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Hi Rickwhite, how's the hornbeam been getting on? It would be interesting to know how it's been getting on and how you've used it. I made cooking spatula today from green hornbeam, and hope it won't be cracking any time soon!

Very interesting, thanks all. I'm still curious about what evidence there is for making birch tar (non-squeeking variety) in prehistory. Would the wet clay method leave pottery traces? Dave Budd, do you remember if there were any such traces which would survive the process?

Thanks, that's really helpful. Now looking forward to seeing some pics/ sketches!

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but have any of you good folk made birch tar without a tin? The question came up while in conversation with Karl Lee, of Primitive Technology, while in a flint knapping workshop hosted by Bassetlaw museum. It was felt that Birch tar wasn't an 'authentic' stone...

First, find your volcano...

Ooh good idea. Thanks - I'll have a look locally.

Planting trees to create woodland is a great way to kickstart it. Willow and birch are pioneer species whose seeds are blown in by wind. Oak will outcompete them all but it tends to be propogated by jays picking up acorns and burying them outside the woodland, or on its grassy margins, so the...

Hmm. Tempted. I'm just south of Doncaster in Retford - but I'm really after a large anvil suitable for backyard smithying. Maybe I could view it to decide?

Aw hey sorry to hear that. Dogs. They get you just there.

Pickled beetroot and pickled walnuts have been a personal favourite for a while. Clearly there's more pickleables than I throught!

Ok, thanks all. Looks like pickled flower buds is the way to go, although the fresh flowers taste rather good. Cheers, Dom

Someone on Radio 4 was talking about capers made from ransoms, and I thought to myself, surely not? Googling didn't produce anything, but if anyone's going to know, they'd be here. So, any thoughts? Cheers, Dom

I'd be really chuffed with those - nice one!

I found some of this when visiting Orkney (South Ronaldsay) last summer and thought it looked very interesting, with pretty small blue flowers and fleshy leaves, but I didn't try to eat it. Wish I had. Does it need cooking, or what?

Well, that does look the business. Nice one.

Thanks for posting your experiments, which I found very interesting. Larger pictures would be nice. Round my neck of the woods its mostly drift geology deposited by glaciers some 10k years ago, so its quite a mix of interesting looking pebbles of uncertain origin. Our solid geology is...

Thanks for the link. Have read the article and watched all three utube videos. That's some survival story - escape from death and persecution, then living on as little as they did for forty years is just astounding. Not sure about the arguments above re choices to live away from society...

If you want the willow for hurdle making, now's the time before the sap rises as it then gets too brittle. Either cut it low or, if you prefer, at three feet up which will make harvesting in a couple of years just that bit easier. Once cut, if the withies are left for a fortnight they become...

Hey - any one wanna buy a reindeer skin? I'll get my hat.... Seriously, have a good one!

That's wonderful. Just wondering what sort of string it is?