Three Founders Share The Grit, Recipe R&D, And Community That Powered Their Camp Kitchen Launch

What if camp food didn’t taste like compromise? We sit down with Camp Kitchen’s trio—chef-driven recipes, camera in hand, design chops at the ready—and trace how a home-based certified kitchen turned into a thousand-meal launch at the Hamilton Adventure Expo. This is a ground-up build: dense proteins cut to rehydrate on time, short noodles that won’t pulverize in a pack, and breakfasts that greet you with a wave of berry aroma the instant hot water hits the bag.

Tyler walks us through the freeze-drying science that keeps flavour intact and safety tight, from pre- and post-cycle tray weights to vacuum sensors that call the end of a run. We dig into the R&D wins and misses that shaped the menu—why meatballs became bolognese, why broccoli behaves, and how a chef’s obsession with texture pays off at a soggy portage or windswept campsite. Tosh shares the personal story behind their jambalaya, born from cold army rations and reborn by a campfire with real shrimp, chicken, and sausage that actually come back to life in the bowl. Cassy opens the curtain on the brand’s look: in-house photography, Illustrator nights, and packaging that had to be ready days before launch.

We also explore the local heartbeat of the food. Red fife flour—nutty, earthy, proudly Peterborough—anchors a shoreline fish flour and a bannock mix that turn a pan into a celebration. Their “campfire essentials” and oatmeals can ship Canada-wide, while meat-based meals focus on Ontario as the team scales production toward CFIA approval and wholesale. Between defrost cycles and order pickups, we compare trip notes: ice fishing dates, low-water river routes, family paddles before a new baby, and the Ontario backcountry access we often take for granted.

If you care about real ingredients, reliable rehydration, and supporting Ontario-made outdoor food, you’ll find practical insights and trail-ready ideas here. Subscribe for more builder stories, share with a friend who’s planning their first big paddle, and leave a review to help fellow campers discover the show.

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Transcript

Welcome And Weather Check

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Hello and good day. Welcome to the Super Good Camping Podcast. My name is Pamela.

SPEAKER_02 0:05

I'm Jim.

SPEAKER_04 0:05

And we are from Supergoodcamping.com. We're here because we want a mission to inspire other people to get outside and enjoy camping adventures such as we have as a family. Whether you're cooking over an open-flamed camp stove or a backpacking burner, great food belongs in the wild. Today's guests are all about adventure and appetite. Please welcome Kathy, Tyler, and Tosh from the Campy Kitchen.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

Thanks for coming out, guys. It's a lovely sunny Sunday.

SPEAKER_04 0:33

It's sunny but not warm. It's pretty cold.

SPEAKER_02 0:35

Not warm.

SPEAKER_04 0:36

Yeah. Yeah, well, not Tosh, you're not worried about that.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

What's weather like down where you're where you're at, Tosh?

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Uh it's been in the low 80s most of the week. Uh so it's at the mid to high twenties. Yeah. Yeah, it's uh it's been quite nice. That's terrible. Taking the same thing. Yeah. All it's it's full on spring here. All the trees are cracking their buds and the the birds are going crazy. There's cardinals everywhere just squawking at you know, first light in the morning. And um, there's a couple apple trees in the backyard here that have all started to come out in bloom. The flowers are cracking out. Um so it's it's pretty nice. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

We had it, we had a dusting of snow last night.

SPEAKER_05 1:18

Well, out here in Peterborough, we can hear the birds chirping. The sun's been beautiful the last couple of days. All the snow has melted to make a gigantic icing uh ice skating rink in our driveway.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Nice. So not all the snow.

SPEAKER_05 1:34

Not all the snow, but it's still three feet of snow.

SPEAKER_04 1:36

When it melts enough just to create that slippery ring. The black ice that you're walking along the sidewalk and you don't notice it. Yeah, exactly.

Launching Camp Kitchen At Hamilton

SPEAKER_02 1:46

Cool. Uh sorry, I am just recovering from being sick and my brain is operating at slower than normal, um, which is a scary thing. You guys, so we we saw you on launch of your new products. Um tell us about that for that that how that played out at the Hamilton show for you. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 2:09

You want to take you want to take it away?

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Sir. Yeah, we um we've been working on our recipes and our packaging and getting comfortable with the machines and and all the ingredients for the past, I guess, two years now. Um so I I think it was about eight eight months we we set Hamilton um as our launch, as our goal, and we really weren't sure if it was attainable. We talked to a handful of people, professionals, and kind of got the like, yeah, if you work really hard, you you might be able to hit that goal. And and so we worked as hard as we could. Um, we still didn't know for sure if we were gonna make the the deadline for the show um even up to the week before. Had we hadn't gotten our packaging yet. Um, but it was all being made. It was just whether we were gonna be able to pick it up in time. But thankfully, Tosh was able to run down, I guess, like five or six days before the Hamilton show and picked up all the packaging. And and so we just worked around the clock to get everything in in the bags. And yeah, no, it's been a long time coming and being able to launch at the show was really exciting and it felt good.

SPEAKER_05 3:26

Well, and the packaging is beautiful, it was so cool to be there with such a supportive community of people that have been cheering us on since the very beginning, and to also be able to enjoy that moment with Tosh. Um, our partnership really bloomed uh last last May was when we made it official. And so to be able to enjoy that, the three of us, the fruit of our labor really was just like pretty surreal. I think that I'm still kind of coming to terms with like the fact that we've actually launched our food and it's in the universe now for people to buy and enjoy.

SPEAKER_04 4:06

Yeah, the packaging is beautiful, and I know somebody ordered several packages. So I've seen firsthand what it looks like and the the the ingredient, like the recipes, the the meals themselves look really amazing.

SPEAKER_02 4:21

Yeah, and and I would say hands down that launching at the uh the Hamilton Adventure Expo was absolutely the right call. Like that, that's your target market right there. Your target audience.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Yeah, it's a really good show. We're really happy to showcase the food, food there, debut it there.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Cool. So so many people came up to us at the show and we're just talking about how excited they were to see uh an Ontario-based product, like a really high-quality food on the market. Like the honestly, the show couldn't have gone any better for us. It was fantastic, the reception we got from everybody.

Favourite Meals And Teasers

SPEAKER_05 5:01

I don't think that there was like a single moment where we were able to sit still and do nothing. It was like constant, vibrant conversation with so many uh people about different adventures they were on and adventures they're about to take. And uh the question we all love, which is like, what's your favorite meal? Uh so yeah, just being able to talk to people about the recipes and to be able to sell our product in person is is just so cool.

SPEAKER_04 5:32

Yeah, I it's well, I want to know the answer to the question. Like what is what is your favorite meal?

SPEAKER_05 5:40

Let's let's ask Tyler that question.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Why me?

SPEAKER_05 5:45

Because it's the most fun to ask Tyler what his favorite meal is because he created all the meals.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

I really like the breakfast skillet, the backcountry breakfast skillet. I know it's the breakfast, but I have it for dinner quite quite often as well. And my other favorite is one we haven't released yet, so keep some excitement for that one.

SPEAKER_04 6:08

You're not gonna tease it, you're not gonna give us a sneak peek into what it is.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Nope. Because we have three meals that are gonna be launched sometime this year. We just don't know when they're gonna be launched, so I wouldn't want to tease anyone and get someone excited for something that might not happen until November.

SPEAKER_05 6:26

Yeah. What's your favorite, Tosh? You have to tell your favorite.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Yeah, I think mine is the jambalaya. That's that's really the the first meal that Tyler and I ever made together. Like going back, we met initially at the Toronto uh outdoor adventure show. Just Tyler came up and started a conversation, we were chatting, and um, and then I was traveling in the van and I had this idea of like, hey, do you want to make a a cooking video, like prepping for the backcountry together? And so we took over my mom's kitchen and I brought my little freeze dryer and the one you can see over Cassie's shoulder there. And we we made four meals over a weekend. Um just completely taking over my mom's brand new kitchen. And the first one we made was the jambalaya. And the the reason for that is that was my favorite ration when I was in the army, and it just it blew me away just with what was possible with the way the shrimp comes back, the chicken, the the sausage and everything, like the the amount of protein in that meal, and then how well it reconstitutes. Like you could put it back into a bowl and serve it to somebody in your house, and they would never know the difference. So yeah, that the jambalaya is like just the personal story for me of like you know, remembering sitting in the rain in the army eating cold rations of jambalaya, thinking like this is as good as it gets, and now hanging out by the fire and eating this incredible jambalaya, you know, the the whole evolution of it's pretty neat.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

You're like, oh this is this is as good as it's gonna get. Yeah.

Freeze-Drying R&D That Works Outdoors

SPEAKER_02 8:07

Yeah. I so you while you guys packaged up a whole bunch of stuff uh recently for us. Um a bunch of that was I I bought it for Thomas, our eldest. Because when we backcountry trip, we eat stuff that's safe for dad, and and I don't make special meals for him because I just I just don't. I I'm uh we delicate thing. I can't, if it has peppers or anything, it like it's just bad. Bad. So I bought a bunch of the jambalaya. Um what else was there? There was something else. Oh, I well, so your your skillet uh in the what which I think you're out of stock, but it has peppers and stuff. I look at it, it's like, oh, it looks so good. Oh, that's gonna go poorly for me.

SPEAKER_04 8:49

You don't want to be in the backcountry having it go poorly.

SPEAKER_03 8:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:54

Yeah. That's definitely like the toughest part, I would say, is like everyone's gonna have different like dietary restrictions and you know, different things that they can and can't eat. And so that's been something that we've like tried our best to navigate, but at the same time, it's like because everyone has such different uh food needs, we're just trying our best to include like a variety and then just run with it. But the hope is that eventually we have you know like 25 to 30 meal options so that there really is something for everybody on the menu to choose.

SPEAKER_04 9:32

You can accommodate Tim, don't worry about it.

SPEAKER_02 9:36

I will eat, I will eat my dehydrated, not uh freeze-dried meals that are 50% less good stuff in them because at least they'll fit mine, you know. Um, although I we I did get isn't there, there's oats and I want to say oats and strawberries and oats and blueberries as well. Yeah, so that'll work just fine for me for for breakfast. Take some of that uh what is that bacon? There's like a pre-cooked bacon, it weighs, it weighs nothing, and and you can you can take it like you know before your six six days away. Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_05 10:14

Yeah, pair it up with your oatmeal. I like to say that our two oatmeal options are like a culinary experience. Tyler's oatmeals like can't be compared to other oatmeals. It's like next level. Anytime he's doing research and development with oatmeal and Tosh and I are in the same room with him, he just about has to like kick both of us out of the kitchen, or he'll like wind up just caving in and rehydrating a bowl of oatmeal for Tosh and I just to like share and enjoy. Um, but yeah, the the aromatics that come out of that bag when you add warm water, it's just unreal. I know I'm biased, but for real, it's uh it's next level breakfast.

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Yeah, I said to so many people in Hamilton when they were buying the oatmeal, especially the strawberry raspberry, is just do yourself a favor and like pick out one strawberry before you rehydrate the meal and just try it. And it is it's it's candy. It's unbelievable how good it is, how sweet, and it just you know it dissolves in your mouth. It's just a drink freeze-dried strawberry. So it's it's amazing. And then when you put the water on it, the way it comes back, and it's it's oatmeal on a completely no another level.

SPEAKER_02 11:34

Cool. That that brings to mind I remember pretty sure it was Ben Beauchamp was saying in one of his videos, this we're going back a ways, where he was trying out something that had man, I want to say it had kidney beans in it, or something along those lines where it didn't rehydrate to his liking. How did what was that process like trying to trying to you know figure out what what worked or how to make things like how how dry they had to be in order to be safe but still come back in in rehydrating?

Scaling Production And Capacity

SPEAKER_01 12:11

Yeah, so when we're making the meals, it really comes down to how big you leave the ingredients, um, because it comes down to like the density of the food. So something like chicken or beef, um, if you leave it too big, it's gonna rehydrate really slowly. Um, something like broccoli, you can get away with leaving a bit bigger because it's a lens, less dense food. So it'll come back a little bit quicker. Um, but basically it's just trial and error and and testing things out. Um, everything dries um to completeness in the machine. Um because it's under vacuum and it has a sensor in it to know the moisture level and the vacuum that's in the machine, it knows when the food has lost all of its moisture. So there's not too much concern about that as long as you um check it when it comes out. There's ways to check. Like I weigh all my trays before they go in, and then I take the weights when they come out, and I know what the weights should be now to make sure the food is dry. So but yeah, it's just uh really just testing things. Like we did spaghetti meatballs. I think that's probably what you're you're thinking. Um the meatballs I quartered and they were still too big um to come back in time. And then there was the shepherd's pie we tried. We have a shepherd's pie now, but we tried it with cheese curds, and the cheese curds just didn't come back. And just because cheese curds are so dense and they're already low moisture, um, it's hard to get that moisture back into the inside. So, yeah, just trial and error.

SPEAKER_05 13:43

And lots of fun in between. That's what was so awesome about getting uh the meals out for research and development, like for Tyler and Tosh at the very beginning, because this is like two and a half years in the making, which is hard to like wrap our brains around of like each meal that Tyler, you know, had this like idea about has gone through three, sometimes four different rounds um of batch testing. So some of them you nailed right on the head and they were perfect, and the recipes didn't change. And then, of course, there were some of those meals that just weren't perfect that needed to be reworked, but I think that was like the fun of what research and development really is supposed to be. Um, not every recipe that Tyler develops is going to be perfect right off right up off the bat, but like even the fail meals are still so enjoyable to have on a canoe trip, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

Yeah, like the genesis of the spaghetti meatballs turned into this meal here, the penne bolognese. And so we knew from the spaghetti meatballs that we had to switch to a meat sauce, and spaghetti is not the best pasta to pick because it ends up being crushed in your backpack. Um, so short noodles are a little bit stronger and they hold up to a little bit more beating. So that's what that meal was it was, and now we have that meal. So cool.

SPEAKER_02 15:08

Yeah, it's just like uh it must have been terrible for you, Tosh, to have to try out all those meals, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:15

Yeah, I've often said that if I uh if if Tyler and I ever decided to go like part ways, I don't know how I'd go back to eating my own food, even if it's freeze food terrible.

Red Fife Flour And Campfire Essentials

SPEAKER_05 15:26

Tosh, I'm right there with you. For some reason, Tyler and I ever part ways, like I'm done for. I don't know how I would ever be able to take care of myself. No, I'm just kidding. I'm definitely not um I'm definitely not a chef in our family. Tyler likes to take on um most of the roles of of cooking at home, but uh yeah, we're really lucky to be able to test out these meals and and even just like in person at HQ, I feel like I have the luckiest job on the face of the planet. Like when Tyler comes at me with a spoon to ask me what I think of something. Sometimes I look at him like, are you looking for like a Michelin star rating? Like, I don't know what to tell you. Everything you make tastes good, but I feel like pretty lucky that that's a part of my job.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

You don't uh you don't want to have to get overswollen. So maybe once in a while go, okay, I'll take one for the team.

SPEAKER_04 16:24

Yeah, exactly. How many different meals have you got now in your in your repertoire?

SPEAKER_01 16:29

So we have six dinners and three breakfasts. Two of those breakfasts are the oatmeals, and then the six dinners. And then we have three more dinners, or sorry, two more dinners and one more egg breakfast that will be launched this year. And then after that, who knows what's gonna happen. Um, we have a couple other projects that we're gonna start working on um sometime soon that aren't freeze-dried, um, just like some snack or lunch options, if you will. Um, so we will be getting into some more stuff that um either doesn't have freeze-dried components to it at all, or have components of freeze-dried things mixed in it, um, or some snack options that are freeze-dried. Um, for example, we've been talking about doing some sort of like fruit salad in a way, uh, freeze-drying a bunch of fruit and mixing it in a bag, going back to how Tosh was just saying eating one of those freeze-dried strawberries is so good. Can we do like a trail mix that you don't rehydrate, that you just eat freeze-dried, maybe some like grapes, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries. Um, just something you can eat while you're in the canoe or on the trail, easy to grab, give you a little bit of that natural sugar boost. So just a couple things like that we want to work on, but but we definitely are always doing some meal development as well.

SPEAKER_02 17:52

Cool. Um two sort of two questions that kind of go together. So you I know you had to do, you spent ages making the meals to take to the Hamilton show for for the launch. How how much did you take enough to to to for the for the what everybody wanted? Because I know that people knew going in that you were going to be launching at the show, so they were actually excited to be going and buying them from you. Um, and what if that's if it if the answer is what I think it's going to be, why are your dehydrators not running right now?

Shipping Limits And Vanlife Logistics

SPEAKER_01 18:33

Okay, so a couple things. We brought we brought over a thousand meals to the Hamilton show. Um, my batch sizes right now are about 125 to 150 meals. So we had about a batch of everything going in. Um, that doesn't include the steak spice, trout spice, bannock, and fish flour. We had um approximately, I guess, 200 of each of those. Um, just because they're not freeze-dry components. So I use those as a bit of like a filler job. And so, yeah, we had enough food. We knew that because we have a two-year best before date, um, we can really just go full seam ahead and get ready. We're our eyes are set on the next thing all the time. So, right now we're prepping for the sportsman show. The machines have been running nonstop, but we also know that after the sportsman show, that's gonna put us in April, and people are really gonna start planning their their uh their tripping season. So we're just going full seam ahead and just making as much food as we possibly can. Um, I'm able to make about um, let's say 600 pounds of before freeze dried food every two weeks. So about 300 pounds a week uh I'm making right now. Um that's three batches. So we have enough capacity to run 100 pounds at a time, and I can run the machine. It's about two and a half days for one cycle. Um, the machines are actually, I just emptied them this morning. I just packaged the penny bolognaise actually. Uh, and the machines are uh defrosting. So after two and a half days of running, there's about two inches, two and a half inches of ice around the outside cylinder. And they actually have a defrost cycle, so you can hit the defrost, the elements come on and they melt all the ice and goes out into a little condensant pump that I have that's hooked up to the sink and it just pumps the water out into the sink for me. So they just finished defrosting, and I thought you guys would appreciate the quiet. Um so as soon as this is over, the next round's going in. But yeah, they're running basically 24-7.

Trip Plans And Balancing The Grind

SPEAKER_05 20:45

There's never not a time where Tyler's like, you know, because HQ is located in our space, like our living space, the basement's completely renovated into like obviously a certified kitchen. Um, but sometimes through the day, Tyler will just be at home and and just be like, hey, Pisa, gotta go check on uh the freeze dryers and see what's happening. And so it feels like this like whole other life that we also lead, like on the side where it's they're just always on and just always running. So it's it's a huge part of our a huge part of our life. Um and lots of things.

SPEAKER_00 21:28

Yeah, leading up to Hamilton. I think the the dryers had been running virtually non-stop, either drying or defrosting since October, right into January. And we're we are finishing and packing and loading the trailer and everything to take all these you know bins of food down to Hamilton. And we all remarked, like, oh my goodness, it's so quiet down here now. You know, we're walking around the kitchen, and you normally have these vacuum pumps running constantly in the background.

SPEAKER_05 21:58

Yeah, it's a really odd. Odd sound to it's odd and eerie just to hear nothing down here because normally it's you have to like yell at each other to like talk to each other and usually I'll say something to Tyler and he'll say what what and I'm like can you not hear what I'm saying? I've said it like three times, but we're just used to that now. It's just our daily life.

SPEAKER_04 22:22

Tyler, you've mentioned red fife flower, and I know I like your fish flower, and even in the ramen noodles you talked to us about last time, you like that. What is it about that flower that you you gravitate towards?

Demand, Growth Plans, And Team Dynamics

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Um well to be honest, it's a flower that I've been using for probably a decade now. And when I had this goes back to the restaurant days. So when I owned the restaurant, um we were like fine dining, casual fine dining, and hyper local. So I was using um as many ingredients, like 50 kilometers, that was sort of like my radius. And I tried to do as much from that 50 kilometer radius as absolutely possible. Even the see the salt that I was using, I was able to get uh sea salt from Newfoundland. Um, so ingredients that I couldn't necessarily source local, I was still able to get Canadian. Um, we were about 90 to 95 percent uh ingredients from that 50 kilometer uh range, so it was really important to us. And so when you start talking about um flowers and finding mills, uh up here it's it's challenging. There's not as much down in uh Guelph area. It's easy. There's there's mills everywhere uh making really good quality uh flowers and grains. Um but yeah, I started working with a grain farm around here, and they had a flower called Breadfly Flour. And I didn't really know anything about it, but I really liked the flavor profile and the notes from it. Um so I started researching it more and more. And it's a flower that it has a really cool heritage and and is actually pretty regional to Peterborough. Um I think it was brought over from Holland uh area and even going into like Spain and Portugal even before that, but but um brought over to the Peterborough area and grown. So it grows uh really well and in abundance uh around Peterborough. So that was a flower that I could use that um really represented that local touch and also had a delicious uh flavor. Um so ever since then I've I've really liked using it. Um during COVID, we actually uh turned our restaurant into a fried chicken restaurant for uh I guess maybe three months or so just to change things up. And in the fried chicken dredge, I used the um red fife flour, and it gave it such a unique characteristic of that earthy, nutty flavor, but it it's a bit more coarse ground, so you end up with that almost cornmeal texture. And so that's when I started using it as a dredge, and that's what inspired me to use it as the fish flour. So we have the red fife fish flour, um, the shoreline flour that we offer. And I also um started doing some guiding after we sold the restaurant, and maybe even when we owned the restaurant at the tail end of the restaurant, and we'd take people out five, six, seven people out into the woods and do a three-course dinner for them. And I started making these panicottas with a local herb herbal tea, and I'd make um the bannock as like a nice cake and cut it into triangles and serve the red fife bannock with that tea panicotta. And it was an unbelievable pairing. So ever since then, when I'd go on winter trips, I'd always bring that bannock mix with the red fife and uh cook it up in the hot tent. And so it became a staple for me. And so when we were getting ready to launch, we were looking for some options that we could use as filler jobs that we could package that didn't require the freeze jar that we could offer. That was like a no-brainer for us. It's so delicious and so good.

SPEAKER_05 26:07

And now it's selling so well as an add-on because it's just such a fun item to pick up, to kind of add into your camp kitchen mix that you already have. Um, there's enough there that you can, you know, create a couple different meals out of it. So yeah, it's been a really fun uh part of our, we're calling it our campfire essentials, uh, which includes the bannock mix, the shoreline fish flour, the trout spice, um, and the steak spice. And those items, along with our oatmeal, can actually ship across Canada. So, although many of our meals, because they have meat, can only be sold exclusively to Ontario at the moment. Um, it's really nice to have four core products, sorry, six core products that can ship all across Canada.

SPEAKER_02 26:58

So, Tosh, what do you do then if they can't ship it to you? Do you have to keep coming up, grabbing a bunch and then going back down?

SPEAKER_00 27:07

Um, well, I'm not down here for too long, so I brought a bunch with me. Um but yeah, I've just been traveling around with what I have with me in the van. And then I can pack out from there. So the bees in the van kind of as base camp and then bouncing back out. Right now I'm pet sitting, so I've got a nice house to stay in for a few days and look after a couple cats and the dog, and but then heading back out on the river again. So I'll pack a bunch more meals out of the van and go from there.

SPEAKER_04 27:40

So you've been doing some river trips, Josh.

Community, Social Media, And Retail Interest

SPEAKER_00 27:42

Yep, I I did one short one. It's it's very dry down here all across the southwest of the US. So like they've had like almost drought level conditions for the last six months across a lot of Texas, Arizona, you know, all the way across to like Arkansas. And even like I was talking to an outfitter trying to plan a trip in uh kind of the Florida, Georgia borderline area, and a bunch of the areas I wanted to go through are really low water, and some of them are even closed right now. Um just because the water is so low. That's movie. Yeah, it's uh it's a it's a little bit of a headache sometimes I find down here just trying to figure out all the regulations between the federal and the state, and you know, back in Ontario, it it seems so second nature to to plan a trip and and bounce out somewhere. And actually it what I have realized in coming down here now a few times is that like we really underappreciate how much land we have to use in Ontario to go back country camping. Like it's uh unbelievable to be able to just go out and like oh here's you know a hundred kilometers canoe route that just goes through you know all public land, and then you just don't have that down here, and there's so many more people. But what what we have for canoe trails, they have for hiking trails down here. If you're if you're interested in hiking the southwest, there's nothing like it. You can just you can go do a thousand mile trail tomorrow if you wanted to.

SPEAKER_04 29:18

So, Cassie and Tyler, do you have any trips planned? Are you able to get away from the freeze drivers for a little bit?

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Yeah, so I'm heading out on Thursday for a winter ice fishing trip with Bambochamp. And that'll be like a four-day trip, and then come back Sunday and get the freeze jars going again. Um, but I've been able to prep ahead, so there'll be food in them as I go, so it'll be time good.

Closing And Where To Find Them

SPEAKER_05 29:48

Yeah, and then our next big thing that we have happening, Tyler mentioned, is the Toronto Sportsman Show in March from the 19th to the 22nd. So we're not really doing much leading up to that because there's gonna be so much for us to prepare and have ready, mostly for Tyler, but also for me to kind of prepare behind the scenes and then continue to, you know, ship out orders from the online store, which is doing really well right now. Uh, for anyone that doesn't know, campkitchenstore.ca is where you can purchase our meals online. And so ever since Hamilton, our flow of orders um has been really great. So that's exciting. I spend a lot of my mornings down in HQ packing those orders before I even get my kids ready to go to school so that I can make sure I get those shipments off as soon as possible to the post for people to have for their weekend adventures. So we've been focused on that, but hoping that once we get through the sportsman show, we can do some family camping with our kids. Uh, they've been so patient with us getting this uh this line of freeze-dried food up off the ground and they're getting really antsy to get out on some trips uh as a family. And then also this August, we have a new family member uh that's going to arrive. And so I want to get in the canoe multiple times on a couple of big trips before uh I'm busy taking care of a newborn. So yeah, we'll see what happens. But we're pretty excited about this year and and making some memories with adventures and eating good food and getting food into people's hands. Like it's just surreal that that uh that we're at this point. We're just so excited for growth.

SPEAKER_01 31:36

Yeah, inventory is um definitely top priority. Um, we know that that can be the biggest downfall with small food manufacturers, is that just keeping up with demand is is challenging. Um so we've balanced that with our slow launch, just being able to be available in Ontario until we get our CFIA approval for a bigger space and and can double down on our production. Um it's it's kind of like a a nice um a nice border to have for now. And and just making enough food, like going into the sportsman show, we we don't really know what to expect, but um it makes a big difference. Every batch that we can get before before we go is more food that we're either going to bring back or be able to sell at the show. So that that is a huge priority, and and yeah, I think it'll level out eventually where we can um step away for a weekend here and there, but but right now it's just putting all we got into it, yeah, for growth over the next few years.

SPEAKER_05 32:43

I'll let you talk about that, Tosh, about where we're hoping to land.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

Yeah, so the like the demand has been amazing. We were we had really no idea what to expect. We knew there was some people that were interested going into Hamilton, but the Saturday of that show, so the show was Saturday, Sunday, and Saturday we were blown away by you know, at some points you couldn't get past the front of our booth because there'd be 40 people all in line waiting to get to the table. And we were a little bit concerned, like if Sunday was gonna be that busy again that we could possibly be selling out of food before the end of the show. Um turned out Sunday was the big snowstorm, and so the crowds were a little bit smaller, but still it was amazing. But that's part, like as Tyler was saying, that's part of our concern is just keeping the machines running and trying to keep up with demand and increase our capacity. So now that we're just selling in Ontario, we're seeming to be able to manage with our space, but if we want to go across Canada or outside of Canada, we're gonna definitely need to expand the kitchen and get into a much bigger space and probably be hiring staff, and it's a whole other, you know, kettle of fish at that point. But it's just we're taking these all these steps as we grow, and we've sat around the kitchen table, I don't know how many times, you know, just draining pots of coffee and scheming up ideas and making plans and talking about the future together. It's it's been such a hard time.

SPEAKER_05 34:15

Some nights it's like we look at the clock and we're like, oh my gosh, we need to go to bed now. Like it's time to just stop, or like our brains will start to like physically hurt, and we're like, okay, let's pick up this conversation like again tomorrow. Um and we'll hammer it out. But we make such an amazing team. All of us have uh unique like strengths and weaknesses that we can like hold each other up through, and and yeah, it's just been so cool to see that partnership like flourish um and just to be able to like lean on each other, like running a small business is not for the faint of heart. Tyler and I um have always been and will always be entrepreneurs. We have experience uh running small businesses together, um, but definitely I will say that the best part has been sharing it with a third person that you know really has a fantastic like outside perspective. Um, I'm sure Tim and Pam, you know what it's like to be married and to have, you know, your project that you're working on together, and it probably consumes a lot of uh your time and you do it together because you love it. And so Tyler and I have been like that since I can remember. And so having that third person kind of come in and and give, you know, a bit of a different perspective sometimes or a different opinion is like amazing because I truly don't think that I think Or even a gu uh guidance and encouragement sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 35:48

Yeah, you're like this idea might be crazy, and then Tosh is like, no, it's definitely crazy. Or he's like, Yeah, let's do it, right? So like having that like third point of like confidence and guidance, uh it really goes a long way as well.

SPEAKER_05 36:02

Yeah, it's just been the best. So it it's nice to be able to share those responsibilities and and not have to like stress out alone over things. It's like there's always a solution, and yeah, it's it's nice to be able to push each other towards big goals. Like Tyler was saying, like gearing up to Hamilton, you know, we talked to so many people that were like, okay, like, you know, good luck with that goal. Like, you could do it if if you know, hopefully it all works out. And so I to myself was thinking, like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I set us this like crazy goal to have food for next year. Like, I remember uh being at HQ like last June, thinking like, okay, like can we pull this together in a certain amount of months, like having the conversations, like, is this gonna happen? And then, you know, months before with Tosh, you know, jumping in and with his camera and doing the photography for our bags, like it was really just like we're really pulling every single uh strength out of our pockets and you know, taking this huge risk together. Like we have no idea what's gonna happen, but hopefully the result of this is going to be you know successful. And I think that that's the key uh to really anything is getting outside of your comfort zone and just trying. You know, we wouldn't be where we are today without the three of us really putting our heads together, and especially Tyler. Tosh and I wouldn't be here at all without Tyler. Let's be real.

SPEAKER_00 37:39

That's right. So I just think it looks like I know. There's a lot of stuff going on like behind the scenes that I don't think you know ever gets mentioned. And it just little things like if you look at the bags for the like the pouches of food, we designed that. Like I would say we, uh Cassie designed all of those from from scratch, and then you know, uh, we thought, okay, well, we should we hire someone to do all the photography? And I thought, okay, like I've got a a good camera, let's just see what happens. And we were able to take the pictures like right there, and you know, Tyler's dressing the food, and I'm trying to get the lighting right, and then Cassie's putting it on her computer and and turning it into like the magic that came out of it. And then it also just so happens, you know, we have to use Adobe Illustrator for the for all the design for the packaging company. Cassie used Illustrator back when she was in college, and so there was a little bit of a learning curve to catch back up again, but then she's right back into it. And so these little coincidences along the way of just like, oh yeah, I can figure that out. Okay, well, can you figure this out? And we just, you know, multitasking and we're we're parting things out and everyone's stepping up. It's it's been such a wild process, and especially in the last 12 months, to think that we're actually here now.

SPEAKER_05 39:03

Yeah. I remember we had a meeting like with our company that we went with for packaging, and so it was like our first like really exciting like meeting for the three of us to go to. We had such a good feeling about this company, and they ended up like really having our backs, and we were so happy with how our bags turned out, being able to get them in time for the show, everything.

SPEAKER_01 39:24

But our go to the actual facility and doing a tour of the facility was really cool too.

SPEAKER_05 39:29

Yeah, we were standing like checking in before our meeting, and all I remember is Tosh just being like, Hey Cass, and I'm like, What? And he holds up this package, and it's like I don't even know what it was. It was like a knife inside of a box or something like that that they had like on display in the front, and it said camp kitchen on it. And I was like, that's weird. Anyways, let's carry on with this meeting. Like, I don't know, it's just like I don't think that things just happen to people. I really do believe in hard work. Um, and there hasn't been a day that's gone by where we haven't put in that hard work, but I do I do really also believe that you know great things can happen. And if you just follow your heart and your path, it'll take you to where you're meant to be. So yeah, it's been a really, really cool, fun, fun journey so far.

SPEAKER_00 40:27

Yeah, and the like the amount the amount of work that goes into it behind the scenes, especially what you know, Tyler, I would say, you know, the number of hours that nobody mentions that you know he's working full-time plus working full-time in the kitchen and getting all this food out. And like it's it all goes unnoticed to everybody but the three of us. And so we we've built this really strong connection through all the work we're doing. And you know, if you ever saw our our group chat and you looked at the timeline of when when we're texting, it starts at you know 5 30 in the morning and then it's going till you know midnight that night, then starts again the next day of just ideally.

SPEAKER_05 41:06

And it's so funny, like thank thank goodness for like the reply option, like in a group chat, because like our topics are like one person, like Tyler's. And then I'm jumping in and like commenting on like you know, something that I need their approval for for like social media. So if someone actually saw into that chat, they would just be like, How are you guys operating through all that? But like somehow we just click and and understand each other and it just works.

SPEAKER_02 41:53

That's excellent. It's uh yes, all the hard work, yes, all the wonderful things you can pull out of your pockets and stuff, but sometimes, you know, the cosmos just lines up and and things go the way that because they're meant they're meant to go, right?

SPEAKER_00 42:08

So yeah, like I said, when Tyler and I first met at the I met these guys at the trade show in in Toronto two over two years ago now, and Tyler just struck up a conversation and asked me if if I wanted to try out the twig stove, you know, just go test it out for them. And that was the beginning of of everything you see now. Just that one conversation.

SPEAKER_02 42:34

I think that's what put me on to you guys was look because I saw who did I see Rob, I think, from me in the outside. And and this it was the size of the surface area of it going, oh, it's not a tiny little thing that's just gonna burn all the stuff in the middle of my pan, but there I can cook on that, like I can put a steak on that thing. And and then that's how we got we just got yakking about things.

SPEAKER_05 42:58

That twig stove is like still generating customers for us. Like, literally, the other day, I'm trying so hard to continue to develop our social communities. One of my weaknesses is Facebook because personally I don't spend a lot of time on Facebook, but I know that there's a community of people that want to engage with us on that platform. And so, anyways, I got a message on our Facebook from a customer um literally a couple of days ago that was like, I went to Google and typed in Stick Stove and I walked away with like discovering a company that makes like local, you know, real ingredient, no preservatives, like an this amazing freeze-dried food company that's like blowing me away. Um, and so I read that comment. I was like, guys, look at this community that's also supporting us, you know, on Facebook. And they found us through Google just by typing in stick stove, like that's incredible, and that kind. Actually, made an order that I packed up on Friday morning to send out. So that is so neat to me that that product that we still, you know, are selling that's doing really, really well is also something that will continue to bring uh customers uh to us to discover Tyler's food and tell our story because it really was the first you know thing that we started this business with.

SPEAKER_02 44:25

So it yeah, there's Facebook, we're we're old, so Facebook's a thing for us. Uh but there are a bazillion camping groups, whether it's canoeing groups, hiking groups, whatever, you know, Ontario Parks groups, blah, blah, blah. There is, I bet you I follow, I belong to like 30 different camping themed groups on there. And they're all pretty, I don't know that hardcore is the right term, but they're all they're all validly interested in things that are tend to be Ontario-ish. So, you know, it's a it's a I would think it's a good demographic for you to to cater to if it's you know it it's worth the pain in the butt. I think that could that a lot of those people are are good people and would be your demographic.

SPEAKER_05 45:13

Absolutely. Yeah, and I try to tell myself there's only so many platforms that you can really keep your finger on. Like I've worked in social media content creation now for like the last 15 years of my life, and that's my job um behind the scenes is maintaining our social media platforms, um, editing some of Tyler's YouTube videos for YouTube, for the Camp Kitchen channel, um, and really just like planning out and forecasting our content. Um, so predominantly we we are on Instagram. You can find us on Instagram at camp underscore kitch. Um you can find us on YouTube, same tag at underscore camp kitch, camp kitchen, um, on Facebook, Camp Kitchen. Um, and those are really the three uh platforms that we have social media-wise. But one thing that I wanted to mention today also is that we're developing an incredible email newsletter. Um, and so we have a spot on our website, CampKitchenstore.ca, where you can go and actually sign up for our e-newsletter, uh, which has easily become one of my favorite platforms to share on and tell our story and update our customers on uh product drops, restocks, uh, basically just like behind the scenes information that we're not necessarily sharing on our social media feeds, kind of like a special uh glimpse at what we're working on, like a first announcement type thing where those folks get first access to new products or just information about events that we're doing, etc. So yeah, we try our best to be as active as possible and and to keep up with um making some really cool, relatable content. But it's also been also such like a relief and huge excitement to us to see people tagging us um on socials in their photos actually like using and enjoying our product. Um, so we're really, really excited about that. There's there's nothing cooler than like logging on and seeing someone's tagged you in like an amazing picture like of our product camping. Like that is just so cool, and I know it's gonna continue to happen. So yeah, you can find us on all of those platforms.

SPEAKER_00 47:37

Awesome. Yeah, that's been that's been a pretty cool thing, is just seeing where people are taking the food out on their trips, and you know, you're seeing tags, and I'm sure it's gonna continue as we get into the summer camping season where people are just out all across Ontario or Canada or or beyond and where the food goes. It's it's pretty exciting to see.

SPEAKER_02 47:58

Yeah, I'm looking forward to it too. We'll uh there'll be I'm sure there'll be lots of pictures of the big tall kid eating your food. So we'll tag you. On the Spanish River. On the Spanish River. That's our first trip.

SPEAKER_00 48:11

Perfect.

SPEAKER_02 48:11

Oh, that's a good trip. We tried to do it last year and the bud car got taken out of service at 7 30 the night before. So it's like, okay. So we did tomogamy, which is just I I love that trip anyhow. So it's it's all good now.

SPEAKER_00 48:27

Yeah, yeah. The West Branch is pretty awesome. Are you gonna go all the way up to the city?

SPEAKER_02 48:30

I have no idea. Uh organic boat shop is or has organized everything, uh, done all the things. I just show up.

SPEAKER_00 48:37

So Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I think I think I was talking to them about that. I think they put in at Sinker Creek, but I'm not 100% sure.

SPEAKER_02 48:47

If I don't have to plan it, it's not a bad thing. I've been planning trips for decades. It's nice to let somebody else do it once in a while.

SPEAKER_00 48:54

Yeah. Yeah, it's a good trip. Tyler and I took a run down the East Branch with last summer or the year before. And yeah, we had a great time. His like kind of his introductory to to whitewater tripping was on that river.

SPEAKER_02 49:09

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, they they are. And it's it's also nice to do. I mean, I trip with we all trip together, but uh but most of the time I trip with our our eldest, and it was I think there were nine of us on that trip. Uh, and it was the first time I'd ever done anything that big since way back when I was in Scouts, and it was a fantastic experience. Like everybody was just cool, they were chill, they were there to do what we were there to do. So it was it was very cool. Quite quite enjoyable. We'll drag some of your meals out with us on this one for sure. Get lots of get lots of pictures because we I think the whack of us posted like a j an absolute ton of social media stuff. I don't know why, but it we just it just seemed to be that kind of a trip.

SPEAKER_00 49:52

Yeah, or or organic boatshop is also on our list of people that uh we've had a bunch of retailers and outfitters uh reaching out to us that that want to stock the product. And you know, as we were saying before, it's like keeping up with demand. But eventually, as we can move into a bigger space, we'll be wholesaling to retailers and we'll get these on store shelves and outfitters, and um, that's another step that we're working towards. But yeah, the organic boat shop has expressed a lot of interest in putting our product uh on their shelves and taking it out on their shops.

SPEAKER_02 50:25

No, Greg's Greg's a great guy. We've yakked with him a bunch. Well, we're friends with uh and he has been just pushing hard to build up the organic boat shop. Um, and when he sees stuff that that it goes bing in his head, he chases it down. So he'd be he'd be a super easy guy to work with.

SPEAKER_05 50:46

For sure. It'll be a really exciting day when we're able to start wholesaling. So even locally here in Peterborough, Wild Rock Outfitters has been one of our biggest supporters since we launched our twig stove product. They actually stock it in their store and have been super supportive of Tyler and I through this entire journey. So, like the list is starting to get very long of people that we just genuinely like love and you know, of course, want our product on their shelves. So it's really just gonna be about uh putting the pedal to the metal, working super hard, um, and then eventually growing into a space where we can start needing the capacity that we would require uh to meet in order to uh get our product on those shelves, which would require more than one Tyler to do.

SPEAKER_02 51:38

Start working on a cloning machine for you. Perfect.

SPEAKER_04 51:43

Yeah, all right. That's it for us for today. Thank you so much to Cassie, Tyler, and Tosh from Camp Kitchen for joining us. And please do check them out. Best place is probably on their website, you'll find all their socials. It'll be campkitchenstore.ca dot ca. Yeah, make sure you get the store. And um, then otherwise check them out at the Sportsman Show. And you can reach out to us anytime. We are at Hi at SupergoodCamping.com, that's H I at Supergoodcamping.com, and we're on all the social media. We would love to talk to you. Please do reach out to us and we'll talk to you again soon.

SPEAKER_02 52:16

Bye.