If I had begun my preparations for our three-week journey a month before departure, I may not have felt fully equipped. Of course, real life intruded and my intended two-week prep dwindled to four days. My goal was to produce GAPS food provisions for our three-week-long, 3,800-mile driving/camping journey. [Hubby corrected my teaser headline of two weeks ago..."It wasn't 3,400 miles, it was 3,800." I suggested the difference was inconsequential, to which he replied, "No way...I drove it, it counts!" And so it does!] Despite a few miscalculations and short cuts, the dietary aspects of our journey proved to be successful.
Our trek involved traveling across multiple states to visit family and friends. We drove our beast of a pickup truck, pulling our camper...our home on the road. The food plan was based upon the assumption that we would need to cook/provide all our own meals. [It was a serendipitous blessing, however, to find family and friends had made provision to feed our GAPS family, which alleviated the burden of my need to cook every meal from scratch while on the road.] This was our first trip in the camper, and its existence made this road trip much easier, especially for the numerous bathroom and meal stops required by our crew. I had outfitted the camper with (almost) all the food necessary to keep us on protocol while away from home; the convenience factor of pulling over and firing up a cookstove was invaluable.
The camper is equipped with two small refrigerators and freezers, but they are inoperable while the camper is moving. They work well as coolers, though, providing ample cold storage space when packed with frozen items. The week before our departure, I roasted a turkey and a ham (both harvested from our organic pasture-based "homestead" this past fall). I cut off all the meat and froze it, then used the carcasses for stock, which I bottled and froze in half gallon canning jars. I made a batch of turkey soup and included it with the jarred stock supply. I packed six stock and soup jars, hoping they would sustain our minimal daily stock needs while away from home (they did, thanks to loved ones who prepared soups for us along the way). Once I had our stock supply squared away, I turned my attention to the other critical GAPS staple...our probiotic foods. I had prepared two half gallon jars of sauerkraut and four half gallon jars of raw goat-milk yogurt (the BEST yogurt I have ever eaten, let alone made, in my life...a future Radically Natural rave).
Other principal foods included eggs, olive oil, butter, sea salt and pepper (and other herbs/spices), coconut milk, raisins, dates, and a jar of raw honey (how could we live without our high-carb indulgences? LOL). The week before we left, I purchased multiple dozens of eggs to supplement the small stash I had saved from our laying hens (the ladies have been slacking here). Numerous packages of grass-fed beef (roasts, ground), salmon and pastured bacon accompanied the aforementioned frozen turkey and ham. I threw in a few cans of tuna, bottled a batch of mayonnaise, and packed a bag of onions and garlic heads. Some carrots, apples, cucumbers and frozen peas rounded out the stash. We weren't intending to leave civilization for three weeks, thus planned to procure organic produce as necessary.
In all, my endeavour to keep us on GAPS while traveling bore good fruit. The kitchen-on-the-go made all the difference, not to mention the kitchens made available to us through generous hospitality. Unlike hotel vacations or tent camping, house stays and campers provide real food facilities and the opportunity to pursue nourishment rather than off-protocol cheating. Next post, I plan to share recipes and rave about some new favorite culinary prep items. Until next time, be well and enjoy spring!
