cheap/free and light stove using wood

[Birch]

I love to go on extended backcountry trips, foraging my greens and boiling my drinking water. I carry in dry lentils, some grains, cooking oil, salt, and some spices. Here's a low weight, small size, cheap way to cook:

(1) cook pot, preferably more fat than tall
(1) aluminum throw away pie plate
(3) aluminum tent pegs
(?) some twigs
(3) optional rocks

The design:

1. Place the pie plate on the ground (after clearing away highly flamable materials).

2. Pierce the three tent pegs through the pie plate and into the ground. Space them so as to make a sturdy stand for the cook pot. A fat pot works better as it is more stable, and more heat reaches the bottom of the pot (larger heated surface).

3. Place gathered twigs onto the pie plate inbetween and around the tent pegs.

4. Light.

5. Put pot on top of tent pegs.

Optional:

If you are concerned about the heat on the ground, place three flat rocks under the pie plate to keep it off the ground. You can also use rocks under the pie plate to raise and lower it, effectively controlling the heat to the pot.

This method uses very little wood, keeping your fire small and concentrated closely on the cook pot. The smaller fire is easy to conceal, so long as you keep smoke to a minimum (material selection).

This method is leave no trace if you put rocks underneath as the ground does not even become warm. The ashes are kept on top of the pie plate, and can be stashed under a rock after cooking. Replace duff (ground debris) to cooking spot, disguise footprints and nobody will know a fire was burned there.

This design weighs a pie plate and a cook pot since you can use the tent pegs after they have cooled for a tent or tarp. There is no fuel to carry as adequate wood fuel (twigs, etc) can be found virtually anywhere (parking lot).

I used this setup with a travel partner every day for 4 months and the originally pie plate was still fine. Be careful about removing pie plate and pegs though if you want to continue with a bigger fire after you've finished cooking. They will eventually melt. My friend did this to my setup (what a dork).

If it starts to rain, just stash some twigs in your pack or under a rain cover. This will give you something to start with, and you can lean twigs up to the fire to dry them out. If you're really stuck, use hand sanitizer as an effective fire starter.

Once we could not find dry wood anywhere, and ran out of sufficient clean water. We walked back to civilization and got water and a little chemical water treatment kit, but never had to use it.

enjoy, this really works!

[mike]

i love hiking, camping, and just being in the woods. whenever i go out i just take a pot (1.5 quarts), a tarp or maybe a tent, some potatoes, and my knife and magnesium/ferrocium fire starter and have never had trouble, even in the rain or wind. my out fit cost me maybe $40- all of it. i just use logs or branches to hole my pot up and have never needed more. why would your method differ? does the plate change the temperature or something? i don't understand. please elaborate.

[paul vallandigham]

Why not use the roots of a live tree to set your pot on, and put the firewood, or coals in between the roots? The smoke will travel up the trunk of the tree and disperse in the leaves and branches above. You can also dig a narrow trench, so you can balance on pot on the sides of the trench, while feeding wood into the fire in the bottom of it. If you have rocks, just place two or three close enough to balance the pot, and build your fire between them. That would eliminate the tent pegs for any use other than a tent! And, if you are around trees, you can make new pegs whenever you stop to camp. Only in arid areas where you don't have trees would you have to carry this kind of thing.

[bushguy]

Hi Birch, I totally agree with you on the lentils in your kit. I wish I would have known about them thirty years ago, when I lived a lot on rice in the bush. Lentils are still a relatively little known food, especially around the camping/surviving crowd. They are LOADED with many valuable nutrients and are WAY more powerful foods than many of the other favorites out there. Two or three days of sprouting, while out in the boonies, will increase the food value of these amazing little units a hundred fold. Talk about eating your LIVE foods!

I hope your post causes others in here to try these great legumes, perhaps for the first time ever, even!

bg