Although even the simplest meals seem, to me, to taste gourmet after a day of hiking or on a calm morning by a high-altitude lake, every now and then I find myself wistfully longing for food items or condiments that would be too cumbersome or heavy to bring on trail or cannot easily be prepared as a backpacking meal. On a two-week trip in 2011, I remember hankering for fresh produce or fruit in the final days of the trip and being delighted to bump into the cook for a trail crew who invited us to stop by the base camp where she had apples to share. Maple syrup is another item that I often find myself wanting on trail. It's easy to bring liquids in a bear canister in small, tightly sealed containers, but because we carry other liquids (vegetable oil, for example) that are integral parts of some of our meals, luxuries like maple syrup don't make the cut. In addition, I'm not sure I could carry enough to satisfy my sweet tooth for more than one breakfast, let alone pack enough for two.
Enter maple sugar.
I knew it existed from my days in upstate NY, where maple sugar producers were local and I
Enter maple sugar.
I knew it existed from my days in upstate NY, where maple sugar producers were local and I
| even had a friend whose husband bottled syrup and made other maple treats. I remembered sampling maple candy and maple butter (!) at the downtown chili cook-off, so maple sugar was surely a cinch. The idea had crossed my mind a few times on trail, but I had never gotten around to looking for it in a grocery store. I found by accident during a quickie grocery stop at Trader Joe's in Fresno. One of the employees happened to be stocking it, so it caught my attention. (I was, for a change, not browsing the aisles as I tend to do at TJ's and similar stores.)  So maple sugar is going to be my "test food" on our upcoming backpacking trip over Memorial Day weekend. The stuff isn't cheap: 6 oz. cost me about $4.99. But I'm looking forward to finding out whether it will be something I can take from time to time, especially on short trips where there's plenty of room for items that don't compress (sugars being one of them). Why not just buy packaged oatmeal with maple flavor? Well, we generally buy foods in bulk and pack our own to cut down on packaging waste, and those pre-flavored oatmeals have never really been high on my list of likes. Some of them are too sweet even for my raging sweet tooth. So let the test begin, and I'll report back to let you know how it worked out! ~Nancy | CategoriesAll |
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