For those of you who carry foods in the trunks of your cars....whatcha got?

I'm not as keen to carry water (a.k.a. ice this time of year), and several mostly water items make the food nearly inedible in a pinch.

Still have a mess of bars of various types and some other stuff, but looking for some ideas. I eat out of mine on a regular basis and replace immediately.

Long ago I used to keep a few cans of high energy roasted spanish peanuts in my rig. A few years back I switched to Pemmican balls which don't freeze. Now that I am here in Florida, I keep a couple snack bars in the glove box.

For drinks, I always just carried water with me, up to a couple gallons at one time, but now only a couple 20 oz bottles unless I am on a sojourn (work is less than 5 miles from the house, 3 miles as the crow flies).

In harsh cold environments, I would stick with the pemmican balls, and pack water adulterated with sugar, salt, potassium chloride, and a few other ingredients to get the eutectic temp way down. I've made concoctions that weren't excessively salted (I'd consider them as healthy nutrient supplements in fact)that wouldn't freeze above 0 degrees.

I live in NW Pennsylvania, the other night it was 15 degrees, I keep 12 bottles of water in a soft sided cooler under the back seat of my pickup, it gets pretty cold but never freezes. As far as food,peanut butter, peanuts, jerkey,crackers and granola bars and 3 MRE's.

I have Mainstay food bars and the water pouches. I also keep several MRE's as well. I don't keep the MRE's in the car during the summer though, heat decreases the shelf life. I like the water pouches because even if there frozen you can still peel of the foil and melt the ice.

You might try this: http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/yago104.html
It works for me, A Trangia alcohole stove and any available water.

Beef jerky, cheese and crackers, granola bars, raw nuts, tea bags, cocoa pkts. I usually carry liquids out with me when I leave. Since winter usually produces precipitation, I carry stuff to collect rainwater (emergency blanket, cord, clothespins, quart enamel metal cup).

Sue

Only slightly related to the topic but a fun thing to do/see. I leave a case of 20 oz. water bottles in the car. On occasion, when the bottles have spent the night in the cold, I can pick one up and it will still be in the liquid state even though the water temp is definitely below freezing. If I jar the bottle the entire contents will crystalize into ice in a flash. Just a neat thing to watch. Conditions have to be perfect but I have done it more than once.

Someone will remember the name of the SciFi novel where all the water changes to a solid crystal...

Sorry for hijacking the thread.

I do keep a number of foil packets of water in the car and have never noticed them freezing and it can get quite cold here in SE PA.

For the car trunk or the truck bed, I keep a box of saltine crackers and a jar of peanut butter. We always take water bottles in the truck cab with us, so I don't stock those separately (they would freeze here in Colorado). Then of course the shovel, kitty litter, recovery strap, etc. to get unstuck from the snow. If the trip will take us outside of the urban area (open highway, etc.), then sleeping bags, wool balaclavas, and heavy rag wool mittens go along in addition to our normal winter wear. I've been meaning to buy me a few of those Nuwick candles to take along, but it always seems the online S&H charges to buy those are higher than the cost of the candles themselves, so I've been putting it off searching for a local supplier or some online place with reasonable S&H charges.

I kinda lost interest when I got to the part about boiling water over Sterno...

We try to avoid the really cold places, but just in case, we have PB, crackers, granola bars, and some canned stuff. Frozen chili, thawed and heated, is still chili...