Sustainable Mountain Pantry – The Prep

There’s a quiet little piece of the Catskills we like to go on the 4th of July. Up in Grahamsville NY. Once you get there, there are no responsibilities whatsoever, you’re just there. (here)

Taking in the surroundings, enjoying the view, enjoying good company, and enjoying great, outdoor meals. Four of us went up together, and we’d be splitting our meals for 3 full days.

Alexa and I brought some pantry items from home, some essentials that would do well in the woods:

• Extra virgin olive oil – great for dressing & roasting
• Balsamic Vinegar – salads and sauces
• Salt
• Pepper
• Cumin – great grill spice
• Curry Powder – great grill spice
• Ground Coffee – an essential
• Sundried tomato spread
• Salted, crunchy, natural peanut butter

Some Equipment:

• Hard-sided cooler (beer)
• 2 soft-sided coolers
• 8″ Chef’s knife
• 6″ chef’s knife
• 2 cutting boards
• Oxo Kitchen Tongs (the GREATEST kitchen tool)
• 1 ice pack
• 2 2-Quart tupperware pitchers (for coffee)
• Coffee filter
• Cutlery (our old silverware set)
• Bamboo skewers for the grill
• Paper Plates (we forgot the reusable plastic plates)
• Cups
• Paper towels (Bounty is our trusted brand)

And some goodies Alexa made beforehand:

• Corn Salad
• Salmon Salad

Finally, we needed some groceries. For the occasion, the four of us made a pit-stop at Stew Leonard’s, in Yonkers off I-87. They’ve been around since the ’60′s and have made grocery shopping into a real experience, with a focus on whole, farm-fresh foods… and they delivered! (Though they’re nothing next to Fairway, surprisingly weak cheese section, no real organic meat, and a bit more pricey.)

Groceries from Stew Leonards consisted of:

• Peaches
• Apples
• Watermelon
• Blueberries
• Cherries ($2.99 per pound!)
• Corn
• Squash (yellow & green)
• Red pepper
• Red onions
• Garlic
• Beefsteak & Cherry Tomatoes
• Sliced nova salmon
• Cream cheese
• Avocados
• Escarole lettuce
• House country white bread (delicious)
• Six-grain sandwich bread
• Garlic bread (ready for the grill!)
• Hummus
• Pretzel rods
• Tortilla chips
• Salsa
• Tempeh bacon
• Meusli
• Rice Milk (Silk)
• Beer supply
• Beef
• Italian spicy sausage (For the boys…)
• Butter
• Cheddar cheese slices

We got to the mountain at about midnight on Thursday night. After setting up camp in the dark, and saying hello to old friends, the only thing left to do was get the coffee ready for the next morning.

Cold Brewing is the perfect technique for camping, especially in the mountains where the cold morning air will cool your coffee down to a nice refreshing temperature.

• 1 C course ground coffee
• 4.5 C Water

Combine in a tupperware container, make sure all the grounds are in the water, and leave covered for 10-12 hours.

Strain the liquid through a coffee filter.

This will leave you with a double concentrate to which you can add ice or water (cold or hot).

Bypassing the hot temperatures of conventional brewing methods, you’re left with a much sweeter, smoother coffee.

Read more about our adventures with cold-brewing coffee here.

stay tuned for how we turned all these goodies, into good times.

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