How To Pack A Week's Food Into A PLCE Side Pocket

Description

"How on earth do you pack a week's food into a side pocket?" was a common response to my video about how to efficiently pack bushcraft-oriented gear into a rucksack. In that video (link below) I showed how I packed my baseline set-up into a Karrimor Sabre 45 rucksack with side pockets. Even after adding all of my camping kit and personal equipment, one of the side pouches remained empty. I commented that I could still get a week's worth of food into that side pocket if I so desired.

Many people have commented under the video or messaged me personally to ask about this. So, I thought I should make a video explaining my approach to selecting food and how, then, it can all fit in one PLCE side pocket. Not all PLCE side pouches are created equal and for this video, I choose the smallest volume side pouch I own to prove that a week's food can be packed into even a smaller side pocket.

If you want more information on the individual food stuffs and their calorific content, please go over to my blog at http://paulkirtley.co.uk where you'll find a list of the camping food items in this video, along with the quantities packed.

You can also read some of my associated observations as well as reader comments on the above video over at my blog on: http://paulkirtley.co.uk/2014/how-to-pack-enough-food-for-a-week-in-a-plce-side-pocket/

Here's a link to the earlier bushcraft camping kit packing YouTube video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGlfnvpxE_c

Here's a link with to an article providing a full listing of the bushcraft camping set up featured and packed into the rucksack in the above video:

http://paulkirtley.co.uk/2011/bushcraft-camping-equipment/

For more on wilderness bushcraft, survival skills and outdoor life, go to http://paulkirtley.co.uk

Also follow me on Twitter for regular tips and useful info to improve your outdoor life: http://twitter.com/PKirt

Tags: How-to (Website Category),Food (TV Genre),camping,PLCE,Personal Load Carrying Equipment,side pocket,side pouch,side,pocket,pouch,bushcraft,backpacking,hiking,packing,cooking,outdoors,campcraft,preparation,planning,ideas,suggestions,wilderness,wild camping,solo

Video Transcription

hi there poor Kelly here founder of Frontier bushcraft and author of Paul Kelly's blog now in a previous video I packed up all of my typical kit that I take out when I'm working on courses and when I'm going to the woods in the UK I sort of northern temperate standard kit for bushcraft and that style of camping when I'm working on bushcraft courses and at the end of that video I said there was space left for a week's worth of food in a side pocket and a few people have questioned this or at least have asked could I show them how to get a week's worth of food into the side pocket of a Sabre 45 so a plce side pocket now those of you that have watched that video probably noticed that I use the Arctic side pockets which are a bit bigger than some of them some of the side pockets are available but they're also quite difficult to get hold of these days so what I've done in this video is I've taken the smallest side pocket that I can find that I own which is off of my Berg house Vulcan rucksack and the standard Berg house side pocket that gets the in some ways the original plce side pocket and I popped this full of food and for me that would be enough for a week and remember I'm not a small person I'm six foot one I weigh about 100 kilos but 15/16 stone is kind of where my weight is typically these days and there's plenty of food in here for me and I think the key thing is not think about volume you kind of think of big plates full of food for a week and you think about the volume of food that you eat but think about the calories think about having a good balance of carbohydrates fats proteins and all the other micronutrients that you might need you know your vitamins and what have you so I'm going to lay this out and then I'll talk through what's in here and my justification for why it's in there and how I came to that decision the other thing I should note is this I guess this is a sort of twin mode video in a sense it's killing two birds with one stone because all

food I bought from a supermarket I went to the store and I bought it all there's no specialist camping food here there's nothing bought from a camping store there's no special expedition foods high-calorie expedition foods or anything like that it's stuff that you can walk into a local supermarket and purchase and from that perspective is easy to get a hold of and also it's a lot less expensive than some of that specialist camping kit and camping food so without further ado I'm going to lay the food out here adjust the camera and and I'll talk through what each of the things are so here's the side pocket with all the food in for me for a week I've got a few notes here there's a bit of data that I want to share with you all so what I've got here is an orange carrier bag and in there is some more food and some of those things in there are alternatives to what I've got in here so there are other things I might consider taking a bit of variety perhaps or just alternatives if I can't get hold of what's in here that's something else that I might would like to take with me there are also a few things in there that I might take if I've got a little bit more room now this is plenty of food for me for a week for seven days but as I say I use slightly bigger side pockets than this so I can get a little bit more in than this and also and with a larger rucksack or in colder weather you might want to think about adding a few more things as well so I'm going to lay out the food that's in here lay it out and then talk through what each of those things are and why I've got it and why for me that works okay first thing to notice i've repacked a lot of this food I've got some resealable freezer bags and decanted food from the proprietary packets into those bags that's partly so I can get in and out of them every day without without any difficulty a lot of packaging that comes at you know pasta for example the packaging the pasta comes rips so easily once you've opened it it's useless for travel and also they're a little bit more malleable once they're in those those pouches into these things that I put them in and that means I can pack it better as well so I can get more into a small space starting with breakfast what I've got here is granola that's 850 grams of granola there and that's enough for me for a week so divided by seven is about 125 grams per day granola is 415 calories per hundred grams so and getting about 500 calories just with my daily portion of granola to my granola I also add some powdered milk and then I add some water this is three pints worth of powdered milk here which is more than enough for what I need for my granola and for making cuts of tea here's my brew kit in there I've got tea bags and I've got some sachets of coffee that also have powdered milk and powdered sugar in them so everything I need is in that sachet so in the morning I can have a cup of tea and I can have a cup of coffee as well and then I've also got a ton of tea bags so I can have a cup of tea later in the day as well and that's all in there in terms of snacks I've got one Snickers bar per day and snick is a very calorific as well they're about 500 calories per hundred grams and yet 510 calories per hundred grams that's 245 calories per bar also in here I have a selection of cereal bars I have this type from Nature Valley and I have this type from from eat natural both one of my favorites they're also natural produce and pretty healthy in terms with the provenance of the materials that they are the ingredients that they put in there and the Nature Valley is 192 calories per bar that's 457 calories per hundred grams and the eat natural is 231 calories per bar or 462 calories per hundred grams so just with one cereal bar and one chocolate bar per day there I'm adding about 450 calories to my diet just from that so I'm adding about 500 calories 450 to 500 calories to my what I already had for breakfast which is about 500 calories there's the granola and they and the powdered milk and for the bulk of my evening meals I base it on on a good solid carbohydrate so I've got pasta here what 500 grams of pasta based on having 125 grams of pasta per day when you buy a bag of pasta the recommended portion is normally about 75 grams that's the normal portion I'd have at home doubled for being out and about on the move 125 grams of pasta now pasta is about 362 calories per hundred grams so for my serving it's going to be bout 450 calories for a serving so that's already 1,500 calories per day for the whole week just with these things here that I've got okay and now you'll those of you that are doing math to realize there's only four days worth of carbs there in terms of the rest of my week I tend to like to mix it up a bit and I've got some couscous here these bigger packs from the Ainsley Harriott range are very good so there's 125 grams of couscous in here which is supposed to be 2 servings and but I have one of those to myself and per serving is 144 calories and so that's basically 300 calories in there in one of those packets so that's that's it that's a good alternative and I've got four of those in there as well so I've got four lots of pasta and I got four Lots of Cuzco so I've got a bit spare there in terms of having seven evening meals so that's basically about 1,500 calories per day for the week just there before I start looking at anything else now adding to that for lunch I take oat cakes because they're a good mix of oats there's quite a lot of oil in there as well they're sustaining and oat cakes are about 431 calories per 100 grams that's 45 calories per oak cake and each one of these little packets has six oat cakes in it so you're getting about 300 calories just from eating that for lunch before you have anything else with it okay and what I take to have with it I've got options okay and I'll talk you through these options what I've got here is I've got three blocks of relatively hard cheese and it's not just one big block I've got three so that I don't have to have them all open I can open one eat half of it one day eat half of it the next day and the rest is still sealed so the six days at least worth of cheese that I often eat that out for longer when I'm doing even when I'm doing quite hard hikes that plus oatcakes makes a very very good lunch I've also got to Theresa here now they can be again eaten with lunch or I can also slice them up and add the moon with some of the pasta in the evening and I'll talk about making a pasta sauce in a second so I've got some options here equally I can say some of the cheese from lunch and shave that over a pasta to add some extra calories into the pasta maybe even if I've had some chorizo for lunch depends on what I feel like variety is always good flexibility is good on the trail in terms of what you eat and when you eat it what I've also got here some sachets of tuna there's five in here and these are pretty tasty they're self contained and in terms of a pack there's there's not a huge amount of energy 112 calories but there's 15 grams of protein in there and they're also very tasty and it's and it's variety you've got meat you got cheese you've got fish and five packets there so again they're pretty tasty with the oatcakes you just spoon them out put a bit on top of the out cakes and eat them so that could be a lunch but equally they can be mixed in with pasta and a sauce as well so you've got lots of flexibility here and then finally over here I've got a mixture of various sauces

so I've got spaghetti bolognaise recipe mix - those two garlic mushroom cream cream sauce

and a couple of tuna napolitana source mixes so I can make various source mixes for the pasta and also I've got some tomato cup of soups there that can be added to the tomato about the four tomato-based sauces there to give it a bit of extra tomato flavor so again I can make my own sauce I can add cheese I can add chorizo I can add pasta a tuna and I've got everything that I want to add to the pasta or have with a couscous there so I've got lots of variety lots of flexibility lots of flavors flavors are important on the trail you really look forward to tasty food at least I do and you might be thinking well you'd like more calories than that per day well also we do carry some here most of us do anyway and I certainly don't mind losing a little bit of fat when I'm walking the important thing is that you have enough carbohydrate and protein to allow you to do that the carbs allow you to burn your fat sufficiently and proteins allow you to your body to repair and to recover while you're on the trail and you got put as well as they've been protein in some of these things in smaller amounts got protein the cheese protein in the meat protein in the fish and and in the milk so there's there's plenty in there and to keep you going for them for the week and in terms of alternatives or additional things I'll just show you those quickly first off one thing to think about smash and powdered mashed potato that's very good with fish in particular mixing in some fish tinned salmon as well is nice very well goes very well with mixed in with some with some smash and in terms of nutritional information and per hundred grams dry weight is 324 calories in there and that's not bad it's similar to the couscous and so that's an alternative if you can't be bothered with taking separate pasture and making your own sources these pasture and sources they're pretty good they're better if you were simmer them for a little while and some of the recipes will say add milk and what-have-you you can take some extra milk powder if you want to do that but just adding some hot water and stirring them up works at a push as well so they're a good thing and again think about this per hundred grams and four hundred and eighty sorry I'm reading that wrong that's that's as prepared so per portion and there's two portions in here so basically 253 calories per portion times two is 500 calories so that's prepared as as the guidance here which includes some butter and a little bit of milk so there's going to be probably about 400 calories in there without that but that's not bad it's equivalent to just taking the pasta and the sauce on its own some people find that less less of a faff and they come in various different flavors as well and also if I've got a bit more room I sometimes like to take a few more a cup of soups just you know you get to camp you get a brew on you don't necessarily want a caffeinated drink at the end of the day but you want something with a bit of food value and a cup of soup is quite nice for that so different flavors if I've got space I'll put those in if I haven't it's a bit of a luxury but if I nevermind and also what I like to take and I probably got room for these in my top pocket but I didn't want to cheat and say you know they don't fit in the side pocket

and I didn't want to say oh well these will go somewhere else but what I really like when I'm hiking particularly some boiled sweets because you can have a bit of but of a taste of something as you go and it dripped feeds a bit of sugar into your system as well but is really good when you're a bit low and you're on a steep hill or something boiled sweet just helps keep you going if I've got room I like to add some nuts and very calorific for the weight and I've got almonds and cashew nuts in here they're my favourite nuts almonds 592 calories per hundred grams so that's the most calorific food we've had so far in cashews 595 calories per hundred grams so pretty much the same and lots of fats in there good proteins in there and and some good flavors and and different nutrients so if I've got room to put those in I'll take some nuts as well and they're just I can snack on those or I'd have a have some after dinner or with dinner or what-have-you to bulk up a little bit more another thing that doesn't weigh anything but takes up a bit of room but can be nice to take for a bit of extra flavour some dried mushrooms you normally just need these these are sets or porcini or penne bun whatever you want to call them dried up you can buy those in the supermarket you can make your own if you really want to as well with the dehydrator and you can you basically soak them in warm water add them into whatever else you're doing adds a bit of flavor adds a bit of texture as well that can be a nice thing for not very much weight doesn't really add a lot of calories but add some good flavor and then finally and in terms of extra snacks what would be next on my list if I had a bit more room for snacks would be to add some sesame snaps in there they're pretty much Sesame's and sugar and again they've got good level of calories for the for the weight per hundred gram 523 calories so again right up there with a more calorific foods that we've looked at per 30 gram pack we've got here 157 calories so 157 calories just in that little packet and that's probably the weight watch's nightmare and but in terms of backpacking we want the maximum calories maximum nutrition for the minimum weight and they're right up there on the list so I'll be that I'll be adding those in if I had a little bit extra room which I do have with my larger side pocket and that's it certainly don't need those things there I would add that and that if I had a little bit of room and some boiled sweets and some extra cup of soups but there that is a week's worth of food and the important thing to note about most of this is it contains virtually no water yet all of it is dehydrated it's all lacking in fluids because you can get the water as you go now you can't carry enough water to drink anyway and there's no point carrying hydrated food if you can get the water as you go so these camping foods that are full of sloppy sauces and are already hydrated they weigh a ton and they're not particularly calorific and much better to take stuff that's dehydrated add water as you go do a bit of cooking and you have really tasty meals you've got lots of different different options and it does all fit into a side pocket as you can see so enjoy and let me know if you've got any other ideas about what you can take that will fit in a side pocket and what wouldn't you like out of here what would you like to add and did you learn anything from this did you get any ideas let me know in the comments below this video thanks for watching I hope that really really helps answers the questions for the people that were wondering about how to do that and I will see you in the next video take care