Provisioning for two weeks; No fridge and no wheat or grain.

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I'm of on my summer cruise in a few weeks and this time I am planning on going quite remote; St Kilda & Outer Hebrides. I will be stocking up from local shops as and when I can and also hoping be trailing a fishing line so hopefully catch fish.

However as I am planning on going quite remote I want to stock up with base provisions to cover the full 18 days before I set off; if I don't eat it whilst I'm away I can eat it when @ home.

Normally & historically these base provisions have been in the form of tinned meals; tinned macaroni, couscous, etc along with porridge.

However over the last year or so, I am increasingly intolerant of wheat / gluten, and grain.

The normal wisdom I have used when cruising is to attempt to recreate your shore diet when away off sailing. This would be good, but my diet at home is all fresh meat, fresh veg and fish (actually quite a pleasant diet, but that's not for todays discussion).

Now I could fill the boat with SPAM, tins of veg and tinned tuna but I suspect this would get weary by day two.

So, can I get your recipes & provisioning ideas please? Whilst I do not have a coolbox or fridge on board, I am going quite far north so the under bunk lockers should be a constant 10-12'C but that won't keep chicken edible for long.
 
You can cook almost anything you like at home and store it for later if you add it to a sealed container such as a kilner jar. Make sure the jar is sterile (put in oven at 70c) and add the food while hot (you can boil while in jar). Alternatively seal in foodsafe bag and boil. These should keep indefinitely.

There are lots of dried things and there are other ways to preserve. Cured meat will last months, bacon etc as long as you recognise mould as of little importance. Take rice and pasta. Spuds last well as do carrots etc if stored well. Smoked fish will even keep well. If you have a Cobb BBQ then you can smoke things on this if you get into some mackerel.

There are premade meals, M&S tins are best and the 'look what we've found' bags from tesco. There was a whole thread about them recently.
 
For three weeks you should be able to carry most fresh veg that you want. Lakeland sell some 'green' plastic bags that extend the life of fruit and veg considerably. Beef, bacon,cured meats will keep well too, just use your sense if it goes green and starts to smell! Eggs will easily last two weeks in your enviroment. Take a fishing line and a crab pot. Don't think you are likely to starve with that lot in your locker!
 
I have never tried it (my preferred cruising area is chosen on the basis of never being more than a day's sail from a good French restaurant) but a yachtswoman I once knew told me that she used freeze-dried food when sailing. She claimed it was very nourishing and didn't need to be kept in a fridge.

Might be worth investigating.
 
You can make hummus, take cans of chickpeas, tahini sauce, garlic and olive oil
bottled white asparagus or canned vegetables
canned tuna, salmon, chicken etc
root vegetables last long:Carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic, etc
cured meats
the dukan diet shop has some noodles made of protein ( no no wheat or gluten)

Hope it helps
 
I was pleasantly suprised that the vacuum packed pork fillet which had been on the boat all last week with little or no chilling was still viable when I cooked it last night.
I was expecting to sniff and chuck it.
A pack of chicken breasts wouldn't have kept the same and we use the pork instead of chicken for curries/fajhita kits etc.
Some of the time there was ice in the cool box but it wasn't so warm that we were keen to top it up.
 
Might be worth reading Annie Hills comments in Voyaging on a Small Income. As I mentioned in the other thread, a friend preserves stew in kilner jars and just tried one after two years stored. Very good. Had to boil it to get the lid off, so the seal was sound... In the s/markets here, there are quite good cassouletes and duck confits. Use the duck fat to fry sliced spuds for a truly good meal. These are what I am going to use for my voyage next year in a very small boat.
 
If you're passing Barra, visit the seafood processing plant which Barratlantic run at north bay. Loads of tasty fresh fish & seafood, good prices, and diesel too. :-)
 
You may be pleasantly surprised by the availability of places to eat out. Canna has a lovely little cafe/restaurant now, locally caught lobster on the menu. New marina at Lochmaddy giving access to various options. Leverburgh has the Anchorage restaurant.
Self sufficiency is a choice, not a necessity (well, except for St Kilda perhaps...)
 
I did a two week trip last year without a fridge on the boat.

I used textured vegetable protein cubes from a health shop as a meat substitute. These are dried cubes which are soaked in water before use. Made a very good curry and lasts for ever. I still have some left over a year later and it's fine.

Uncle ben's pre-cooked rice also worked very well, requiring very little water and heat to cook.

I made dylia's rich fruit cake before I left. Just finished the last bit last week and it was perfect. I kept it wrapped in grease proof paper.

UHT skimmed milk worked fine too.

Finally, I have no oven on board, but found a recipe for bread using a pressure cooker, or any pot would have done. Came out fine and was great with jam. You will need a heat disperser between the flame and the pot, which you can buy for a few quid on ebay.




Gitane.
 
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There are loads of different tinned foods & whole meals, tinned ham, crab, chicken, stews, sausages, curries, pies, bacon & ham will keep long enough, then there is rice, pasta, spuds, lentils & humous which will all keep for a while.

Onions & eggs will keep for a fortnight, fresh veg & fruit will keep for several days but will be hard to buy fresh in the islands, tinned tomatoes, peas, beans (haricot, green & broad), mushrooms, etc. You can get rice biscuits & crackers that last well & can replace bread. Vacuum packed kippers, pate & mackerel will easily last a fortnight.

I think Iceland are selling Vesta dried meals again, an ideal stand-by to have in a locker in case of emergency.

The only problem I see is that your imagination is limiting your choices.
 
Gitane said:
I did a two week trip last year without a fridge on the boat.

I used textured vegetable protein cubes from a health shop as a meat substitute. These are dried cubes which are soaked in water before use. Made a very good curry and lasts for ever. I still have some left over a year later and it's fine.

Uncle ben's pre-cooked rice also worked very well, requiring very little water and heat to cook.

I made dylia's rich fruit cake before I left. Just finished the last bit last week and it was perfect. I kept it wrapped in grease proof paper.

UHT skimmed milk worked fine too.

Finally, I have no oven on board, but found a recipe for bread using a pressure cooker, or any pot would have done. Came out fine and was great with jam. You will need a heat disperser between the flame and the pot, which you can buy for a few quid on ebay.




Gitane.
Click to expand...
Many of the meat substitutes actually use gluten quite heavily so assuming the OP isn't just going for a trendy diet they won't be suitable at all, so thorough research will be needed for these since labelling isn't a requirement.
 
lustyd said:
If it says gluten free then that may be true, but I believe the act of writing gluten free or contains gluten is still voluntary so many foods are simply left unlabelled.
Click to expand...

According to the Coeliac UK website it must be labelled:
"All packaged food in the UK and the EU is covered by a law on allergen labelling. This means you can tell from an ingredients list whether a product contains gluten or not."
 
PhilS said:
According to the Coeliac UK website it must be labelled:
"All packaged food in the UK and the EU is covered by a law on allergen labelling. This means you can tell from an ingredients list whether a product contains gluten or not."
Click to expand...

I'm Coeliac as well as dairy and chickpea(!!) allergic. One gets very good at at studying labels but there's plenty out there. Rice and potatoes are safe carb sources. Check soup and curry tins , there's a few out there which are gf, never assume anything will be gf unless you check. Theres a few things which are probably GF but labelled as not guaranteed to be GF .. depends on the extent of your reaction. What you may find is that reactions to gluten start to become more extreme when you inadvertantly ingest it when going GF .. it certainly did for me. Good luck. ON the bad luck side beer generally contains gluten.


As a post script, get checked for coeliac before going GF otherwise they won't be able to test properly.
 
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I'm not sure about the gluten free part, but Diet Chef (google them) create very tasty packet meals which keep for months and which can be heated in a pan in minutes. Great for eating on the move with no fridge.
 
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