Woodsman bushcraft cookery day

[Elines]

I recently went on a one day cookery course with Woodsman Bushcraft at a mixed private woodland of about 120 acres near Coventry. The Principal Instructor is Damian O'Toole. I have known Damian for over a year from meets at Rough Close etc.

The website is at:
http://woodsmanbushcraft.co.uk/index.php?id=1

I had been wanting to improve my woodland cooking abilities for some time and knew from my previous contact with Damian that he knew his stuff so I gave his one day course a go.

We covered:

• setting up the cooking area
• making basic tools etc for cooking eg tripod set up and pot hangers
• 'log cabin' fire lay for cooking
• food - nettle (plus vegetables) soup, smoked fish, para stew/casserole

We had intended to add a fourth course - being a sweet - but when we did a walk round the woods we found very little because of the wet summer. (I didn't fancy eating slugs - there were loads of them - I even found two during the night on my exped mat - which was on top of a camp bed - not something I have experienced before.) As it turned out I couldn't have eaten a sweet anyway as I was stuffed from the first three courses.

Here are a few pictures to give you a better idea of what we covered:


Tripod set up and pot hangers
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The pot hangers can also be used to hook the lid off a Dutch oven.
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initial fire lay
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For the fish I had to prepare it from scratch - spatchcock style. This was actually done in daylight - the use of flash for the next picture makes look as if it was night time.
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I think it took about 2 hours for it to be ready - judged by looking at the flesh
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We used tree roots to hold the fish in place.

Some of these pictures also give you an idea of how great the wood is.

I haven't included any pictures of the para meat and veg stew because it wouldn't show you anything particular. But I cooked it again after I got back home and can strongly recommend Blue Monkey 'Guerilla' ale to drink with it.
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In summary, a great day and I now feel a lot more confident about cooking proper food - as opposed to just packeted stuff - when out in the woods.

 

[Man of Tanith]

Para Stew?
blue monkey brewry does some good beers doesn't it
looks like a good course Elines thanks for sharing

 

[MartinK9]

Looks like you had a great time Chris. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Elines]

Para Stew?
blue monkey brewry does some good beers doesn't it
looks like a good course Elines thanks for sharing

For Para stew/casserole just read meat and veg stew/casserole - with quantities and type of meat/veg adapted to whatever you have to hand

Blue Monkey is my favourite brewery - ?tried their new Howler yet

Yes - very good course

 

[Mesquite]

Looks like you DO is in for greater use now Chris

Thanks for the review of the course