Letters to My Readers: Camp Food (Part 2)

August 21, 2006

Dear readers,

This camp is so cool! And the food is just as cool, it is definitely not what most people describe as "camp food" it is mostly vegetarian, all made from scratch right there in the kitchen, and quite a lot of it is made from the garden which is right next to the kitchen.

At camp I have done many fun things, I have played with the animals, gone hiking, gone swimming, ridden the horses, played games like capture the flag and dipped candles. Doing all of those athletic activities really works up a big appetite in all 35 junior and 27 senior campers, so there are always at least a few cooks and helpers in the kitchen at all times.

At camp there are many animals, three goats and four goat kids, three cows and three calves, five horses, some baby turkeys, a bunch of chickens, two kittens, a dog, and a cat. I had "horse chore" (I fed the horses at night) and "goat chore" (I milked the mama goats into bottles and fed the milk to the babies so they become more dependent on the humans) and the animal chores are always the best chores. In goat chore I got to drink some of the goat milk and it was really cool I just squirted it directly into my mouth, the milk was very different from cow milk, it was nice and warm, a little salty but also very sweet and deliciously creamy.

At camp we go on three hiking/backpacking trips, one for two days/one night, one for three days/two nights, and one for four days/three nights. On those hikes we have to carry all of our food, cooking utensils and clothes/bedding, so when the helpers pack for the hikes they pack food that is easy to make, healthy, light but quite tasty, for example one night we had stir fry with rice, green and red sweet peppers, and tofu. For one breakfast we had pancakes from a homemade just add water mix that was surprisingly good.

Some of the best foods at camp are the bread, which is made right at camp and the blueberry muffins, which are made from the blueberries grown on the blueberry bushes in the garden. The bread is made with whole-wheat flour and is a bit dense and chewy, but moist and really delicious. The blueberry muffins are made with so many blueberries that you almost get more blueberries than muffin in each bite. The muffins are slightly sweet and the fresh berries make them especially good.

Some of the other foods at camp are the delicious chocolate zucchini cake with homemade icing. The cake was moist and there was a subtle zucchini flavor. I also like the enchilada casserole, which has beans, veggies, cheese, tortilla, rice, and Mexican spices and flavorings. I like it because the cheese is baked and melted over the top making it crunchy, and the tortilla absorbs the juices of all the beans and vegetables and gets to be slightly soggy but very delicious.

One morning I got to help out with garden chore and it was really fun because we just sat around, peeling garlic, snapping peas and talking about what happened on our hikes.

Camp is really fun and the food is just as good! I can’t wait to see what we are having for supper!

Yours truly,

Isis

Isis (not her real name) is fourteen years old and is really interested in food because her dad is a good cook. She was practically raised in a Vietnamese restaurant, and as a baby ate her first solid foods there, which were rice noodles. She tries most foods that are offered to her and her parents urge her to also. For example, when she was 7 years old, she was at a French restaurant and her parents were having snails and they easily talked her into trying them. They ended up being pretty good! Isis takes ballet, plays soccer, sings in a choir, and loves to travel. Isis went to Italy for two weeks and when she came back she went on and on about the food, especially the gelato. Isis thinks that if you are going to eat, why not eat well if you can? There seems to be no reason not to.

Email questions or comments for these two young women to webmaster@drgourmet.com.