Food Provisions for Travel

This article is the abridged version of an excerpt from "A Borderless Guide to Provinces" by Glace Marten.

Chapter 1: Supplies

Section 3: Food for Travelling

A Borderless must always have food available on their person. Some Provinces may not have immediately accessible food, whether it be for monetary reasons, distrust among locals, or a simple lack of supplies. Food and water are two items that you need to keep well-stocked and refresh it as often as you can. In this section, we'll be talking about common types of food, preservation methods, eating healthy while travelling, and value to calorie ratio.

Common Food and Drink

It's easier to get bulk food items to travel with, as they're cheaper in bulk and you'll often need more than you think you will if you are as bad at rationing as I was my first year of travel. Some popular foods that keep for long periods of time and are also easy and cheap to obtain are preserved meat such as jerky, dried fruits, honey, molasses, rice, salt, pepper, and some types of tea (obviously depending on what the ingredients are). Other good food for travel are nuts, bread, cheeses (though these don't keep for a long time, they do make a good snack!), and dried beans and dried pasta. In some Provinces you might find that their technology has developed better and their preservation methods leave a lot more food for you to choose from, but these are the basics that tend to be found everywhere.

Water is always going to be your best bet. It keeps forever and is essential to living. However, if you fancy something more tasty on your travels, spirits, liquor, and wine will keep well. If you run out of water, you can usually find it somewhere nearby; water is nearly everywhere. Your first thought may be to find a river and drink, but beware! Not all water sources are safe. Boiling the water, filtering it through with a fine-woven cloth, or creating your own water filter with a chunk of pine stuck firmly inside a tube are all viable ways to drink safely. If you have no way to do any of these, you want to search for the freshest water source; springs, inside fruits and trees, and collecting rain are all good fall backs. Do not, under any circumstance except certain death, drink from a puddle. You might not die from dehydration, but you will certainly wish you had while your stomach begins to wage a war against the Divines.

Preservation

Drying

One of the easiest ways to preserve foods from anywhere is by drying them. This can be done with special technology within some Provinces, but your best bet is to try them the old fashioned way. Herbs can be hung to dry while things such as fruits, meats, and grains can be sun-dried or oven-dried (if you have access to an oven while you travel.)

Pickling

Personally, my least favorite way to preserve things is by pickling them. This includes leaving something to soak in vinegar or a saltwater mix for a long time, and once it's done it tastes as though your food, which was probably lovely before, crawled out of Pote's asshole and drug itself through several burning fields of corpses before reaching your mouth.

Sweet Preserves

Much more pleasant than pickling, preserving things like fruits and meats can be done by simply stuffing them into a jar with honey. It's that simple! And much sweeter.

Freezing

More likely than not, you won't be able to do this for very long. Freezing usually needs electricity, which isn't in all or even most Provinces. You can try to keep things cool in insulated boxes with ice, but this is one of those things that are better for those of us who keep caravans or wagons, and not useful for those travelling light.

Smoking

Smoking is done by cutting meat into thin strips, preferably salting them, and hanging them to dry over a fire. Doing this without salting is possible, but not recommended.

Salting

Salting is used mainly for meat, though it can technically be used for vegetables as well. The salt draws out the moisture and kills any bacteria within the food. You can also smoke or dry meat afterwards to further preserve it. Salting is done by layering salt over food in something like a barrel or keg. If done in cold weather, this can preserve the meat much longer.

Jellies and Jams

Most fruits can be turned into jelly or jam, and it keeps for quite a long time. Personally, I prefer making jam, because picking the seeds out of it just to make it jelly is annoying. Jarring can be tricky, but once you get the hang of it, you could easily bulk jar some items and have a nice store of sweets. You'll need sugar, and some fruit to crush up, cut, or juice. You cook these for a while, until you get a good consistency, and then jar it in a pre-warmed jar, leave them to boil for a while, then let them cool overnight. This will seal the jars and keep the contents safe to eat for a year.