Local Foods for Simple Camp Meals
Easy campfire meals
Easy Campfire Meals & Canadian Snacks
I am not affiliated with any brands and products that I share in this post. I am an independent researcher sharing my knowledge to help consumers shop their values. Where stated have I personally tried and recommend brands or products. I’m always hopeful to receive feedback from the community about your experiences.
I first went camping near Nordegg when I was 6 months old. While I was just barely eating solids, I’ve since learned that local foods are available to provide a mix of delicious, high energy, nutrient rich camp meals, and some simply indulgent snacks. A positive eating experience is all about balance: 80% good for you and 20%...just plain good! Simple camp meals are cooked up from a dash of preparation and a pinch of knowledge. Keeping clean-up simple doesn’t hurt either.
Campfire meals use MINIMAL DISHES. Easy camp meals for family are a must for me: I often camp alone with two young children. Easy campfire meals don’t require a lot of gear, time, preparation or clean-up, but do pack a lot of nutrients and yum using local ingredients. For an easy camp dinner, local foods provide comfort, taste and quality to feel good about. When I talk about local food, I mean the Canadian Food Inspection Agency definition, that is, produced within the province or territory sold, or sold across provincial borders within 50 km of the originating province or territory. So basically, grown and produced in Alberta, or very nearby.
Note: This selection of campground meals is for car campers and not suitable for backcountry adventures.
In this post:
Easy Campfire Meals from Local Food Suppliers
Camp meal #1: Smokies and salad…and chips
Camp meal #2: Steak, corn on the cob, potato pocket and bean salad
Canadian Snacks
Sample Shopping list
Pro Tips
Easy Campfire Meals from Local Food Suppliers
Campfire meal #1: Smokies and salad…and chips
THE BEST PART about this meal is that there are virtually no dishes because we are roasting meat with sticks over an open fire. Since smokies are so quick to cook, they make a great meal for your first night or even a picnic lunch break.
THE DOWNSIDE is that roasting meat is not easy if there is a fire ban, if it’s raining and you have no cook shelter, you have wet wood, or if you struggle to make and keep a fire going. If this describes you or your situation, may I suggest you opt to bring a portable BBQ.
Smokies are everywhere and there are many local options. Two Alberta-based businesses include Nossack Food Group and Capital Fine Meats. Pack fire roasted smokies into some whole wheat buns with your favourite condiment and you’re just about done your camp meal. I like ketchup, but I’m also a fan of Dijon mustard, BBQ sauce, or even some delicious savoury chutneys. Bring a jar of pickles, sauerkraut, fried onions, or sliced cheese to add some gourmet (pronounced goor-met, perhaps, in this case) to your campground meal.
For the salad add some berries, salty or soft cheese and walnuts to Inspired Greens, an Alberta-based grower selling Alberta-grown living lettuce. Top with olive oil and vinegar and you have a healthy side to balance out your meat. Depending on the time of year and where you are, you may be able to get your berries at a roadside fruit stand, or local farmer’s market, which you can find using the Alberta Farmer’s Market Association Market Finder. Pack the salad ingredients with you in a large resealable container (dressing on the side) for one put storage, preparation, serving and even clean up.
The crunchy texture of chips goes so naturally with smokies. Crack open the bag early to keep hangry campers at bay. Bring your favourites; the range of healthful to less healthful chips makes it easy to eat your values. And if you want to eat local chips, Old Dutch and Pepsico-Frito Lay may be your best bet, but they also use US potatoes and US facilities so you have to check each label at the retailer to be sure. If you know of other local chip companies, please leave a comment.
Campfire meal #2: Steak, corn on the cob, potato pocket, and bean salad
Again, there is low dish load on this one because we’re cooking the steaks and the corn over an open fire. Foil wrapped potatoes are also cooked in the fire (yes, in the fire). If this scares you, bring a prepared potato salad instead. Bring prepared bean salad or any other prepared salads you choose. I like Reser’s potato salad and Paisley Farm four bean salad. Neither of these options are local, though. There is one local potato salad I learned about, found at D’Arcy’s in Edmonton and St. Albert. There are likely selections at your local farmer’s markets. If you know of others, please leave a comment.
Start making your foil wrapped potatoes. Get some nice hot coals going in your fire. Rinse and slice potatoes into 1-1.5 inch chunks. The Little Potato Company is an Alberta based business that sells potatoes produced in Alberta in many mainstream retailers, like Safeway. The little potatoes are sold in the perfect size for this recipe, which means no slicing. Place on a large sheet of foil (shiny side up). Add a tablespoon or two of butter or oil, half a sliced white onion, or green onions, and garlic to taste. Add salt and pepper to taste. Place an equal sized foil sheet (shiny side down) on top of your potato mixture and seal the edges tightly, creating a foil pocket. Place this potato pocket in another foil pocket to double up the durability and prevent leaks. Place your potato pocket directly on top of the hot coals. Cook for 30 to 40 minutes.
Fill a fire-resistant (e.g. cast iron, titanium, porcelain, stainless steel) roasting pan with water and shucked corn, cover, and place it on the cooking grate to boil. The corn should only take about 20 minutes. You’ll know it’s done when pale kernels become a gorgeous golden colour. As an alternative method, you can pre-soak your corn in the husk for 30 minutes or so, shuck it and put it right on the cooking grate. This method brings out the sweetness in the corn. Cook until golden with slight char. When it comes to local corn, Taber corn is the biggest game in the province. Find a stand near you, here.
Local steak seems like it would be easy to find because Alberta has the highest cattle inventory and the most beef production in Canada. Finding local beef, however, may require some additional time and research because of how integrated the conventional beef supply chain is. It’s easy to get Canadian beef at mainstream retailers, like Co-op, Costco, and Superstore, which the Canada Beef information gateway points out. ‘Canadian’ beef‘ is similar to a Product of Canada claim, meaning it’s 98% produced in Canada. These retailers may very well be selling local beef but unless it’s clearly marketed as such, it’s hard to be sure it’s local.
We can be sure that there are MANY local beef options to choose from if you look a little deeper. So many so that I’ll have to write another post specifically on local beef. If you have the time to plan in advance, I’ve listed three places to find local beef, from delivery boxes to whole animals, butchered and delivered at your preference. Supporting your local butchers and ranchers helps keep the arts of butchering and ranching alive, which has so many knock-on effects for biodiversity, entrepreneurship, local business ownership, and food security. Sometimes it means paying a premium, or an upfront investment. Sometimes it actually means getting more value per pound, like if you buy a whole animal. Most importantly, in my humble opinion, it helps correct the bottleneck of wealth accumulation and foreign ownership created by today’s global food system.
Alberta Beef Box is a local food box that delivers Alberta Beef to Medicine Hat, Lethbridge and Calgary.
TK Ranch has local food delivery to many communities in Alberta (even close to my tiny hamlet!) and has roadside pick-up 20 minutes east of Calgary. This is also a grass-fed and finished operation.
Spring River Cattle Co. and other operations like it are making it easier and more accessible to get good quality, local cuts at an affordable price selling, quarter, half and full cows butchered.
When shopping for steak, sirloins, striploins, rib-eyes, and tenderloins all cook up fast and juicy over an open fire.
Canadian Snacks
Here are some ideas for Canadian snacks to enjoy on the road or on the trail, or just lounging around the campground.
On the sweet side, bring local fruit and veggie options from the grocery store or farmers market, or pull over at a roadside stand this summer. Sunfresh farms brand of produce comes from an Edmonton based cooperative that delivers Alberta grown produce to grocery stores throughout the province. Tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers from Big Marble Farms are grown in Medicine Hat and sold at Sobeys and Safeway. Sadly, at my local Safeway, the living lettuce I purchased from Marble Farms was already browning one day out of the store. I don’t know how long it had to sit there to go bad when the greenhouse is just an hour away. I paid $5.29 for that lettuce, and I don’t feel like I got much value. Alternatively, I stopped at Ruben’s veggies on my way out of town the other day got a vegetable variety bag. Ruben’s sells fresh produce and other goodies like eggs in unmanned kiosks in Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Calgary and Red Deer. It was fast, easy, super fresh (even my husband noticed) and I got incredible value from their competitive pricing.
Chocolate! For S’mores! Master Chocolat is an Alberta-based business that sells fair trade options, headed by the local chocolate master himself, Bernard Callebaut.
On the saltier side, meat snacks are a huge hit on the road or on the trail. There are several Alberta-based companies offering locally sourced meats in some of their products. If you’re heading through Southern Alberta, Nossack Food Group offers a Canadian Outback line of Alberta beef jerky. They’re available in Sobey’s, IGA, and Co-op around Red Deer. We’ve all seen Big Chief Meat Snacks, available at Walmart, Amazon, and even Door Dash and Uber Eats. Did you know they are Alberta-based, family-owned and operated, and use 100% Canadian beef?
Sample Shopping List
Don’t be afraid to substitute to your preference!
Food
Salads and sides:
Berries, lettuce, walnut, goat, feta or pecorino cheese
Oil and vinegar or preferred oil-based salad dressing
Potatoes, butter (or oil), onion, garlic, salt and pepper for potato pockets
OR prepared potato salad
Prepared bean salad
Corn on the cob
Chips
Butter
Salt
Pepper
Mains:
Smokies, whole wheat buns, condiments of choice
Steak
Snacks:
Fresh fruit and veggies
Chocolate
Beef jerky
Equipment
Foil
Roasting sticks (or just find some suitable sticks at your campsite and sanitize them in the fire)
Portable BBQ, if needed, with fuel
Long tongs for pulling food out of the fire
Plates
Cutlery (forks and steak knives)
At least one large resealable container
Chip clips (or elastic bands)
Garbage bags
Napkins
Wash basin
Dish cloth
Drying towel
Dish soap
Matches, firewood and kindling
Cooler with ice or ice packs
Pro Tips
Keep all your cooking and clean-up equipment together, for example, in a Rubbermaid. Include a checklist on the top so you always have items ready and organized for your next trip.
Similarly, keep all your non-perishable food together in a bin with a lid and all your fridge foods in the cooler. A functioning food storage system is the key to easy meal prep and clean-up. There are no simple camp recipes if you can’t keep your kitchen clean and your food fresh and accessible.
You can buy reusable freezer packs and these are the best option for your cooler. If you are on a budget, you can freeze plastic water bottles in advance, really one of the few excuses to buy bottled water. You could use Earth Water’s aluminum bottles as well.
I often like the taste of a good steak with just a little salt and pepper. You could marinate the steaks before you go and pack in an air-tight container.
I do love fresh meat, but bring frozen meat if you know you won’t be eating it for at least 24 hours. It will defrost safely in the cooler. Although I do hate plastic packaging, individually wrapped, frozen steaks are very convenient for camping as they keep longer in a cooler with less chance of spillage.
Meat (and S’mores) cook better over the heat of hot coals, rather than flame. Get your fire good and hot first, let the flames die down a bit, then start your cook and maintain the fire with a log here and there.
Stock up on locally made condiments and meats throughout the year. That way you have them on hand when you’re ready to camp.
Happy trails.
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