blueberries

socially-distant blueberry picking at eagletree farm

 

 

blacksmithing, old-school

ok, maybe not quite old-school, as we used hand-cranked blowers instead of bellows, but the rest was authentic. we heated mild steel in above-ground forges and hammered the heck out of it to make different shapes. with safety in mind, of course.

primitive cooking

the man - tim macwelch
the place - wilderness somewhere near fredericksburg, va
the reason - to learn how to cook meat using fire and rocks, primitive style
the season(ing) - none. we enjoyed the full flavor of the food without embellishment

jennifer told me about a foraging/plant id class she and her daughter took through earth connection and invited me to join her for primitive cooking. i'm so glad she did. it was a gorgeous-weather day, out in a forested area where we could find all the woods, water, rocks, and clay we needed.

fourteen people and an instructor can eat a lot for lunch and dinner, so we had our work cut out for us. actually, we had to cut the wood ourselves!

we learned about and cooked with: skewers, a spit, a greenwood grill, a steam pit, a stone oven, and directly on coals/ash, along with clay baking and rock frying methods.

about half of these photos are mine, the others (especially the ones with me in them) are from jennifer.

the morning drive

kindling & rocks

tools

starting with a blowtorch due to wet ground conditions

cutting greenwood grill saplings down to size

greenwood grill in progress

reflecting support rocks surround hot coals

prepping zucchini

tending the grill

lowering the grill

getting more heat to the sausages

done!

lunch is yummy

water source

clay-ful mud pit

shaping mud around apples

baking with clay

almost there

happy camper

mushy applesauce inside

greensnake frend

spot the toad

steam pit

heating the rocks

making tongs

using tongs to lift and transport hot rocks

dawn can do it, too

covering food with vegetation

food is revealed

eggs are hard-cooked

 

ribs

 

ribs nearly done

chickens on a spit

rock frying

bacon!

 

pork chops

beef roast in rock oven, pork chops staying warm

ash cake cooking

not bad at all

dinner is served

we can cook with fire!