The kettle
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About our kettle
We've bought a BTCV Brewer Kettle from Tim Jones at Appropriate Development Consultants. The kettle burns small twigs very efficiently, and can boil water for 10 people in about 10 minutes (including gathering the fuel).
We used to use a gas ring, but the kettle is quicker and lighter and it doesn't use fossil fuel or contribute to the greenhouse effect.
Instructions
1. Get ready
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Find a flat bit of dry ground that won't burn too easily.
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Collect an armful of dry twigs, which must be no thicker than a pencil. The best place to find really dry twigs is on dead trees: twigs off the ground are usually too damp to burn well.
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Scrunch six or seven pages of a broadsheet newspaper into balls.
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Pour water in through the spout of the kettle until it is full to just below the bottom of the spout (this is to allow room for expansion as the water heats up).
2. Build the fire
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Fold a sheet of newspaper into quarters, so that it is about a foot square.
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Lay the square on the ground.
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Pile the balls of newspaper into a little pyramid on the square of newspaper, then put the kettle on top, so that it covers the pyramid.
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Post a few twigs down the hole in the top of the kettle.
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Arrange the handles of the kettle so that they are not touching the sides, and so that the top handle is not vertical. This is to stop the handles getting burnt.
3. Heat the water
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Poke a lighted match through one of the holes in the base of the kettle, and set light to the balls of newspaper.
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When the paper is properly alight, post more twigs down the top of the kettle. They should burn up very quickly.
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Keep feeding the fire through the top of the kettle: the twigs will burn very quickly, and the fire will go out very soon if you stop.
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The fire burns best if you break the sticks into 3-4" lengths, and if you use a long stick to push them to the bottom of the kettle chimney.
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The water will boil in five to ten minutes. Be careful when it does boil, because scalding water and steam sometimes sprays out of the spout.
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If you can, it's best to wait until the fire has died down completely before lifting the kettle.
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(c) Lothians Conservation Volunteers 2008
Lothians Conservation Volunteers is a charity registered in Scotland, No: SC020384