For millennia, our ancestors used open fire to prepare their food. Although cooking over the campfire or hot embers seems simple, it turns out that it requires quite a lot of skill and knowledge. Today, when outdoor cooking is restricted to barbeque and s’mores on a stick, those skills are being forgotten or ignored by most of us. Why should we choose hot embers over a microwave? Why should we relearn all these bizarre and outdated skills?
We do not give ourselves time to enjoy food or to be thankful for it. Go for a fast trip to the store to grab some pre-made lunch, toss the bag into the almighty “chef Mic” for a couple of minutes, then consume the whole thing in a rush — that’s the reality of a stereotypical modern guy. There’s something lacking. Those things are enjoyment, thankfulness, and understanding.
Preparing food under the open sky enhances the enjoyment of making and consuming the meal. You’re standing up, breathing the fresh air, moving around, and tending to the flames. The monotonous work turns into play, sometimes a very challenging one, but still very rewarding. That’s because, at the end of your struggles, you’ll know that every bite of the dish you prepared was earned with your honest work.
When you’re done cooking and finally start enjoying the meal, you’ll really appreciate the value of food for every human being. During my numerous outdoor adventures, I experienced hunger and thirst many times and it taught me to be thankful for every bite of my meal. No matter what your background is, the food you’ll make will be special and worth respect. The thankfulness can also grow from understanding the complexity of even the simplest products used, their worth and impact on you and your body (or maybe its influence on entire societies).
Knowing what you’re working with is the key to unlocking both enjoyment and thankfulness linked with food. It’s not only the food that matters; technique, equipment, and fuel also play a crucial role. With time you’ll learn which wood types burn the best, what tools you should use to bake a loaf of bread in a campfire or how to preserve fish and meats from spoiling without a freezer or a fridge. Knowing more will enable you to diversify your culinary experiences, both in terms of cooking and exploring new flavours.
Theoretically, everything above can be applied to an indoor cooking experience, and I highly recommend that. Cooking outdoors is just taking that and amplifying to a higher level. It simplifies your work, but doesn’t make it easier. It lets you connect with nature and understand it more through products, fuel and the experience itself.
How does burning wood and using it for tools connect us with nature? Why foraging and learning about different meats and crops bring us closer to Mother Earth? Every life form living on this planet uses resources it finds around. Birds weave their nests out of branches and grass, beavers cut down trees blocking the rivers, trees feed on the elements found in the soil, predators kill their prey to feast on it, and we, humans, are no different. No matter what we do, we will consume the resources of our planet and cause the death of countless life forms to stay alive.
The problem is that we cook our Italian risotto with Argentinian wine and onion from China on a stove fuelled with Russian gas. We have no control over the origin of our products and fuel. Cooking a meal of foraged goods over a wood-fed fire allows you to take that control back. You’ll start seeing the world differently — flat rocks will become baking pans, hazel and willow branches will become skewers, spits and stirrers, fresh clover and dandelion leaves will become a salad. Instead of consuming resources from all over the world, you’ll explore and enjoy the abundance of wonderful goods in your local forest or your own garden. The more you’ll know your Mother Nature, the better your relationship with her will be, thus you’ll spend more time in her company. You can cut the live branches for tools in a way that doesn’t cause death or disease in the tree. Sometimes you can even cut a twig and plant it somewhere else — some trees, like willow, will start growing roots and leaves from their planted branch that will become a full-grown tree one day. You will learn to use only dead branches and other tree parts for fuel, and to forage plants and mushrooms in a sustainable way. The knowledge will be the key to living your life while minimizing harm to the environment.
Be mindful of your food, enjoy the sunlight on your face and the delightful smoke ascending from the fire pit. Be thankful for every edible leaf you pick from the meadow and for every bite you take. Let me invite you to join me in the journey I started about 8 years ago. I want you to see (and taste) the wonders our world has to offer, waiting just outside our thresholds amongst fields, forests and rivers.
