Provisioning for a Long Distance Voyage

[zeehag]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

We are meant to be supporting local communities and shopping for groceries and at markets is a great way to do it, be seen to be doing it, and wonderful way to taste new foods

the ONLY way to taste new foods is to get into the mingle thing in native communities--i buy from locals as much as possible--the only things i have yet to find in local tiendas here in mexico is chocolate powder, and bubba's food--seems my pinche gato feo only likes fancy feast---spoiled gato....

[hellosailor]

You haven't really eaten exotic food until your host gently asks you why you just ate the centerpiece.

[bobconnie]

We love to buy large bunchs of local veggies and fruit at local markets or from the local farmers. We like to can some right away, along with eating them fresh !! Ya never know when ya are gonna want some canned mango or even fresh canned yams or orkra!! anyway we have helped our food buget to streach by canning aboard for years! it's easy, and the results are way better the the commerical stuff. I know it's a little work, but we find it to be worth it !! and we find it Fun LOL

[kingwoodie]

So much info to consider. Leaving on my second circumnavigation in Oct 2013 and here is another thing to consider. If you are taking canned goods with you apply a little bit of vaseline on the canned food tops to slow the rust problem. The cans will rust and will do so quickly. I put all my dry foods in rigid plastic containers with screw lids. Keeps the pests out. Make sure you take a lot of comfort foods with you. Peanut butter and jelly is one. lots of coffee or tea and we always kept several large bags of animal crackers on hand. A great snack late at night.
Have fun and travel on.

Kingwoodie
s/v The Lady Margaret Ann

[JanetGroene]

A couple of provisioning methods are described in my The Galley Book. It's out of print but used copies can be round on Amazon.

[jared]

Originally Posted by gjordan

When we left Mexico we took as much fresh stuff as we could. The thing that lasted the longest was Hicama(spelling?) and it was still sweet and crunchy 3 weeks later. There is another common name for it, but the memory fails me.Trying things before you stock up is a good idea, but unless you are tired and hungry when you try them, they wont seem as good as what is available in the corner supermarket. There are no supermarkets at sea. It was recommended by the the old salts to keep cheese fresh by wrapping it in cheese cloth soaked in white vinager. We made the mistake of buying a 3 or 4 pound block of swiss cheese, which stayed good where the cloth was on it, but turned very bad in the holes that the vinager could not reach. After that we bought cheeses that were solid, and they stayed reasonably well.____ I had never looked over this part of the forum before, and I think it is great.____Grant.

Try melting paraffin wax and painting it on, just like they did centuries ago. The initial heat kills bacteria and then it's sealed. When you need a chunk, cut off what you need and re-paint the exposed surface.

[hellosailor]

"wrapping it in cheese cloth soaked in white vinager."
The vinegar acidifies the pH and that stops bacterial growth. But you can also do that by waxing the cheese (as Jared mentions) which is how you'll find wheels of cheese sold by the Dutch and others. They wrap it in cheesecloth and then wax that on, which seals out the air as well. You can also immerse the cheese in oil (preferably olive) or vinegar, or even a strong brine. What works best will vary with the cheese but they all keep the cheese "airtight". You may need a weight to keep the cheese submerged, and of course, you've got to either rinse or wipe it when it comes out. But cheese travelled, well before ice boxes were invented.

Any number of old (pre-1900) cookbooks are available as free ebooks these days, and most of them made a point of educating new housewives about how to do these things, so they could keep a proper house out in rural country. Carries over very well to boat galleys!

[bobconnie]

I know somebodys gonna say NO! to this, but we use a vacume packer to hold our cheese and such ! it will work off our inverter, or the gen set. We pack everything this way! rice, beans ect. Will hold cheese for weeks in just a cool place and mounths in a frige!! Nothing like the vac packer, Put in a BIG chunk, bag it and re-seal when ya cut a chunk off! works for us !! and all we have is 2000 inverter! worth a try!

[alaskalograft]

If you've had eggs for a long time (and they will last a long time) but are not sure of them, crack each egg into a cup and then add it as you are cooking so as to avoid spoiling the whole recipe with one rotten egg.

[robert sailor]

With eggs its easier to simply float them...put each egg in a cup of water, if they sink they are good, if they float they are likely bad.

[Richard5]

Given the wealth of information shown in this thread I make the motion it be made a sticky.

[tintan]

WELL, if your are going to cross the pacific ocean from mex to marquesas then your passage will be at least 18 days and you need provisioning, not all people just sail around the bay along the coast and back home for a day, there are a lot of us who actually live aboard for years so long time passages need good health and provisioning, so you don't have to sail in circles actually, there are a lot of situations where you will be away for a while and away from where you can get food!!!!!

[Vis]

We spent 4 years sailing from Europe back to Australia in the early 90's...Longest passage was between Panama and Tahiti with few places en route where we could provision

Would highly recommend book called "putting Food By" available on Amazon ... We used to can our own meat and veg ...we had no refrigeration so if we caught a big fish we were able to preserve it ... Likewise in Galapagos we were able to purchase cheap beef which we canned in Mason Jars

On eggs ... Cover them in Vaseline and you will get more than a month from them

Potatoes and onions keep for ages

Dried veg is good too ...having said that we used to dry fish and beef strips in the rigging

I wrote a few articles in the early 90's on provisioning and preserving food ... Maybe I should resurrect those article?

Cheers

[gjordan]

I am sure that it has been mentioned before, but store the onions and potatoes in separate compartments. The gasses from onions will make the potatoes go bad much sooner. Also, if you can find them, get unwashed eggs. The washing takes the natural seal from the outside of the shell. It used to be very difficult to find unwashed eggs, but now with all of the organic growers, it is easy. Turn your egg cartons over every week or sooner, so that the yolk doesnt stick to the inside of the shell. Just another 2 cents worth. ______Grant.

[medphys]

Not sure its been mentioned but on my first long passage through the canal we had can goods stored in the bilge and they all had mostly lost their labels. Luckily, we had a handy list of embossed on can numbers to contents. so we wouldn't be expecting corn and get beets! anyone still have those?

I also kept two empty single gallon mayonnaise jars (lots of sandwiches) and traded them with a Bowie knife to the Cuna Indians in San Blas for 10 all cotton Molas.

Tip: Flying fish will bounce off of your sails at night. Catch em, put in bucket, cook n eat next day.