🏕 a love letter to camp cooking
feeding our souls just as much as our bodies
Howdy folks,
Hope you’re enjoying the start to your summer. This is a quick one about something I love dearly, and serves as a broader reminder I believe we can all benefit from. Let’s dive in.
I’m lucky to have two camping trips under my belt so far this season — one with my little girls and one with a couple close friends. Each trip was more uplifting than anticipated. Man is it great to be outside.
One part of camping I’ve learned to love more and more is the preparation. It’s quite rewarding to have your storage system dialed in, your checklists in order, and an optimized packing strategy that allows you to bring along those delightful perishables you wouldn’t have thought possible.
While I was sitting around the campfire with friends, we opened up a cookbook I brought along, The Pendleton Field Guide to Campfire Cooking.
We were so blown away with how well the foreword captured the experience we were literally having in that moment, we passed it around for all to read.
I’ve been thinking of that piece since I returned and I wanted to share a part of that. Here it is… (bold emphasis mine):
The best thing about campfire cooking is the connections we make. Gather around a fire with friends and family, set in nature’s landscapes, we tap into the great outdoors with all five senses. These opportunities remind us to be present and appreciate the land for all it offers.
Presence is a lifelong study with many teachers, made evident by breathtaking scenery, fresh air, clear water, and a wild abundance of flora and fauna. Camping is an exercise in finding balance. These connections to our world and our campmates offer us a break from everyday stressors and annoyances, bringing us back into the moment and offering peace in our existence without all the extra stuff. Connecting with presence out there — soaking up the visuals, the scents, the sounds — helps us find peace when we’re not out there.
For us, presence is both the process and the goal of camping: It is almost impossible to camp without some constant acknowledgement of the moment. From the detailed preparation of the trip to setting up camp just right to planning and preparing meals, the rituals and rhythms of camping connect us to the present, giving us ample opportunities to create the moments we take with us as memories when we pack out again.
Camping is elemental, peeling away the layers of modern living to help us enjoy the simplest of practices for exactly what they are. In it, we exercise our need for freedom, taking ourselves outside of cities, schedules, and screens. Out there, the only real schedule we’re bound to is the sun’s path across the sky. Our to-do lists contain only camp chores, recreation, leisure, meals, and snacks. With little pressure to do anything other than be present, we’re able to sit around the campfire — wrapped in warm wool blankets — mesmerized by a chorus of smoke, crackles, and sparks. We keenly equip ourselves with necessities and practical comforts, balancing our wants and needs within our cargo space. We make any campsite our home for the time being. We sleep deeply and rise early. We run, play, hike, swim, labor, and rest. And, boy, do we eat. We cook as much to entertain ourselves as to fill our bellies and warm our hearts.
I think this describes perfectly what many of us so badly need in today’s overly connected and thus deeply disconnected world. To slow down and experience the depth and breadth of each moment, every moment all around us, outside of heads.
I know camping isn’t for everyone (Yet, i’d argue. You just need the right crew and setting), but I hope you enjoy yourself outdoors this summer—around a fire, with friends and family, or in solitude—and experience each of those five senses as profoundly as you are capable.
Here are a few highlights from the trip (and no, sorry, I won’t tell where it is 🤐)
I didn’t capture a pic, but another big time highlight was definitely a peach cobbler in the dutch oven inspired by Old Time Hawkey’s peach crisp. Topped with hand shaken mason jar whipped cream, walnuts and maple syrup, was a real treat.
What are some of your favorite outdoor meals? Where you heading this season?
Cheers to a great summer y’all!
