Summer Camp Cooking Experience

By Lois Carpenter

While at summer camp, my patrol members and I had a great time. It was the first
summer camp any of us had been to, and due to COVID we had to cook our own meals. It was a sizable task- we would cook for four days straight over a very sensitive camp stove, and because of dietary restrictions within our patrol, it all had to be vegan. Cooking vegan meals was something none of us had much practice with- we had only been to one other campout where this had been an issue- so cooking vegan proved to be a delightful challenge that pushed us to think through solutions, as scouting intended.

There were several substitutions that had to be made while cooking; instead of butter we
would have to use bananas, and we could not use chicken broth while making soup. I had never substituted items like this before, so the entire campout was very educational. I learned a lot about how to cook, and the deeper principles of cooking beyond just following instructions, just by working to make the recipes fit what I wanted to use them for.

Cooking in camp is always a team exercise, and I think that this summer camp served
really well to bring our patrol together and unite us as a team. Coming out of the campout, I can say with certainty that the food we prepared at summer camp united us unlike anything else. I would recommend summer camp to everyone, it was still a fun and worthwhile experience when following restrictions, and I think we should continue to hold our own long campouts where we cook, because it was a great way to get newer scouts their requirements, and because it inspired creativity within the patrols to cook new and exciting food.

Hi Troop, this is Abel. This post is part of the Communications Merit Badge series, on which you can find more information here. I will be posting a story daily until the series ends.