The weekly rhythm of Camp Nebagamon always starts strong on Monday evening. Every week, cabin groups head out into the woods with a box of food and a cast iron dutch oven to cook their dinner over an open fire. Cabin Cookout is a Nebagamon staple – it helps cabin groups work together, it allows campers to practice their wilderness cooking skills, and most of all, it’s nice to eat a meal outside!
For last night’s cabin cookout, our Director of C.N.O.C. (our campcraft project) offered a brand new menu for the campers to prepare. It would be a Northwoods feast of wild rice soup, bread on a stick (campers made bread dough and wrapped it on a stick to bake over coals), and a final course, banana boats (a winning combo of banana + chocolate + marshmallow + aluminum foil + fire).
While bread and dessert are always hits, some of us on the leadership teams were a little nervous about the soup entree. Still, in the spirit of the Northwoods and trying new things, we decided to give it a go. At lunch, our hesitation was reinforced as we announced the menu to a rather lukewarm reception in the Rec Hall. Not many campers jumped for joy at the sound of wild rice soup. One older camper in particular began protesting as soon as we announced the meal. I talked to him at lunch and told him it was gonna be worth a try… and hoped he would enjoy his bread on a stick and banana boat. Plus, the forecast predicted that we’d get some rain in the afternoon, meaning campers would likely need to to start a wet-wood fire.
When the bell rang, the campers set off to their cookout site with their bottles of water and pocket knives, camping chairs and firewood, and dutch oven and ingredients. They chopped veggies and kneaded dough, while campers from each cabin built fires. This proved to be a challenging task. Lots of our chopped firewood is kept under cover, but we collect kindling and birch bark used to start fires from the surrounding forest. Nearly universally, the cabin groups found this to be a challenge to overcome rather than a reason to moan and groan. Village Directors walked from site to site, ensuring each cabin got a flame going. Soon enough, the smell of campfires wafted through the woods, blanketing camp. Each and every cabin group was able to start cooking dinner! It may have taken a few tries, but no one lost hope.
So, how did they receive the meal? The menu turned out to be a huge hit. Campers dug into bowl after bowl of wild rice soup, mopping up as much as they could with their bread. And, in a pleasant surprise, perhaps the most vocal camper from lunch was enjoying his third bowl of soup when I came upon his cookout. His counselor made it his mission to help this camper try something new, and with a little prodding, the Lumberjack relented. Much to his surprise, he loved wild rice soup!
Cookout is an incredible opportunity for campers to try out a leadership role for the first time. In another Lumberjack cabin, a new-to-camp 8th grader, who until this point had seemed somewhat reserved, really came into his own. He took the helm at the cookout, delegating tasks and giving directions to his cabinmates. As he tried to explain to his friends how much exactly a pinch of garlic powder is, he started to giggle, and so did everyone else. How much is a pinch? “That’s way too much! But that’s not enough!” They were truly enjoying themselves, and their cabinmate was leading the charge.
To be sure, cooking in the woods is never without mishaps. A few older cabin groups confused cayenne with paprika, or simply decided to add as much cayenne as they could to their soups. No pots of soup were inedibly spicy… for the kids at least! Those campers certainly took advantage of our g-dip following cookout to hop into the lake and cool off. Another group of campers decided they had it under control and tossed their recipe and directions into the fire at an early stage of the cookout. Of course, we had extra recipes ready in the wings for a group who needed them, but this cabin took it as a challenge. They were halfway through their soup prep, and didn’t really need directions for dessert, so they forged ahead, making it up a little bit as they went, and enjoyed a pot of soup I’m sure they’ll remember.
As the evening wrapped up, campers cleaned pots and put out fires. Soon, we noticed one group was still out in the woods and had yet to resurface from their cookout. When this Logger cabin finished after what seemed like ages, we wondered what they were up to. Often, when a cabin finishes late, it means things went sideways. Luckily, things turned out to be completely the opposite – these boys were all smiles as they emerged from the woods to clean their dutch oven. They told stories of a miraculous fire that took multiple tries to lightas they recounted every camper’s role in preparing the meal. It’s not that everything went wrong, but that it went about as right as it could. The campers were all engaged throughout the cookout, taking turns chopping vegetables, stirring and seasoning soup, roasting and sharing bread, and crafting the perfect banana boat. They were laughing, telling jokes and stories, and enjoying each other’s company so much that they lost track of time. The cabin’s spirits were sky high all night long, and if you can believe it, it seemed like they had the best night of any group.
Cookout was a smashing success. It did everything the program is supposed to do – make campers proud of their hard work and collaboration, strengthen their bonds as cabinmates, and hone their wilderness skills. Six nights a week, dinner is easy. Campers show up to the dining hall and the food is ready and waiting, delicious as always. But the most delicious dinner of the week is Monday night Cookouts, because in every bite of food is the lessons the campers learned at camp that evening.
You should also know that at around 3:00 PM a storm approached camp. Out of an abundance of caution we all headed to our storm shelters where we waited out the weather for about 45 minutes. While the bulk of the storm missed us, leaving us with just a short period of heavier rain, we always prefer to play it safe. The campers and staff were phenomenal, morale remained high, and what could have been a tricky situation was just a blip in another spectacular day at Camp Nebagamon.
All is well in the Northwoods