Advice on green wood

[Stuart Danger]

Hi guys

I am a L3 forest schools leader and I have a outdoor learning day coming up soon. I have 28 children one day and 28 children the next day, I am planning on doing a variety of things with them including fire building, natural necklace making and shelter building.

I am in need of 28-30 pieces of green wood sticks which we will use for whittling one end and then cooking marhmallows and bannock on. Each child will need their own piece. At the moment I am trying to acquire all the pieces now. But....

I'm thinking of using Lime for the cooking sticks, pieces that are 10-12 inches in length, does anyone have any better recommendations for wood? Sweet chestnut? Also is there a way of cutting it all and keeping it green? As I don't really want to be out the night before cutting it all up!

Thanks

Stuart

 

[spandit]

Hazel comes in straight pieces - it won't dry out that quickly but you can always leave it in a bucket of water

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

as above Hazel would be my recommendation. should be easy to find and should get all you need easily. Ive tons near my house that have loads of pencil thin straight branches to copice. I would wet a load of cotton wool and wrap all your branches in clingfilm with the cotton wool inside. keep indoors and will give off enough moisture to stop the wood drying.

 

[Stringmaker]

Ash is also excellent as it too grows straight and can be very easily worked by young hands.

 

[Ogri the trog]

If you are thinking of only having "10 - 12 inch" cooking sticks, just buy a bag of bamboo kebab skewers and be done with it.

Personally I'd be thinking along the lines of at least 2 foot long (possibly longer) to keep small hands further away from any fire. With a longer stick, there is also scope for cleaning the cooking end to repeat the process if anything goes wrong.

Willow has the highest moisture content of any native tree so should remain viable for a few days after cutting a 10 foot straight branch should yield 3 or 4 cooking sticks.

Lastly, don't forget to peel the bark - you may laugh, but on my FS training, one teacher cut an ash branch - wrestled a marsh-mallow onto the end and thrust it into the fire. I waited a minute before asking her where the birds pooh? She said she had never thought of that and had been doing it that way for years!

Remember 10 blows before eating.

Good luck

Ogri the trog

 

[2sheds]

i thought Ash had some not-so-good toxins to be aware of when cooking, personnally i would care 2hoots but with kids may think differently

 

[Harvestman]

Willow is good too, if you have it sprouting.

 

[Kepis]

Hazel, Willow, Sweet Chestnut will do the job, all food safe woods and they will grow back quickly too, but if you need that amount, rather than remove that quantity of wood from the forest, just do as Ogri mentioned and buy some kebab skewers only cost a few quid.

If you do cut green wood, just keep it outside, i have some coppiced hazel i harvested up my woods about two weeks ago, kept it outside and it's still wet and that stuff is only finger thick, likewise with a load of willow i cut before Christmas, the stuff is still sopping wet, mind you the rain and frosts have helped somewhat.

 

[Adze]

Remember 10 blows before eating.

A genuine LOL is a rare thing is it not?

 

[shaggystu]

A genuine LOL is a rare thing is it not?

not nearly so rare as a genuine ROFL

 

[Stuart Danger]

Thanks for all the answers guys!
I did think of the bambo skewers but they are too thin, we will be cooking bannock on the end and I can imagine them snapping. I will also be driving them into the surrounding dirt so they cook, this will keep children away from the fire as they are not allowed to enter the fire circle.

We have some willow at the school that was cut about 2 weeks ago, do you think it will still be 'green' in a few more weeks?
I think I may go and spend some time in the woods making getting some sweet chestnut!

Thanks again

 

[Kepis]

If the Willow i cut before Christmas is anything to go by it will be fine.

 

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[shaggystu]

reported as spam

 

[bushcraftmyway]

you don't absolutely need green wood for sqewers.