Camping with the sun

Showing off a cheese melt with salami, home-grown tomatoes and cheese melted on top.

Photo: Tuulikki Tennant

Last weekend my friends Cindy and Tuulikki went camping north of Revelstoke. We had been planning this trip for more than a year but something always came up. I couldn't let my summer project make us postpone it again. That was one motivation for having a budget of two car rides (return) a month.

Even though we took Cindy's vehicle, this still counted as one ride. Carpooling is always better than driving alone but it still consumes fossil fuels.

View from campsite.

We had a wonderful, private campsite by the lake and within view of a stunning glacier and the iconic Frenchman's Cap peak.

Unfortunately, there is a campfire ban in place due to the extremely dry conditions. Though I couldn't have cooked over a fire, a campfire is always a treat.

As it turned out, all the meals I enjoyed were fossil-fuel free - except one coffee, which I rationalized using the pot luck rule. Cindy prepared a lovely first dinner with Greek salad and locally-made, cold sausages.

I made us cheese melts for lunch - local bread topped with salami and tomatoes from my garden with melted cheese on top. We found that putting a dark metal dish in my solar oven bowl worked well for making several sandwiches at once. They took about 20 minutes to cook and then we topped them with fresh slices of cucumber from my garden.

Raspberry smoothie.

Smoothies made from raspberries from my garden, yogurt, milk and a dash of maple syrup were a special treat. I mixed it in a nifty hand blender/food processor that I'm finding to be very useful.

The spiralizer turns any hard vegetable into spaghetti-like strands. The vegetables can be tossed with any sauce.

For dinner I made a sausage stew with almost all local ingredients: chopped onions and sausage from the farmer's market, and tomatoes and herbs from my garden from my garden. I think there was a pepper from the store. I let it all cook for about 4 hours in the solar cooker until the flavour was nice and rich. I did worry during the last hour when we had a bit of cloud cover but it was well cooked by the time we ate it.

Sausage stew and zucchini with pesto.

I served it with a spiralized zucchini dish, smothered in home-made pesto and chunks of walnuts from Cindy's tree.










For breakfast, Tuulikki prepared muesli for me. The night before she mixed oats, vanilla yogurt and dried fruit and nuts. By the next morning it was a delicious oatmeal treat.

I had my infused coffee both mornings, though I must confess that I accepted one hot coffee, cooked on the propane stove, on Sunday. Thank heavens for my potluck rule.

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On Sunday we headed up to the Keystone Valley which is always spectacular. The meadows are full of wildflowers: rhododendrons, paint brushes, asters, arnica and anenome are visible well before their usual grand display. They will be at their peak in about two weeks.

The first time I hiked in this region the flowers were at their peak the first weekend of September.

With the haze in the air from forest fires and the unseasonably early wildflowers we talk about climate change as we hike those beautiful trails.

Tuulikki and I are well covered because the horse flies and mosquitoes were

plentiful.

Photo: Cindy Pearce