Script:
So ... simple but effective. The other method you’re going to practise this week is the bamboo oven. Now the steam pit is ideal in certain conditions because the heat is below ground level, for example, if there’s a strong wind and you’re afraid a fire might spread. But when it’s safe to have an open fire you can use the bamboo oven method. You get a length of bamboo, which as you probably know is hollow, and consists of a number of individual sections with a wall in-between. You use a sharp stick to make a hole in each of the dividing walls apart from the end one. Then you lean the bamboo over a fire, with the top propped up by a forked stick and the bottom sitting on the ground. You pour enough water in the top to fill the bottom section, and then light a fire underneath that section to heat the water. Then you put your food inside the top section, and the steam coming up the bamboo through the holes you made cooks it.
I’m going to move on now, to food itself, and talk about some of the wild plants you might cook. I’m going to begin with fungi - that’s mushrooms and toadstools. I’m sure you’ll be aware that some of these are edible, and they’re delicious, but some of them are highly poisonous. Now whether they’re poisonous or not, all fungi that you find in the wild should be cooked before eating, because that helps to destroy any compounds in them that might be mildly toxic. But be aware that any amount of cooking won’t make poisonous varieties any safer to eat. Unless you can definitely identify a fungus you should never eat it. It’s not worth the risk. And you need to be really sure, because some fungi that are poisonous are very similar in appearance to certain edible varieties. They can easily be mistaken for each other. So ... having said all that, fungi are delicious when they’re freshly picked, and although they are only moderately nutritious, they do contain minerals which the body needs.
I’ll move on now to leafy plants, which are generally ...
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