“Somebody told me it was frightening how much topsoil we are losing each year, but I told that story around the campfire and nobody got scared.” -Jack Handey
The camping season has come to a close for us. it is a sad time. We spend time inside, close to each other for warmth of body and soul. We watch the sun come up late and go down early. We brace for 3-4 feet of snow. We make holiday plans and cookies to go with those plans. Even with cooler to cold weather outside, I still can’t stop wanting to go camping. I spend time reading blogs about camping, watching National Geographic films about various natural wonders, and making plans for my next big camp trip. This has brought me to scouring the internet in search of new and old camping information.
One of my favorite resources on the web is the US Library of Congress. I was invited to the Library in 2009 where I met some geeky librarians (I love geeky librarians) who have shoveled information my direction for the past 2 years. A lot of what they have sent me to sort through influenced the “Historic Camping and Teardrop Trailer” film and a lot of it I simply haven’t had time to look at yet. In search of the next pictoral learning moment, I have spent considerable time looking at camp cookery on the Libary of Congress website (www.loc.gov). In my browsing, I have made a short collection of my favorite camp cookery photos. This collection has grown to such scale that I thought I might share it with my readers so you can enjoy seeing camp cookery from the past too. The wonderful part of this is that these historic scenes are still played out across the landscapes of the world today.
It is nice to see something remain somewhat the same throughout time. Sure the technology of cookery has changed but some of us are old school. A fire, a cast iron pot and pan, and a healthy appitite. Camp food is always the best because it is made with an infusion of love, nature, and sometimes personal trauma. These are my thoughts as I sit comfortably in my house wanting to be hunkered over a fire pit like the people in some of these photos.
As a contrast, I have tossed in some of my favorite modern camp cook photos at the end just so we can see on one page, how little has changed. Hopefully, you are now as inspired as I am to set a portion of my back yard on fire and start cooking over it. Cheers!!
