Eating in the Outdoors

There's more to camp food than gorp and s'mores. And even though it sounds like a natural way to cook, in most places, ecofriendly campers shouldn't rely on campfires for preparing their meals. Before your next outdoor experience,

• learn to leave no trace
• buy bulk organic foods and cook them on the greenest stove that meets your needs. For backpacking, Sustainable Travel International recommends the Sierra stove from ZZ Manufacturing, a lightweight, superefficient model that can burn pine cones, wood chips, tree bark, charcoal or any other solid fuel
• see if your multi-fuel stove can burn biodiesel
• consider a pollution-free solar oven if you're going to be car camping
• pack some biodegradable soap (or none at all) for cleaning up
• up your culinary game with Campfire Cuisine: Gourmet Recipes for the Great Outdoors by Robin Donovan
• and be ready for bad weather by packing a good book to curl up with, perhaps A Leaky Tent Is a Piece of Paradise: 20 Young Writers on Finding a Place in the Natural World.