I love Cast Iron/Carbon steel pans

I'm a little fussy about some things; knives & cutting tools, outdoors clothing, cookware, etc. Fancy design, a "technical" look, or eye catching packaging are not important to me. I like these things to be simple, functional and long lasting. That's a big part of why I never buy teflon coated aluminum pots and pans. I prefer to stick to good ol' cast iron and carbon steel, with a few stainless thrown in for good measure.

After years of experience I gave up buying modern aluminum and chemical crap in 2004. It isn't worth the powder to blow it to hell! You spend 10~20$ on a new pan or pot, which lasts 1 year, maybe 2 if you're really careful, before the coating wears out and it becomes completely useless. I mean they are so useless you wouldn't even want to take them on a camping trip! Even if you go with the most expensive, "HIGH QUALITY" stuff it'll still only last 2 years. Bye Bye hard earned money... you basically just gave it away to make someone else richer. Not for me thanks!

What's worse is that cooking with teflon is known to release toxic and carcinogenic gases into the air! You don't have to take my word for it, just google it! There's lots of sources available online. There even some suggestions that Dupont has tried to cover up studies which highlight Teflon's potentially harmful effects. Can't say I'm much surprised.

On top of this, one has to bear in mind the considerable environmental damage caused by aluminum extraction. In Quebec, Alcan is the province's second largest Hydro Electric power producer. Entire river systems have been severely impacted to provide the energy necessary to extract aluminum. I do consider that there are quite a few genuinely valid, wealth creating uses of aluminum; but to be clear, aluminum cookware is NOT ONE OF THEM!!!

I love cast iron and carbon steel for pans and dutch ovens. Below is a picture of my newest piece, a carbon steel crepiere.


With more use it will develop a nice black patina finish, that's virtually non-stick. It's lighter weight than cast iron and works very well over an open fire, so it'll be great on camping trips!

When people find out what I cook with they usually give me a curious glance and make a comment about cast iron being heavy. I try to explain the benefits:

1. They Last a lifetime (or several lifetimes!)
2. They Produce no toxic fumes when cooking
3. They Go easily from stove top to oven
4. They Are great over an open fire
5. They Are virtually non-stick when properly seasoned and cared for!

Even better, I'm convinced that over the life cycle of a cast iron or carbon steel piece of cookware the cost imposed on the environment is SIGNIFICANTLY reduced compared to that of aluminum equivalents. And I KNOW FOR A FACT that the impact on my pocket book is reduced! If the non-stick seasoning of a cast iron or carbon steel pot or pain ever becomes impaired, you can strip the pan down to bare metal and simply start the process all over again! Once you learn how, it's easy! And it's genuinely satisfying knowing you'll never have to spend your hard earn cash on another pot or pan.

Generally, after explaining the benefits of cast iron and carbon steel, you usually have an interested audience. However, when you explain the special care required you loose most of them: "You mean you have to season/oil them!" "What do you mean you don't use soap?!?"

If you're tired of throwing you're money away on new pots and pans every year or two, and you enjoy learning new skills and taking care of your possessions, do yourself a favour and learn about how to use and care for cast iron and carbon steel. Then go out and get yourself 1 item (a pan probably) to start with. I like stuff made by Lodge and DeBuyer. Learn how to season it and care for it.

If you ever have any questions don't hesistate to contact me. I made A LOT of mistakes when starting with cast iron, but I finally have it down and am truly enjoying the results!

Swamp Cabbage

I went for a walk in the woods 3 days ago and came across some swamp cabbage. At the time I had no idea what it was, but the green colour was so vibrant, especially in contrast to the swampy ditch it was growing in, I felt that I had to take a picture and try to identify it. Here it is:

As I mentioned above, it's called Swamp Cabbage, or Lysichiton americanum. It grows in wet, swampy areas, and is one of the first plants to welcome spring. It's sort of edible, and apparently is antispasmodic, but requires a lot of care and effort to remove toxins. You have to approach this plant with a lot of caution if your intention is to consume any of it. The rhizomes can be eaten if THOROUGHLY DRIED AND ROASTED, as can other parts of the plant, which may also be boiled with multiple changes of water. Failure to properly remove the toxins in the plant (including a high concentration of calcium oxalate) before consumption can cause intense burning of the mouth and tongue, and even when properly prepared, consumption of large amounts can cause nausea and vomiting. You also have to be EXTREMELY careful not to confuse it with young False Hellebore, which apparently looks very similar, and is deadly poisonous!!! Although bears apparently quite like swamp cabbage, all in all you're probably best just to leave it alone and simply admire it's beauty!!!

Spring roles on, and the trail goes on...

Fuzz Sticks & Nettles!

Just a GORGEOUS day here yesterday, and today is even better...too bad I have to spend it inside finding paying work!

I took some time off yesterday though to go searching for some nettles. I happen to know of a spot where, in summer, they grow thick and fast. I wanted to know if there were any new sprouts coming up and figured that if I was lucky, I might be able to harvest a few for an omlette I planed to make for supper that evening.

Nettles are very useful plants. Consumption of nettles can alleviate allergy symptoms and have an anti-inflammatory effect, not to mention that they are quite tasty. They also make great natural cordage. I highly recommend learning about this plant! Most people, unaware of it's usefulness, think of it as a nuisance weed!!

Unfortunately the nettles haven't begun to grow yet. When I got to my nettle spot all I could find were the brittle, pale, straw coloured remains of last year's crop. Perhaps in another month or so.

I continued my walk up to the lake to see how things had come along in the last 2 weeks. The centre was still frozen solid, but melting action could be clearly heard, and the area around the lake shore was free and clear in many locations. In fact, it was a perfect opportunity to sit, very still, and observe the aquatic life. There were MANY caddis fly larvae. The picture below is off a caddis, encased in his "home" made of decaying leaves, sticks and fir needles.

Given the sheer numbers of caddis I saw, it's a fair bet that the trout in this lake gorge themselves on caddis whenever they are available (ie during a hatch). They are just too important a source of biomass to pass up. This is a key piece of knowledge to have, and the type of knowledge that is best obtained through first hand observation; any fisherman wanting to catch trout here would do well to come armed with a good supply of caddis fly imitations. It's also an example of why I love fly fishing so much... it's very much like bushcraft in that success is based on a genuine, first hand understanding of the environment that you are in. The equipment used is very secondary to the knowledge and experience you carry in your brain!!!

I also took the opportunity while I was out and about to try making some fuzz stick with a pocket knife. I had been curious about this for a little while and decided to give it a shot and see how well it turned out. The end result was certainly passable, and would do in a pinch, but nowhere near as convincing as when using a good fixed blade knife.



The part I thought would be tricky was splitting the wood. Making the curls by shaving down the interior of split wood works MUCH better that trying to simply make curls on the outer surface of a stick. The knife and a baton method worked fine, but with the pocket knife you have to use a very small diameter piece of wood. This is because the blade is relatively short, but also because it thins out near the tip, reducing the effectiveness of the baton. Basically, you can't really give it a good whack for fear of breaking of the tip of the knife! I could only use wood of about 1.5" in diameter.

As you can see from the pictures, the fuzzies are OK, not great, but good enough to light from a match or other source of open flame. There are a few which are very thin and have multiple curls, but most are rather thick and have only 1 curl. Nothing like what I make with my fixed blade, but in the pocket knife's defense, it IS in need of a proper sharpening, and probably would have made better fuzzies had it been truly sharp. Still, given that I was using only a pocket knife I was more or less satisfied, and felt that the result would be quite sufficient to get a good fire going if need be.