How To Make Natural Kindling

You can use all sorts for kindling...

bark
twigs
small thin pieces of wood
tightly rolled newspaper pages
egg cartons
pine cones
cardboard boxes

Well, hello there cowboys and girls! Welcome to Kindling 101 with ME!! All I’m missing to go with the smug grin is a Christmas sweater….perhaps I’ll dig one out for next time.

If you’re anything like me and have an open fire or log burner that you use during the colder months then gathering in the fire-making materials will be a lot of fun. It usually takes place on a Saturday morning and involves getting logs, kindling, coal and paraffin fire-lighters. Well this year we’re doing it all a little differently. We’ve had a huge pile of logs delivered from the Log Man. A mixture of Beech and Ash and he has offered to bring us Oak for slower burning should we need it but I don’t think we will. Mr Log Man gets his logs from sustainable sources and by doing it this way we have eliminated our need for coal.

I’m chuffed about this and not even because we’ll mine all the coal one day so that there isn’t any left. No. I’m chuffed because coal is FILTHY and I always, without fail, drop a single piece on to my cream rug and it looks like I’ve been sketching with it. Robert The Husband also likes to walk coal thorough the living room on his trainers and chat happily while building a fire while I look on with tears in my eyes. So the log option works for us.

Another thing we’re dispensing with this year are chemical fire-lighters. Yes, they are easy to use and faster but I prepared a huge amount of kindling from recycled bits and bobs the other day and found it satisfying. Using more natural kindling not only saves money and fuel as you don’t have to take the car out to buy the fire-lighters but it’s also another way to recycle.

Here are some more ideas…..

If you could hear my tone of voice right now you’d know that I’m not preaching or telling you how to do this. Just offering information that you may or may not want to try out.

I’d love to hear your kindling tips if you have any as this is by no means a comprehensive list……….

I’m off now for a very exciting adventure. Where’s my cape?

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Cherry Menlove

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