store with Vegan food at every possible AT resupply
Just want to mention that vegan food is not special food. I can eat at any grocery store and I do so everyday, very frugally, in fact, with nothing more than potatoes, grains, beans, and vegetables. If I wanna spend serious dough I can construct a $50 salad using all sorts of fancy meat substitutes, organic micro greens, and expensive superfoods but that's all marketing and it's almost all bogus. Even the idea that proteins are not complete is a fallacy that began with John Robbins' book Diet for a New America (or whatever), which was written in the 1960s and which he himself has disavowed. All you have to do is go to www.cronometer.com (http://www.cronometer.com) and check it out. The only "incomplete" protein is something like gelatin and nobody eats boiled cartilage for the protein.
The biggest dietary problem is vegetables to add some nutrition to your usual starch-based sources like instant potatoes, rice, beans, etc. You can load up on these in town, or carry plenty of spices (my solution) and then just load up on the deficits in town. Paprika and other other spices are going to be excellent sources of nutrients. The thing is, meat eaters are not getting any of these nutrients anyway so no matter what you do, you'll still be better off because at least our food has nutrients. (You can survive on potatoes alone for months--the only problem is that there's too much weight loss so people are eventually forced to add empty calories). I have no objections to carrying something like EmergenC, for a short duration, but if you do, you can make some pine needle tea and go with that. Studies show that raisins are just as effective (and tastier) than sports gels, and dried fruit can usually be found anywhere. Nuts and seeds are really easy to find if you don't mind the fat.
I follow the McDougall diet, a strict subset of veganism, and I can eat at any grocery store, anywhere in the world, and that's what I did and continue to do on trails. 1-minute oats for breakfast, instant mashed potatoes (aka rocket fuel) for lunch, instant rice and/or lentils for dinner. Beans themselves aren't truly necessary, either, because the recent emphasis on "protein" is just a false-flag operation from the meat industry. Lentils do take "forever" to cook but if you're a cold sleeper, they help with thermogenesis, and that's why I save lentils for dinner. There's also nothing else to do around that time except cook and talk, so hey...
If you seriously want to use freeze dried or other foods you're gonna run into problems but none of those things are necessary or cost effective to eat a good trail diet. If you don't believe me, I would encourage you to ask on the forums at https://www.drmcdougall.com/forums/ and they'll corroborate my information. In fact, ask Jeff the RD. No tofu, tempeh, or TVP required, just go in to the store and get yourself some nice vegan food that you enjoy eating. :cool:
Other than that, I would take a high-dose B12 (they're all high-dose from what I see) once or twice a week, and take my shirt off once in a while to scare the ladies and make my own vitamin D, and I hope you get to Katahdin. Your biggest practical problem isn't going to be resupply, it's going to be getting and/or carrying enough calories after you've lost your own body fat. If you follow a naturally low fat vegan diet and exercise all day, fat will be melting off of you at alarming rates. It's the best fat camp ever. (And that's not just opinion, there's a recent study from the journal Cell Metabolism, conducted in a metabolic ward, that shows it's us who have a "metabolic advantage".)
"Is it better to do maildrops or do the grocery stores tend to have what you need to get by?"
As replied, I stated, "it depends on how you individually define your "need." Need referring to detailed diet specifics. Not all Vegans are the same or will all eat the same or are in the same place just as all vegetarians are not the same or eat the same or in the same place. For example, two of my close friends are hardcore across the board living a Vegan lifestyle. Unless they know 100% the food is Vegan or it's labeled Vegan they will pass. Mistakenly cooking 4 shrimp in one of her pans without first asking she three the pan away even after I diligently scrubbed it twice, While another Vegan friend is less stringent when it comes to food, wearing or using leather products, etc.
On this site, regardless of specific diets, I've been a big fan of recommending growing sprouts on trail in a small hemp bag, various nuts and nut butters, quinoa, various seeds and seed butters such as shelled hemp, amaranth, TEFF chia, flax, millet, poppy, sesame, sunflower, pumpkin(pepitas), Tahini, sunflower butter, dried beans, edadame(dried soy beans), chickpeas and chickpea products such as dried hummus, coconut and coconut products including dried coconut milk powder, leafy greens, fresh garlic, fresh ginger and turmeric rhizome, and bringing along some fresh produce that makes sense to bring in a hiking situation.
garlic08
03-04-2016, 22:26
Just want to mention that vegan food is not special food...
Exactly the way I see it. I'm glad you mentioned the instant potatoes, too--I forgot that in my list. And they work well with stoveless camping.
(And why is it that strangers get concerned about my protein intake when I turn down meat?)
I don't have AT experience, but I have checked into this for future treks. My understanding is that it is very hard to eat well in the south, especially, and a lot of people rely on junk food that is not so good for your health.
I cook and dehydrate my own meals, and I really enjoy them, and I know what goes into them. For me, part of the enjoyment of the trail is having great meals along the way.
I have been testing what I make by leaving it out for several months, because even some dehydrated food can spoil, given enough time. So far, I have been successful.
As I continue to develop my menu plans, I have been posting them on my YouTube channel, "Vegan Packer." It is a new venture, but I will be adding more items as I make them for this coming season. (Make sure to subscribe, so that you can see the new items that I post.) Here is my first menu item:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcGVF6okjP8
Your understanding of the South is wrong. It is not your fault. The misconception is contagious.
Don't know if it is just one East Texas chain, or a trend, but I have been in some very up to date well stocked convenience stores in the last year. Hikers who live on pop tarts, honey buns and Snickers are doing so by choice.
Kind, Lara and Boone Barrs are vegan, or close enough by trail standards.
You could even load up on vegan chow in Hot Springs, NC which is probably the most sparsely supplied trail town on the AT. Don't overlook Bluff Mountain Outfitters for vegan goodies.
Wayne
Sent from somewhere around here.
Best vegetarian meal on the AT I know is at Elmers place in Hot Springs. He prepared several meals Vegan for some other hikers too.
"(And why is it that strangers get concerned about my protein intake when I turn down meat?)"
Because you are not doing it their way as they were brain washed offering up too much diet unfamiliarity to digest. You are an alien Grey from the Vega Star System who is inevitably going to get sick, be listless, waste away, and die because you are a perceived hybrid mutant. It goes along with mutant behavior of not cooking any food on trail and being a Luddite.:D
Vegan Packer
03-05-2016, 00:34
http://veganontheat.blogspot.com/
CamelMan
03-05-2016, 02:11
Because you are not doing it their way as they were brain washed offering up too much diet unfamiliarity to digest. You are an alien Grey from the Vega Star System who is inevitably going to get sick, be listless, waste away, and die because you are a perceived hybrid mutant. It goes along with mutant behavior of not cooking any food on trail and being a Luddite.:D
I think we have our answer right here. Mystery solved. I think Scott Jurek is a great example of a weak vegan who could never hike the A.T. :D
garlic08
03-05-2016, 08:32
...Because you are not doing it their way as they were brain washed offering up too much diet unfamiliarity to digest. You are an alien Grey from the Vega Star System who is inevitably going to get sick, be listless, waste away, and die because you are a perceived hybrid mutant. It goes along with mutant behavior of not cooking any food on trail and being a Luddite.:D
Good!
Sometimes I can get the thought process going if I bring up the example of a race horse, a fast strong muscular vegan. (Non-AT folks don't get the Scott Jurek reference.) Not a completely apt comparison, but at least it illustrates that there are, in fact, non-meat protein sources.
How about the strength of our vegetarian cousins Silver Back Gorillas who obviously obtain all the protein they need without needing to eating other animals?... Or muscular, STRONG, fast, powerful vegetarians like Elephants, Rhinos, and Bison.
Ahh, the protein myth of needing to eat other animals. Often an argument to stubbornly defend one's way as THE WAY - THE ONLY WAY - which is certainly strongly promoted and influenced by the mega powerful animal food lobbies.
Ok, I will not ramble off tangent anymore.
Tipi Walter
03-05-2016, 16:55
How about the strength of our vegetarian cousins Silver Back Gorillas who obviously obtain all the protein they need without needing to eating other animals?... Or muscular, STRONG, fast, powerful vegetarians like Elephants, Rhinos, and Bison.
Ahh, the protein myth of needing to eat other animals. Often an argument to stubbornly defend one's way as THE WAY - THE ONLY WAY - which is certainly strongly promoted and influenced by the mega powerful animal food lobbies.
Ok, I will not ramble off tangent anymore.
Not to mention the 10 billion animals killed every year in America to fill our swollen bellies.
Jack Tarlin
03-05-2016, 17:51
The food selections and options in the South aren't as poor as some folks are saying. Large chains like Ingles and Kroger's have excellent natural and organic sections, also really good bakeries and produce sections.
Don't be afraid of thinking or worrying about refrigeration. For much of the trip, you'll never be more than 2-4 or 5 days between resupply points.....you'll eat stuff up before it goes bad. So by all means leave town with mixed greens, a head of broccoli or cauliflower, tomatoes, and especially avocados. And don't forget a good selection of spices.....lemon pepper is good on everything, so are red pepper flakes or curry powder.
Check out a company called "Fantastic Foods" which makes all kinds of healthy stuff great for the Trail, especially their instant Hummos. It works best with lemon juice and olive oil, but can also work with just water.
Oh, and check out a company on-line called Minimus. They sell dozens of things in tubes or tiny packets, like hot sauce, soy sauce, lemon juice, olive oil, you name it. These little packets weigh very little but can really add to to your meals.
Earth Fare and The Fresh Market, both based in North Carolina, can satisfy all of your vegan needs as long as you are not budget constrained.
Wayne
Sent from somewhere around here.