BEAN HOLE BEANS

An old woodsman favorite, for a big ol' pot, follow this recipe:10 cups dried Great Northern beans1 pound Salt Pork2 onions2 1/2 cups molasses1 teaspoon black pepper4 teaspoons dry hot mustard1/2 cup butter1. Dig a hole 3 feet deep, and wide enough to leave 6 inches around your pot on all sides. Line the hole with stones prior to starting the fire.2. Build fire in the hole with dry hardwood, and keep it going for 3+ hours, until the hole is 3/4 full with hot coals.3. Once the fire is about an hour old, prep pot by boiling beans for 45 minutes until their skins begin to peel back.4. When fire is ready, line the bottom of the bean pot with thin strips of salt pork. Peel and cut the onions in half, and place them on top of the pork. Pour the beans on top into the pot, and mix in the molasses, black pepper, and dry mustard. Slice the butter and place on top, and then add enough boiling water to cover the lot of it by an inch. Cover it all with aluminum foil, and then place on the lid of the bean pot.5. Remove 1/3 of the coals with a shovel, lower the pot into the hole, fill in the sides and top with coals, and then cover it all with dirt. You should end up with about 2 feet of dirt on top.6. Let the beans stew overnight, dig 'em out the next morning, and enjoy.NOTE: This recipe can be mimicked in a crock pot, but who's doing that anyways.The illustration above is from Ellsworth Jaeger's Wildwood Wisdom.

Dehydrators

Apple season might be a few months away, but if you've been meaning to dry out that fish in your refrigerator or those bananas on your counter, go to NESCO, find out what food dehydrator will work best for you and have yourself a bunch of dried fruit/meat/pasta sauce on your next hike.

Powdered Eggs

Yes, it's always nice to have fresh eggs while camping, but for the excursions that last more than a night or two, that just ain't going to happen. Try bringing along little bags of the yellow powder that lives atop your fridge in a huge Honeyville tin can. For one reason or another, I had never really considered the powdered egg, but I'm a sucker for a hot meal in the morning, and while oatmeal is one of life's great pleasures, it's been good to change up the morning routine. (Bring the Pocket Rocket.)Scared of them? No, of course not. Because they're not bad. At all. In fact, they're damn good. (Eggs whites are all hunky dory for breakfast before work, but before a long hike, I opt for the whole egg.) Does a body good-ish.  And if you want to know how they're made, here's what Honeyville has to say:

Egg products are processed in sanitary facilities under rigorous inspection by the United States Department of Agriculture.  The first step in making egg products is breaking the eggs and separating the yolks and whites from the unwanted shells.  Eggs are processed by automated equipment that move the eggs from flats, wash and sanitize the shells, break the eggs and separate the whites and the yolks or keeps them together for whole egg products.  The liquid egg products is filtered, mixed, and then chilled prior to additional processing.  This liquid egg product (in a pasteurized format) is what you get when you re-hydrate your powdered egg product.  From here the egg product is pasteurized.  The law requires that all egg products distributed for consumption be pasteurized.  This means they must be rapidly heated and held at a minimum required temperature for a specified time.  This process destroys Salmonella and any other bacteria, but does not cook the egg or affect the color, flavor, or nutritional value.  Dried egg products are powdered by spraying the liquid egg into a heated drying room.  The powder is left in the drying room for a specified time to get the desired consistency.