Traveling and the Food We Eat

Traveling is one of those things that mankind has been doing for a long time! From sailing ships, to Conestoga wagons, from cars to horseback, mankind has used various ways to get from one place to another. And as always, bringing food along on the journey no matter how short or long, was often a given.

But how have the foods that we eat and take on journeys with us changed over the centuries? Mankind has always traveled. Mankind has also always had to eat. Some of the most interesting foods were eaten as “travel foods” back in the day. Most of the foods that our forefathers could carry with them were dried food stuffs like hardtack, coffee, portable dried soup, flour or cornmeal and spices. If they wanted any type of fresh food, it was up to them to hunt for it or forage for it out of the wild.

Of course, our forefathers did know the value of fresh foods as is shown by the lemons and limes that they carried on their sailing vessels once they realized that they helped prevent scurvy.

Probably the most well known old-fashioned travel food was the pemmican of the Native Americans. Pemmican was made by the Native Americans as a food to take on their travels and to sustain their warriors. It was traditionally made of meat (often elk, bison, deer or moose), fat and berries native to America like blueberries. It traveled very well and has rightly been called the first energy bar!

How about you? What foods do you like to take when you travel?