Experimental oil lamp
The best thing about Unlearn, Rewild
is that it's bound to inspire you to try something right away. I
finished the book after dark, which left my experimentation options
relatively narrow, but I did have cattails in the greywater wetland
right outside our back door. So I decided to try out Olson's
technique of using cattail fluff in oil to create a lamp. As you
can tell, it didn't work too well --- the matches seemed to be better
wicks than the cattail fluff --- but it was fun to try.
Maybe next I'll talk Mark
into experimenting with some of Olson's toilet-paper alternatives ---
snow, moss, the inner bark of cedar trees, a stick, or grass. Naw,
probably better to trap a squirrel in the interest of marital harmony.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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You can use the cattail flower before the fluff breaks open as a Tiki Torch if you soak the flower in Tallow (Beef Fat) or maybe even Deer Fat if it burns......that's a good question, and one I'd like to know the answer too.
Edith