Oot and aboot

I just spent a fantastic weekend in the woods down in East Sussex at the latest meet for a bi-monthly bushcraft group that I'm a member of. It was great to see old friends in familiar surroundings to catch up and share a beer or three. It was a pretty relaxed couple of days but we did do a really successful bowdrill demo on the Saturday with everyone who had a go achieving an ember and blowing it to flame, some for the first time, including one attendee's 8 year old daughter!

On Sunday some of us popped off down the road to have a look in on Naturefest and chillout in the sun, catching up with more old friends and perusing the many stalls and a few of us decided to stay the night in the adjacent camping field. After numerous visits to the Sussex Cider Man who was on site for the weekend I slinked off to my tent at about 2am and believe it or not slept really well!!! The bank holiday greeted us with glorious sunshine and myself and a few other lads from BCL spent the day delivering impromptu bowdrill, carving and general bushcraft demos on the main field after being enlisted by the organisers which was really enjoyable but very draining, there's only so many times you can demonstrate the bowdrill with the sun beating down on your neck before it all gets a little too much!

If you are going to the Wilderness Gathering this year BCL will be having a stand there, giving demonstrations to the public and spreading the word, so keep an eye out for us and do say hello!

Ramson garlic Bread!

Here's something I picked up from Steve at the recent May Meet.
 Ramsons (Allium ursinum) or 'Wild Garlic' is a common edible plant that often carpets woodland floors this time of year and due to it's pungent garlic smell and taste can be used to make a delicious snack with a very simple recipe.

The bulbs, leaves and buds can all be utilised for cooking, meaning ramsons can effectively be put to use all year round. The buds in particular have a discernible crunch and accompanying explosion of garlicy goodness that feels as if you've just bitten into a clove!

You will need...
Fistful of Ramsons
A baguette or baton
Butter
 

First slice the bread into the typical arrangement, ensuring that you don't go all the way through. Finely chop the ramson leaves and mix with a block of butter using a fork until you have a decent consistency of garlic butter.

 Then, simply spread the mix into the intervening spaces between the bread - and you can be quite generous here - and pop in the oven on mid-high heat for about 10-12 minutes. If you're cooking in a makeshift bread oven over a fire you'll probably need to allow a bit longer!

The Bushcraft Magazine May Day Meet

This past weekend I spent a fantastic few days down at Egerton, Kent at the second annual Bushcraft Magazine May Day Meet. This is an annual gathering of like-minded people brought together to share skills, talk craft and swap stories. Over the weekend, which begins on the friday evening and lasts through until monday, a whole host of taster courses, mini workshops and demonstrations are laid on and everyone has a chance to participate and learn something new, or to just sit back and chill out amongst like-minded company.

The May Day Meet is structured in a similar vein to the Wilderness Gathering but on a smaller, more informal scale. The event also reflects the 'back to nature' ethos of the magazine. Readers will know that The Bushcraft Magazine focuses on the traditional woodsman skills that are swifly being forgotten by an aging population, on the flora and fauna that abounds in our fields and forests and, rather than fixate on shiny kit and gear reviews, presents a naturalist's philosophy of nurturing the relationship we have with our environment and developing it into something sustainable and appreciative. Their mantra of 'reconnecting to the landscape' is one that certainly ran true for me throughout the weekend. Traditional pole-lathe demos, forging workshops, ferreting, medicinal plant talks, green wood working and foraging walks is just a taster of what was on offer throughout the weekend, all in line with the traditional, natural theme.

The weekend also had a very clear emphasis on families. There were plenty of activites for the children, not to mention a large open farm to play in, and I never once saw one complaining or misbehaving, despite some pretty horrendous weather on the sunday!

Please see the following link for some pictures and a breakdown of the weekend: http://www.bushcraftliving.com/reviews/44-media/165-bushcraft-magazine-may-day-meet

Sandy Seashore Foraging day

On the 24th of April I went down to Dungeness on the Kent coast to spend the day on the sandy coast foraging course with the guys at http://www.bushcraft-magazine.co.uk

It was a fantastic day, marked by glorious sunshine and a long stretch of beach completely devoid of people. The course was run in a friendly and informal manner, with initial instruction in the art of cockling, including discussion on what signs to look out for to successfully repatriate them from their sandy homes and into our buckets! We all managed to gather a sizeable number each before returning to the cars for a warming lunch of soup and a mug of strong tea. A quick tip for any would-be cocklers; if you find one, there are bound to be others in the immediate vicinity so dig around and you're certain to scoop up it's brothers and sisters for the pot too.

The afternoon was given over to the art of push-net shrimping, something I've never done before, and it's startling effectiveness became clear very quickly. I was amazed at the sheer weight of shrimp we easily collected, amongst many other sea-dwelling creatures. Hermit crabs, small fish, flounders and a curious little cretin called a 'sea mouse' - which is apparently a worm but looks more akin to a giant sluglike caterpillar, see below for a pic. The day finsihed with a veritable feast, sampling the day's bounty and very delicious it was too, you couldn't get fresher seafood if you tried!

Get your names down for the next one folks as it is so worth it, great grub, great company, and the knowledge possessed by Steve Kirk of the Bushcraft Mag would likely fill a library 10 times over!

http://www.bushcraft-magazine.co.uk

Cockling...


Shrimpers



Just some of the day's haul...




'Sea Mouse'

BCL down for maintenance

BCL was undergoing some routine maintenance when I encountered an unexpected issue, it is being worked on but it may not be back up until late tomorrow. I will keep you informed.

What's this all about then?

I've started this blog, like most bloggers I expect, to act as a sort of online diary, a record if you will of what I'm getting up to bushcraft wise so that I have something to refer back to in years to come, and if it happens to inspire others to get out and about then that's always a nice ego boost...I'm rather dubious that my humble antics could have quite that impact but we'll see! I will update it as frequently or as infrequently as my fancy takes me; I can't guarantee there will be something new to read every week like some of these serial bushcraft bloggers, but I'll try and chip in with something interesting when I can.

Another reason I've got this going is to keep you in the loop if BCL goes down unexpectedly, in the past when we've had some down time I've had to siphon through PMs and queries spread across multiple other sites that I'm active on, so to prevent all that in the future I'll post updates here if the UNTHINKABLE happens and the site is unavailable for a bit...

A Weekend in the Snow

Hi all, and welcome to my first blog post. I thought I'd start by getting stuck straight into the action and share a few tales from the weekend just passed. A mate was having a bit of a birthday get together up in his neck of the woods and invited me to come up and join him, not one to shy from some dirt time in the woods, I hastily booked the time off work and dusted off me thermals!

I made the journey up to Bucks with Weekend Warrior and after passing a number of unfortunate vehicles abandoned at the side of the road, met a couple of the lads on site. Bucks had been hit particuarly bad by the snowy weather of the last few days and the wintry landscape was truly beautiful to behold; very idyllic, like something you'd expect to see plastered on the front of a christmas card.


There were just three of us on the friday night, and faced with a rather depressing evening in sub-zero temperatures, we promptly sodded off round the corner for a couple of hours in a cosy little country pub! A warm meal and numerous pints later saw us tucking up into our sleeping bags for a relatively comfortable night. With the windchill, the temperature dropped considerably that night, but sleeping fully clothed in my Alpkit SkyHigh 800 kept me reasonably toasty....

Saturday morning saw an enjoyable walk through the countryside, with snow up to our knees in some places, and the construction of a heat reflector for round the fire. I put out a few snares as well as the heavy snow had highlighted a lot of rabbit activity around our camp, but come sunday morning I hadn't had any luck....still, it was good practice and I'll keep trying....

Much of the remaining daylight was taken up by the collection of a suitable quantity of dry firewood for the inevitable freezing conditions that would soon be upon us, Dave's chainsaw came in handy here! Saturday night saw a communal meal of pheasant curry with pilau rice and naan bread, cooked to utter perfection to a Hugh Fearnlly-Whittinstall recipe. Dave, the chef, really did himself proud; I've never had such an enjoyable meal out in the woods, ever!



After a breakfast and perfunctory bannock on Sunday morning, it was time to pack up and depart......it was a top weekend out in some pretty trying conditions that certainly put the kit to the test, with great food, drink and top banter to boot......what a way to start the xmas festivities, see you next time lads!