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 [...]
Although my primary interest in survival skills revolves around firecraft, I have begun to research alternate methods of cooking without using fire. A growing trend for cooking, especially in under-developed countries, is by using solar technology. Solar cooking takes time, but requires no fuel or flames. Heat is collected from the sun’s rays and [...]
Here’s an interesting way to heat water when no flames or conventional cooking apparatus is available. A friend of mine used to work in the maintenance department at a facility where an upstairs water leak dripped through to a lower floor light fixture. He responded to a call only to find a water-filled globe with [...]
Not long ago, while perusing a country store, I came across an innovative lantern known as the Dietz “Warm-It-Up” Lantern, also known as the “2000 Millennium Cooker” Lantern. It was developed around the Y2K phenomenon. Folks were concerned about eminent danger back then, and, a decade later, folks are STILL concerned about the future and [...]
The mention of “Roadkill” usually turns up the nose of those who hear it. Visions of gore and stench proliferate in their imagination. But on occasion, it’s just the end of the trail for the animal without major trauma, and timely for those who know how to capitalize on it. The following is [...]
Lamb’s quarters is a spinach-like plant that most folks consider a weed found in cultivated crops, gardens, pastures, vacant lots, waste ground, and other disturbed soils. Lamb’s quarters has a few different nicknames like pigweed, goosefoot, white goosefoot, wild spinach, and lamb’s quarter (singular), depending on where you live. It is not related to “lamb’s [...]
Baking fish goes back to the beginning of history. Not only is it simple, but baking takes advantage of almost the entire fish as a food resource. Shown here is a Talapia which was purchased at a local Superstore food section. It is already gutted and ready to bake.
Fish tastes great by it’s self but [...]
Have you ever wanted to have an impromptu picnic lunch with hot chili or beans but had no cookware to use? By using a P-38 can opener, you can make a handle from the rim of a can, enabling you to hang it over a fire for cooking.
The first step is to cut out and [...]
A weed has been defined as a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered. Many people don’t know that purslane is edible, tasty, very nutritious, and is a wonderful vegetable! It is found throughout North America in waste places and fields. It was originally introduced from Europe.
As shown in the photo, the plant appears [...]
Continue reading about Purslane / Pigweed - Not a weed, but an edible vegetable
Recently I discovered a terrific little camp stove called the “TrailStove”. It uses the chimney effect to maximize airflow for combustion of fuel. If you have used a charcoal briquette starter that uses newspaper placed in the bottom chamber of the device to ignite the charcoal briquettes placed inside the upper chamber, you know how [...]
