Heat from the hearth: The pleasures of wood burning stoves

As the gray light of a bleak winter day fails and night falls, icy wind wails through the air, whipping freshly fallen snow into deep drifts and piles across the middle American countryside. The mercury drops into the single digits and livestock hunkers down deep in the corners of the barn, toughing out the latest bitter Arctic cold snap. But inside the farmhouse, the belly of the woodstove burns bright, emanating a radiant, heat much to the comfort and delight of the inhabitants gathered around it.



There are few household accoutrements more pleasurable in the dead of winter than a classic cast iron wood burning stove. Certainly, part of their appeal is nostalgic, serving as a reminder of self-sufficient pre-modern American living. The sight and feel of an old fashioned wood burner harkens us back to the days captured by Laura Ingalls Wilder in her “Little House” books where she fondly reflects on frontier winters when “the fire in the cookstove never went out…often the wind howled outside with a cold and lonesome sound. But inside…everything was snug and cozy.”



Beyond nostalgia, a modern wood burning stove is a very practical, economical heat source. In his book “The Woodburner’s Companion,” Vermont chimneysweep Dirk Thomas says “Wood heating equipment has improved drastically since the 1970s. Wood may not be the fuel of the future, but it is certainly a fuel of the future for millions of people weary of high-priced fossil fuels, power outages and power shortages.”



One especially useful modern innovation is the use of a catalytic converter in wood stoves, which greatly reduces chimney emissions and improves heating efficiency. The catalyst is a honeycomb metal lattice that is built into the stovepipe. As smoke from the fire rises to exit the flue, the catalyst reignites the smoke, making it into an additional source of fuel. When turned on, the converter sends heat out directly into the room, as opposed to wastefully sending the heat up the chimney and out of the building.



In order for wood stove fireplaces to truly help reduce winter heating costs, it is important to procure one’s own firewood, as purchasing loads of firewood from third parties can prove expensive. So, while a wood stove is energy efficient and cost-saving, the cutting, chopping, and stacking of fire wood is labor intensive.



Gary McCandlish, of Pleasantville, uses a wood burner to alleviate the costs of heating his drafty, 100-year-old farmhouse. McCandlish collects timber from the woods at the back of the farm.



“We get a lot given to us too. A lot of people have trees fall down or cut down and want them removed. I’m not too proud or ashamed to go out and cut up storm damage wood. If I was buying the wood the cost would be uneconomical,” he said.



The best time to harvest wood for winter burning is early spring, McCandlish said.



“I want to get it in April to cure for the winter. We don’t always get that, but that’s the ideal. It takes six to nine months to season most green wood and you have to split it to give it time to air in order to cure and dry it,” he said. “If you cut her in April, you can burn her all winter.”



Beyond the time and labor spent culling firewood from the field, McCandlish estimates he spends two to three hours a week splitting, sawing, stacking, and hauling wood and he is greatly appreciative of his “common bought” 22-ton hydraulic log splitter.



“It cuts my labor down and it is time saver, not to mention it saves my back,” he said.



For burning, McCandlish said he prefers walnut, oak, cherry and ash. Ash isn’t the best, but it does burn. The very best wood is hedgewood, but it takes too long to season and it is hard to cut. “It tears your chainsaw up. When you’re cutting green hedge, the chainsaw will literally throw sparks because it’s such mean, tough, hard wood,” McCandlish said. “All the original corner posts on this farm here are all made from hedge and you cannot to this day drive a nail into one of them.”



Beyond use as a heat source, many folks enjoy cooking on their wood burners. While not all modern wood burners are designed for cooking, there are still cookstove models reminiscent of 1800s-era kitchens being produced to serve both heating and cooking needs, and there are numerous recipe books in publication to guide a woodstove cook. And even if the wood burner doesn’t possess the necessary stovetop space needed to heat large skillets, there are nonetheless plenty of options for down-home cooking on and in your woodstove.



The following simplistic recipes merely scratch the surface of what can be prepared using a wood burning stove, but they might come in handy for beginners or for those stuck in the midst of a power outage. For example, slice up some eggplant, add some tomato slices and basil, wrap them in foil, and place them on the coals inside of the stove, cooking until tender. For that matter, many vegetables, such as potatoes, small beets, and sliced zucchini, can be double-wrapped in heavy duty foil with some butter and seasoning and cooked on the fire’s coals. For a meat dish, tightly seal marinated strips of chicken breast in double-wrapped aluminum foil packets and cook them on the hot coals.



If cooking over a wood stove doesn’t light your fire, McCandlish suggests that everyone with a wood burner should at least invest in a miniature, six-inch cast iron skillet. As the fire really gets rolling, fill the skillet with pistachios or another favorite variety of nut and warm them on the stovetop. The fire-warmed nuts are sure to prove an addictive treat on a cold winter afternoon, providing an incentive to circle back around for another nibble every time the fire needs fed.



There is much to be admired about the classic cast iron woodstove. It is a reliable, centuries-old source of heat for creature comfort and cooking. It nurtures pleasure and fellowship, gathering friends and family around it for warmth and sustenance. Perhaps Japanese farmer and philosopher Masanobu Fukuoka said it best when he wisely observed, “the simple hearth of the small farm is the true center of our universe.”



Source: https://ocj.com/2014/11/heat-from-the-hearth-the-pleasures-of-wood-burning-stoves/



Visit us: http://energyhousefresno.com/



from energyhouse http://energyhouse.livejournal.com/33880.html