Woodland Wanderings Area couple's goal is offering a better 'adventure' meal

Aug. 7—SOMERSET, Pa. — Justin Aust and Sabrina Beal drove to a ridgetop in Forbes State Forest on a recent Saturday evening, where some The Tribune- Democrat staff members had set up camp after a hike of more than 14 miles on the Laurel Highlands trail.

Aust jokingly asked if anybody ordered a pizza.

What Aust and Beal had brought was even better: Homemade stuffed pepper soup, spaghetti with meat sauce, beef stroganoff, chicken alfredo, shepherd's pie, and a southwest bowl — a hodgepodge of meals to share — as well as cheesecake for dessert, and sausage gravy and biscuits for breakfast the next day.

All the dishes were their family recipes, made with locally sourced ingredients from Somerset County.

But these were freeze-dried and neatly packaged with their new small business' name — On Point Adventure Foods LLC.

All of the lightweight packages were easily carried in one backpack, with room for other camping essentials.

Inspiration for freeze-drying food struck Aust on a 22-day elk-hunting excursion in Colorado in 2021. He was eating big-brand freeze-dried meals the entire trip and, he said, he craved hearty home-cooked food with simple ingredients.

He and Beal consider their business to be an extension of their passion for experiencing the outdoors. They said they derive joy from enhancing others' experiences.

"We believe people deserve better food," Beal said.

Since opening last year, On Point Adventure Foods meals have been taken not only on adventures in the wilderness, but also to work in the coal mines of Cambria and Somerset counties, and sent to local troops serving abroad.

To prepare, the meals require only a bit of hot water.

Aust showed a photograph on his phone of a customer who even shared a packaged meal with a Buddhist monk on a trip to Asia.

He talked happily as he rehydrated the food at The Tribune-Democrat's camp at the Grindle Ridge camping shelter area simply by boiling water and adding a measure to the package, then resealing it for a few minutes. When he reopened it, the aroma of a home-cooked meal burst from the package.

On Point Adventure Foods meals are simple: one package of sausage biscuits and gravy, which Beal makes from scratch, includes four ingredients. In contrast, a breakfast skillet from a major brand contained dozens of additives and preservatives, including xanthan gum.

Ingredients for On Point Adventure Foods come from local businesses, 4-H organizations and Future Farmers of America members.

Aust and Beal make all of their meals as a normal food business would prepare food at a restaurant. Then the meals go into a large industrial freeze-drying machine that removes the water.

Not counting the preparation time of cooking, one meal can take about 70 hours in the freeze-drying process, they said.

Through the company website, onpointadventurefoods.com, On Point Adventure Foods sells meals that are shipped across the country.

"The No. 2 state for sales behind Pennsylvania is Alaska," Aust said. "We have a few outfitters out there that just love them. They've been ordering like crazy. We just shipped 50 or 60 meals up there in the last few weeks."

The couple's business officially opened in July 2022.

"It's gone quickly, development-wise," Aust said.

The couple have worked thoughtfully with a manufacturer on the packaging.

The thick-wall mylar packages stand and don't flop over; the depth of the packages is right for fork access as opposed to brands that require some tunneling with a fork at the bottom, they said.

The couple would like to make the business their full-time jobs, but they are careful about controlling growth, said Beal, a youth development faculty educator for West Virginia University. Aust is an engineer with The EADS Group in Johnstown.

"We don't want to get to the point where quality declines — because that's the whole reason we got started," Beal said.

Aust envisions On Point Adventure Foods becoming a household name on online outdoor activity blogs.

"That's definitely a goal for us," he said, "but to get there, I want to make sure we grow the correct way. ... We are sourcing our ingredients as locally as possible here in Somerset County and the Alleghenies, and not skimping on quality. The whole goal is to cook home-cooked meals and we will never stray from that."