What is your best provisioning tip?

[Entlie]

Y'all must have some great tips. Here are a few provisioning tips we have gotten from other cruisers:

-Omaha Steaks frozen steaks and meats (from a boat with $$)
-Don't freeze bone - takes up too much room
-Buy a Foodsaver vaccuum bagger and use it
-Remove packaging and repack in ziplocks. Less cardboard

...you get the idea.

I am fairly new to this forum, so hope this subject hasn't been beat to death.

Looking forward to some interesting responses!

Entlie
Sailing Catamaran Sunspot Baby

[Harriet]

Hi Entlie,

My best suggestion - besides getting a pressure cooker and learning how to use it - is to avoid overprovisioning. Unless you plan to spend months in a desolate area like the Jumentos, there is food available everywhere. I try to bring some favorites along as special treats, but when I run out, that's it. Learning to eat like the locals is both fun and educational, not to mention cost-effective.

[cruiseallure]

would love a recipe for pressure cooker bread. am leaving in July and would like to practice making b4 leaving.

cruiseallure

[Pblais]

Don't over look freeze dried food. I did a lot of backpacking over 40 years where you carry it. Sealed freeze dried keeps well for about a year if you use a food saver. About 3 months if you don't.

It's about learning how to cook all over. The freeze dried food works well with meals you brring to a boil for 3 minutes then turn off the heat. We also worried about saving white gas fuel as we carried that too. It's a great way to do rice or pasta with veggies and canned meat. You can pack a WHOLE lot of stuff in a tiny boat.

The best part is it isn't expensive and it can be prepared when it really is nasty out there. Always good to have bad weather food aboard and this work well.

[sv_makai]

This is from Experince. DO NOT belive all of the experts on provisioning. Determine where you want to go and then find people that have been there.

We found before we went cruising and read all of the experts stuff and provisioned accordingly. We ended up buying more than we we needed immediately (and for safety). We found people eat and use the bathroom all over the world and most of the basic staples can be found, sometimes even cheaper than the USA.

If you are cruising in the Bahamas yes stock up, it is expensive there and some stuff scarce. In the southern Caribe, we had no trouble finding reasonably priced food, variety, toliet paper...and on Dominica the fresh veggies were cheaper than the USA.

My recommendation. If you must have Skippy chunky peanut butter, stock that up because that is tough to find in the Caribe. But if any good peanut butter will do then try the local stuff.

[Skylark]

Instant brown rice from health food outlets cooks in about 10 minutes, tastes better than white rice.

[KevinE]

I just got some of the vacuum bags (~2ftx3ft) for storage - I can put a complete double set of bedding (sheets, duvet, 2 pillows) in one bag andsuck it down to smaller than a pillow - keeps spare bedding fresh and dry and uses much less space. I have a small 110v wet/dry vacuum that I keep on board.
You can use this for for compact storage of clothing, wet gear etc or anything that is moisture sensitive (i.e. tools, spare parts). Paid about 14.00 for 2 bags - there are a whole bunch of different sizes you can get.

[kimberlite]

I really like the convenience of their products. But only on long passages.
beef,pork, chicken,turkey.
great stuff.
fair winds
eric

[Entlie]

Thanks for the interesting messages. We have used Weirlings canned meats and they are good. We use lots of Sam's Club canned chicken - great for chicken salad, a staple on Sunspot Baby, Chicken tacos, chicken pot pie, etc.

Buy lots of Trick-Or-Treat candy when it is on sale the day after Halloween. We store it in a plastic tub, and it is a nice treat for night watches, and small pieces, so you don't have to feel too guilty. Visitors are always thrilled when they see the Halloween candy.

Entlie
Sailing Catamaran Sunspot Baby

[Talbot]

if you dont have a freezer, invest in a vacuum pack machine. Meat will last a lot longer and it contains any mess.

The large vacuum bags that need a hoover to extract the air are great for clothes and spare bedding - minimises stowage and keeps it dry.

Store some special treats /favourite foods for those special moments (after a big storm etc)

Invest in a good pressure cooker.

[starfish62]

Pressure cooker is a must! I have a recipe for pressure cooker bread that actually works. The vacuum pack thing sounds like a great idea. It would have been nice to have something dry after a rainy passage!

[Rick]

For over 25 years I have been buying wine in a box. Now there are one liter boxes as well as 5 Liter. The wine lasts a long time because no air gets introduced into th bag as you use it, unlike bottles.

I save the empty bladders. Empty they take almost no space. Blow them up and use them to keep various things in lockers from rattling around...great air bags! The two (or three) different sizes work for different spaces and you don't have to blow them up all of the way...for critical spaces I blow them up in place to really keep something critical from moving around and breaking or making noise.

If you don't want to take the time you really don't have to rinse them after using them as long as you get all of the wine out possible.

[susan collyar]

Originally Posted by starfish62

Pressure cooker is a must! I have a recipe for pressure cooker bread that actually works. The vacuum pack thing sounds like a great idea. It would have been nice to have something dry after a rainy passage!

Would love to get your recipe for the bread. Love to use my pressure cooker but never have heard of this recipe. Someone had mentioned to use that they had heard about pressure cooker fried chicken. Have you seen this recipe? Sounds dangerous!

Thanks, Susan

[seabreeze1960]

Originally Posted by starfish62

Pressure cooker is a must! I have a recipe for pressure cooker bread that actually works. The vacuum pack thing sounds like a great idea. It would have been nice to have something dry after a rainy passage!

wow....bread sounds great.....would you be willing to share the recipe? Thanks!

[Tahiti Rover]

I posted the following in response to a related food and provisioning topic at another location on Cruisers Forum. My apologies to anyone who has already read it:


There's really no reason not have fresh veggies, meats (not tinned), and dairy (eggs, cheese and milk) on board without refrigeration. It's been done for decades, and somehow the information on how to do it just gets lost every ten years or so.

To begin with, there really is no reason to require perishables for longer than 30 days. Break out your charts and you will see that there really are no legs of a circumnavigation that will have you out of touch with land (and supplies) for more than 30 days unless you have a really slow boat, or encounter really awful contrary weather. The passage from the Panama Canal to Fatu Hiva, Marquesas, French Polynesia, for instance, is one of the longest, and sometimes takes a small monohull 5 weeks.

Of course, the prudent sailor always plans for the unexpected, so stocking up to cover a month and a half is recommended.

About the only reason to stock some items for a greater period of time is if you know beforehand that some of your favorite foods are either not available at your destination, or are uncommonly expensive. Stocking for only 45 days really simplifies your provisioning. After your dry stores like flour, yeast, baking powder, rice, beans, pasta, coffee, tea, powdered drink mixes, dry sausage and salami, salt/pepper and spices, you move on to cooking oil, vinegar and sauces like soy and maybe a Thai fish sauce.

If you're pressure cooker savvy, and most Americans, unlike almost all British, Europeans, Aussies and New Zealanders, are not, you will process beef, pork, dark and white meat chicken, and maybe lamb, thus have a wide range of chemical-free meats to accompany your meals. You can also process your own favorite meat sauces, salsas, chutneys, etc. for really quick and simple meal preparation at sea. You may process veggies in the pressure cooker, to, but I prefer to use the old country style of holding fresh, raw vegetables in a diluted vinegar and water mixture so I have a choice as to whether to use the veggies raw in a salad or cook them as an ingredient in a recipe. A variety of cheeses may be kept for months without refrigeration simply be putting in sterilized jars and covered with extra virgin olive oil. Eggs do not have to be lightly boiled, or smeared with Vaseline or oil. Just store them away from heat and turn then every day, or at least every other day. For details on all of these techniques and much more, get a copy of "Gourmet Underway - A Sailor's Cookbook." See the book's website, www.gourmetunderway.com.

I totally agree with the other contributors who are stressing "Learn How to Cook." Most people, not just Americans, are poor cooks because they have received no formal training, and have little practice. To that advice I would also add: "Learn How to Fish." Sailboat voyagers of my acquaintance (I lived at the Panama Canal for 14 years and met quite a few) are notoriously poor fishermen. That is a real shame when you consider the abundance of food just for the catching. I recommend to everyone to acquire a copy of "The Cruiser's Handbook of Fishing," by Scott & Wendy Bannerot. It's 400+ pages of everything you need to know about catching fish from your boat and your dinghy.

I believe the galley deserves as much attention as the choice of sails and ground tackle. Jack Hanna, designer of perhaps the most famous cruising sailboat of all time, the Tahiti Ketch, once said, "the only detail that really matters in a sailboat is a full, man-sized, actual, practicable working of a galley, for indigestion has wrecked more cruises than rocks and hurricanes.

Bon appetit,

Robbie