Earlier this week I was walking down Main Street in town, and I noticed some fruit in a tree. It was a Ginkgo Biloba tree, also known as a Maidenhair Tree, which I recognized by the fan-shaped leaves. But I didn’t know if the fruit was edible, so my research began.
Ginkgo trees have an interesting [...]
Continue reading about Ginkgo Biloba - Urban Edible Tree Nuts
As a firecraft enthusiast, I’ve explored a number of ways to create fire. It’s always exciting to produce a coal or flame… sort of “something from nothing”. However, it isn’t always easy to achieve. You might have limited resources or inclement weather which can inhibit ignition. That’s why ages ago primitive man learned to “carry” [...]
One of the fun things about a campfire is the experiments that you can explore while you sit around it. I’ve witnessed some pyro-type activities on different occasions, but my interest in firecraft leans more toward practical uses such as heating, signaling and cooking. At one of my day-long exhibitions, I had cooked a hoe-cake [...]
Friction Fire Methods of Bow-and-Spindle and Hand-Drill involve using a spindle on a hearthboard to generate heat and char in order to create an ember. The most successful material for this purpose is a non-resinous soft light wood that produces a slightly fibrous coffee-colored powder known as char. I prefer to make the spindle and [...]
When I was a teen and living in the city, I longed for the outdoors. My cousin invited me to go hiking with him and his dad, his dad’s brother, and the other boys in our tribe for a week in the mountains of California. I had a backpack that I had used for weekend [...]
When you find yourself out in the woods and thirsty, there may not be water found readily at hand. If you were fortunate enough to find a clean body of water, you could lay on the ground and drink straight from the source, or, you could use your hand as a cup. But if there [...]
The event was “Trail Day” at the W. Kerr Scott Reservoir where volunteers gathered this morning at 08:00 and worked until noon, cutting a new trail by following marked contours along the hillside. The reward: roasted pig, that began cooking yesterday in a huge trailer-mounted smoker. The pit master (and owner) was “BBQ Man” Chad [...]
It’s amazing how many ways you can use trash for constructive purposes, especially in emergency circumstances. Take for instance, a plastic soda bottle. Plastic bottles come in all shapes, sizes and colors, and now many are produced with thinner walls for less environmental impact. The point of this blog is to describe on application of [...]
A couple of weeks ago I was a vender at a local Faire. One of the benefits is that you get to meet interesting folks who share a wealth of wisdom from their experiences. One particular item was the Swedish Log Candle which was news to me. Of course, any topic with fire interests me [...]
Have you ever gone camping but forgot to bring your cooking gear? Many other cultures don’t need equipment. In the States we may not have native banana leaves to wrap food for baking, but we do have poplar leaves that interlock, thus making a griddle type surface upon which you can cook thinly sliced meat [...]
