Getting to the bottom of trail mix packaging
I mix my own GORP (Good Old Raisins and Peanuts). Not so much for cost savings as for content control; less salt, less sugar, more nut meat, less cheap filler. My winter trail mix includes much more than raisins and peanuts. I include six kinds of nuts & seeds, dried apricot pieces, dried blueberries, raisins, and one cheat sweet, the raisins are yogurt dipped.
I always make more trail mix than I need for upcoming outings because I buy consumer packaging quantities of each ingredient. All too often, by the time I get around to eating it all, some has gone rancid. Nuts are great fresh, but rancid nut oils will turn your stomach and turn up your nose! Just a few rancid nuts taint everything in the mix with them. Oxygen destroys freshness, with time, even in the freezer. Obviously, it’s very important to select fresh ingredients for your favorite mix.
The air tight Mylar pouch above holds three quarter-pound servings of my winter mix inside sandwich-size resealable bags left unzipped inside the sealed Mylar storage pouch. Each bag holds 550 calories of good stuff, that’s more than 1600 calories of winter camping belly warmth in one 8″ x 8″ Mylar pouch that stores just as well in a kitchen cabinet as in a freezer.
The heat sealed Mylar pouch (I use a clothing iron) holds three day-servings. The oxygen absorber inside each resealable bag keeps the nut meats fresh in storage. I remove the bags of mix from the Mylar pouch and pull out the oxygen absorbing packets before I travel to my outdoor destination. I minimize packaging before going into the field.
I have one sealed pouch leftover, the last of a seven pound batch I mixed last July. The mix is still fresh after nearly a year in storage in a kitchen cabinet, inside a plastic snap-closure tub. This is a great solution for die-hard trail snack lovers. Total packaging cost was about 44 cents per Mylar pouch of three bags of mix, each with an oxygen absorbing packet inside. I saved money on ingredients buying in quantity, reduced waste, and kept myself fat and happy in the great outdoors. Now, where to go out into the wilds to finish off my last pouch? Maybe a three-day tarp trek into Cranberry Wilderness, WV, a recovering wilderness area in the southern Monongahela, an old favorite only a half-day drive away.
Tom Bain, Outdoor Readiness