I prefer more fruit — so much more fruit that my daughter, Sam, says my trail mix looks like fruit salad. I like the sweetness laced with tang. I like saltiness too so I prefer to roast the nuts and toss in a bit of salt.
As you might have guessed by this time, I don’t buy trail mix in a jar or pouch. In fact, until about a year ago, I didn’t eat trail mix at all. Then, my husband got into it. It was during quarantine. With so many people looking for ways to earn, there was a plethora of sellers online. He ordered a few bags and, well, to say that ready-to-eat trail mix leaves a lot to be desired would be putting it mildly. The amount of cheap ingredients (peanuts!) far outweigh the rest and yet the price tag is steep.
A scam, really, and getting scammed once was enough. I suggested that we buy the ingredients individually. Not only would we be able to choose the fruits, nuts and seeds that would go into our trail mix, we could control the ratio of the ingredients too. And that was how we started making our own trail mix. Not to sell but to enjoy at home. Below are some of the fruits, nuts and seeds we have tried. All are available online.
Large pieces of dried fruit (apricots, kiwis, peaches and mangoes) are cut into small manageable pieces (kitchen shears are ideal for this task).
Then all the fruits, nuts and seeds are tossed in a large bowl to distribute the ingredients evenly.
The trail mix is transferred into jars with screw-on lids. And a few small bags of silica gel go into each jar. The silica gel absorbs moisture to keep mold away. That means our trail mix stays good for a week or two.
Tip: If you want to try making your own trail mix too by buying seeds, nuts and fruits individually, and you realize that you have more ingredients than you need for your trail mix, just store the excess to make more later. Freeze the fruits, seeds and nuts in individual packs to lengthen shelf life. If you have a vacuum sealer, use it.
