Mining Meals - Pickaxe Not Included

[CantCookStillTry]

Mining. It's controversial. Food and eating is not. My husband has recently taken a position that means he spends half the year in and being fed by, a Mine Camp. As I won't be cooking much as I'm home alone, and as this place is my main source of social interaction, I have decided to force the man to take me pictures of his meals 😂. 

Enjoy... or not... (they are so far iffy). And contribute if you would like... I'm lonely 😂. 

[CantCookStillTry]

Day one. Dinner One. Lunch for Day 2. 

 

Meat Loaf and Veges. 

The best looking out of lasagne, stew and curry options. 

 

 

Lunch is prepacked salad and chicken and fruit. 

 

 

 

[CantCookStillTry]

Dinner Day 2 and lunch for day 3. 

 

"Vindaloo"

 

Lunch. Noodle Salad. Coleslawish. Fruit. Beef? 

 

 

 

 

 

I will get him to work on his photos. Baby steps. He dosen't understand my obsession 😂. 

[chromedome]

Clearly camp food is not what it was "back in the day."

When my father worked in a lumber camp at the end of the 50s, the staples at mealtime (including breakfast) were beans, bread, jam, tea, and never-quite-enough bacon. The tea was made in #10 cans sitting on the woodstove, and his joke was that by the end of the day you could either pour a cup or else cut a slice and spread it on your bread.

 

Admittedly this was in northern Newfoundland, so conditions were probably 50-100 years behind what was happening on the Mainland in the same era (this is part of the reason he left home and joined the Navy).

 

As an aside, I'll point out that one can have conversations in private messaging which needn't adhere to the main site's food-centric motif.

[weinoo]

Does he climb into the mine? What kind of mine is it?  I guess it's better that he took this job than becoming a photographer anyway.

[gfweb]

That food looks better than I had imagined it would.

[Darienne]

Ed worked as a junior forest ranger many many decades ago.  Well more than 60 years ago.  I'll ask him about the meals.  What I remember his saying was that the breakfast were huge. 

 

[Darienne]

2 hours ago, chromedome said:

When my father worked in a lumber camp at the end of the 50s, the staples at mealtime (including breakfast) were beans, bread, jam, tea, and never-quite-enough bacon. The tea was made in #10 cans sitting on the woodstove, and his joke was that by the end of the day you could either pour a cup or else cut a slice and spread it on your bread..

I just realized that your father and Ed would be the same age.  Oh my it's strange ageing in this society.  

[teonzo]

1 hour ago, gfweb said:

That food looks better than I had imagined it would.

 

Definetely this. All those veggies seem to be cooked properly. In such settings, receiving broccoli that were not overcooked to death is like winning the lottery.

 

 

 

Teo

 

[chromedome]

3 minutes ago, Darienne said:

I just realized that your father and Ed would be the same age.  Oh my it's strange ageing in this society.  

My dad would have been 80 in April.

 

The "strange" part was certainly the case with my late wife and I. She was 9 years older than me, and was herself a late child, especially by the standards of the day. Her mother had been told for decades that she could never have children, and had had three husbands (serially, I hasten to point out) with no sign of anything happening on that front, so suddenly becoming pregnant at 40 was rather a shock.

Bottom line: her mother and my grandmother were born a few months apart in 1914.

 

 

[Darienne]

Ed was 80 in June but is in such good health that he seems like a 60 year old.  He says they had bacon and eggs and toast and pancakes, but that if you got up earlier than the breakfast was served, you could have fried speckled trout in the kitchen.  

 

Added:  Forgot the oatmeal.  Ed added that the cook got drunk one night and simply didn't turn up to make the breakfast, but Ed knew how to cook.  He also added that the cook threw axes into trees for entertainment.  Oh, he got fired.   That is, the cook.

Edited January 13, 2021 by Darienne (log)

[Shelby]

4 hours ago, CantCookStillTry said:

Mining. It's controversial. Food and eating is not. My husband has recently taken a position that means he spends half the year in and being fed by, a Mine Camp. As I won't be cooking much as I'm home alone, and as this place is my main source of social interaction, I have decided to force the man to take me pictures of his meals 😂. 

Enjoy... or not... (they are so far iffy). And contribute if you would like... I'm lonely 😂. 

I'm excited for this!  I, too, am curious about what kind of mining.  I'm sorry he has to be gone so much  but it sounds like he's a hard worker for sure.  Does he get to come home on weekends?  Like others said, the food looks really good.  How many workers are the food preparers cooking for?  I wonder if they reuse the containers?  Do they meet in a large hall for evening meals?  

[chromedome]

4 minutes ago, Darienne said:

Ed was 80 in June but is in such good health that he seems like a 60 year old. 

My dad was much the same. In palliative care he once mentioned ruefully that he'd finished stacking the year's firewood just four weeks earlier.

 

That being said, he'd also gotten a heat pump installed so they wouldn't have to depend on the wood stove. He was already beginning to dial back on the physical effort needed to maintain their place, since it seemed prudent to plan for that in advance instead of waiting for it to be forced on him.

 

 

[Eatmywords]

I was worried on that first one with what looked like a brownie covered in over thickened packet gravy but that vindaloo and the other dishes look fine.  Did they call it 'vindaloo'? If so they're much more open minded than I would've thought.   Curious for more, keepum coming! Thx!

[KennethT]

I also think that the food looks much better than I had expected - and the variety - who knew!?!

[weinoo]

1 hour ago, Eatmywords said:

I was worried on that first one with what looked like a brownie covered in over thickened packet gravy but that vindaloo and the other dishes look fine.  Did they call it 'vindaloo'? If so they're much more open minded than I would've thought.   Curious for more, keepum coming! Thx!

 

58 minutes ago, KennethT said:

I also think that the food looks much better than I had expected - and the variety - who knew!?!

 

So I imagine we'll be hearing from the two of you, when you're at your mining camps?!

[Eatmywords]

9 minutes ago, weinoo said:

So I imagine we'll be hearing from the two of you, when you're at your mining camps?!

Yes, I can report daily on the chef's inspiration.  (Especially motivated since I can't yet justify the cost of solar). 

[heidih]

Thanks - this is interesting. I remember an article in the LA Times about a female lumber camp cook. Food is a big deal when you are slogging away all day. She said it prepared her well for when she took the position as the main cook for traveling Cirque du Soleil. 

[kayb]

Looks pretty good. Vegetables look crisp when they ought to be crisp. Meat looks reasonable (I, too, had questions about the meat loaf). I have to think mining's come a long way.

 

Daddy was never a miner, but carried his lunch to work for 40+ years. It was, infallibly, two sandwiches, a pickle, fresh tomato and peppers in season, and a thermos of coffee. Occasionally, when it was really cold and he knew he'd be working outside (he worked in maintenance for DuPont as a welder and pipefitter), she'd add a second thermos of soup and/or chili.

 

Closest I can get is farm meals when we were working on an all-day job. Often beans and ham, fried potatoes, sliced tomatoes and onions, cornbread. But it was hot, and it was good.

[CantCookStillTry]

Yikes. I don't know where to start. But all will be revealed 😁. 

The mine in question is a Coal mine, which he has just gone back to after working Gold - hence the pick axe joke... I also tease him about plungers, TNT and coyotes/road runners but he assures me its much more modern 😁. I will get to see him every couple of weeks.

I will try and make him investigate breakfast for our enjoyment but as they leave camp at 0430 don't hold your breath! 

 

Yes the veges were good. Thats why he chose that option. The meatloaf sadly couldn't be saved despite being drowned in gravy. The second night was called Vindaloo but he said it was more a casserole and didn't have any spice to it. 

 

I will get back to more later. Thank you for your interest 🙂. 

[Smithy]

Yes, this is fascinating! I spent 20 years working for a mining and mineral processing operation. The old-timers told me about their pre-microwave habits of bringing hefty lunches wrapped in foil that they stored (or reheated, as appropriate) in warm places: the engine compartment of a loader or locomotive; the area immediately next to the pellet processing furnace. There were a lot of pasties (meat or stew inside baked dough, intended to be eaten out of hand) back in the day. This being northern Minnesota, warm food was vital for months on end. They all went home after the shift was over, though.

 

I toured a remote gold mining operation in British Columbia where the workers were bused in for 2-week stints, but never thought to ask about their food. Please do keep the information coming!

[haresfur]

Great topic, looking forward to it.

 

But really??? I had better looking food in exploration camps where the food came in by float plane every week (ok I had some horrendous food too, but that depended on the cook). The basically permanent camp I had near a mine where I did FIFO, two weeks on / one off, had pretty decent food but tending to the meat and 3 veg style. There was essentially no limit on the food budget, although most people didn't want anything fancier than filet mignon every once in awhile. T-bone was standard.

 

My first geologic mapping summer job in uni was pretty plush because we stayed at the camp for building a huge hydro dam in northern Canada. First day going through the dinner line, they slopped veg and a huge mass of mash potato on my plate and then draped a steak over top. The steak literally draped over the sides of the plate. Then the server asked if I wanted another one. I thought they were joking. So I suppose the portion control is a good thing. But what's with the styrofoam for the dinners or are those taken to work, too?

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Off topic. but one of my favorite mine vignettes = a sign posted at a Sutter Creek, CA gold mine, "This is rattlesnake country.   If you encounter a rattler, please report it to the gift shop."     Huh?    Where Dollie Dimples behind the cash register would do WHAT?

[TicTac]

Very interesting thread.

 

Thank you for taking the time to share with us!

 

 

[gfweb]

It'd be fun to see some pix of the mine.