When I was a kid, camping meant eating lots of meat. We had bacon or sausage for breakfast, bologna or ham sandwiches for lunch, and SPAM®, hamburgers, or hot dogs for supper. Mom believed that no meal was complete without meat, and she also believed that growing kids needed plenty of milk and eggs. She wasn’t alone in thinking this way, of course. My friends’ Moms all clung to the same beliefs.

But times have changed. Tastes have changed, too. And there’s a growing consensus that our planet can’t feed an expected nine billion-plus people on a diet of meat and milk and eggs. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not exactly a convert. I’m not yet ready to go the whole hog, so to speak. But my diet has evolved over the years. I eat a lot less meat than I used to, for one thing. As my circle of friends and acquaintances has expanded, so has my knowledge of culinary traditions. Readers of this column have helped. In fact, it was a letter from a reader that got me thinking about the challenge of preparing meatless, eggless, and dairyless meals for the backcountry. At first glance, it doesn’t seem like this would be particularly hard to do. Just eat what you eat at home. And it works. Up to a point. Read more…

 
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