I'm staying with my girlfriend at her grandparents place a couple of hundred miles from Shanghai and I thought I'd post in here because I came across some stuff that no one but people on here would be interested in. Ha ha!
The grandparents are old school rural people, so they largely live off the land and are pretty self sufficient to a level that most bushcrafters would struggle with. We just had a traditional new year's eve dinner that was interesting in a number of ways. We (actually, everyone except me) cooked it on the old stove, which is a typical local DIY job made from bricks. It's been going about 40 years with little attention. It's got two fitted woks and a little bowl in the middle for heating water. Fuel is fed in from the back and there's a narrow chimney. Pushing fuel in drives ash off the back of that ledge to the bottom where it can be shoveled out. It's simple, but works perfectly. The bit that really struck me was the range of fuel used. People in Britain struggle to light a fire with big bits of hardwood, but people here use a bit of paper and a lighter to get it going immediately, then various fuels. Corn stalks light easily and burn quickly (because of corn sugar?). Bamboo lights a little slower and burns a little slower, but still faster than wood. Both give off a decent flame. A bit of hardwood (an old plank) was used afterwards for simmering. The families in this area all have several patches of farmland around the village and a little area of bamboo grove. Grandpa also brought in a bundle of sesame stalks and another bundle of dried reeds from the river bank. This stuff is all prepared in advance and stored in bundles to dry. I'm curious to see how the other things burn. People here don't really bother with heating, so they can cook every day of the year without cutting down a tree with just this fuel that most westerners wouldn't even notice. I remember seeing somewhere a reference table on how different woods burned and thinking that whoever wrote it was on a different level from the one I operate on. These guys really know their environment in the same way.
The food itself was delicious and interesting. There was a stewed pork leg joint, a fish fried in sauce that was bought alive in the market, a hen from the coop that made a wonderful soup, beans and spinach from the garden, shrimp with celery, a local vegetable related to chrysanthemum that was fried with strips of tofu, and homemade pork sausage. And I got a beer. Chinese people know how to eat. The stream behind the property is a bit of a mess because everyone along the banks has chickens and ducks in it and the water gets a bit spoiled by uneaten food and whatnot. This kind of lifestyle isn't all idyllic, but there's a free supply of little fish and crayfish in there.They had two goats until today when the fat one gave birth to two more. I can confirm that baby goats don't like new year's fireworks.
As far as tools go, the grandpa is very unfussy. He just gets stuff done. He'd probably find hundred quid knives ludicrous. He's got cheap hatchets for dealing with firewood and there will be a local billhook somewhere for bamboo. These things cost 2 or 3 quid each.
If anyone has any questions, ask away. I could take photos if there's a way to upload them - and anyone is interested.
The grandparents are old school rural people, so they largely live off the land and are pretty self sufficient to a level that most bushcrafters would struggle with. We just had a traditional new year's eve dinner that was interesting in a number of ways. We (actually, everyone except me) cooked it on the old stove, which is a typical local DIY job made from bricks. It's been going about 40 years with little attention. It's got two fitted woks and a little bowl in the middle for heating water. Fuel is fed in from the back and there's a narrow chimney. Pushing fuel in drives ash off the back of that ledge to the bottom where it can be shoveled out. It's simple, but works perfectly. The bit that really struck me was the range of fuel used. People in Britain struggle to light a fire with big bits of hardwood, but people here use a bit of paper and a lighter to get it going immediately, then various fuels. Corn stalks light easily and burn quickly (because of corn sugar?). Bamboo lights a little slower and burns a little slower, but still faster than wood. Both give off a decent flame. A bit of hardwood (an old plank) was used afterwards for simmering. The families in this area all have several patches of farmland around the village and a little area of bamboo grove. Grandpa also brought in a bundle of sesame stalks and another bundle of dried reeds from the river bank. This stuff is all prepared in advance and stored in bundles to dry. I'm curious to see how the other things burn. People here don't really bother with heating, so they can cook every day of the year without cutting down a tree with just this fuel that most westerners wouldn't even notice. I remember seeing somewhere a reference table on how different woods burned and thinking that whoever wrote it was on a different level from the one I operate on. These guys really know their environment in the same way.
The food itself was delicious and interesting. There was a stewed pork leg joint, a fish fried in sauce that was bought alive in the market, a hen from the coop that made a wonderful soup, beans and spinach from the garden, shrimp with celery, a local vegetable related to chrysanthemum that was fried with strips of tofu, and homemade pork sausage. And I got a beer. Chinese people know how to eat. The stream behind the property is a bit of a mess because everyone along the banks has chickens and ducks in it and the water gets a bit spoiled by uneaten food and whatnot. This kind of lifestyle isn't all idyllic, but there's a free supply of little fish and crayfish in there.They had two goats until today when the fat one gave birth to two more. I can confirm that baby goats don't like new year's fireworks.
As far as tools go, the grandpa is very unfussy. He just gets stuff done. He'd probably find hundred quid knives ludicrous. He's got cheap hatchets for dealing with firewood and there will be a local billhook somewhere for bamboo. These things cost 2 or 3 quid each.
If anyone has any questions, ask away. I could take photos if there's a way to upload them - and anyone is interested.
