A really great way to combine
Fireskills~ Cooking ~ History ~ Storytelling ~ Ecology
Also good way of getting across the importance of paying attention to what you are doing: If you don’t, you end up with a burned pancake.
You will need a piece of King Alfred’s Cakes or Cramp Ball fungus(Daldinia concentrica) to show pupils (common all year on dead wood esp. Beech & Ash; non edible).
Talk about fungus, its ecologicalfunction in the wood etc. Mention historical / bushcraft use in firelighting; poss demonstrate with spark stick.
Weave in the King Alfred story (below) with preparing and cooking griddle cakesor ‘American Pancakes’ (although they went over on the Mayflower…)
While preparing talk about the type of fire needed to cook… no flames, no smoke, we need flat bed of hot coals Have someone feed the small fire little bits of fuel.
Arrange taking turns: child to take safe position by fire, sitting/kneeling steady, not over heat etc. Each drops a spoonful of batter, watches it for the signs that it is cooking (little holes appear, the edges puff up and thicken etc) when they think it right they turn it using the spatula. When it’s done, remove the skillet from heat and slide cake onto plate.
I made about two dozen pancakes with 2 eggs and less than half a pint of milk and they went down very well.
Story (& History!):
“King Alfred was fighting a battle, he was losing, retreat turned into a mad run for your life. King A loses his men and then himself. Stumbles through the forest until he sees a little cooking fire in a clearing. There’s a hut that’s mainly sticks with a bit of a roof and an old woman mixing something in a dish. Not wanting to scare her King A covers his sword and leather armour with his cloak and asks her if he could rest by her fire, and if she could spare a bit of food. She roughly explains that she is using her last egg, drop of milk and precious flour to make into cakes. She is willing to share if he will go and get some honey from a bees nest that’s just inside the forest. King A knows how to be a King; shouting for what he wants, making everyone do what he tells them, arguing with other landowners, kicking the servants… He mumbles and bumbles so the old woman says she will get the honey, puts the batter on the skillet and tells him to start cooking the cakes.
“King A sits by the fire and immediately forgets the cakes, he wonders what went wrong this morning, how he could have done it better, wondered where his men where and what everyone at home was having to eat now….
“She’s back within minutes with the honey and the cakes are burned. She goes BALLISTIC, shouts at him about the last of her eggs and milk and flour and how can a body keep itself together on fresh air. King A has enough of this, he’s a King. He stands up, throws back his cloak and tells her who he is – thinking she will fall to her knees. No way, she’s too angry. She knows full well who he is, has done since he first appeared, she knows a battle was fought not so far away and he didn’t look like one of the winners. So he can’t win battles and he can’t watch cakes and so she doesn’t care who he is… now clear off!!! She throws the cakes after him and the last thing he hears is that if learned to pay more attention to the job he has in hand he might not be losing so many battles!
“By the time he reaches home he’s had time to reflect and realises that the nasty old woman was indeed nasty, but she was also right. When he was fighting a battle he was often thinking about what he was going to do after this battle. Instead of focussing. So he had his servants take flour and eggs and bread and ale and cheese and a goat to the old woman in the forest”.
CMcCallion,, March 08