Summer means that the chaos of school activities are on hold while we make way for the chaos of vacations, family reunions, and trying to have as much fun as possible before school starts again. Have you ever thought that your summer campouts, hikes, and barbeques are great opportunities to learn and teach emergency preparedness skills?
Campouts, hikes, and barbeques are great opportunities to learn and teach emergency preparedness skills.
I love camping for the simple fact that I’m “roughing it” without all the normal shelter and utilities. I’m doing it because I want to, not because I’ve been forced into that situation by an emergency or disaster. I can learn to make better emergency shelters with a little trial and error when the only consequence is a bit of discomfort in the night. I can teach others how to safely start a campfire without using a match, or how to wash dishes by hand with minimal water.
Many people love camping just for the campfire cooking. Cooking over a fire gives food a naturally smoky flavor that you just can’t get from traditional home cooking over a gas or electric stove. Campfire cooking can be as simple as roasting hot dogs or marshmallows over the fire with a bent wire hanger.
Cooking is not only used in the preparation of food, but also in purifying water and sterilizing pots, pans, utensils, and medical equipment. It’s also good to have the ability to warm water for cleaning, laundry, and hygiene. These can all be done with your backyard cooking equipment.
You don’t have to have expensive grills or smokers to be able to cook outdoors. Using a little fire safety knowledge and ingenuity, you can create most of what you would need just from things around your home.
Be Ready Utah has a few different printable brochures with ideas you can use to make your own emergency cookers.
- A coffee can stove uses an empty, metal #10 can, the size mostly used in dry food storage, with holes punched or cut in it to allow for air flow. The can is placed over a small fire or candle, creating your own, make-shift hot plate.
- A reflective box oven is made from corrugated cardboard boxes and aluminum foil. It sits close to the campfire and uses the radiated heat to bake things like bread, pizza, muffins, and cookies.
- A solar box oven made from two cardboard boxes, aluminum foil, and a turkey oven bag does not require any fuel other than direct sunlight, and there is no fire hazard. Solar ovens work on three principles:
- Sunlight is converted into heat as it is absorbed by dark colored surfaces in the oven.
- Additional sunlight is channeled into the oven by reflective flaps.
- Heat builds up in the oven and is trapped by airtight seals and insulation.
With the exception of a solar oven, you need to have a storage of fuel for your cooking equipment to work. You can have various kinds and qualities of grills, barbeques, smokers, and outdoor ovens to up your game for outdoor cooking and preparedness, but make sure to have plenty of fuel. Without fuel, your cooker is little more than yard art.
For the rest of this summer, as you’re flipping burgers and grilling your veggies in your backyard or out in the camping wilderness, think about how your “master of the grill” knowledge could be used in an emergency situation. Is there a new skill in outdoor cooking that you haven’t tried before? What skills can you share with or teach to those in your group? Use some of your recreation to share some of your preparation.
Visit BeReadyUtah.gov for more information on cooking and preparing food during an emergency.
Do This:
✅ Check your outdoor cooking equipment and make sure it is in good, working condition.
✂️Make your own cooking equipment with things you have around your house. (See “Printable brochures” below.)
🪵Have enough fuel (charcoal, wood, propane) safely stored for your outdoor cooking equipment to be able to last you a minimum of two weeks.
📒 Have printed copies of cooking instructions and of your favorite recipes. You may not have internet or computer access in an emergency.
🧯Learn different methods for safely starting and extinguishing a campfire.
Videos: Watch and share with someone you care about
- Be Ready Buzz: Campfire Cooking in a Can (2.0 min)
- Be Ready Buzz: How to Build a Fire (2.5 min)
- PrepCast: Cooking Safety (7.5 min)
- PrepCast: Charcoal, Dutch Ovens, and BBQ Grills (11 min)
- PrepCast: Campfire Cooking (7.5 min)
- PrepCast: Solar Cooking (10 min)
Printable brochures: Read and share with someone you care about
- Coffee Can Stove Instructions
- Reflective Box Oven Instructions
- Soda Can Stove Instructions
- Solar Box Oven Instructions
- Retained Heat Cooker Instructions
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