I have been meaning to write this post for a while, but as the warmer months are busy for a bushcrafter, it's not until now that I have time to share an experience I had earlier this year. People talk about needing to escape the city to reconnect with nature and although, London Bushcraft shows how this is possible still in London and I also wanted to share how it's even possible even in your own garden! To be honest there are also ways without a garden. To prove my point here is a day in my life, where I revelled in what I am coining the term, Backyard Bushcraft!
My backyard buscraft session included making elderflower cordial, cooking fish in burdock leaves on an open fire, and marvelling at the beautiful moon while sitting by the fire.
My backyard bushcraft experience started with elderflower cordial. After foraging for the elderflower heads a short distance from my house by bike, I sat in my garden on a sunny day, preparing the elderflowers by cutting off the thicker stalks. See my blog on elderflower cordial for more details. (This could also be done without a garden as you sit in your kitchen after you have foraged your elderflowers).
Next it was onto dinner. I had some burdock growing in the garden that I allowed to grow to become quite large leaves as I had in mind what I wanted to do with them. After lighting a fire (with wood collected from the ground of my local suburban park) I picked some of the large leaves and wrapped them around a fish and placed them on the hot embers. You could also do this without a garden by wrapping the fish burdock leaves you have foraged and cook it in the oven.
Next I did something that maybe only a bushcraft enthusiast would do and that is make char cloth on the hot embers of the fire to use later for lighting fire with primitive methods such as friction fire or flint and steel.
As I sat by the fire in my small garden at the back of my terraced house in east London and admired the beautiful moon lit night ,I couldn't have felt more connected with the rhythm of the natural world and grateful this was all possible on my back door step!
