| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| Toffer |
Cooking on a woodburning stoveI was reading the thread about wood burner appreciation with interest, we have a Clearview pioneer which burns wonderfully, when we finally move to the country I'd love to get a wood burning range in the kitchen and another stove with a back burner in the living room. Does anyone have a similar setup? Can you cook normally on a woodburning range or is there a limit to what you can do? |
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| bodger |
IMO, there's not really a limit other than you have to plan ahead a little more with your cooking. | ||||
| RichardW |
The biggest bit to plan is having a
LARGE FREE SEASONED wood supply. Till you use one 24/7 you wont realise just how much wood it can eat in a year. I did some calcs once & worked out I would need to spend 6 full working weeks doing 5 days a week & 8-10 hour days to cut split & move enough wood to feed a wood rayburn for a year worth of cooking & domestic hot water. |
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| Rob R |
I agree with bodger. You do have to pay more attention to fuel too, and get to know not only how your burner performs, but also how different types, ages and sizes of logs each produce a different [temperature] burn. We do all our cooking on our small woodburning stove, and not preparing correctly can mean you end up eating at ten to midnight but apart from that you can eat just as well. Trudging back from Wharram Percy last night we mused on how we were doing exactly the same thing as the people who lived there must have done- walking home to a wood burning fire to cook tea [albeit they wouldn't have been getting in the car at the end of the lane  ]
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| welshboy454 |
Has anyone seen one of these wood burning ranges ?
http://www.broseleyfires.com/Range-Cookers/Thermo-Rosa-DSA_Range-Cooker.html |
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| Toffer |
That is a good looking range, bookmarked for future reference 
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| RichardW |
Nice looking. How much? | ||||
| Dogwalker |
I've got a solid fuel rayburn, burning wood at the moment, heating water, house, 3 radiators, drying washing and even learning to cook on it.
Difficult to get it really hot for yorkshire pudds but possible. Having cooked on mains gas for the last 25 years it takes some getting used to but I love it. Also got a woodburner in the sittingroom that heats that room and the study. |
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| vegplot |
It would be interesting for those running solely on wood burners to provide an estimate on their fuel consumption. Some sort of base line in terms of rooms/occupancy would provide a measure by which others could get some sort of idea of how much wood they'd need. | ||||
| wellington womble |
I think a beginners guide to cooking on a woodburner would make a super article? Any volunteers? | ||||
| Mr O |
My place is heated soley by a Bosky Range, I am expecting to get through 6 cords of well seasoned hardwood this winter, A cord is 8ft x4ft x4ft here. It provides all of our hot water, we cook on it and it runs 9 radiators. |
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| Nanny |
i had a solid fuel rayburn for a while and have cooked on the top of a woodburner as well...
to ge t the temp up on the rayburn, i chucked a couple of well seasoned lumps of wood on the fire to burn quick and hot.some times it worked quicker than other times..you have to plan your meal carefully and be prepared to take longer than you would normally on the woodburner top plate i could do everything but boil water quickly...i got into the habit of boiling the kettle and then pouring that into a prewarmed saucepan on the woodburner but even then it was a bit of a long job whe we had no kitchen here for 4 months, i used the barbie outside to start off the meat to put into a slow cooker for the day...again a long old job and a real pain after a while...we ended up eating a lot of junk food from the microwave to be honest but it can be done |
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| Green Rosie |
I cook when-ever I can on the woodburner but find it is better to get things up to boil on the gas first then simmer on the woodburner. I also do jams and chutneys on the woodburner (brought to boil first on the gas) as they tend to burm on my rather vicious gas ring. | ||||
| RichardW |
For this winter I have set aside 15 cubes (m3) mostly softwood but about 1/4 hard woods. Thats for a 5kw Aga Little wenlock. I dont expect to use it all (I hope). When we cooked on the wood fired rayburn (and a 10kw stove) we used a about 30 cubes per year. When cooking (or heating with no rads) on wood the numbers cooked or heated for dont matter that much. Either the cooker is hot enough or its not & the room / house hot enough or not. |
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| Nanny |
it is great for some things...i used to do toast on the rayburn by just slapping the bread on the hot plate....best toast in the world i think, , proper toast..i really miss that rayburn, can't have one here...
great for slow cooking stuff |
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| Rob R |
To get boiling with ours you seem to have to get a good fire going at the base and then stack the logs on their ends, then as it burns keep adding the logs vertically front the front so they don't smother the heat and warm/dry them before they start to burn. | ||||
| Mr O |
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| Rob R |
Ixy just took a loaf out of ours, and we're eating a porky cabbage stew as I type... 
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| Mr O |
Brilliant! |
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| Mr O |
I am baking bread in mine today. |
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| arvo |
That is an extremely useful measurement. Its kind of a low stacked wall's worth and it's really easy to visualise. I desperately want to get a wood burning stove when we build our own, but was put off a bit by our previously mentioned mastering an old Hunter exploits. I always thought that application of new technology to the problem might be the solution. |
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| RichardW |
A cord is 3.62m3 (cubes)
The thing about cords is its normally still in the round so much less air gaps so much more actual wood than a stacked or tipped pile. |
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| maryf |
I had a Stanley range in one house and it burned anything - excellent for continual baking, chutney, jam etc etc and I had a huge old cast iron kettle which was almost permanently on, it also heated water and a couple of rads - all splendid! I've also had a woodburner of indeterminate make on which I did most of the cooking in the winter, I never bought wood for this one - just foraged with a rucksack every day when dog walking along miles of disused railway. Here we've just got an open fire so again it's foraged wood - the council verges are good! Only no cooking or water heating - just the fire, why don't builders put in back boilers? One day I'll get another kitchen . . . . . | ||||
| Rob R |
No trouble getting it boiling tonight  quitethe opposite, in fact.
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| Chez |
A couple of grand, from a bit of a google round. |