Laurie Ann March - Another Fork in the Trail: Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes for the Backcountry

D uring my time as a young student at a local university, I had a bit of a rough time when it came to food. Back then, most of the mainstream campus fare was greasy, unhealthy, and pretty much unpalatable. I ended up having my lunches with a group of students who had embraced a vegetarian and vegan lifestyle. Some of my friends were eating this way because it was merely a better choice and others because of religion or ethics. I had simply chosen this diet because it was the only thing that appealed to me at the time and it was a better alternative to what was being served in the student center eateries. This shift in diet provided me with a chance to experience foods and flavors that I normally wouldnt have been exposed to, especially having grown up with parents who were meat-and-potatoes folks serving a very British menu. Foods unique to me, such as quinoa and silken tofu, became the familiar. Throughout the writing of my last book, A Fork in the Trail , I would often find myself looking back to those days for inspiration, which led me to include a variety of meat-free options in the book. That also spurred some changes on the home front, and over the past few years our family started embracing eating vegetarian and vegan foods several times a week. This has been a change that Ive welcomed whole-heartedly.

When my first book was released in early 2008, I felt a little lost. I missed being in the test kitchen and out in the backcountry creating recipes. My passion for creating new recipes was not vanquished as I had expected and quite the opposite had occurred. Inspiration was still flowing long after the book hit store shelves. I found myself wishing that I had included more vegan fare. During my workshops and at book signings, I had the opportunity to talk to a variety of people, many of whom required a special diet on the trail due to being vegetarian or vegan or having celiac disease. They added to that inspiration, and the idea for Another Fork in the Trail was born.

While other wonderful vegetarian cookbooks have been written for those frequenting the backcountry, no one had tackled the subject in the way that I wanted to or had addressed the issue of gluten-free eating on wilderness trips. I approached my publisher immediately with the idea and then again later in the year. It was somewhat fitting that I was standing in Ontarios beautiful Algonquin Provincial Park, admiring the fall colors that graced the sugar maple canopy, when the message came across on my new BlackBerry. My publisher thought it was a great idea too! I was excited and up to the challenge, although, at that time, I didnt realize what a challenge it would be. As soon as I arrived home, I set to work on compiling the recipes I had already created and started brainstorming ideas for new ones.

I was already adept at creating recipes for the backcountry, so my first order of business was to take some time to refresh my knowledge of the philosophies surrounding vegetarianism and veganism. It was imperative that I research the hidden sources of meat and meat by-products that often lurk in foods and that a nonvegan might not think to considerproducts such as instant pudding, Worcestershire sauce, and marshmallows. I also wanted to ensure that I was well versed on what foods contain gluten. That was certainly eye-opening, to say the least. I was simply shocked at the number of commercially prepared foods that contain some trace of gluten and how ill it could make someone with gluten intolerance. I spent time chatting with people who have celiac disease and with those who lead a vegan lifestyle on the trail so that I could thoroughly educate myself. As an avid backpacker and canoeist with vegetarian tendencies, I set out to create a series of recipes that would be suitable for backcountry trips, recipes that even people who arent vegetarian could enjoy. The irony is that, during the writing of this book, I had to address the subject of dietary restrictions on a personal level. Even though my situation is different, in many ways I now have a greater personal perspective of the difficulties related to meal planning with a special diet and the importance of it.