As I write this post, just a mile away sits multiple cargo ships, anchored off of the island we live on. They are put there by the Coast Guard to wait for the docks to have space to unload. Some sit for a day or two, others sit for weeks. It’s just a strand in the web of the supply chain collapse. On the West Coast, Asian ingredients are hard to come by in many places, due to the lack of containers. Or offloading. Or people to move the items after they leave the dock. It’s just one example of the chronic issues facing the world.
Many things are hard to find that we use in developing outdoor recipes. From stoves, new pots, dishes, to even spoons, to the base ingredients. It doesn’t matter where it is produced, be it in the USA, or from another country and imported. 21 months in, and the shelves have never returned to “normal”. Maybe it will return or maybe it won’t. Maybe you are far more optimistic than I am….maybe you are less jaded.
And I’ll let a secret out: in December of 2019, before the pandemic became a pandemic, I quit using my hiker pantry to develop recipes. I knew what was coming. And in the months after, I wasn’t going to use my treasured freeze-dried supply unless I needed to. And I watched as the outdoors were shut down in many states, like where I live. Instead I went out and worked on our homestead and put my energy there. People couldn’t travel. I was homeschooling, homesteading, and growing/preserving food for my family and people who believe in self-sufficiency. It just seemed far more important for so long, and so recipe development ground to a halt for me. I was developing recipes, but for fresh food instead. 21 months slipped by very fast.
This September finally brought some normalcy to me again. I found my groove, to balance life, family, farming, and being inspired again to start thinking up backpacking recipes once again. It’s also helped that the supply chain for freeze-dried ingredients is getting better with a few companies, and I was able to restock finally my hiker’s pantry. Fall is here, and I am putting much of the homestead farm to bed.
(Remember that little kid that used to hike with me long ago? He just turned 24 this year, and can plant fall garlic and onions like a master in one of the beds on our homestead)
I hope you enjoyed the recent recipes I posted. More are coming in the next couple of weeks. I tend to work in bursts of ideas. I feel renewed. Fall does that to me. I don’t have to spend all day farming once it cools down, and I can walk away for a bit.
But a big part is freeze-dried ingredients are finally starting to get stocked at least, as I mentioned above. So I now have things to work with once again, and that is a good thing. And no longer do I have an empty pot looking at me.
~Sarah