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Camping, Cooking & Unexpected Traditions From Candy Sticks to Fire Smoked Biscuits and more · Family Tree Food Stories

• 0:00
  Hello everybody.
• 0:01
  This is Nancy May with Family Tree Food and Stories.
• 0:04
  Sylvia is off cooking something up or dishing it out.
• 0:09
  you gotta watch Sylvia every now and then 'cause she dishes out
• 0:11
  a lot more than she cooks up.
• 0:13
  So, Sylvia, I know that you're listening, but.
• 0:16
  just put the muffs on the ears or maybe you put the drumsticks in the
• 0:19
  ears and we'll go forward from there.
• 0:21
  But in any case, we have some really interesting guests here today.
• 0:25
  With me, we have Heather Dyer and Erin Walker.
• 0:29
  And Heather and Erin have a podcast as well called Three Kitchens Podcast.
• 0:34
  What they do in their show is they discuss with a guest,
• 0:38
  which I have been on their show.
• 0:39
  some of the favorite meals that you've made over the years
• 0:42
  and they share that recipe.
• 0:44
  Mines were mine.
• 0:45
  Mines mine was my mom's special chicken, or I also called it the birthday
• 0:51
  chicken, which I recently found out.
• 0:54
  My sister has a recipe for, and it's called Oriental Chicken, I'll stick
• 0:58
  with birthday chicken on that note.
• 1:03
  Erin and Heather, thank you so much for joining me here today.
• 1:05
  It's great to have you here on the Family Tree Food and Stories podcast.
• 1:10
  Well, thanks so much for inviting us.
• 1:11
  Thanks for having us.
• 1:12
  This was gonna be fun.
• 1:14
  We
• 1:14
  know anytime we gotta tell some stories.
• 1:17
  delicious, fun.
• 1:18
  Now I have to say that when I quizzed you both separately, you
• 1:22
  said you didn't have any food
• 1:23
  traditions.
• 1:24
  That was.
• 1:24
  Well it's kind of funny that we both said that actually.
• 1:27
  I find that fun.
• 1:29
  it was talking to you both like mirrors in two separate conversations
• 1:32
  that Did you plan this beforehand?
• 1:35
  Well, I find that, I'm going to, you.
• 1:38
  Whatever, stab a fork in that one.
• 1:40
  I think you actually do have traditions and we don't necessarily
• 1:43
  know that they're traditions.
• 1:44
  'cause there's things that have been fun that we've done over the course
• 1:47
  of our lives or that we do with our kids or our family members that, don't
• 1:51
  get recognized as true traditions.
• 1:54
  like bringing out grandma's plate always at Thanksgiving or Christmas
• 1:57
  or Easter but you all are campers.
• 2:00
  Mm-hmm.
• 2:00
  As in CAMP, like all year round camping.
• 2:04
  Hmm.
• 2:04
  Well, maybe Erin Camps year round.
• 2:06
  I
• 2:06
  I was gonna say I'll camp year round, but I know that Heather's got a hard stop.
• 2:11
  Yes.
• 2:11
  my idea of camping is at the Hilton.
• 2:14
  That's not camping.
• 2:15
  Nancy.
• 2:17
  I did camping in Girl Scouts as a kid I did that.
• 2:19
  I thank you very much.
• 2:20
  That's enough.
• 2:21
  Nope.
• 2:21
  Too many bugs, spiders, and cold and yeah, no, don't do that.
• 2:25
  but
• 2:25
  I might sleep under the stars in my front yard once.
• 2:29
  Okay.
• 2:29
  Okay.
• 2:30
  See, I have a trailer, so I like to have my nice bed.
• 2:34
  I like to, be outta the elements.
• 2:36
  I like to turn on the heat if I need it.
• 2:38
  I like to have the AC if I need it.
• 2:40
  I'm like, you know what people call glamping, which is like glamor camping.
• 2:44
  That's more my style of camping.
• 2:46
  I would join you, absolutely, Heather.
• 2:47
  yeah, so I'm there.
• 2:49
  Definitely.
• 2:50
  and then Erin, you are the hardcore, right?
• 2:52
  I mean, you are a hardcore camper.
• 2:54
  Like put your food on your back.
• 2:56
  I don't know.
• 2:56
  Is there an animal out there that puts the food on their back?
• 2:58
  I don't know.
• 2:59
  But, we'll figure it out.
• 3:00
  I like to sleep in a tent.
• 3:02
  I like to be out in the back woods.
• 3:05
  So we had a previous conversation Heather, we talked a little bit
• 3:08
  about camping and even just family trips that you have had as a kid.
• 3:13
  Let's talk about some of those because I thought that was interesting and I think
• 3:16
  a lot of us will remember childhood, I'll say excursions with parents.
• 3:22
  Parents would pack us up in the car and we'd go to Lord knows wherever.
• 3:26
  They always knew where we were going, and we would just yell, are we there yet?
• 3:30
  That's so true.
• 3:31
  Or I'm hungry.
• 3:32
  We don't know where we're going, but are we there?
• 3:34
  I just wanna be wherever it is that we're going.
• 3:37
  my parents would always pack like a load of food in the car.
• 3:40
  There was all sorts of junk food.
• 3:41
  probably the only time that we really were, I wouldn't say allowed junk
• 3:45
  food, but it was sort of the norm.
• 3:47
  The cookies, the candies, the, well probably not candies, but
• 3:50
  cookies and cakes and everything else that they could possibly stuff
• 3:52
  in there, including the fruits.
• 3:54
  But you had some other things that you did with your folks and that you remember
• 3:58
  with your siblings while out and about.
• 4:00
  Well that traveling, pulling a trailer was how my family spent
• 4:05
  summer vacations when I was a kid.
• 4:07
  And, we would load up everything in the trailer and then we had an old
• 4:11
  pickup truck that we would all pile in.
• 4:14
  And I don't remember having a lot of snacks in there, but we
• 4:17
  had books to read and games and whatever, and we would sing songs.
• 4:22
  I'm sure we drove my dad absolutely bonkers.
• 4:24
  now as the driver in my family.
• 4:27
  I can just imagine what, like that would've just driven me nuts and, 'cause
• 4:31
  my mom would join into, she was our girl guide leader and so all of three girls
• 4:35
  and my mom all sing in our girl guide songs and playing word games and punch
• 4:40
  buggy and spot and license plates.
• 4:42
  I spot like all those things that my dad just drove and I'm sure he was like, oh.
• 4:47
  he was probably the one saying, are we there yet?
• 4:51
  Give me another coffee.
• 4:53
  yeah.
• 4:53
  Where can we stop next so these kids can run around?
• 4:56
  And he didn't have noise canceling headphones, I guess.
• 4:58
  Hey.
• 4:59
  No, you got nothing.
• 5:00
  Nothing to save you.
• 5:01
  You can't even put a podcast in your ears.
• 5:02
  Like, that's what I do.
• 5:04
  when we drive, we all just listen to our own things so we're
• 5:07
  not arguing with each other.
• 5:09
  But when we stopped at different, places along the way, whether we
• 5:12
  were camping there or just pulling in for a break, my parents especially
• 5:16
  loved a good historical site.
• 5:18
  And as I'm sure there are in the US across Canada, there's loads of them.
• 5:22
  And you'd pull in, it might be a. A small little exhibit or an interpretive
• 5:27
  trail with the signs and sometimes they had where you press the button
• 5:30
  and listen to someone tell you
• 5:32
  Oh
• 5:32
  what you're looking at.
• 5:33
  Remember those interpretive
• 5:34
  like Audible today, right.
• 5:36
  Yeah.
• 5:36
  It'd be this scratchy little speaker and it would rock in 1825, so and so,
• 5:42
  you know, it would be like this fun
• 5:43
  little.
• 5:44
  Story.
• 5:44
  Oh, And you had to read every single one.
• 5:47
  You had to stop at every point.
• 5:49
  which also drives my kids crazy now that my husband and I do that too.
• 5:53
  It's like, yeah, I get it about the bird.
• 5:55
  Do we have to read about every bird?
• 5:57
  Yes, we do.
• 5:58
  and, and when we would stop at these places, often there's a little gift shop.
• 6:02
  And I don't know if you are familiar with these, but there usually was little jars
• 6:07
  filled with those sticks of hard candy.
• 6:10
  Remember, they were in different colors.
• 6:12
  They were swirled kinda like a candy cane, except they weren't a cane.
• 6:14
  They were just sticks.
• 6:16
  beer one.
• 6:16
  The root beer and the lemon.
• 6:17
  I remember.
• 6:18
  That like sticks in your mind, right?
• 6:20
  Yeah, I remember that one too.
• 6:21
  And, so we knew we were gonna stop.
• 6:23
  So we would get talking amongst ourselves, what flavor are
• 6:27
  you going to get this time?
• 6:28
  what do you wanna try be?
• 6:29
  Or maybe there was a color, but we didn't know what the flavor was.
• 6:32
  Be like, well I'm getting a blue one.
• 6:34
  'cause what?
• 6:34
  What do you think it is blueberry?
• 6:36
  Or is it like that weird thing?
• 6:38
  People call blue raspberry, but nobody actually knows what that flavor is, you
• 6:43
  it's the one you always wanted to give away to somebody else, right?
• 6:47
  Well, it looked pretty and you thought it would be good, and then
• 6:49
  you were like, oh, I should have stuck with the root beer, or whatever.
• 6:51
  The thing was, I love the cola ones, so we would have these, you know, we would plan
• 6:56
  what candy stick we were gonna get at, you know, the upcoming historical site.
• 7:02
  And that always just made it a little.
• 7:04
  Something to look forward to, something fun we didn't typically have.
• 7:08
  It's not that we didn't ever have.
• 7:09
  It's kinda like what you said, Nancy.
• 7:10
  It's not like we didn't have candy in our lives, but it wasn't like a regular
• 7:14
  Right, right.
• 7:14
  thing and that was like a whole stick.
• 7:16
  So that was like exciting and you would get it to a fine point.
• 7:20
  Try not to stab yourself.
• 7:22
  And, the cellophane wrapper somehow always managed to not get down far enough and
• 7:27
  you end up like chewing on the wrapper at
• 7:29
  You have to work it down off the thing.
• 7:33
  Yeah.
• 7:33
  It's a whole production.
• 7:34
  Yeah.
• 7:35
  So I guess I didn't realize until we got chatting about it and you asked me
• 7:39
  a bunch of questions that that actually was a tradition that we had when I
• 7:43
  was a kid on these long family trips
• 7:46
  Now you're out and about with the rv, camping with your family.
• 7:49
  Now, when you stop at roadside attractions or road stops, do you see those
• 7:55
  same sticks as well in those places?
• 7:57
  I don't know if they're even around.
• 7:58
  I.
• 7:58
  You know, I don't think that I've seen them the way we used to.
• 8:02
  Like it was like a guarantee they would have them, and I
• 8:05
  don't think we see them anymore.
• 8:07
  And when you do, it's like, oh, look at that.
• 8:09
  It makes you feel old and nostalgic, right?
• 8:11
  Definitely old.
• 8:12
  Yes.
• 8:13
  Or it always brings back a fond memory thinking, oh my gosh, I remember those.
• 8:17
  And the cola or the root beer or the lemon was my favorite.
• 8:20
  And somehow, it always dropped at the bottom of the car.
• 8:24
  Never.
• 8:25
  It never failed.
• 8:26
  Right.
• 8:26
  Ooh, yuck.
• 8:27
  So anyway,
• 8:28
  what did our moms do?
• 8:29
  Because they didn't have wet wipes to whip out of their purse.
• 8:32
  I
• 8:32
  Yeah.
• 8:32
  Just like spit on it.
• 8:35
  Why wipe it off?
• 8:37
  Well, you're just gonna have to wait until we get there and then you can clean it.
• 8:40
  or eat whatever was on the bottom of the car floor.
• 8:43
  Ooh.
• 8:44
  I mean, you're probably like, well, it's just a little dirt.
• 8:46
  My
• 8:47
  five second rule.
• 8:48
  Just.
• 8:48
  tradition.
• 8:49
  Eat dirt and move on,
• 8:51
  Well, I think
• 8:51
  that, that's the British eat dirt.
• 8:53
  and carry on.
• 8:53
  Right.
• 8:55
  So, so Aaron, you know, you've got a different kind of camping experience
• 8:58
  because you are a true, what I would call the hardcore hardy camper where
• 9:04
  you're, you're packing your beans on your back and you're going off with
• 9:07
  your tent, and you're lacing up your boots and trekking down the, the wooded
• 9:11
  trails with your bear spray, hoping that you don't find smokey along the way.
• 9:15
  That about sums it up.
• 9:16
  Yep.
• 9:16
  I, you know, I remember backpacking as a girl guide since you mentioned
• 9:20
  you were a girl guide too.
• 9:21
  And one of the trips we took was absolutely miserable.
• 9:24
  I didn't have enough layers.
• 9:25
  It started snowing.
• 9:27
  I thought to myself like, I would never do this again.
• 9:30
  But then, as my kids grew up and got a little bit older, we did go on a
• 9:34
  backpacking trip and I, I did actually get Heather out on that one too.
• 9:38
  Whoa,
• 9:38
  and, uh, three of
• 9:40
  La going camping.
• 9:42
  yeah.
• 9:42
  Heather was like, I'm never doing this again.
• 9:45
  after we did our one backpacking trip, and I thought, that sucks.
• 9:48
  I guess I'll just have to go by myself
• 9:50
  and Yeah, that's okay.
• 9:52
  To each their own, right?
• 9:53
  And so I, I told my family, well, none of my friends want a backpack with
• 9:57
  me, so I'm just gonna go by myself.
• 9:59
  No, you can't go by yourself.
• 10:00
  Mom.
• 10:01
  I can't.
• 10:01
  no.
• 10:02
  Yeah, so my oldest son was like, well, that's kind of sad.
• 10:06
  So he decided to start tagging along with me and now we've, done, I
• 10:11
  think we're coming up to our fourth.
• 10:12
  That's been just the two of us.
• 10:14
  And, yeah, so every year we plan a trip and plan our meals, and Heather's
• 10:20
  inspired me to get a food dehydrator.
• 10:22
  And so now I dehydrate my meals before we head out, which makes it
• 10:27
  a lot lighter to carry since I still have to carry the majority.
• 10:31
  My kid is not big enough yet, Take much of the weight, although I'm
• 10:36
  waiting for that growth spurt to come.
• 10:38
  Right.
• 10:38
  Just pack a little extra protein in 'em and boop, watch 'em go.
• 10:41
  Okay, Time to hike.
• 10:43
  Take the cans out.
• 10:45
  Oh no, you don't take cans.
• 10:46
  Even.
• 10:47
  I Know, that.
• 10:48
  So we've, started a wonderful tradition, just the two of us
• 10:51
  heading out into the mountains and.
• 10:52
  spending some good time together, just out in nature.
• 10:55
  And I laugh that you're singing songs and playing word games in the car.
• 11:00
  'cause that's exactly what we're doing on the trail.
• 11:02
  It's, singing songs, alphabetizing.
• 11:05
  Countries in the world or trying to come up with as many words that start with
• 11:10
  the letter A or going through and just kind of filling that space and, so far
• 11:15
  we haven't seen bears, although they have been on the trails we've been on.
• 11:21
  So maybe we're just really good at not looking out into the forest,
• 11:25
  just
• 11:25
  being noisy enough that they, beers are like, oh my god, humans run.
• 11:29
  well,
• 11:30
  of those.
• 11:30
  Once they're not so tasty.
• 11:31
  oh, you do have to keep that chatter.
• 11:34
  Something going.
• 11:35
  A little bit of noise.
• 11:36
  Right.
• 11:37
  I'm not totally ignorant of the woods, but I I do get it.
• 11:40
  Yeah.
• 11:40
  So you both mentioned that you were girl guides here in the States.
• 11:44
  They are, called Girl Scouts and camping is a big deal in the Girl Scout and I'm
• 11:49
  presuming Girl Guide, experience as well.
• 11:51
  One of the things that I remember is, it was as primitive as you
• 11:54
  could get as far as camping for Girl Scouts, platform tents kind of thing.
• 11:58
  And you built the fire and, the whole nine yards.
• 12:00
  But one of the things that we were, told about was how to make those fires and,
• 12:05
  and how to make the food good on a fire.
• 12:08
  including buns and burners and making all your things.
• 12:10
  And then, I think they called them po boys, where you'd take a, like
• 12:13
  a hot dog in your rappa, a piece of dough around it, and then stick
• 12:17
  it on a stick or things like that.
• 12:18
  So it was kind of inventive cooking, I would say.
• 12:21
  Not something I would normally eat at home, but.
• 12:23
  Did you do things like that in your girl guide experience that you now
• 12:28
  have maybe even brought forward today that Oh yeah, I remember doing that.
• 12:33
  We can do that today.
• 12:34
  Hmm.
• 12:34
  Well, I remember doing things like.
• 12:36
  putting an empty tin can upside down over that bunsen burner, which
• 12:41
  we had made.
• 12:42
  Remember you made the bunsen burners, the little cardboard and wax with
• 12:45
  a wick, and you'd make that, and then you'd put the can over it
• 12:48
  and you'd make pancake on the top.
• 12:50
  Like it would just big enough
• 12:51
  Just to pick it up for a
• 12:52
  one
• 12:54
  Yeah.
• 12:54
  And it was so much work.
• 12:56
  Like when I think back at like, that was just a. Activity that you got.
• 13:00
  These kids, the adults were like, okay, what could we do to kill a couple hours?
• 13:04
  Well, one pancake at a time.
• 13:06
  Ladies, you are making your little,
• 13:08
  right.
• 13:09
  our leaders are probably taking shots in the backwoods behind us,
• 13:12
  were just counting down to what's the next thing we got them doing because you know,
• 13:17
  it was a lot of kids and a lot of time.
• 13:19
  Spend out there without, I mean, at the time when we didn't have any electronic
• 13:22
  anything and so you had to come up with something for all of us little kids to do.
• 13:28
  Right.
• 13:29
  So I don't think that's something I would do now.
• 13:32
  That to me feels like a lot of work for not a lot of reward.
• 13:35
  well, you got a camper, so you probably have a microwave in your camper.
• 13:38
  So therefore you can cook them all up, put them in the freezer or put
• 13:42
  put 'em in the toaster later on.
• 13:43
  Toaster oven, and you're all set.
• 13:44
  Well, I certainly cook over the fire when we camp.
• 13:47
  we camp outside.
• 13:48
  We sleep inside.
• 13:49
  Okay.
• 13:50
  So.
• 13:50
  Yeah, I don't think I learned any great cooking skills from the girl guides, I
• 13:56
  didn't particularly love the girl guides growing up, but like I love to cook over
• 14:01
  the fire and I love to play with the fire while also trying to cook food.
• 14:07
  I can be on fire duty for hours and hours and just try to get, the
• 14:13
  perfect fire to cook, a piece of meat or to slow cook something or
• 14:18
  to try and make breads and create an oven out of your campfire pit, or,
• 14:24
  So let me ask you about that.
• 14:25
  Have you actually made bread in a campfire oven pit?
• 14:30
  You have.
• 14:31
  So how do you go about doing that?
• 14:32
  Because that sounds like pioneer times.
• 14:34
  I, I mean, seriously, this is heavy duty
• 14:37
  it's fun though.
• 14:38
  It's.
• 14:39
  When we think about making biscuits, you don't need it to be in there super
• 14:43
  long, but you need it at at a high heat.
• 14:45
  And that's something I feel like is reasonably easy to achieve
• 14:49
  in a
• 14:49
  fire.
• 14:50
  Yes, I would think so.
• 14:51
  Right.
• 14:51
  The only thing that's hard is that your fire heat is coming
• 14:54
  from below and in an oven, you want it to kind of be all around.
• 14:57
  And so what we fashioned up was, if you think about the campfire
• 15:01
  pits, they have that grate on top.
• 15:03
  Uhhuh.
• 15:04
  It opens and closes.
• 15:06
  So we put a piece of tinfoil up there and moved a bunch of the coals up on top of it
• 15:11
  so that it made this little enclosed base with coals below and then the coals above
• 15:17
  and you just slip your little pan in there
• 15:19
  and,
• 15:20
  they worked great.
• 15:20
  They were delicious.
• 15:22
  This was a, this was not the hike in camping trip, so we did another camping.
• 15:26
  weekend where I had my trailer, Erin had her tents.
• 15:29
  We were in this campground together, with some other friends
• 15:32
  too, a couple other families.
• 15:34
  And we planned a big menu.
• 15:35
  We have a whole podcast episode about it.
• 15:37
  Anyone who would like to,
• 15:38
  listen.
• 15:38
  It's called Cook.
• 15:39
  in the episode notes Yeah.
• 15:41
  Yeah.
• 15:41
  With Fire.
• 15:43
  Yeah.
• 15:43
  And we had a, a setup where we cooked a long, skirt steak we threaded it over
• 15:49
  a stick and had it above the flame.
• 15:52
  So we tried that method of flame cooking, the, thin cut of meat.
• 15:56
  we roasted a whole chicken again.
• 15:58
  It was the same kind of thing where it was under a lid with heat,
• 16:02
  Yes.
• 16:02
  around, I think it was kind of heat on one or two sides, and we had to
• 16:05
  just sort of move the chicken a bit to
• 16:07
  Yeah, we took the fire outside of the fire pitch, don't tell anyone.
• 16:11
  and we cooked the chicken beside the fire pit where we had like
• 16:14
  our main source of fire going
• 16:16
  And then we also have, I have a, campfire Dutch oven.
• 16:20
  So it's a cast iron dutch oven that has legs
• 16:23
  and a lid.
• 16:24
  And what you do is put, your coals, usually I use briquettes like
• 16:28
  barbecue briquettes when I, use it.
• 16:30
  And so you heat them up and you put a certain number on the bottom
• 16:33
  and you put a certain number on top and that creates an oven.
• 16:36
  And we did roasted vegetables that for that camping trip in there.
• 16:39
  It works perfectly, but I've also baked cake in that.
• 16:43
  Um, yeah, because it's what it's for.
• 16:45
  It's an oven, so it, I mean, it works so great and you can find all kinds of
• 16:49
  information online telling you how many briquettes for whatever temperature,
• 16:53
  so you don't really have to guess.
• 16:55
  Wow,
• 16:56
  maybe, I think it's like say, let's say eight or nine.
• 16:59
  On top and 10 on the bottom and you've got three 50 degrees Fahrenheit, roughly,
• 17:03
  which is what you need for a cake.
• 17:05
  that's amazing.
• 17:06
  somebody has figured it out and made it really easy and it works perfectly.
• 17:10
  And if you line the pot first, all you do is pull that out, eat
• 17:14
  whatever your, and you don't even really have to clean your pot ' cause
• 17:17
  So you line it with a foil or something like that
• 17:19
  Yeah.
• 17:19
  Like
• 17:20
  a, you know, like, um.
• 17:22
  or parchment
• 17:23
  Parchment paper or an aluminum foil pan that fits into it works like a charm.
• 17:28
  And it worked great with those vegetables that we roasted to have with
• 17:30
  our chicken and steak and biscuits.
• 17:32
  It was, yeah, that
• 17:34
  I'm gonna have to go out and get my charcoal briquettes and try that
• 17:36
  But there's a whole nother story besides camping because we think of
• 17:40
  camping today is, you know, it's posh compared to probably, olden days.
• 17:44
  camping.
• 17:45
  And Heather, you grew up on a farm
• 17:48
  Yes.
• 17:49
  and did you grow up on a farm too, Erin?
• 17:50
  No.
• 17:51
  But I wanted to get back to the farm because camping gives you
• 17:55
  that sort of sense of a little bit more organic life, right.
• 17:58
  even if you are glam camping, it's not like you can just, run down
• 18:02
  the hall to the kitchen and then press a button and voila it's done.
• 18:06
  Not that going to the kitchen and voila, it's done.
• 18:08
  Actually happens.
• 18:10
  But you can still, right.
• 18:12
  But I going to the grocery store, for you, I'm gonna say was.
• 18:16
  Going out back and seeing what chicken mom's going to lop off the head
• 18:21
  on, which is a little bit closer to our, our food than we're used to.
• 18:26
  Can you share a little bit of those stories about what you remember as
• 18:30
  a child growing up on the farm and, how it impacted your life today in
• 18:35
  maybe appreciating food differently?
• 18:37
  Or maybe you don't, I don't know.
• 18:39
  Well, my mom always had a very large garden.
• 18:41
  Like, I don't know what the measurements would be, but
• 18:44
  probably bigger than my city lot
• 18:47
  Oh, so it's a small field.
• 18:48
  very large, garden behind the house.
• 18:51
  Like it was, uh, it was a job, And, it all, the whole family was involved in
• 18:56
  growing food and, my mom canned, froze.
• 19:01
  Stored in the ground.
• 19:02
  We had like a, like where the, well the, I don't know what you
• 19:05
  call it,
• 19:06
  they call it, a root seller,
• 19:09
  the, water well had kind of a little lean-to building around the
• 19:12
  motor or whatever, I don't know.
• 19:14
  and anyway, it had a little door on it, this little lean-to sort of thing, and
• 19:17
  you open the door and my dad, or maybe the prior owner, I'm not sure, had dug,
• 19:21
  there was like a cellar under there, so it was a dirt cellar, underwear, the.
• 19:24
  Um, the water well, came up and all the potatoes and onions and
• 19:28
  carrots and like root vegetables were put underground for the winter.
• 19:31
  And so every so often you'd be sent out with a bag or a
• 19:34
  bucket go, I need some potatoes.
• 19:36
  Go fill up the, you'd have to go out there and like
• 19:39
  climb down.
• 19:40
  I think there was a ladder, if I remember, into the dirt.
• 19:43
  Hole in the ground where all there was a pile of potatoes and a pile of
• 19:46
  carrots and they were just underground.
• 19:49
  And so we'd go and get them and And my mom had two.
• 19:52
  I always say my mom, because she did all the cooking and it was
• 19:54
  the garden was like her thing.
• 19:56
  Although my dad was also obviously, put to work in it as well, but
• 20:00
  they had two large chest freezers.
• 20:03
  In the basement in our utility room.
• 20:05
  And so they were packed.
• 20:07
  Like we'd be shelling peas for days to bag 'em all up and freeze
• 20:11
  'em for the winter and I don't know, corn, cauliflower, broccoli.
• 20:16
  I don't know.
• 20:16
  My mom could grow all the things and it was a lot of work.
• 20:19
  But then, obviously we went to the grocery store.
• 20:22
  We were not living remotely.
• 20:24
  We lived, seven kilometers from town.
• 20:26
  So close by, went to the grocery store, just, like anybody else.
• 20:30
  But I don't remember really shopping the produce section a whole bunch
• 20:34
  Now your produce was probably a lot nicer than what you would get in the grocery
• 20:37
  stores today anyway, or back then because, it was done because you, you wanted to
• 20:42
  do it or your parents wanted to do it.
• 20:44
  So it was a different kind of love and care that went into.
• 20:47
  To growing, food that they could feed their family with, I would imagine,
• 20:51
  Yeah, and I feel like, as an adult, so then I, left home after high school and
• 20:56
  I start doing my own grocery shopping, and I feel like I had a good handle on
• 20:59
  grocery shopping the rest of the store
• 21:02
  Then I I had no, no concept of what produce costs.
• 21:05
  I didn't really know how to choose produce.
• 21:08
  I was buying, it was like a whole new thing to learn.
• 21:11
  I was like, mom, you didn't prepare me for how to shop for vegetables,
• 21:16
  to this day I still do not know how to select a steak.
• 21:18
  I just don't buy beef then, you know, other than burgers.
• 21:21
  'cause I just don't know how to do it.
• 21:22
  So it's one of those things.
• 21:24
  I totally agree.
• 21:24
  It's our parents don't always teach us how to shop the grocery store, but then
• 21:29
  they show us how to do everything else.
• 21:31
  or they show us how to shop for the things they like to shop for, right?
• 21:34
  And then you get out on your own and you're like, oh, but I actually want to
• 21:37
  go check out that section over there.
• 21:39
  Or maybe you didn't have that Asian section or the Middle Eastern section, or,
• 21:43
  I mean, we didn't have that kind of stuff.
• 21:44
  In a small town, so it's been fun as an adult to explore
• 21:48
  all the things that you like.
• 21:49
  You were, didn't even know were out there.
• 21:51
  But Erin, you have a, different type of, you grew up more as a city girl.
• 21:54
  Yeah, I grew up in the city.
• 21:56
  We would go away and camp on the weekends.
• 21:58
  And that's that's what I loved.
• 22:00
  I loved being outside around a fire.
• 22:02
  It was never anything super fantastic that we would cook, but just to
• 22:06
  cook around and over a fire and
• 22:09
  Do you find that the food that you've cooked over the fire, while camping are
• 22:12
  different than the meals that you might.
• 22:14
  Actually have with family in a regular house kitchen.
• 22:18
  We, did camp for 43 days,
• 22:22
  Ooh.
• 22:22
  and that was a long stretch.
• 22:24
  We were just car camping out of our tents.
• 22:26
  It wasn't good God in the back country or anything like that, but you get
• 22:30
  pretty comfortable just cooking what you would regularly cook stews,
• 22:35
  So not much different.
• 22:36
  It's just, a matter of the time, probably the time and the preparation
• 22:39
  that it takes to do, which is a little different because you don't have.
• 22:42
  Well, you don't have the dishwasher
• 22:44
  I don't have, a
• 22:44
  dishwasher anyway,
• 22:46
  Okay.
• 22:46
  All right.
• 22:48
  but,
• 22:48
  that.
• 22:49
  No, she, she likes it that way.
• 22:50
  She's, she prefers she doesn't have a microwave or a dishwasher.
• 22:54
  Probably some other things too that.
• 22:56
  I mean, my favorite thing to come back home to was having a
• 22:59
  washing machine, because after 42
• 23:01
  days of washing your own clothes and everybody else's,
• 23:04
  that, that's enough for me.
• 23:05
  Yeah.
• 23:06
  Dirty underwear,
• 23:07
  to, to cook outside and all the time, I don't know.
• 23:11
  It's, if you make it simple, it's not so hard.
• 23:15
  Keep it simple.
• 23:15
  I mean, you're not doing any long cooks.
• 23:17
  I missed not baking bread like a loaf of bread ' cause I have a consistent
• 23:22
  loaf of bread that I like to bake.
• 23:24
  But you know, once you get used to it, it's amazing how fast and simple
• 23:28
  you can make things without it being too complicated and just kind of
• 23:33
  washing the dishes as you go because things take a little bit more time.
• 23:36
  You do it in stages and.
• 23:38
  I don't know.
• 23:38
  There's nothing else to worry about.
• 23:39
  It's only, you only have to worry about what you're cooking.
• 23:42
  What am I going to eat today?
• 23:43
  How do I want to eat?
• 23:44
  are we gonna hike somewhere?
• 23:45
  Are we gonna go do something?
• 23:47
  What food do I need?
• 23:48
  And those are your, only concerns.
• 23:49
  You can
• 23:50
  just, and be outside.
• 23:51
  That's, I think, the best part of, of camping or, or being outdoors, is all
• 23:56
  you're worried about is just what you need to do in a day to keep yourself fed.
• 24:01
  I find that when we go camping, it's the only time I
• 24:05
  actually effectively meal plan.
• 24:07
  Really?
• 24:08
  Some people are very good at like planning for the week and what
• 24:12
  are they going to eat every day, and then shopping accordingly.
• 24:15
  I fly by the seat of my pants almost every single day for.
• 24:18
  Every meal.
• 24:19
  And it's fine.
• 24:20
  I've just accepted that that's who I am.
• 24:22
  And I, I have tried to be better organized and I'm just not.
• 24:26
  but you can't get away with that when you're at a campground.
• 24:29
  Even if there happens to be a store somewhere nearby who wants
• 24:33
  to do that when they're camping?
• 24:35
  You don't wanna be going to the grocery store.
• 24:36
  You want to have everything there that you need.
• 24:39
  And so I actually do plan out every day, every meal.
• 24:42
  prep things ahead, marinate meat, put it in the freezer, maybe vacuum
• 24:46
  seal some stuff, or dry thing.
• 24:49
  Dehydrate things for like, you know, trail mix or make up granola, make up pancake
• 24:54
  mix, like, you know, pre-mix the dry stuff together so that you can just whip up some
• 24:58
  pancakes and I actually really enjoy it.
• 25:00
  I don't know why it's not part of my.
• 25:02
  Life at home, but I really enjoy that.
• 25:04
  Okay.
• 25:04
  We're going camping in two weeks and I sit down with my notebook and I
• 25:07
  start making lists, and I think Erin's actually got a spreadsheet that she uses.
• 25:12
  No, you don't.
• 25:13
  Somebody we know does.
• 25:14
  I remember having a conversation
• 25:15
  we know does.
• 25:16
  I love making my notebook list.
• 25:19
  I just completed mine for our camping
• 25:21
  trip
• 25:21
  this year, so,
• 25:22
  did you?
• 25:22
  so,
• 25:23
  So
• 25:23
  there's a new tradition.
• 25:25
  It's not necessarily food related, but it, it is in a way good.
• 25:28
  Is, it's part of the, the preparation of, and the anticipation of the
• 25:32
  joy that's gonna happen afterwards.
• 25:34
  And, I would say probably the, I'm not a camper, but.
• 25:37
  I take my dog out on long walks in the morning in the cold.
• 25:40
  It's, it's not as cold as Canada, but it was 41 down here this
• 25:43
  morning, and that's pretty cold from Florida, so, 41 Fahrenheit at
• 25:46
  Celsius, so that was pretty chilly.
• 25:48
  But still, I get it.
• 25:49
  it's sort of the, uh, the setup for what you wanna do later on
• 25:53
  so that you can truly enjoy it.
• 25:54
  and that's important.
• 25:56
  It's part of the adventure of it.
• 25:58
  I don't know.
• 25:59
  It's part of the whole thing.
• 26:00
  And when we did camp together and we did that big meal that was extra fun
• 26:05
  because we were planning recipes, things we hadn't done before.
• 26:08
  Erin had not made biscuits.
• 26:09
  in the oven of the fire.
• 26:11
  Before, we hadn't done a whole chicken, we hadn't done a steak that way.
• 26:14
  We, you know, so we were like planning new, fun things.
• 26:18
  And then we spent like the whole afternoon around that fire, our husbands
• 26:22
  were joking that we looked like a cove of witches standing over the fire.
• 26:26
  And it was kind of cold that day.
• 26:28
  So we had hoods,
• 26:29
  like hoodies on.
• 26:30
  and blankets and
• 26:31
  Yeah,
• 26:31
  and we were around the fire, you know, poking at the coals and
• 26:34
  whatever, and they were in the, at the next campsite watching us.
• 26:36
  Like, what?
• 26:37
  A bunch of weirdos over in there.
• 26:40
  But it's fun.
• 26:40
  It's part of it.
• 26:41
  it was a coven of good dishes.
• 26:43
  they didn't complain.
• 26:44
  Once the food was served,
• 26:45
  we'll
• 26:45
  yeah.
• 26:46
  I think that's great.
• 26:47
  I love this the whole story of, the camping and the simplicity, yet the
• 26:51
  amount of detail and planning that needs to go into it to make that time of life.
• 26:56
  Special.
• 26:57
  Whether it's from the early days that you had Heather of just remembering,
• 27:01
  the root cellar and what was going on your mom planned and what had to go on
• 27:05
  going forward and the root beer or the, cola sticks, the candies that happened.
• 27:10
  I think that the simplest little things that we forget about.
• 27:13
  Are the moments that we cherish the mo the most when we actually look back.
• 27:17
  And the same thing for you, Erin.
• 27:19
  the camping and the stories of what to do in a more, raw setting with your
• 27:24
  son who is now learning to appreciate a different type relationship with
• 27:28
  nature in the woods and, food.
• 27:30
  So on that note.
• 27:32
  wanna thank you both for being here with me today to talk about traditions.
• 27:35
  You may not even know that you have them, but you really do, They don't
• 27:39
  have to be, like I said, bringing out grandma's dish for Thanksgiving or
• 27:43
  Christmas or any special holidays.
• 27:45
  It can be just a special moment in a memory that makes you smile
• 27:49
  and gives you a chance to pause and maybe even wash a dish or two
• 27:53
  without the dishwasher at your side.
• 27:55
  It is always good once in a while to get your hands in the dish water, right?
• 27:58
  Yeah, it's a, it's a time to stop and reflect and I think that's important.
• 28:02
  So on that note, thank you both for being here with me.
• 28:05
  I appreciate your time, and your storytelling at Family
• 28:08
  Tree Food and Stories.
• 28:09
  So.
• 28:10
  you for having us, Nancy.
• 28:11
  It's been a joy.
• 28:12
  Yes.
• 28:13
  Thank you.
• 28:13
  With that note, please remember as Sylvia and I always say that every meal
• 28:17
  has a story and every story is a feast.
• 28:20
  And that is certainly the case here with both Erin Walker and Heather Dyer.
• 28:24
  I'm gonna put that one in a blooper.
• 28:25
  Take care.
• 28:26
  Be well, and we'll see you at the next table.
• 28:29
  Bye-bye.