Fruit Fix

[mumbles mcgee]

I l.o.v.e. fruit & am nervous about being able to get my fruit fix on the trail for 5 months. Obviously real fruit won't be my best option (I'll be doing close to 1/2 mail drops, don't try to talk me out of it). How does everybody else deal with this issue? Here's my best thought on the issue thus far..

-I'm thinking of creating an uber fruity trail mix. Not your grandmas mix though with the standards dried papaya and pineapple. My base is going to be Trix cereal and jelly beans, the rest I haven't figured out yet. Any ideas on some good additions to it?

-I'll probably get some freeze dried fruit in bulk to add to granola mixes/pancakes etc.

Also - does anybody know of good, thick fruit/puree bars (not fruit leather, it's too wimpy & not satisfying enough) that can be found at a reasonable cost? The less junk in it the better.

I know raisins and craisins are a good way to add fruit to your diet as well, but truthfully I'm not a huge fan. I don't dislike them, they just don't hit the spot for me.

Thanks :)

[white_russian]

Just pick up some fruit at the grocery store when you are in town. Just because you are doing mail drops doesn't mean you can't go into the grocery store. Just throw the apples and oranges in your pack, it doesn't have to be dehydrated everything.

[RollingStone]

Regarding your trail mix... Trix Cereal and Jelly Beans are nothing but simple sugars mainly - Make sure you throw some fatty nuts in there to balance that.

Im in agreement with the other poster.. just grab some fruit from the grocery store when in town. Apples and oranges will carry well, and since bananas are also sold by the pound, its easy to throw a couple of those in your top pouch for the first day out.

We've also been known to take a cantaloupe out the after a town stop. That hits the spot on a warm day.

[Dogwood]

On shorter sections between resupplying(I don't want to haul heavy fruit for too long or too far) and when a store is available when you are in town no reason why you can't take some fruit to the trail. I do it. Small apples, oranges, Haas avocados are easy, but I usually look for fruit that can almost totally be eaten(little or no waste) and travels well. Supplement that w/ dried, freeze dried fruits, fruit bars, fruit leather/sticks(little LIKE fruit rollups). Dried - Goji beries, pineapple, mango, banana(Trader Joes has a cheap dried flattened banana I find delich), mulberries(nutritious, Kokopelli brand has a pricey dried mulberry but so good for you), Barlett Pears(Trader Joes), apricots, dates, coconut are some of my more often selected dried choices. Freeze dried - mangos, strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, bananas, apples. The freeze dried fruits, although light wt, are pricey as well as goji berries. Some more if you look around and have some money to splurge as a treat, only occassionaly.

[Bronk]

One of my fondest memories of the trail is the produce stand I found in Elk Park, NC. I bought a canteloupe and some ears of corn and two 24 ounce silver bullets and hiked them a few miles in...I put it all in the creek to keep it cold while I took a nap, then woke up at dusk to start a fire...I ate the canteloupe while the ears of corn roasted in theirs husks on the fire.

[nitewalker]

i recently mixed a batch of gorp and used the following ingredients....salted mixed nuts, reg m&ms, raisins, crasins, granola, shreded coconut and extra walnuts. on occasion i also throw in some dried apricots to top it off. the mix is what i like so your taste buds may need something a tad different. to each their own..

taking fresh fruit on the trail is real easy. the only problem that most people have with fruit is the weight. the weight never bothered me one bit. no trash with fresh fruit is one of the benefits. just be sure not to leave your peels hanging around in plain view of anywhere. hear no evil, see no evil, thus speak no evil!!!

[Spirit Walker]

We eat a lot of dried fruit on the trail. We also make a point of buying OJ and bananas as soon as we hit town. The pretty much takes care of the craving.

[deity]

Check out the Stretch Island Fruit Company. (Fruit Leathers) If you are doing any mail drops, you can buy a case for about $13 and stick em into your drops..

[deity]

I l.o.v.e. fruit & am nervous about being able to get my fruit fix on the trail for 5 months. Obviously real fruit won't be my best option (I'll be doing close to 1/2 mail drops, don't try to talk me out of it). How does everybody else deal with this issue? Here's my best thought on the issue thus far..

-I'm thinking of creating an uber fruity trail mix. Not your grandmas mix though with the standards dried papaya and pineapple. My base is going to be Trix cereal and jelly beans, the rest I haven't figured out yet. Any ideas on some good additions to it?

-I'll probably get some freeze dried fruit in bulk to add to granola mixes/pancakes etc.

Also - does anybody know of good, thick fruit/puree bars (not fruit leather, it's too wimpy & not satisfying enough) that can be found at a reasonable cost? The less junk in it the better.

I know raisins and craisins are a good way to add fruit to your diet as well, but truthfully I'm not a huge fan. I don't dislike them, they just don't hit the spot for me.

Thanks :)


Ok--not fruit leather. But they do make other things too. Organic (if that matters to you) and tasty.

[garlic08]

Regarding your trail mix... Trix Cereal and Jelly Beans are nothing but simple sugars mainly - Make sure you throw some fatty nuts in there to balance that.

Im in agreement with the other poster.. just grab some fruit from the grocery store when in town. Apples and oranges will carry well, and since bananas are also sold by the pound, its easy to throw a couple of those in your top pouch for the first day out.

We've also been known to take a cantaloupe out the after a town stop. That hits the spot on a warm day.

Ditto all this.

Raisins are readily available and your tastes change on the trail. Maybe you'll enjoy them more. For instance, I never eat peanut butter at home, but I love it on the trail. Raisins have replaced candy for me on the trail. Fig Newtons are pretty good, too.

[Doctari]

Get to the store early. Naturally the best time would be just after a delivery, but I don't know how you would find that out. The smaller the store, the more important timing is. I got to one (don't remember which) 1 hr after opening, 5 hikers had been ahead of me, yea, no fruit left. Says the owner "I had a big basket of fruit less than an hour ago" I saw the basket, if it was full, 5 hikers cleaned out a 1/2 bushel of apples & oranges. :p Being a section hiker, I wasn't too bummed out about it. :cool:

That said, usually I have had no problems finding fruit, at least the in season stuff. Got 2 beautiful Bananas at Neils gap in 98, then left them on the hostel counter when I left. I remembered them at Bull gap, but didn't have the motivation to go back for them. :eek:

[Snowleopard]

Dried apples, apricots, prunes, and peaches are good. Freeze dried are better but expensive. Freeze dried strawberries are especially good mixed with granola, but $$$$.

If you're doing mail drops anyway, buy dried and freeze dried in bulk and include in your mail drops. If your thru isn't this summer then do your own drying over the summer and fall. Check out threads on dehydrating on this forum.

[mumbles mcgee]

wow. lots of fresh fruit taken out on the trail. I'm allergic to apples which seems to be the easiest and most obvious fruit to pack out with you so that's a big bummer for me. I'll definitely have to drink a OJ when in town, but real oranges seem kind of bulky to me - especially considering the amount of waste to pack out. I'm only carrying a 44L (Osprey Talon) pack so packing fresh fruit like cantaloupe won't work too well although I'm sure I'll do it every now and again. Coconut flakes seem like a fantastic addition to GORP.

Any more ideas on more compact berry flavored fruity foods to take? Has anybody taken fresh kiwi on the trail? Do they survive? Seems like it will have relatively little waste compared to a banana or orange peel and take up less space. Is there anybody who takes canned fruit?

[white_russian]

... but real oranges seem kind of bulky to me - especially considering the amount of waste to pack out.
You don't need to pack out the orange peels on the AT unless you are above treeline. Just treat the peels as you would your poop and dispose of them discreetly.

[LaurieAnn]

Oranges also carry much better than apples over a week or more. If you are mailing packages anyway, dried fruits like cantaloupe, dates and such can be a real treat. We also take some great date-based trail bars and fruity trail cookies to get that fruit fix. Canned peaches and such dehydrate much better than fresh. We don't carry cans into the backcountry because where we hike there are can and bottle bans.

I do take bananas and kiwi or other easily bruised fruit but only on shorter trips because I keep them in a banana or fruit guard and that's extra weight you probably wouldn't want on a thru.

http://www.bananaguard.com/

[Johnny Appleseed]

I will carry ANYTHING for one day past a resupply point. I love it when you hike for 5 hours get on top of some mtn. and pull up to a shelter and you pull out a big pizza or sandwich and everyone just stares at you. Eat heavy food first. And by midday of the next day it had better be eaten, which never was an issue due to hunger.

I carried out a two pound can of ravioli, huge. I thought I could never eat it all so I offered some to another hiker. Huge mistake as I could have eaten it all. But I would carry that out and never look back. Spoil yourself silly.

[Johnny Appleseed]

When I got to town I would buy 1/4 gallon of milk. I'd eat all I could and then drink the milk last. It was a gut bomb, but I wanted more calories and the only thing I could think of was to drink them.

[Spokes]

I will carry ANYTHING for one day past a resupply point. I love it when you hike for 5 hours get on top of some mtn. and pull up to a shelter and you pull out a big pizza or sandwich and everyone just stares at you. Eat heavy food first. And by midday of the next day it had better be eaten, which never was an issue due to hunger.

I carried out a two pound can of ravioli, huge. I thought I could never eat it all so I offered some to another hiker. Huge mistake as I could have eaten it all. But I would carry that out and never look back. Spoil yourself silly.


So true! I never knew people could stare or salivate so much. Only Pavlov's dogs could drool more.........

[The Will]

Any more ideas on more compact berry flavored fruity foods to take? Has anybody taken fresh kiwi on the trail? Do they survive? Seems like it will have relatively little waste compared to a banana or orange peel and take up less space. Is there anybody who takes canned fruit.

Also - does anybody know of good, thick fruit/puree bars (not fruit leather, it's too wimpy & not satisfying enough) that can be found at a reasonable cost? The less junk in it the better.



Target sells a thick fruit bar that meets your description except for the "reasonable cost" part. They are a great addendum to breakfast. I have packed kiwis before. You have to be careful how and where in your pack you place them. I make it a point to eat the kiwis within my first 2 days out. Manderins pack well. Baby Fuji apples are great and pack well. I've taken nectarines, but again, these are eaten early.

I'm pretty sensitive when it comes to backcountry ethics, but if I can get my apple core or orange peelings out of site I don't have a problem not packing them out. (Someone who is a strict "pack-it-in, pack-it-out" person could call me on this and I would in many cases agree with them.)

Bare in mind orange peels take two years to degrade.

[Connie]

Just Tomatoes, Etc.! (http://www.justtomatoes.com/) has freeze-dried raspberries and blackberries and fruit powders for a cool drink. I like to eat a small handful of the raspberries.

I stock up on any dried fruit I happen to see. I found thin sliced dried pears and thin-sliced white peaches recently at Trader Joe's. I like golden raisins. Those and dried cherries, either sour cherries or bing cherries are a treat.

I haven't seen thick fruit bars. I will search Target.

[white_russian]

Bare in mind orange peels take two years to degrade.
A quick run through google says 6 months, not 2 years.

[DrRichardCranium]

I would pack out orange peels & of course, other trash.

But I confess there have been times where I ate an apple during a hike, & didn't want to bother taking off my pack to put the wet sloppy core away. Instead I just nibbled the core down to get it as small as possible, then threw it into the woods.

Am I going to hell?

[Tipi Walter]

Connie's right about the JustTomatoes.com products, I've made several orders last year and I'm now waiting on another order for their dried grapes--not raisins--but very tasty red grapes dried into round little globes. Very good!

Another thing to consider are dates--dates come in about 40 varieties and you could probably live on dates. They are heavy, but not as heavy as fresh fruit like apples and pears, and a couple ziploc bags of dates goes a long way. The store bought dates are generally boring and not all that good, so you'll have to do an online search and see what's out there.

I just got 11 lbs of fresh whole pecans from Sunnyland Farms and took out a bag with a bag of dates and the two are a perfect combination.

[sarbar]

On peels and cores - it depends on where one leaves the product. A rainy forest will decompose it faster than a dryer area.

If in alpine, sub alpine, dessert, tundra, etc leaving ANYTHING behind is a no-no. It is not going to decompose fast, if at all. It becomes litter and an eyesore. In the deep forest? Not so bad...but still - are we that lazy? Is introducing seeds good? It isn't proper for animals as well.

[zelph]

These are dual purpose:;)

Brookside Dark Chocolate Covered Pomegranates 2lb Bag (http://www.amazon.com/Brookside-Dark-Chocolate-Covered-Pomegranates/dp/B001716KHS)

[Johnny Appleseed]

sensitive food(bakery, fruit, leftovers from a restaurant) should not be put in the pack. If by chance juice or even crumbs fall in your bag mice will want to create a hole to get at them.

I take a doubled over wal-mart bag and strap the to the back of my backpack. Tied into some straps that came w/ my pack. I then add more rope over the top half of the bag to stop wobble and the sound of plastic moving. Then that also doubles as my trash bag. I have this bag on my pack 100% of the time. Ghetto looking possibly, but I'm a utility kinda guy.