The weather here was crappy all weekend long, so I spent a good portion of the weekend cooking. Both for home and for the trail.

Ive been wanting to make some backpacking meals with blackeyed peas, but have been unable to find the canned variety lately. I bought a bag of dried and tossed them in the crock pot with some salt pork, chopped onion, chicken broth and a can of diced tomatoes. I let it cook on low all day. I ate some for dinner as a stew, then put the leftovers in the fridge. The beans thickened significantly overnight.



The following day I spread the leftovers on four fruit roll trays and put them in the dehydrator at about 140* for most of the day.



After the blackeyed peas were dry, I broke up any big chunks and stored them in a zip lock freezer bag. This will make a great trail stew on its own, or with instant rice added. I easily have about 4-6 meals worth of dried beans.