Learning To Use A Wood Stove

Doing something new is not supposed to be easy.

My new stove

We finally installed our wood stove last month, and we could use it on January 12th. The bricks, cement, and dirt had to dry for a month before use.

I have not used a wood stove in a few years. I used one when volunteering in Argentina on an off-grid farm, but the stove was mostly used to heat my room. I also would heat water on top of it, so there was no cooking.

My wood stove sits outside on my porch, just off the kitchen. My current kitchen is screaming for a makeover, and it is tiny. It fits one person and a dog since there is always one under my feet. So the idea of cooking outside, with more space, is ideal.

However, the learning curve is quite steep.

I grew up with a wood stove when I was a little kid. I never cooked on it; my mother and father did; I observed. Looking back, I think about them a lot and how what they did seemed so easy, and then there is me floundering to cook the basics.

My mother always baked homemade bread, cakes, cupcakes, and muffins. Everything was so tasty, I thought it couldn’t be that hard.

It’s not that hard, but it takes patience and practice.