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Washing Pots when Backpacking
Q. How do you go about washing cooking pots and plates while back-packing?
Are there any bio-degradable washing up liquids out there or is it better to just use clean water?
Phil Tomlinson, Chinley
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A. Knives and forks can be cleaned very effectively by sticking them into the turf (i.e. into the grass roots) as deep as possible, and left for a few minutes.
Plates can be wiped almost clean by rubbing them on an outcrop of grass. (Out of sight, please - we don't want the field to look like a 'pavement pizza'! Local microbes will soon dispose of the residue.)
Pans should be wiped out with a lump of turf (using the soil and roots); the thin smear of mud that is left will wash off easily.
If abrasive treatment is necessary, use a pinch of grit off the pathway (limestone powder is the abrasive element in some toothpastes!)
To remove any remaining grease, I use "Wetwipe" tissues, which then go into the rubbish bag for later disposal.
Everything should now come up nice and clean with a rinse in clear water.
If there is any stubborn crust that won't come off with this treatment, well it's not likely to come off whilst you're eating, is it?
Finally, if you feel that this isn't hygenic enough, just remember that every dop of water and blade of grass that you touch has already been 'visited' by crows and cattle, so why bother?
Cheers,
Ron Linton
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A. It depends where you are.
If it's grassland, the advice Ron gave (above) is pretty good for when it's ultra-dry. I carry a j-cloth with me, but I only use it for wiping away the dew left on my pots after a morning 'grass-wash' (and also it gets to be a table mat sometimes, because I eat directly out of my cooking pot).
If it's later in the day, or just dry, I might sacrifice a thimbleful of water to the job, but water's precious if you're off-road and haven't found a stream.
Peat - if you're in a peat area - is what I'd call 'clean mud'; you can sanely stick a knife into it to clean it.
If you're in woodland, ferns have something in them that acts as a natural detergent. Pick enough leaves to crush and use like you would a Brillo pad, and there won't be any of those stubborn crusts left.
Bracken's not in the same league - it won't cut grease any better than grass does - but obviously you can use it if that's what's there.
If you're camping on a beach or in a desert - use the sand! Wet sand is brilliant, but dry sand works too.
I don't mention food scraps because I don't know what you'd do with those - personally I find I'm starving most of the time when I'm out in the open!
Bury them, burn them or carry them out, depending on the situation I guess.
Some places the local ecology might not be able to handle your leftovers in any form - it needs thinking about.
Steph Fox, Sheffield
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A. I'm not sure that using grass/bracken and soil is such a good idea for cleaning eating equipment. Whilst most healthy people would be OK, specially those with dustbin constitutions (like mine), grass and soil does contain all the same kinds of bacteria, protozoa and parasites of raw sewage (to be frank) - and quite a large proportion of people would be made extremely ill by an attack of one or more of these. This could prove to be quite disastrous in a backpacking situation in a remote area.
My method is to boil half an inch or so of water in the bottom of the pan after cooking and scrub it out with a pan sponge/scrubber after its cooled enough to put your fingers in it.
My spoon is washed at the same time, in the same water.
The dirty water is then thrown out over the grass for the local sluggery to consume any food bits - which they will do within a few hours. The pan and spoon is then very clean and is left to dry.
The power of these bugs to debilitate shouldn't be underestimated. Gastro-enteritis type illnesses are a major cause of people dropping out of the TGO challenge, for instance.
Using a damp pan thats been festering overnight with bits of food, supplemented by poo bugs and gut-invading parasites seems quite a good way of ruining your expedition to me.
Mike Knipe, Crook
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A. Pack of baby wipes for me
Andy H, York
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