Dandelion Cordial

This is a nice spring drink and one you can use to get your own back on all those pesky weeds from the garden!

 

pick around 60 dandelion heads

 

put them in a pot with citrus fruits of your choice, I tend to use oranges as lemons or limes tend to over power the delicate flavour of the dandelions

 



 

add sugar and enough water to cover all the ingredients, and slowly bring to the boil until all the sugar disolves, then leave it for 24 hours to settle

 



 

add 2 parts water to 1 part cordial for a lovely delicate spring libation

 

Red Rock

Went out today to find some good rocks for my fire kits, flint is every where here so I like to look for different rocks that do the same job

 

 

some nice lumps of jasper and just one piece of chert

 

 

not many pieces but enough to make a kit or two.

 

Champ - Bush Food

This is a particular dish enjoyed in Ireland normally using potatoes and scallions but I thought I'd make it in the woods with wild garlic

 

 get some wild garlic and coarsely chop it up

 



 

put it in a pot with some milk and cook it gently so that the milk absorbs some of that beautiful garlic flavour

 

 

then add in some dehydrated potato flakes and you're ready to go, a gorgeous meal for a woodsman.

The Spatuloon

This is a handy wee utensil to make when you're in the woods, it works like a spoon and a spatula, hence the name! It works very well for both circumstances provided you're not trying to eat soup, and is a very simple carving project

 

 

this one is carved from sycamore

 

 

you can obviously make them any size or shape you want but I normally make them quite small

 

 

it's made with a slight bevel underneath to allow it to be used as a slice or spatula, and to enable it to be angled when scooping, it also needs to be small enough to fit your mouth!!

you could carve one in about 15 minutes and it has a surprising number of uses.

 

Wild Leaf Salad

Went out the other day and made myself a little salad, there's plenty to choose from and I could probably have made this 2 or 3 times over using different ingredients each time, anyway here it is

 

 

 

 salad included dandelion, wood sorrel, wild garlic, primrose flowers, dock, opposite leaved saxifrage.. it takes a strong palate to eat this salad, the flavour is explosive but delicious!
 

NorthWinds

The winds up here in the North of Ireland have been incredibly strong lately, always a time to worry if you want to set sail or go deep into the woods, last thing you would want is to camp under a widowmaker! There was one tree I always admired in a place where I walk, it is a huge sycamore and I'm sure was a couple of hundred years old, well I walked past it today and here it lies..

 

 

cleft completely in three parts, I could only imagine the devastation if someone had been underneath it when it came down

 

 

such a mighty beast fallen by nothing but air!!

 

 

did it make a sound when it fell????

 

 



Atlatl Darts

I made these quite a while ago and they seem to arouse a lot of interest at groups and when we show them off,

 

they are 6ft long

 

 



they are fletched with swan and rook feathers, and whipped with nylon thread, I didn't go fully native with these as I have done with arrows in the past

 

 

the head is bone and sits in a small piece of bamboo,the idea being that when the dart hits an animal the head disengages and you can retrieve the dart, the atlatl itself (thrower) is a hazel rod with an antler point to hold the dart ready for throwing

 

 

and this is how the dart inengaged, it's simply a strong forward arm throw and wrist flick and the dart is propelled quite a distance!! Be careful, they are not toys!!