Cool tip Leigh. Also resolves an issue I have with ‘buying’ another gadget that adds both weight and space issues to our already weighty set up. I carry tent pegs already and large ones for the unexpected winds so also using for the camp oven - “Tick” 😊. One I hadn’t even thought of myself Grrr 😡 LOL 😆

Just make sure they're metal tent pegs and not plastic ones ;-)

@@mikehodges6598 Aluminium Pegs can also fail...

@@Paddeltroll Very true. Would need to be steel pegs, which I don't think a lot of folks use due to weight. Titanium would also work, but I don't know anyone who uses those. Of course, if you're using a cast iron dutch oven you're probably not too concerned about weight so a trivet, along with a lid rest and lid lifter should be a part of your kit IMHO.

I just use 3 rocks or 2 lengths of green wood . A few metal rods to place across them are easy to transport and are a great help for cooking smaller things. Good dutch ovens are priceless.

I am wanting to only use wood so would I start a fire and burn to coals using logs. Then my second fire would be more active with flames that I cook over and you're saying to add some coals to that?

@@mudwellies1 The second fire is used to make coals for the smoker. Not only does it help regulate temps it also makes for a really clean fire so you dont get the dreaded white smoke. If your wood is really dry like kiln dried wood it's not as much of an issue. If your logs aren't fully seasoned it really helps to avoid that white smoke that makes your BBQ bitter. While I use kiln dried wood I dont particularly care for the lack of flavor you get with it. You get much better flavor with logs that are just on the edge of being seasoned and they require a bit of preburn.

I don't have a smoker. I have a fire pit that I wanted to burn extra wood in from the acre we own and thought I should try to cook food because it has a grate on top. It's a larger fire pit so maybe Kohl's could be on one side of it rather than two fires

@@mudwellies1 Depends on what kind of wood it is. You wouldnt want to use pine. But any hardwood would do fine.

Zone fire

Hi Leanne. We raised our FIVE kids 😮 camping and I am a bit of a minimalist when it comes to my camp fire cooking so don’t like to light massive fires to dwindle down to cooking sized fires so with this in mind two tips I can offer to help you on your journey are: Light your fire on THREE good sized pieces of wood - approximately the thickness of your female upper arm around your bicep. Make your cooking fire on top of these (preferably they are a hardwood like Jarrah etc) and they will burn slower than your main fire. By the time your primary fire is ready to cook on (which in my experience can be started as soon as the main burn has passed it’s peak (you will know this from early experience as to when the fire starts to decline in ferocity and size) these will give you a lot more charcoals for a longer period of time to allow you to cook your full meal including veggies and the meat. The second tip to using this method (my minimalist method) is to also use the Camp Braai that Harry happens to also use. We used different versions in our earlier years (they just went by different names or were home made in my earliest days). These allow you to cook a lot of food (eg all your veggies or all your meat) at the same time and if you use the “turn it every 20-30 seconds” method as I do you can start cooking the meal straight after the peak fire burn period. We now have offloaded the kids and my wife and I travel and cook using the small camp braai (Harry has links to it) which I use to this day. It allows me to cook a LARGE (circa 2.0 - 2.5kg boned out chook which will definitely feed) your mob and IF you rest it circa 15 mins at the end you will NOT regret it. We can feed three adults TWO meals (so one hot dinner for three and one cold dinner another night) using a total of about 6 of the wood sizes mentioned. Three on the bottom and three as part of the primary fire stack. Turning it often (every 20 - 30 secs) is the secret ingredient to the method. Those six pieces of wood then only need the kindling and starter stuff which you will work out to get them burning. Once you’ve gotten that going just wait for the peak fire to start declining and you’ll be good to go.

Thanks guys! Both amazing tips! I've got the camp braai and planning on using it the first time next week. Very excited to give it a go.

Hey I know it’s a year late but my advice for wood with camping is use red oak/ red gum wood or similar hard wood, it lasts a lot longer and burns hotter. What I do is cut “biscuits” of red wood so basically big chunks of redwood cut into easily stored pieces 🤙🏼

Try a Dakota fire hole