2002 was my first (and so far only) burn. I'll be back this year. In 2002 I wound up flying at the last minute, so I didn't have space for a cooler. To the best of my memory, I brought:
8 2.5-gallon containers of water (I used 7 of these in a week, without bathing)
Jerky
Pretzels filled with peanut butter
Oranges
Rice
Orzo (rice-shaped pasta, no need to drain)
Lentils
Garlic (fresh)
Tomato paste (canned)
Olive oil
Vinegar
Dried mint
Sugar
Salt
Coleman stove with two propane canisters
Some notes:
The initial plan was to live on rice and lentils most of the week. I have a recipe for lentils with garlic and tomato paste (at home I use fresh tomatoes) which is easy to make and tasty, and with rice should make complete proteins. In actual fact, I was too tired and cranky to do much cooking before Wednesday, but {rice|orzo} and lentils served me well.
The mint and sugar were for making sekanjabin (a Persian mint drink, basically sugar syrup with vinegar and mint diluted to taste). I didn't get to do that, but I will this time -- it's *very* refreshing. I used the mint to season the rice instead.
I bought a bag of oranges, thinking I'd go through them really fast. I didn't, and they went bad, so I couldn't even donate them to DPW.
Speaking of DPW, they definitely became beneficiaries of my overbuying (not that I mind that). I only used one canister of propane, and I also had some lentils and orzo left over. The desert conditions definitely kill the appetite.
Be nice to your neighbors, and they will be nice to you. I wound up sharing dinner at least twice with some folx camped next to me. But the highlight was probably when a man came out of the camp across the street and asked if anyone had salad dressing. I offered him my oil and vinegar, and got the pleasant surprise of freshly grilled salmon steaks (and *ice-cold* microbrewed beer and soda) in return!
In short: be smart, resourceful, and nice, and everything will work out fine.
Best,
Marnen Laibow-Koser
marnen@marnen.org
