by Michael Smith, RFA
Cooking is on the up. Kitchens and utensils made from wood are easy to care for and are antibacterial.
Cooking is everywhere. On the TV and in the home. Cooking has become a pastime rather than just a means of creating a meal for the family. It has become a lifestyle and a creative expression and also an expression of creativity.
For this very reason the kitchen has now become functional workplace and an object for design at the same time. In the kitchen of today there is not just roasting a frying and generally cooking being done. This is where one meets, sits together and talks over a glass of wine. A bit of trip back-to-the-future for we have been here once before, in the days when out kitchen were large and useful, and where the family gathered, while the parlour, the room that we refer to today as “living room”, was used only on very special days and occasions. It was the kitchen were everyone gathered and listened to the radio and talked about the day. The kitchen table served as a desk for the children's homework in the same way as it was used for the eating of meals, or the mending of clothes.
Because of the fact that kitchens are, once again, more living space than just the area where the food is being cooked, the designers of kitchen furniture are once again reverting to the age-old material of wood. Wood is natural and warm and a great material.
Wooden kitchens with properly sealed surfaces are easy to clean and as wood has antibacterial quality they are much more hygienic than other materials, even stainless steel. But, I guess, I would say that as someone deeply rooted in commercial forestry.
In addition to the furniture in the kitchen being of wood again wooden kitchen utensils too are making a genuine comeback. Wooden spoons, spatulas, cutting- and chopping boards, and such, all once again are seen in kitchens. Wooden utensils are taste neutral and are easy to care for. They also do not absorb any foreign tastes. As they are wood we have the same antibacterial properties and hence they are much more hygienic than other materials and one can but wonder if we should not carry, once again, a wooden eating spoon, as people did in ages past, instead of relying on throwaway flatware.
As wood, as said, has antibacterial properties it is enough to wipe a chopping board clean between uses. This also satisfies hygiene because even salmonella has little survival chance on wood. This was proven already in 1993 by the University of Wisconsin. Especially pine, larch and oak have some of the best antibacterial and virus killing properties.
© M Smith (Veshengro), September 2008
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Heat with wood for the common good and the good of the forest
by Michael Smith, RFA
High gas and heating oil prices are renewing the interest on firewood from local forests
The German NGO Wald in Not regards the use of wood as renewable energy source as an important contributor to the care and conservation of our local woodlands and forests.
Wood is “stored solar energy”. It is produced in our woodlands and forests by means of energy from the sun, carbon dioxide, water and the nutrients that are soluble in water and are carried in it.
Heating with wood means therefore heating with the cycle of nature. The carbon dioxide that is being released by the process of burning the wood is by means of the energy of the sun absorbed by the growing trees and returned into the growing wood. This wood is then once again available as new raw material. The CO2 that is being released by burning the wood would also be released if this wood would be allowed to rot and decay in the woods.
The wood used for firewood is that wood that has no other commercial value, in other words wood that is not suitable for building lumber or as timber for the making of furniture, for example. If it would not be burned for heat it would rot away in the woods. Firewood is also created as a byproduct, so to speak, in the production of high value timber in forests and hence is available in sufficient volume in properly manages forests and woodlands.
Wood as a fuel is extremely environmentally friendly:
The care and thinning of the forests and woodlands is an urgent and necessary preventitive measure against the changes in the environment and the climate. In order to counter those we must reconstruct and convert our woodlands and forests into stable mixed woodlands with a broad spectrum of trees that are right for the soil and area.
Modern wood heating system that are properly installed, managed and maintained retain in comparison with other energy systems a firm position and also fulfil the regulations for clean air.
In conjunction with solar-thermal installation for the production of hot water – solar collectors – modern wood burning furnaces constitutes the ideal combination for use of renewable energy sources to provide a good insulated so-called low energy home with heat.
© M Smith (Veshengro), September 2008
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High gas and heating oil prices are renewing the interest on firewood from local forests
The German NGO Wald in Not regards the use of wood as renewable energy source as an important contributor to the care and conservation of our local woodlands and forests.
Wood is “stored solar energy”. It is produced in our woodlands and forests by means of energy from the sun, carbon dioxide, water and the nutrients that are soluble in water and are carried in it.
Heating with wood means therefore heating with the cycle of nature. The carbon dioxide that is being released by the process of burning the wood is by means of the energy of the sun absorbed by the growing trees and returned into the growing wood. This wood is then once again available as new raw material. The CO2 that is being released by burning the wood would also be released if this wood would be allowed to rot and decay in the woods.
The wood used for firewood is that wood that has no other commercial value, in other words wood that is not suitable for building lumber or as timber for the making of furniture, for example. If it would not be burned for heat it would rot away in the woods. Firewood is also created as a byproduct, so to speak, in the production of high value timber in forests and hence is available in sufficient volume in properly manages forests and woodlands.
Wood as a fuel is extremely environmentally friendly:
- because its production is simple and uses little energy
- the transport distances for wood are generally short
- the storage of firewood does not endanger the environment
The care and thinning of the forests and woodlands is an urgent and necessary preventitive measure against the changes in the environment and the climate. In order to counter those we must reconstruct and convert our woodlands and forests into stable mixed woodlands with a broad spectrum of trees that are right for the soil and area.
Modern wood heating system that are properly installed, managed and maintained retain in comparison with other energy systems a firm position and also fulfil the regulations for clean air.
In conjunction with solar-thermal installation for the production of hot water – solar collectors – modern wood burning furnaces constitutes the ideal combination for use of renewable energy sources to provide a good insulated so-called low energy home with heat.
© M Smith (Veshengro), September 2008
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Leaf raking against the Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner Moth
November 8 is Day of Action “Save our Horse Chestnuts”
by Michael Smith
A nasty parasite is already for a number of years been plaguing the white-flowering Horse Chestnut. In Germany this pest has now reached all areas and also in Britain it is spreading like wild fire. From its arrival in 2001/2002 in the Wimbledon area of South London it has now spread to most parts of Southern Britain.
This parasite is bringing an early autumn to our beloved Horse Chestnut, the tree that brings fun and games to the children of the British Isles, in the form of the conker game (as long as the schools and authorities try not to ban it) and simply collecting the chestnuts. As children we also made little animals and people and little baskets out of the conkers. In August already all the leaves have dried out and it looks like Fall has arrived.
The parasite responsible for this, the Horse Chestnut leaf miner moth (Cameraria ohridella), has no natural enemies, neither in Germany nor in the British Isles. It was always said that a wet summer and wet winters would kill the moth and the eggs of the moth that overwinter in the fallen leaves but, alas, this does not seem to happen for the last two summers in Britain were very wet and the moth still has caused great damage again in 2008. Despite intensive research no antidote has as yet been found against this damaging insect.
The until now only effective countermeasure against it is to collect all the fallen leaves as soon as possible and to burn them in a sanitary way. This is the only way to prevent that the eggs of the moth that overwinter in the fallen leaves turn into larvae.
In Germany the Schutzgemeinschaft Deutscher Wald calls already now for a number of years upon communities and cities to take part in the collection action and to encourage their residents to take part in this.
The city of Essen in North-Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) is leading the way here in that sacks are provided free of charge for residents to be able to collect the leaves, which are then collected by the municipality and burned in a waster incinerating heating plant.
Those communes that have been taking part in this action of collecting of fallen leaves for a number of years now can prove that it works in that their Horse Chestnuts are once again green until at the right time in late autumn.
Collecting and burning the fallen leaves is the only way to rid ourselves of this pest that so badly affects our Horse Chestnut.
While the Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner Moth not necessarily causes the death of the trees it will, over time, however, weaken the trees and allow other pathogens and parasites to destroy the trees.
© M Smith (Veshengro), September 2008
<>
by Michael Smith
A nasty parasite is already for a number of years been plaguing the white-flowering Horse Chestnut. In Germany this pest has now reached all areas and also in Britain it is spreading like wild fire. From its arrival in 2001/2002 in the Wimbledon area of South London it has now spread to most parts of Southern Britain.
This parasite is bringing an early autumn to our beloved Horse Chestnut, the tree that brings fun and games to the children of the British Isles, in the form of the conker game (as long as the schools and authorities try not to ban it) and simply collecting the chestnuts. As children we also made little animals and people and little baskets out of the conkers. In August already all the leaves have dried out and it looks like Fall has arrived.
The parasite responsible for this, the Horse Chestnut leaf miner moth (Cameraria ohridella), has no natural enemies, neither in Germany nor in the British Isles. It was always said that a wet summer and wet winters would kill the moth and the eggs of the moth that overwinter in the fallen leaves but, alas, this does not seem to happen for the last two summers in Britain were very wet and the moth still has caused great damage again in 2008. Despite intensive research no antidote has as yet been found against this damaging insect.
The until now only effective countermeasure against it is to collect all the fallen leaves as soon as possible and to burn them in a sanitary way. This is the only way to prevent that the eggs of the moth that overwinter in the fallen leaves turn into larvae.
In Germany the Schutzgemeinschaft Deutscher Wald calls already now for a number of years upon communities and cities to take part in the collection action and to encourage their residents to take part in this.
The city of Essen in North-Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) is leading the way here in that sacks are provided free of charge for residents to be able to collect the leaves, which are then collected by the municipality and burned in a waster incinerating heating plant.
Those communes that have been taking part in this action of collecting of fallen leaves for a number of years now can prove that it works in that their Horse Chestnuts are once again green until at the right time in late autumn.
Collecting and burning the fallen leaves is the only way to rid ourselves of this pest that so badly affects our Horse Chestnut.
While the Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner Moth not necessarily causes the death of the trees it will, over time, however, weaken the trees and allow other pathogens and parasites to destroy the trees.
© M Smith (Veshengro), September 2008
<>
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