How to Pack a Food Barrel

Food Barrel Prep

While preparing for our Temagami trip, a friend of mine inquired about packing a food barrel. She has never traveled with one, and I decided that I would do up a little blog and video to show her.  The benefit of this, I get to pass it along this information to you as well.

Packing a barrel can be challenging.  For us, we have a 30L barrel, which only holds meals for 3 people for 3 days. Basically 10L a day for food, plus two extra meals as your “just in case” item.  Ideally, I would like to get a bigger barrel which would then house our cooking gear, stove, dishes, etc.  This saves space in your packs for all other items.

The best way to attach this would be to lay your food out for each day and each meal. Below you will see items on the left are for the first night, items on the right are for the last day. Then top of picture is breakfast, middle is lunch, bottom is supper. Each meal is labelled with Day 2 lunch, Day 3 breakfast, etc.

As for packing the barrel, I start with the last meal, and work backwards.  The first day’s meals will be on the top or close to the top along the sides.  If, and there is a big if here… If there is space for extras (like my chips), that will go in last. 

The video shows my packing on the first attempt.  The chips are not actually in the barrel, and neither is my stove. 

After a second attempt (which usually happens, sometimes a third gets thrown in there), my barrel is now full, including the chips and my stove.

This is a definite upgrade to a dry bag we have normally used, which is higher risk of having items squished.  

Just another tip, as you start to empty your barrel, you can add your dishes, and other kitchen items to free up space in your packs.  At the end of this trip, I was able to add a few extra items in my pack and lighten the pack my son had to carry.