Katrin has been eating solid foods since four months old (with her doctors approval) and she gets BIG MAD if we are eating and she doesn’t get offered anything. We are doing purées for now, but we plan to incorporate foods she can self-feed in the near future.
While loads of handy-dandy pouches of premade baby foods exist, and we have certainly purchased a couple just to try, I typically make all of her food myself. So naturally, as I am preparing foods for our upcoming trips, I have added some foods for her as well. Purées are particularly easy to dehydrate and powder. So far I have just made a bit extra when I cook foods for her, and then spread a bit on a fruit leather tray and dry. The temperature used depends on the food(s) I’m drying. For example, the turkey and spinach was dried on the temperature for turkey, as the temperature for spinach is lower.
Once thoroughly dried to crisp, I just break into pieces and run it through my Vitamix dry container until powdered. I’m a bit more concerned with food safety when it comes to her, so I store all of her powdered food in our freezer (home dried meat should be stored in the freezer anyway).
The options are almost limitless! Just remember the cardinal rules of home dehydration: no fats, no oils, no dairy. Thus far I have dried and powdered turkey with spinach, sweet potato purée, broccoli purée, and strawberry purée.
To rehydrate, use filtered water that has been brought to a rolling boil (those two steps will eliminate bacteria and viruses, and make the water safe for baby). Just add water a little at a time and stir until it reaches the desired consistency. Cool and serve. Unless you have access to refrigeration, any uneaten portions should be thrown out after an hour. Make sure you dispose of uneaten food properly in the backcountry. Personally we will be burying it far from camp, or packing it out.
