Last fall I was in the Oakville Hiker’s Haven store and I found this great little product called a Banana Guard. One thing I dislike is a bruised banana and my little boy is the same, so I thought this would be great for day hikes and for his  school lunches. If you ever saw how that boy throws his backpack to the ground you’d be surprised that anything in his lunch survives, let alone a banana.

So, using my son as the gear tester, we put it through the rigors and it has held up extremely well. The company says that it also protects the banana from premature ripening. I decided to do a test with two organic bananas from the same bunch. I put one in the Banana Guard and the other just sat in the basket on the kitchen counter. It seems that the guard does prevent the banana from ripening too fast. That’s another thing I don’t like — overripe bananas.

Lately I’ve been thinking that I might toss one of these into each of our packs on a short backpacking or paddling trip. While I love dried bananas, it would be a nice treat to have a fresh, unbruised banana after a few days on the trail. I’ve had other hikers suggest that I put a banana in my pot-set but even a medium banana would be too big and I use my pot-set to store other trail cooking gear.

I weighed the product this morning and it came at just over 50 grams so it isn’t really for the Ultralight hikers. Then again, most UL hikers don’t take fresh bananas to begin with.

You can find out more about the Banana Guard and the companies other fruit protection products at www.BananaGuard.com.

I’ve been having a few online conversations with people about coffee and tea on the trail. Some people use instant, others use a press and some use paper filters.

There is a paper filter called t-Sac, which is a one-time use tea bag that you fill yourself. They come in a variety of sizes including a single serving version. The bottom is gussetted and allows the bag to widen during brewing. This gives the tea leaves room for expansion and enough room to infuse with the water to create a perfectly brewed cup.

When we go on hiking trips my husband, Bryan, also uses these for his coffee and finds that they work very well. The t-Sacs are extremely light — they weigh less than coffee filters. t-Sacs are also surprisingly durable. The products are made in Germany, are unbleached and bio-degradable.

You can usually buy these at a tea shop specializing in loose tea, online through tea companies or through Amazon.com.

As you know, from my articles and posts, I enjoy a good cup of tea. Now that cold and flu season is upon us I thought it might be appropriate to talk about some of the teas I use on the trail and at home if I am feeling under the weather.

Often when I was feeling ill I would turn to Earl Grey tea with a bit of ginger and honey or honey and lemon. It works great at making me feel a bit better and I prefer it to taking over-the-counter cold remedies.

On the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend I was starting to come down with something. We were car camping in Algonquin Provincial Park and we decided to go to the little gift shop to see if we could find some tea. I am picky about my tea as I have mentioned in other posts and figured I wouldn’t be able to find anything more than some low-grade tea fannings. Well, to my surprise, the gift shop at the Portage Store didn’t disappoint.

The little shop hosted a line of teas from The Algonquin Tea Co. which looked like they had great  promise. As I looked at the various flavors I came upon one that seemed to fit the bill — Homestead Blend. It was labeled as a cold and flu tea. Perfect!

While it didn’t miraculously take away the illness, it certainly made me more comfortable and it seemed to provide some symptom relief. It also tasted good. Delicious would be a better word.  Someday I’ll have to try it as an iced tea as I think the flavor would suit that preparation as well.

The main ingredients are Anise Hyssop, Red Clover and Raspberry Leaves. The tea is made from  “100% certified organic hand picked indigenous Canadian herbs” according to the manufacturer’s website.

Homestead Blend is definitely worth the price and I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase it again. The Algonquin Tea Co. has 5 other tempting flavors that I will be trying over the next few months including one that is touted as “daily immune booster”. As I try each tea I will post about it here.

If you can’t find Algonquin Tea in your local specialty shop you can order it online at AlgonquinTea.com.