Reducing food bulk...

[Jayboflavin04]

How do you folks pack your food for a 5-7 day hike. How do you repackage drinks, ramens, instant taters noodles and rice ect. Alot of these products have alot of dead space in the bag To reduce the bulk and size of your food bag. I have been experimenting with the ziplock, and reynolds vaccum bags. They seem to do ok until you put a powder in the bag. All being said I dont wanna end up with 455 zip lock backs in my pac, and 150cc of dead air space do to food.

[Mr HaHa]

How do you folks pack your food for a 5-7 day hike. How do you repackage drinks, ramens, instant taters noodles and rice ect. Alot of these products have alot of dead space in the bag To reduce the bulk and size of your food bag. I have been experimenting with the ziplock, and reynolds vaccum bags. They seem to do ok until you put a powder in the bag. All being said I dont wanna end up with 455 zip lock backs in my pac, and 150cc of dead air space do to food. If you use Mountain House or similar meals and also liptons etc. Take a pin and poke a series of holes in the pouches toward the top and roll the air out. No effect on quality of the food as it will be eaten within 4 or 5 days.

[mountain squid]

I usually repackage in quart size freezer bags. At meal time, I boil water and then add directly to freezer bag. Place it in a cozy, wait 15 minutes and then eat out of freezer bag. No pot to clean and then I have a trash bag for candy wrappers, etc.

See you on the trail,
mt squid

[Tinker]

Crush your Ramen noodles (or, better yet, bring angel hair pasta and leave the noodles at home). I personally don't like the salty taste of Ramen, so I haven't carried it in years. Crush cold cereals and repackage them into ziplocks. Squash Bagels or buy pita bread (I like bagels better myself).
Basically, if it can be crushed (especially pasta, it will cook a bit faster) crush it,
and if it can be squashed, squash it.

Powdered stuff? Repackage it into empty plastic spice containers, lemonade containers, screw top straight sided Nalgene jars (heavy). You are right - powders mess up the tracks on zip-lock bags.

[Jayboflavin04]

I think also when you begin pumping out air of the ziplock vaccum bags. The powder gets sucked into the "vacuum valve". I am still working on this one. I shoulf just spend the money and buy a cheapo vaccum sealer. Probably cheaper in the long run.

[Ramble~On]

I'll second. third or whatever number it's on the ziplock and pot cozy method.
I break pretty much all of my food down into ziplocks- I'll cut or tear the cooking instructions and place it in the bag. Ramen, cup o soup, liptons, stove top etc. You can open a Lipton and add the water to the package, add the powdered milk or squeeze Parkay etc and stir.
Reducing weight and bulk is pretty easily done by getting rid of all that pretty packaging. Someone already mentioned how easy it is to add the heated water to a ziplock, mix the contents, put in a cozy and then eat right from the bag -an empty ziplock that you can rinse and reuse (if you wanted to) weighs little.
- A hiking partner once thought I was a litterbug because when we returned from a trip I didn't have a garbage bag full or wrappers and stuff.
If you don't have wrappers and packaging to begin with won't have to carry the dead weight of garbage - One of the easiest places to cut weight and bulk is the food bag.

[Tinker]

I think also when you begin pumping out air of the ziplock vaccum bags. The powder gets sucked into the "vacuum valve". I am still working on this one. I shoulf just spend the money and buy a cheapo vaccum sealer. Probably cheaper in the long run.

Even worse, once you use the bag you might not be able to get it closed properly again. If you want to keep the weight down, you'd be better off packaging your powders in a twist-tie plastic bag, putting it into a zip-lock, then squeezing the extra air out of the ziplock. This will give you a double bag to minimize the possibility of leakage and allow you to use a zip-lock without worrying about the powder fouling the zipper.

[Jayboflavin04]

this is the kinda stuff I was thinking of! I thought I was overkilling alot of it, with double bagging. But it looks like freezer bagging is the easiest!

[sarbar]

Once I bag my food in freezer bags, I roll the bag tightly - pushing the air out as I roll. Then I seal the bag. I keep the bags rolled.

Think of it like rolling clothes to pack a suitcase ;-)

[Jayboflavin04]

Sabar I am gonna order your book, just give me some time. There is so much on my shopping list. But I guess i cant shop if I dont eat.

[garlic08]

As said above, some of the bulk comes from packaging. I think about packaging as much as possible, when shopping and packing. I try to get stuff in larger packages and repackage it into ziplocks. Instead of four packages of instant oatmeal (I like oats) or grits, I'll buy a large bulk box and put it into a gallon ziplock and dip out of that with my cup. If I have to buy small packages (like Idahoan potatoes), I'll empty them into a larger bag before I leave town.

Once I fit all the trash from a 160-mile hike into an empty peanut butter jar. Often I won't have any trash at all until my last day.

[kayak karl]

Even worse, once you use the bag you might not be able to get it closed properly again. If you want to keep the weight down, you'd be better off packaging your powders in a twist-tie plastic bag, putting it into a zip-lock, then squeezing the extra air out of the ziplock. This will give you a double bag to minimize the possibility of leakage and allow you to use a zip-lock without worrying about the powder fouling the zipper.
GREAT IDEA!! i always have powdered milk all over the place:)