We had a very busy week-end building a three person group shelter using Ash and Hazel framing tied with natural cordage. This was then covered with a thick layer of Spruce brash. It needed to be thick as the East wind found it's way into any opening. The sleeping areas were also covered with 9'' of springy brash too.
Cooking was the usual excelent cuisine refined to Muntjac, dumplings and vegetables.
The highlight of this week-end was our experiment in creating a Hangi. This entailed gathering as much information as possible as none of our group had done this from scratch before and we wanted it to be a success.
As the carcass was being dressed and the shelter was being built I set about digging the pit. This was approx 3'x3'x18'' and a fire was created in this. Using the strong wind to my advantage and a couple of pieces of tin sheeting, carefully cut from the now rare 'tin' tree I was able to direct the wind into the bottom of the pit and create a furnace! Local rocks and all manner of firewood was put into this to form a large fire that burned fiercely for three hours bringing all the rocks to red hot colour.
The rocks were then shovelled out to enable a wire basket (similar to a shopping basket) to sit on and be surrounded by hot rocks.
The meat was wrapped in calico (WASHED). The wire basket was lined with baking foil and a litre of apple juice poured into this receptacle. The two calico bundles were dipped in this and soaked with the apple juice, placed in position and wrapped by the remaining foil.
Two hessian sacks were soaked in water and placed over the rocks and basket and the whole lot was then covered with soil and left for four hours.
The resulting feast was probably the best and certainly the tenderest any of us had ever eaten. All in all a success!
I did not have the camera so Look out for Silverbacks post to see the pictures.
Cheers folks for a busy and enjoyable week-end.
Swyn.
Cooking was the usual excelent cuisine refined to Muntjac, dumplings and vegetables.
The highlight of this week-end was our experiment in creating a Hangi. This entailed gathering as much information as possible as none of our group had done this from scratch before and we wanted it to be a success.
As the carcass was being dressed and the shelter was being built I set about digging the pit. This was approx 3'x3'x18'' and a fire was created in this. Using the strong wind to my advantage and a couple of pieces of tin sheeting, carefully cut from the now rare 'tin' tree I was able to direct the wind into the bottom of the pit and create a furnace! Local rocks and all manner of firewood was put into this to form a large fire that burned fiercely for three hours bringing all the rocks to red hot colour.
The rocks were then shovelled out to enable a wire basket (similar to a shopping basket) to sit on and be surrounded by hot rocks.
The meat was wrapped in calico (WASHED). The wire basket was lined with baking foil and a litre of apple juice poured into this receptacle. The two calico bundles were dipped in this and soaked with the apple juice, placed in position and wrapped by the remaining foil.
Two hessian sacks were soaked in water and placed over the rocks and basket and the whole lot was then covered with soil and left for four hours.
The resulting feast was probably the best and certainly the tenderest any of us had ever eaten. All in all a success!
I did not have the camera so Look out for Silverbacks post to see the pictures.
Cheers folks for a busy and enjoyable week-end.
Swyn.