Collection: Bushka's Kitchen

In the summer of 2016, Deana Del Vecchio was planning a much anticipated return to Iceland to backpack the Laugavgur trail.

I was running through my normal checklist when I hit the dreaded “Food” bullet point and mentally groaned at having to cart “over salted, too much rice, never feel full” meals not only internationally, but also along a hike I had been looking forward to for months. With a sigh of resignation, I turned to my boyfriend to warn him, trying to pick my words carefully as this was his first backpacking trip, and I was super excited to share something I loved so much with him. I’m not a good liar, so I cut to the chase and warned him how the trip would be **ahhhmazzzing**, but how the food would just suck. Period. I remember this conversation so clearly because a light bulb went off in my head when he responded with, “But can’t we just make our own?”

Growing up in a traditional Italian family, I’ve clocked more time in the kitchen than most. I inherited the hiking bug from my father, and as I began researching how to make my own shelf stable food, I harkened back to the days where he made his own fruits and veggies in the kitchen to take on backpacking trips into the Whites.

Jump forward to today with months behind me of experimenting with recipes in the kitchen and then testing those snacks and meals out on roadtrips, kayaking adventures, long days in the office, and, of course, backpacking trips, and that’s how Bushka’s Kitchen was born.