First Words Summer 2017 | Page 8

CAMPFIRE

BAKE-OFF

Aliex Holliday, Forest School Leader & mum of two, inspires us to get sticky & smoky...

Who doesn't love sitting round a cosy campfire as a long summer evening draws to a close? But have you ever considered lighting the fire early and doing a spot of campfire cooking? If not then this is the summer to give it a go, because there is so much more to cooking on an open fire than just toasting marshmallows!

Building a campfire is easy: you want to start with some nice dry wood as a base, lay thinner sticks on top to create a “V” shape; then, within that ‘V’, pop a couple of fire lighters (yes, we use them!) along with some fast burn like silver birch twigs or dry hay and get this going using a match - or try using a fire steel, really fun for little ones!

Before you even begin trying to cook anything, you want to make sure your fire is hot and ready: this means it has been burning for at least 15/20 minutes and you can see white coals. The flame will burn your food straight away, so, whatever you have chosen to cook, keep it over the white coal. As the wood breaks down and becomes white coal, use a stick to move this coal to the area you are cooking and then try to keep a section of your fire fed with new

wood to keep the flames burning. ALWAYS have a bucket of water on hand next to the fire, not just to put it out afterwards but in case of any burns.

So, what to cook? One of our most favourite and pretty impressive things to do is popcorn. It’s not as crazy or hard as it sounds, and has a gorgeous unique smoky flavour. Get yourself two cheap wire sieves and