In late October, The Little Village kids came to Tri Cycle and learned how to build a campfire, tend it safely, and cook food in the hot coals. Since they were out of school for the day, we were able to get an early start. They spread out over the farm looking for wood, and divided it into piles by size.
When it was time to start the fire, we circled up and talked about safety, and made a solemn pinky promise to never start fires without permission, and to always make sure we put out our fires completely, and never leave them unattended. Now it was time for the fun stuff! The kids had several fire starting materials collected, and we gave each of them a try. We tried dryer lint, dried pine needles, and newspaper, and all were pleasantly flammable. I wanted the kids to learn how to start a fire without a bunch of “props” so I suggested they stick to the dried pine needles, since they are abundant at the Farm.
A match and the pine needles soon produced tiny blaze, and to this we added the tiniest of the sticks the kids had collected. We kept slowly adding larger and larger sticks until we had a large fire going. We all strutted around for a bit, feeling quite pleased with ourselves. I suppose in some ways it was a good thing that it was an unseasonably warm day; the 80 degree temps made getting too close to the fire unappealing.
The kids took turns tending the fire and preparing the veggies to be cooked on the coals. Each kid got to choose their veggies and season them to their taste. They wrapped them in foil, and then we nestled them into the hot coals in our fire pit. While the veggies were cooking, the kids roasted hot dogs on sticks over the fire. In a short time, we peeked into one of our foil packets and found that the veggies were done. The kids loved eating their personalized veggie packets, and we all agreed that food tastes better when you make it yourself!