I'm thinking dates will be great, as well as apples, but I've never had good experiences backpacking with softer fruits such as bananas, kiwi, berries, etc. Do any of you have any suggestions? I'm contemplating some sort of blended banana date concotion. A low fat "Lara bar", of sorts? HELP, PLEASE!
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I hope we get more replies to this post. This is a subject that is very important to me because I like to do a lot of long distance backpacking and weight matters on those trips! I'm not sure how I will pack for my next trip- 2600 miles! I'm going to do a 100-mile one next week hopefully to test 811 food weights (once I figure out what I'm doing). Suggestions? Also every meal except dinner will have to be low-to-no preparation.
Dried fruit and nuts don't feel like the best diet overall.
Just realized this post was from a year ago, but in case anyone else searches under the same topic, I will post a response so that it might benefit them as well.
I like to blend raw superfood powders together with water to make sort of a porridgy/pudding/fudgy consistency, depending on the amount of water. For instance, you could dump maca, chlorella, b12 flax meal, lucuma powder, and berries or nuts (or not), or carob powder, gojis, or cinnamon into your mug or bowl, and just stir it up until blended well. Add as much water as you need. All those kinds of ingredients "bind" well when you add the H2O. However, it takes a lot of water to keep this dish from somewhat pulling extra water from your body (seeing as those are mostly dehydrated ingredients), so just be aware of that. minor thing; easily remedied.
you could also mash up a banana into it to make it more "hydrated."
Another thing I've wanted to try backpacking is soaking nuts/seeds or cold brewing tea while i'm hiking during the day. you could just portion out what you'll need for the next day and attach it to your pack in a small canteen or nalgene. you could even soak the nuts in your tea!
That's why I like things like oranges & other citrus that have their own protection that you can just bury to compost in nature. They also keep quite well and don't tend to squash too easily if placed in their own bag or on the upper part of one. Rambutan travels quite well, but it doesn't have much for calories so it's not good for anything other than a day trip I'd say.
I eat nuts and seeds too, in moderation, and will bring some of them for longer trips. I enjoy eating one or the other with the citrus at dinnertime. A little goes a long way when you're eating low fat & if you're hiking all day with a pack and all, you probably will burn enough calories to eat enough to support the overt fats.
Celery tends to travel fairly well too, so it's nice to eat with things. And, yes, the dried fruits and dates will travel well, but I don't tend to eat them much so don't take 'em unless I'm gonna' be gone a while. If I'm eating dates I also need some juicier fruit that's not so sweet to eat with 'em so I can deal with it. The apples don't travel as well, especially some of the varieties out there, but it works if you pack 'em well.
You can always put your food that doesn't travel as well in a separate bag that you sling over/off your pack or shoulder(s) so you carry 'em like you would from the grocery store or farmers market.
The nice thing about hauling around the fresh stuff is that your load gets lighter and smaller as you go, something I enjoy quite a bit about it.
If you have access to 'em, passion fruit travel well too. There are others, but I can't think of them offhand. The best thing to do is to just go to where you get your produce and check out what's there and think about how well it would travel or how you could pack it to take it with you. That way you're working with what you have available, rather than trying to find stuff that might not be in season at the time.
Back when I ate sprouts more I went on a longer trip with some fine mesh net bags I made from some unbleached cotton fabric I had, various seeds in bags and a jar or cup or something that I used to soak them in as well as drinking water and such with. After they soaked overnight I'd hang 'em off the back of my backpack, some in bags, some outside the bags, depending on the conditions they needed. When we got to clean water sources I'd dunk the bags with the sprouting seeds in there and put 'em back on my backpack - or I'd use my water to do so. That would help extend things longer, especially when in areas where there were very little or no edible greens growing. I'd do the same now, but with less of a variety of sprouts, if going on a long trip.
You are right about banana's or soft fruit not working well. They don't, they get mushy too easy.
Apples, dates and figs do travel well. As well as dried fruits (which are not the best thing to be eating, but work well backpacking). Blended dates also work well. If you eat greens you should be able to find plenty on the trip along the trail.
That is usually all I take...it's a limited diet but seems to work well for me and allows me to pack enough calories to still keep my energy level up.
Victoria