We are generally pro-DIY. Generally. But we've hit a wall when it comes to charcoal. Martha Stewart's probably done a piece at some point called Simple and Easy Home Carbonization. And, really, when you notice that a stack of toxic chemicals are added to commercial charcoal to control its burn time, well, yeah, you have to wonder if subjecting your own lungs and your free-range farm fresh premium-priced organic weenies to this kind of heat isn't at least counter-productive to personal and environmental health.
So there are definitely plenty of reasons why its just basic common sense to make the stuff yourself. In prepping this blog post, I searched on-line for some DIY instructions for how to make charcoal from scratch. This post tells you how to make some in a small tin can over a campfire Make-Charcoal; this one gives instructions for a bigger batch that takes about 24 hours Making-your-own-charcoal-aka-lump-charcoal.
Amateur hour, folks, these methods are pure amateur hour. Charcoal mountain sound good? Howsabout a three week burn, mmmm? I couldn't find a post that tells how to make a good-sized hillock of the stuff. As far as I can tell, you dig a pit, start a bonfire and reduce it to coals, then load your to-be charcoal hardwood on top and work like stink for 30 minutes to cover the pile with dirt. Then you watch it. You want a good, even curl of smoke coming out. From watching them, I'd say that experienced home-carbonizers know just where and when to poke long sticks into the covering layer of soil to provide more or less air and control the burn. Nice.
What's not nice is living near it. The squatters on the land behind our house made a charcoal pile about 25 feet from our back door, exactly behind us. Exactly. Behind. Us. We get a nice steady breeze from behind the house. Living through the experience was like having someone hold your face to an exhaust stack, relentlessly, for weeks. I mean, hel-lo perpetual headache. The residents of a house at the end of our street also make their own charcoal and, while we get a whiff from their pile now and then, it is nothing at all like living in the full flight path.
Here, people make their own charcoal to save money or earn money. I gave the squatters four cedis for the box that sits on our back porch. I also made a deal with them: I wouldn't rat them out for squatting on the University's land if they moved their next DIY effort further into the bush. Truly, I probably wouldn't have reported them to the U — as if life isn't hard enough here, being homeless in Accra has to be pretty close to living in hell — but I was having fantasies involving midnight raids, elaborate distractions, and an arsenal of H2O poured over the CO2. Desperate times, people, desperate times....
P.S. Back home, I was speaking one day with a new neighbour, who declared, "You guys must be vegetarians." Well, yeah, says me. How did you know? And the nice man replied, "Because you don't have a barbeque."
So there are definitely plenty of reasons why its just basic common sense to make the stuff yourself. In prepping this blog post, I searched on-line for some DIY instructions for how to make charcoal from scratch. This post tells you how to make some in a small tin can over a campfire Make-Charcoal; this one gives instructions for a bigger batch that takes about 24 hours Making-your-own-charcoal-aka-lump-charcoal.
Amateur hour, folks, these methods are pure amateur hour. Charcoal mountain sound good? Howsabout a three week burn, mmmm? I couldn't find a post that tells how to make a good-sized hillock of the stuff. As far as I can tell, you dig a pit, start a bonfire and reduce it to coals, then load your to-be charcoal hardwood on top and work like stink for 30 minutes to cover the pile with dirt. Then you watch it. You want a good, even curl of smoke coming out. From watching them, I'd say that experienced home-carbonizers know just where and when to poke long sticks into the covering layer of soil to provide more or less air and control the burn. Nice.
What's not nice is living near it. The squatters on the land behind our house made a charcoal pile about 25 feet from our back door, exactly behind us. Exactly. Behind. Us. We get a nice steady breeze from behind the house. Living through the experience was like having someone hold your face to an exhaust stack, relentlessly, for weeks. I mean, hel-lo perpetual headache. The residents of a house at the end of our street also make their own charcoal and, while we get a whiff from their pile now and then, it is nothing at all like living in the full flight path.
Burn, baby, burn. After three weeks of smoldering, it took two guys
two full days to excavate the charcoal.
Several of our neighbours make their own charcoal...and live with closed shutters 24/7.
Here, people make their own charcoal to save money or earn money. I gave the squatters four cedis for the box that sits on our back porch. I also made a deal with them: I wouldn't rat them out for squatting on the University's land if they moved their next DIY effort further into the bush. Truly, I probably wouldn't have reported them to the U — as if life isn't hard enough here, being homeless in Accra has to be pretty close to living in hell — but I was having fantasies involving midnight raids, elaborate distractions, and an arsenal of H2O poured over the CO2. Desperate times, people, desperate times....
 | |||
| The finished product burns slow and even. Its good stuff. Thinking now of returning to Canada and starting my own line of Artesanal Carbon. I'm sure the neighbours won't mind... I'll tell the by-law officers that my berm is malfunctioning.... |
P.S. Back home, I was speaking one day with a new neighbour, who declared, "You guys must be vegetarians." Well, yeah, says me. How did you know? And the nice man replied, "Because you don't have a barbeque."
