Me? Complain about camp food? No way.
Salad bar and smoothies, I'm good.
I’m at summer camp, I’m 54 years old, and I delight in every single meal I eat here.
Yes, camp food has a bad reputation. The grilled cheese sandwiches with a slice of orange American cheese sticking out, pasta served in so many versions (including mac and cheese and a rather tasty penne with leftover salmon), flattened hamburgers and extra-long hotdogs, grilled fish with hash browns and a side of roasted summer squash.
There are also meals like yesterday’s offering of mozzarella sticks, pizza rolls and some kind of pizza stick. Not sure what that was. I didn’t partake of that combo.
But here’s the thing: I don’t have to think about any of these meals. Not a one. I don’t plan, shop, cook, serve or clean up. I just show up, check out what’s being served, and feel thankful that there’s been a salad bar at every meal for many years.
It’s a smart salad bar, given the many people of different ages eating here. At lunch and dinner there’s always chopped lettuce, cherry tomatoes (this year), sliced cucumbers, chunks of tofu, chickpeas, baby carrots, hardboiled eggs and tuna (sometimes with flecks of black pepper), which must be a Polish thing added by the Camp America staffers, many of whom do hail from Poland.
One of my sons depended on the hardboiled eggs and tuna for several summers until he was willing to dig into the usual menu. And for kids who are gluten-free or vegan, there are always options for them as well. By the way, camp is completely nut-free, with the exception of sesame seeds, which some people are allergic to, but which are not banned from camp.
Every morning there are waffles, pancakes, scrambled eggs and hash browns or biscuits, while the breakfast bar includes cottage cheese and yogurt, along with hot cereal with toppings, and a new addition from last summer, three kinds of smoothies, every day. Smoothies! At camp!
Ah, and here’s the best part:
The coffee. For many years, the coffee at camp was instant and the adults who worked at camp had their own Mr. Coffees and pod machines in their cabins. But then came Moka, a local coffee roasting concern that popped up in nearby Bethany (outside Honesdale), sourcing their coffee beans from Africa, where they also help out with sustainable, economical farming. Given that they’re surrounded by summer camps, they began creating coffee bars for staffs at the local camps, and we were one of their first customers, benefitting from fresh coffee, along with cold brew throughout the day.
I’ve written (in the New York Times) and podcasted about Moka before, including those links here:
So I’m all set for the weeks that I’m ensconced here, relishing in not having to think about food prep — not so for my husband, who is one of the staffers who runs the cooking workshops for campers — but that just means there’s access to real food when needed.
Really, it’s a testament to what can be done when dealing with large quantities of industrially-produced meals. There have been more complicated summers, like Covid 2021 when it was harder to source ingredients and products, or when the electricity went off this morning, taking the water with it for a few hours.
But for the most part, we’re benefitting from the creativity and work of those in the kitchen, who kindly shared their smoothie recipes this week, albeit in 400-person amounts:
Strawberry Smoothie:
8 cups water
1 cup oats
10 bananas
4 cups strawberries
Sprinkle of chia seeds
Blend on full speed
Blueberry Smoothie:
8 cups water
4 cups blueberries
10 bananas
Blend on full speed
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Great! Love Substack!! Just a pleasure to read all your articles, podcasts, and listen to your interviews. Enjoy camp !!