Brown: Remember to bring snacks

Ever get a case of the munchies? Find yourself a few calories short in the long wait between regularly scheduled meals? No problem, right? Just bop down to the convenience store, the snack machine, or the nearest refrigerator. But what if you’re on the tractor in the middle of a farm, miles from the nearest refrigerator that still cools and contains anything other than a few parts that are better kept out of the weather. Bearings and their associated grease just aren’t that filling.

Audra Brown

In such cases, the very best plan is to not need one because you packed (and remembered to bring) a sufficient supply of snacks when you left the house this morning. But alas, sometimes you are unprepared, forgetful, or your siblings came by and seriously decimated your snack stash. Then, the only options are to wait until someone brings you something (unlikely), you go home (distant), or you resort to finding something edible in the nearby environment. To be honest, if you are strictly in a farming area, that can be difficult, but I guess in a pinch you can whip up a little tumbleweed salad if they are still in the green stage. Or, maybe you’re working around a crop that is directly edible and you can pull up a handful — for quality assurance purposes, of course. The best bet is probably to check nearby vehicles for something left uneaten by yourself or another past driver.

This predicament also happens when you’re out on the ranch. On a horse, it is admittedly more difficult to pack as many snacks. The best found snacks, in my opinion, are sandhill plums, but those don’t always make and they can be sneaky hard to find too. Next are probably prickly pears. Right time of year, you can peel the skin off those purple fruits and they are sweet, juicy treats. Pasture melons look like miniature versions of more common melons, but they really aren’t that sweet. They’re as good as how much salt you put on them.

When you’re bored and hungry, you’ll eat stuff that isn’t all that appetizing, but it’s all part of the experience, I suppose. So learn your field snacks. There are some you can snack on and some that you can’t. Know the difference first and then try the edible selection when you have no other choice.

Audra Brown has had some good snacks, and some bad snacks. Contact her at: [email protected]. Find her and her books on the web at: http://www.audra-brown.com.