Welcome to the Wild Stoves Blog which kicks off with news of last weekend at the Green Scythe Fair in Somerset. Although the festival, which has been running for 4 years, is focused around scything, it brings together dozens of local artisans, food producers and green businesses.
We were honoured to share our funky Berber tent for the day with Paul Stubbs, designer and maker of our ceramic DIY Rocket Elbows. He spent the day wowing punters with his paint-tin rocket-elbow and wood-gas stoves. He also kept the café next door in hot water throughout – proving that wood stoves have the edge over temperamental gas urns. Many people left clasping one of his elbow kits, some intending to make a hobby stove; others preparing for a fossil fuel-free life they are starting soon.
James joined us for the day again as expert and tireless demonstrator of the StoveTec which he kept running smoke-free all day. He also makes a mean cup of tea, and did a fine job of keeping excited children at bay (we were pitched next to the kids' play area). On request he also fired up the Sierra and Bushbuddy stoves, which as usual were met amazement: 'Such a small fire; so much heat; and where's the smoke?'.
It was great to catch up with old friends, and also to meet so many new faces so enthusiastic about our stoves and aims. Our friends from Steward Wood, a community in Devon, went away with another batch of rocket stoves (more on them in a forthcoming blog); others were excitedly planning what to cook on them that evening, or test them on a camping trip this week.
It is always a pleasure to meet like-minded people who can share tales of home-built stoves or wood cooking around the world - from smallholders in Wales, through Kenyan farmers, to Afghan refugees in France. However, we also get a real thrill from showing our stoves to the uninitiated in whose mind a wood fire is a smoky, messy and inefficient proposition. Thank you to those people in particular for encouraging us with your amazed expressions of disbelief as we lifted our kettle to show that there really was a wood fire burning under it.
